Flipping the Science Classroom - My Goal for 2015-2016

I have played with flipping my classroom for a while.  I create screencasts of lessons, and occasionally assign those as "homework," but I have not done the research to really flip the class.

One main reason I have not fully jumped into flipping my classroom is the students who don't have internet access at home.  We still have many students who do not have internet access.  The schools in our district also do not allow the WiFi access to work outside the buildings.  I would like to see that changed so students can go to whichever school is closest at night and sit outside to get internet access to do homework if they do not have internet access at home.  

I try to always make myself available before and after school, but that doesn't always work for some families.  Many students have something going on after school every night of the week.  Sports, dance, drama, music, etc.  Because of this, many students have to be picked up right after school.

I am going to work with my administrators to try and make a part of the cafeteria designated to those who need to watch a video or use an online simulation for class during breakfast and lunch.  Our students are not allowed to have their computers on the lunch tables right now because they don't want things getting spilled on them.  However, students who earn a reward time do get to eat lunch in the office and play games on the computers.  I'm hoping that having a designated area with less students than the normal lunch table will be a viable option. 

I just finished reading, "Flipped Learning for Science Instruction" by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams.  It was a great book, easy read (took about 2 hours), and was full of useful information.  There were many "duh, why did I not think of that moments."  They give great examples of how to flip the lessons.  It doesn't have to be a video every night!  They also do a great job of showing ways science teachers can utilize the "reinvented" class time. 

When you have students watch the video or use the online simulation, the direct instruction that you would normally do in class is done.  This leaves the class time open for other things.  This "reinvented" class time can be used for small groups of students who did not fully understand the lesson, labs, experiments, project based learning, and many other ways to get your students thinking and understanding on higher levels.  The "reinvented" class time is not just for doing worksheets.  That can be part of it on some days, but finding ways for students to interact with the material and really understand it are more powerful.  If you just switch the direct instruction and the homework time, you did not really flip your class.  You just adjusted the times of activities. 

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• "In a flipped classroom, the teacher is actually more necessary, more needed, and more integral to the learning experience of all students."
• "The tyranny of curriculum and the comfort of our old ways often keep us in a rut."
• "Instead of spraying the entire class with content, the teacher directs the students who have reached poor conclusions or are developing misconceptions to appropriate content."
• "Developing a library of videos and getting quality activities in class will need to be the first priority."
• "We need to move away from being disseminators of content and instead become facilitators of learning."

My goal for this year is to create a library of video lessons.  I would like to use EduCanon to create interactive videos.  This website allows you to add questions in the YouTube video.  This will help ensure that students are watching the videos and understanding the content.

I also want to have more hands-on activities and labs to do in class.  With a flipped class, I will be able to have more labs, but also longer labs.  I will have the time to do multi-day labs where I wouldn't have been able to do that in the past.  Utilizing the at home direct instruction will free up more time for in-class exploration. 

Bergmann and Sams mentioned that collaboration is key if you have someone teaching similar content and you work well with.  I am lucky enough to have a great teaching partner.  I know that if we work together, Kyle Nabity and I will be able to make a great interactive video library and come up with stellar labs and experiments to allow the students to go higher in their learning. 

Using Augmented Reality in the Classroom

Augmented Reality, AR,  is becoming a more widely used tool in education.  There are many awesome AR apps out there for both Apple and Android devices.  The great thing is, many of them are free to use. 

On my Tech Nerd Training website, I described some of the ways that AR can be used in the classroom.  The uses are unlimited.  There are many AR apps that allow you to use it in many ways.  Your creativity is the only limit.  Apps like Aurasma and BlippAR allow you to create the "target" for the app to scan.  This allows you to use whatever you want.  It could be a worksheet, notes sheet, poster in your room, or anything else you want to help your students learn.  Certain apps also allow you to create your own 3D images and import those as models for your students to view and manipulate using the AR app. 

Other AR apps don't have as much customization, but still provide students with great information and a great experience.  There are apps that use your location to show what stars, constellations, planets, and other galaxies are above you.  There are apps to show you how dinosaurs look and provide information.  There are apps that show you the human anatomy, see how different chemical elements interact with each other, and even apps to instantly translate signs, posters, or any other text right in front of your eyes!  You can even make library books triggers to student-created book reviews so students know if the book will interest them or not. 

The options of how you can utilize AR apps in the classroom are limitless.  There are also many ways you can use AR apps to give parents and visitors a better experience.  You can have posters around the school that can give visitors a tour of the building by having videos of students explaining what each part of the school is.  You can have a list of staff members or pictures as the triggers to give a brief bio to let visitors get to know the staff.

Administrators can also use AR apps in staff meetings to present data, save paper on agendas, create a fun meeting opener, and more.  Yearbook staff can insert AR triggers inside the yearbook to give a video message from staff, students, parents, etc.  Every student loves getting a positive message in the mail from the principal.  Why not send a video message on a postcard so the student still gets physical mail but a digital message of praise? 

The ideas just keep flowing.  Sit down with some innovative educators and spitball new ways to use AR and you 'll be amazed at the list you come up with!  If you have not used AR apps in your classroom, I highly suggest you try it this Fall.  It is easy, exciting, and the students will remember it for the entire year.

Why Google Sites are Great in the Classroom

The idea of creating a website can sound very scary for some people.  With Google Sites, the scariest thing is finding the right color scheme.  And Google makes that easy, too.  Go to the Google Sites page of my Tech Nerd Training website to find tutorials on how to create a Google Site.  I have a basic tutorial and an advanced tutorial.

Since it is so easy to create a Google Site, you need to think about how you can utilize one in your classroom.  There are many ways that Google Sites can be used by teachers and students.  Below are descriptions of just some of the ways Google Sites can be used in your classroom.

Classroom Website

 

A classroom website is a great way to keep students and parents informed about what is going on in your classroom.  You can have a page where you can post announcements, upload documents, insert a Google Calendar, and anything else you would want your students and parents to know.  Use it for spelling lists, test review, field trip reminders and more.  

Student Digital Portfolio

Students can use a Google Site to upload any digital content created at school.  Students can have a page for every year they are in school, along with a subpage for each subject every year.  The site will not need to be recreated every year, just a new page added to it.  Students can upload documents, videos, links, and more.

Online Curriculum

Teachers can create an online curriculum using a Google Site.  A new page can be created for each chapter, unit, etc.  All readings, worksheets, websites, videos, and more can be inserted for the students to follow along and utilize as you move through your content.

Lesson Plan/Content Storage

Teachers can use Sites to create lesson plans and store and sort all of the digital content they plan to use in class. This may or may not be a website to share with students.  Either way, the lesson plans are there and cannot be "lost" so you have them for next year.  All of your content and resources are organized and easy to find.  No more forgetting where that video was or which website you used the year before!  Also great for days when you have subs.  The plans are there and all of the resources needed are in one spot. 

 There are an unlimited number of ways that a Google Site can be used.  Use your imagination and let your students use their imaginations.  They are free and easy to make.  Find what works best for your classroom.

5 Reasons Teachers Should Screencast

Screencasting is a tool that every teacher NEEDS to utilize in their classroom.  There are many reasons to use screencasting with your students.  If you do not know how to screencast, check out my Screencasting page on my Tech Nerd Training website to find out how. 

1. Flipping Your Classroom - You don't have to flip your entire classroom every lesson of every day.  There may be times where it makes sense to have your students listen to a 5-10 minute video of a lecture at home so you have an entire period to do an activity in class.  Screencast your lesson for that day and have your students watch it as homework.  You will have an "extra" class period now to have your students SHOW you what they have learned.
2. Missing Students - Screencasts are great to have on hand if you have students who miss an important lesson.  It is especially helpful when you know you are going to have many students absent on a particular day.  You can have a lesson prepared for students who miss class because of sports or school activities.  Then you don't have to catch up a bunch of people. 
3. Review - Screencasts are great for students to go back and review concepts they are not proficient on. If you have a website full of screencasts, you can tell students to go to your website and review that particular concept and then come back and try it again.  It helps keep the students responsible for their learning.
4. Sub Plans - Sub plans have never been easier than with a screencast.  If your students have their own devices, it can be a day they go at their own speed and follow along with the screencast and then complete whatever assignment or practice you have for them. Or, if your students don't have their own devices, your sub can show your screencast to the class and continue from there.  The days of showing a movie because you don't think the sub will be able to teach your content are over. 
5. Tutorials - If you have a new tool you want students to use, you can create a tutorial so if they don't remember what you told them to do, they can go back and watch tutorials to discover the next step needed for that tool.  You can also have tutorials on how to create foldables, and art projects.

    * Bonus Reason to Screencast *
When students see the screencasts created by the teacher, they always want to create their own. Students can create screencasts to show you what they know.  They could complete a worksheet, but it will mean more to your students, and you will know for sure that they know what you want them to, if students create screencasts to explain the content to you.

Creating Infopics

Tony Vincent is an inspiration to many educators for many reasons.  I have been fortunate enough to get the chance to hear Tony speak a few times at different conferences.  Each time I come away with something that I immediately want to add into my teaching repertoire.

I sat in on Tony's "A Picture is worth 1,000 words" session at NETA 2015.  Tony showed us how easy it is to create infopics, pictures with information on top to deliver a message. I was inspired by Tony to create infopics for my classroom.  I am also having students create infopics for vocabulary words for our current unit.

Using Pixlr Express is a quick and easy way to create infopics on a computer.  It is free and no account is needed, which makes it nice to have students use it.

Photos for Class is a great website for finding high-quality pictures to use.  The best part is, they come already marked with attribution to the creators of the image.  They are all free to use and you don't need to worry about giving credit to its originator.

I had a blast making examples for my students.  The opportunity to be creative in the images you choose to use for your particular topic and the choice of words to get the point across without being too wordy is a challenge.

I am having my students create infopics to go along with the vocabulary from our current science unit.  I can't wait to see the creativity my students will display to show what they have learned from this unit.

All of the images on this blog post are my examples I created to show my students what can be done with an infopic.

I will post student examples when they get finished.  I can't wait.

NETA 2015 Day Two

Day two of NETA 2015 was filled with great sessions. I was excited from the start after visiting the vendors and realized that 3D printers are not as expensive as I thought. An 8th grade Science teacher and I are looking into writing a grant for a machine for our school. We plan to use it to create models for science class, integrate into teaching of engineering in science, and hope to expand to other subject areas as well.   

I got reaquainted with an old love at NETA, augmented reality.  I have not had the chance to use AR much in the last couple of years.  I was exposed to some new tools that have reignited that spark.  I can't wait to find ways to use Leslie Fisher's ideas to use AR in the classroom.  I forgot how useful Aurasma and other AR tools can be in the classroom.  

Eric Bell, from Lexington Public Schools, showed how he helped his district move away from textbooks and have a completely digital curriculum. He explained the process for creating the digital repository that was completely aligned to each state standard.  Every class in the social sciences has a repository with a curriculum guide, concepts and skills, unit summary, vocabulary, links, PDFs, PowerPoints, videos, podcasts, and more.  The reason for creating these repositories is to have a curriculum and all pieces needed for any teacher to come into their district and be comfortable teaching that class.  This way if a really good teacher leaves, a new teacher is not starting from scratch.  Every social science teacher in the district contributes materials for everyone to use.

During the Ignite Your Learning session, Michelle Baldwin, Ann Feldmann, Kristen Swanson, Mickie Mueller, Corey Dahl, Beth Still, and Otis Pierce led a fast-paced session on many topics ranging from embracing failure and learning from it to making sure laughter is present in your life to help destress to sketchnotes to see your notes visually to help retention. this session was fast but effective.

Devin Schoening led a session reminding us to let students be amazing. We need to provide opportunities for kids to be amazing. We need to allow wonder and curiosity. He reminds us that the futer belongs to the curious. Our classrooms should be places for posing questions, not just answering them. Teachers need to foster and incubate student interests and passion whenever possible. If we want our kids to be passionate about learning, we need to be passionate when we teach. We need to be the model of passion and lead by example. Remember to share your ideas. What may be obvious to you, is amazing to others.

Cynthia Stogdill led a session on providing Professional Development for fellow teachers.  Some of the many ideas shared were Summer deck/tech parties, morning slams - quick morning technology sessions, lunch sessions, and after school sessions.  

NETA 2015 Day One

I have been telling myself to start blogging again for a long time so I decided what better time then #NETA15.  The move to the CenturyLink Center was a good move for NETA.  There was plenty of space, facilities are unbelievable, and the wifi seemed adequate for the amount of people there.

The opening keynote from Adam Bellow was a great way to start of the conference.  He was inspiring and upbeat.  He told it how it is and made you think about things in a different way.

I went to some really good sessions today.  I learned about some new tools I haven't used before and was reminded about some that I haven't used in a while.

One of the best things I learned today was from Aaron Svoboda.  His session was on annotating in YouTube.  I've annotated videos in YouTube before, but his example of how to link videos for a quiz style video experience was awesome.  That is going to be my next test review this year.  He showed us how to record short screencasts asking a question and then putting annotations in at the end to choose an answer.  The answer annotations are linked to either a correct or incorrect screencasted video.  The correct video praises the student and then asks the next question.  The incorrect video explains what the correct answer should be and then asks the next question.  Students would go from video to video but the experience is seamless to them.

Tony Vincent had a great session on finding and designing visuals for your projects.  Tony showed us different websites that had public domain and creative commons images and how to use images correctly without breaking laws.  He showed us how to make sure that students give credit to the producers of the content.  He also showed us many tools for creating awesome infopics.

Julie and Jason Everett showed us the Ed Tech Challenge.  This website is a collection of self-paced courses to help educators use collaboration tools, content management systems, personal learning networks, formative response tools, open educational resources, and electronic portfolios.

Beth Still had a packed house for a session on the ins and outs of Google Chrome.  She had a variety of information from the basics to advanced.  I like to think of myself as a pretty savvy Chrome user, but she told me about a few extensions I didn't know about.  I can't wait to start using OneTab, Google Docs Quick Create, and TabCloud.

Leslie Fisher gave a great presentation on tools you can use tomorrow.  She presented on many tools from Kahoot, Quizizz, Plickers, EdPuzzle, Adobe Voice, and Adobe Slate.  Leslie is an upbeat presenter who makes you want to use these tools in your classroom immediately.  I have used some of the tools she showed us, but she is up on THE latest and showed some tools that were new in the last couple months.

I presented a session today on Flipped Professional Development.  My session was a conversation strand where I started the conversation and then the attendees share and bounce ideas off of each other.  We had several good ideas on how to present professional development to staff in a way to where the staff didn't feel like it was a big waste of time.  One suggestion was Google Classroom, where the teachers are the students and can watch videos and have discussions before PD meetings to speed up the process and have more time to get to other objectives in the meetings.  Another suggestion was to record all of the new teacher information sessions that new teachers could watch at any time.  This way, new teachers were not overwhelmed with an entire day of information.  Also this allows new and veteran teachers were able to go back and review district policies at any time.

My session ended with me showing how I use screencasting to create videos to teach students and teachers how to use different tech tools.  I house all of these videos on my website, Tech Nerd Training.

Overall, this was a very productive day at NETA.  I hope to get as much, or more, from day 2 of NETA 2015 tomorrow.

10 Apps to Start the New School Year with Your iPads

Here are 10 iPad apps to use with your students to start off the new school year.  Below is an explanation of how each app can be used with your students.  Click on the link below picture to view my Flowboard with more in-depth explanations of each app.

http://flowboard.com/s/19o7/10-Apps-to-Start-the-New-School-Year-with-Your-iPads

Evernote is an app perfect for all teachers and high school students. Users can create a new notebook for every class, tag notes to make it easy to find topics for review later, and take extensive notes during class.  Evernote allows the users to type notes, take a picture of visuals, and record voice notes to listen to at a later time.  

The Google Drive App allows you access to view all of your files stored on Google Drive. It also allows you to edit or create new documents or spreadsheets. Google Drive allows the user to easily share documents with others and collaborate together in real-time on the same document.

Blogger is a great app for teachers and students to write for an audience. Having an audience will provide students with a purpose and give them more stock in their writing.  Students can post about science experiments, describe in words how to do math equations, write journal entries for a famous person from history, or practice their creative writing skills. Teachers can use Blogger to post notes, videos, pictures, and more to keep parents and students up to date.

Story Creator is an app that can be used with Kindergartners all the way through Seniors.  Students can type stories, add photos or videos, draw or annotate over pictures, and record their voice.  Students can use it for story writing, vocab books, science journals, and many more classroom purposes.

The Nearpod app is a great way to make sure students are in sync with the teacher at all times.  The teacher uploads a PDF file with the separate slides (can be PowerPoint or Active Inspire projects exported as PDF) and then can add interactive slides built into the app.  The teacher decides when the slide for the class is changed. Students cannot go forward or backward while using Nearpod.

The GRID app allows students and teachers to collaborate on one project at the same time.  You can add text, photos, and places on a map.  There are many ways for students to use GRID to work together and brainstorm, practice vocabulary, a different study guide, or practice sequencing.

Tellagami is an avatar creation app.  Students can create the avatar to look how they like and can put any photo in behind the avatar for a background.  The avatar can speak text that is typed in with a variety of computerized voices.  The student can also record their own voice for the avatar to use.  This app is great for many ways in the classroom.  Especially for students who fear public speaking. The video can be saved to the iPad and used in other apps that allow video insertion.

Flowboard is a slideshow creator, much like PowerPoint.  It is all created on the iPad and can insert photo, video, and search Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, YouTube, and more to find the files.  Students and teachers can share Flowboards with each other.

AppsFire is a great app to get paid apps for free.  Some app developers have sales and put their apps free for a limited time. AppsFire organizes all of those apps by category and makes it simple for you to find the apps you need.  You can organize your list by what categories interest you. You can also search for particular apps and put an alert on it so you know when it is free or has its price reduced.

Zite is an information gatherer.  You tell Zite what your interests are, and the app goes out and finds you articles to match.  You choose what category you want to view and hit the thumbs up or down to tell Zite to find more articles like that or none of that kind.  You can send articles directly to your Evernote and add tags to keep your articles sorted and organized.  You can also share to Facebook and Twitter.