Without any further ado, here are some learnings I've gleaned from my first flipping week and a few days:
- I have to give my students deadlines, even when working at their own paces. Why? Because I have found that, without deadlines, my students don't get anything done. I hate having to do this, but right now it's a necessary evil. Students who don't meet the deadline are still required to do all of the activities because, after all, students still need to master the concepts--and that's what the activities are designed to do. I am toying with the idea of having student use the Edmodo calendar (now known as the Planner) to plan how they will meet the deadlines; more on that as it develops.
- I have to teach students to take real notes. In Biology, my initial directive to students while watching the videos was simply to "take notes." This isn't because I was lazy, this is because I wanted to see what they would do when left to their own devices (they were allowed to take notes in whatever tool they liked--including on paper). What did they do? Copy down random stuff from the videos. This led to my usual rant about how if they are copying stuff they're just wasting time (or just practicing their handwriting if taking "notes" on paper). Since then, I have been working on teaching them the fundamentals of good note-taking, which goes hand-in-hand with my next learning:
- Give them something to do while watching the video to make connections, not just copy from the presentation. And I'm not talking about answering questions like they would do at the end of a chapter if they were reading a textbook--I'm talking mindmapping, creating their own math problems, stopping to discuss with a partner next to them, writing a blog post, etc. Really, it's anything that gets students to make their own meaning rather than trying to copy and memorize disconnected stuff. I have dabbled in this a bit already, and, while students aren't thrilled about this and it takes longer for students to complete the videos, I really believe it's much much better for their brains. I'm still working on when to place these activities in my videos and how to structure them so they don't take up too much time but still get the upper-level learning done.
- Give them something to do AFTER watching the video to cement those connections and extend their understanding. This would be the equivalent of the "doing the homework in class" part of the traditional flipped model, and, just like during the videos, I have been trying (and not always succeeding) to get students to make their own meaning and connections. I want students to try and make connections between major concepts here, between I can statements and making larger connections to answer the big questions for the unit after they have worked on tying together the smaller details during the video. This is going to be a continuous work in progress.
- Students dig being able to shut me up and start me up at the touch of a button. Many students have told me they like being able to stop and start the videos, being able to "catch up" as needed as they go along--something they can't do if I'm yippity-yapping in front of a class. Some of my struggling students have appreciated the fact that the videos are on the website to watch again and again if they have forgotten something. And, the student who is being tutored at home right now due to an injury loves me still being able to "teach" her from my class website.
- I like Knovio and Voicethread the best right now for flipping. I already talked about why I like Knovio; but Voicethread is proving itself to be a powerful tool. The main reason is because you can write on your slides as you talk, which is very helpful when you are teaching students how to solve math problems or pointing out the difference between an organism's dorsal and ventral side. Also, unlike Knovio, Voicethread doesn't email you every time someone watches your presentation. The only issue I've been having lately is embedding Voicethreads in my Google sites: it has stopped working. Linking to the voicethreads still works, however, making me think there's either an issue with Google or with Voicethread's embed code. Below is an example Voicethread I made about how to calculate kinetic energy for my 9th graders, using the writing feature towards the end to point out various important mathematically magical features of the kinetic energy equation such as squaring the velocity:
- As you can see, I am a total cheeseball in front of the camera. I can't stop myself; to my own extremely nerdy self I am true, especially when recording. But I have listened to and watched myself enough times now that my voice and my face no longer sound/look as weird to me as they did before. I've grown accustomed to my face.
I know I have a lot more to work out as I go here, but I really am enjoying flipping so far. Students have a lot more responsibility on their shoulders for learning, and the comments consisting of "she's not teaching us!" have pretty much ended because of the videos. But it's really not about the videos; the thing I like most right now about this flipping experiment is the fact that students are learning how to learn. If making videos is what works in getting my kids to do that, then that's what I'll continue to do.