Lessons From a First Time Flipped Class

This year I decided to flip both my Honors and AP Chemistry classes.  While I love the idea and it has revitalized me as a teacher, it has also brought much more work to the table.  I have also learned a lot in the last month and a half.  In this post I will share with you some of the things I have learned.  The biggest thing I learned is to stick with it!

Students need time to adjust

Give your students time to adjust to the new system.  I will admit it.  I was (am) naive.  I thought the students would jump at the idea of watching videos instead of doing homework assignments.  I was very disheartened when I looked at the number of students who were watching my videos.  I have 74 honors chemistry students and on average 25 students were watching my videos.  I couldn't understand it.  Were my videos that bad?  

Remember that kids are kids!  Most students are familiar with doing homework and the idea of watching a video is very foreign to them.  I think my students figured if they don't have homework then they don't have to do anything at home.  

Over the last couple of weeks the number of students tuning into my videos has slowly increased.  I think it is because I am not lecturing any more and students are learning that they have to watch the videos to gain the information.  Now more than half the students are watching my videos.  I keep telling them that if they don't watch the videos it is like putting their heads down during the lecture.  I remind them that by not watching the videos they are missing a huge part of the class.  

Recently, I have had students tell that they really love the videos.  One of my students said, "When you first told us about the videos I thought this is going to lame, but now I see what you are doing.  The videos are really helpful.  I like that I get to watch them over and over again and it helps to do the homework in class."  I told her to spread the word! 

The videos take time to make

Don't underestimate the time it takes to make the videos.  I knew the videos would take time to make but I didn't expect them to take as long as they were.  

The reason they were taking a long time was I just didn't plan them out as well as I should have.  My advice: plan your videos in advance.  At the beginning of each unit I sit down and figure out how many videos I am going to need.  Then I make a list of the videos that I want to make.  Next, I write a list of objectives that I want to make sure that each video covers.  Essentially, I write an outline for each video.  From there I start recording.  

Your videos do not have been flawless.  I don't edit them or add any special effects.  I use Camtasia 2 and the only extras I add are a cursor effect, audio enhancement (to make me sound louder) and a fade-in and fade-out.  If I have time I try to imbed pictures.  I try to keep the videos to about ten minutes.  

By remaining focused and limiting the amount of effects I put in the videos I have gotten considerably faster at making the videos.  

You need time to adjust

I have to admit it is very weird to not lecture, but I really like it!  I find myself in class wanting to lecture.  In the beginning because more students were not watching the videos. I felt like I should lecture.  Whatever you do...don't!  If you lecture for the students who don't watch the videos then students will stop watching the videos because they will not have a reason to keep watching.  

As I would go around the room, students would ask me questions that I answered in the video.  Every time I say "You would know this if you had watched the video last night."  I could sense that more than half the class didn't know how to do the in-class problems because they hadn't watched the videos.  Don't lecture!  Give them a chance to realize that they need to watch the videos.  Stop spoon feeding them.

The tide has turned in the last week or so.  It is very weird to see notes in a student's notebook that I didn't give in class.  I can only explain it as a weird-good.

Stick With It!  It is Worth It!

While flipping my class has been challenging and time consuming at times it has been the best thing I have done in long time.  I really love making the videos and I don't miss the lectures.  In the beginning the students didn't quite get it but they are seeing the light.  

If you are planning on flipping keep it simple and stick with it!

Thanks
Dan

Social Bookmarking

I just finished reading this article, Social Bookmarking for Teachers on Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.  So I thought I would share how I use Diigo.

What is Diigo?

At the surface, Diigo is simply an online, or cloud-based, bookmark service.  This in and of itself is very handy.  How many times have you bookmarked something on your home computer and needed that bookmark on your school computer, iPad or second computer.  With Diigo, all of your bookmarks are accessible 24/7 on any computer that is linked to the internet.

Diigo is so much more than just a bookmarking service

1. Tags.

I love tagging!  Tagging has made it so much easier for me to find those web articles I saved or notes I have saved in Evernote.  What is tagging you ask?  When I bookmark a website I always label it with a tag.  A tag is word or phrase the describes the website or article you are reading.  Why tag?  When you go to the Diigo website you can search all of your tags to find all the websites pertaining to the topic of your tag.

For example, this summer I ran a workshop on flipping your class for my fellow teachers.  Well, as I was researching or whenever I came across an interesting article or link I would bookmark it using Diigo and add the tag "flipping workshop".  When it came time to put together my workshop I simply typed "flipping workshop"in the tag search and Presto! there were all of my websites and articles.

I also use tagging with my Evernote account.  All of my notes in Evernote have tags and I use them the same way.  By the way, Evernote has a very handy web clipper that allows you to save websites.  I have not used that function much but I can see the benefits of using it.  If I have not put so much into Diigo and I didn't find it so easy, I might have learned more about the Evernote web clipper.

2. Diigolet.

Diigolet is a shortcut that you can add to your favorites bar in your web browser.  Once you click the Diiigolet button a handy little shortcut bar appears.  It has everything: a highlighter, bookmark, sticky notes, etc.  (Below is a screenshot.)

You can use the highlighter to remind yourself about the key elements of the site.  The sticky notes are great because you can write notes to yourself or others.  The Diigolet is installed on every computer I work on.  It also makes it easy to access your Diigo account.

3.  Sharing

The last thing I will mention is the sharing.  I honestly still have not fully utilized this function yet.  You can share with your colleagues or students a single website or a list of websites.  I have been building a list of flipping websites for my fellow teachers to help them get started with the process of flipping.  I can simply share the list with anyone who is interested.  I know there is more to sharing but I have not fully explored it yet.  

As I said, Diigo is very cool little tool that helps you to organize and manage all of the website and online articles.  It makes research easy to perform and easy to share.

Thanks

Evernote-My Favorite App!

Well, I have to say it has been hard to find the time to write on this blog.  I really want to post more but I have a lot of things going on this year.  I hope that as I get used to blogging I will learn to write more efficiently.

With all the new things I have going on, my life has been very chaotic.  I have taken on too many things this school year and I hope to talk about those in future posts.  Today, I figured I would start with something that has helped me to battle the chaos.  I present to you Evernote.

Evernote is a real game changer!

Evernote has really been a lifesaver for me.  I cannot believe how much I use it.  I constantly have it open on my home computer, my classroom computer, my cell phone and my iPad.  I use it for everything.  I really mean everything.  By the way, the Google Chrome app is great!  For example, I use to to keep track of the my son's football scores.  I want to make him a commemorative football with the dates and scores of each of his games.  I use as a to-do-list for home and work.  I use it for grocery store lists.  I take pictures of business cards.  I  basically use it anytime I go to write something down on a piece of scrap paper.

Everyday, I am finding new ways to use Evernote.  Like today, I was looking over old AP Chemistry tests to find some interesting questions to put on my upcoming test.  Back in the day, I would find a question and print it up.  I would end up with a bunch of papers that would get shuffled around and eventually misplaced.  This year, I started taking screenshots of the questions I like and I then post them into my school notebook.  Now, I can use Evernote's powerful search function to quickly find those questions.  I no longer have to carry around a file folder of questions.  I am so excited.

One thing my students do is they take pictures of the agenda on the whiteboard and upload them to their Evernote accounts.  I have had a few students take pictures of the problem sets in their books.  (I don't know how legal this is and I do not condone it whatsoever.)  They upload the pictures to Evernote and now they can leave the book at home.  The pictures are now searchable on Evernote.  My students love it!

There is so much I could share with you about Evernote.  I just want to leave you with one last thing regarding Evernote.  Give it a try!  At first, I had no idea how to use it.  I installed it on my iPad and I was like okay now what?  I actually didn't use it much in the beginning.  I have slowly started using it more and more.  Here is my advice.  Commit to using Evernote for 2-3 weeks.  Anytime you are going to write something down open Evernote and record it there.  I personally like the tags, but some people I talked to don't bother.  If after your trial period you are not hooked then oh well.  I really think you will be.

In future posts, I will tell you in more detail how I use Evernote.  I will show you how I organize my notebooks and much more.  I am going to stay away from tutorials on how to use the basic functions.  You can find a ton of those on YouTube and Evernote.  I want to stick explaining how I use it.  Below you will find some useful links to help you get started with Evernote.

Useful Links:
Giving Evernote a Try
Evernote 101
Get Stated with Evernote
Evernote for Teachers
Evernote for Students

Thanks,
Dan

So It Begins...

Well, here we go.  My first blog post. I have to admit I am a little nervous.  I am not much of a writer but I figured this would be a great way to get better.

So why am I starting a blog?  Hmm....great question. I started this blog for a number of reasons and here they are in no particular order:
1.  I have learned so much by reading other people's blog that I thought I might be able to share and maybe help others.
2.  I have started so many new things this school.  I thought that by sharing what I have been doing I could inspire others or get help from others.
3.  I thought that if I started a blog I might be able to help myself keep focused and committed.  If I think someone else is going to see this I tend to put more into it.
4.  The blog could act as a recorder of my thoughts and ideas.
5.  I hope I will become a stronger writer and teacher.

I guess that is it for my first post.  Hopefully, soon I will be able to update my profile and start sharing my thoughts with the world.