Trying to Provide Options

We have looked through a few student learning management systems and have decided upon Schoology. We have some high hopes for some opportunities to let students head out on their own and move ahead while having the opportunity for teachers to work one on one with students that need a little extra practice and guidance. 

We will have activities lined out for students to do in the order they want while being able to test when they think they have the concept down. If they do, they can work on a genius project or tutor those in need of help.

We will still teach whole ass lessons with the option of having students teach a few lessons. 

This is going to be an opportunity of learning for all of us as we try to give students more options. I am hoping that we can give students more options than this in the future.

IBeacon in the Classroom?

I have been reading a lot about Apple' iBeacon. I know it will be the next invasion of privacy issue we will need to address, but then I thought about what it could do for us in education. My school is 1:1 iPad 3-5 grades. I imagine that if their iPads can be recognized when they come in the classroom I can assign a topic or an agenda of things to do that day for each individual student. We rotate students into different classes and I see that this can give them topics and assignments as soon as they come into their classroom. I can see the opportunity for individual questions depending on how I differentiate and the activity. I can see the opportunity to use it in the classroom. I also see it as an incentive for students to remember their iPads. Our iPads to home for home learning (after a short presentation and signing a permission form).

I know I can do many of these things with other means, but having the information come right when they enter the classroom, no matter what classroom, is exciting. If students come to a classroom  museum, a presentation can share information, help, and give suggestions on what to do. How fun would it be to have different pictures or presentations come up depending where students are in the school? What about when a parent comes into the school. Information, directions to get to the right room for a class production or school activity. 

These are a few things I see that can be used with this new technology. I wonder how long before we can set up beacons using this technology?

A Few Articles
4 Uses for iBeacon - Wired.com
iBeacons Gaming- Macrumors.com
First Look: Using iBeacon Location Awareness - Appleinsider.com

Why Do I Teach?

I was reading though some tweets from my PLN last week and I came upon one by Karl Lindgren-Streicher(@LS_Karl). He was quoting Jamie Casap (@jcasap) writing, "he doesn't ask kids what they want to be, he asks students what problem they want solve." I brought that question up to my students. They wrote about what problem they would solve. It was great to listen to some of the problems they want to solve.
A couple days later, I started to think about what problem I want to solve as a teacher. Why did I become a teacher? What do I want to do with my life? When I started in college I thought that all students can learn. When I started teaching I had other ideas, but after a few years I learned from the students that all students can learn. They can progress. Every student can progress. That is when I decided I wanted to change how students felt when they came into the classroom. I wanted more for them. I wanted to give students opportunities they might not get elsewhere. Over time I changed my teacher to try to accommodate different learning styles. When I learned about flipping the classroom, it gave me one more thing to give students to help them progress. Thinking about this question gave me the opportunity to reflect on why I do what I do. What problem did you want to solve when you started teaching?

Increasing iPad Usage in the Classroom

We are now a 1:1 iPad grade level. What an opportunity for our students to use iPads in school. Some students also have the opportunity to take them home for home learning, if their parents want that option. We have increased the use of iPads in each subject as we find ways to use them. And that brings me to the issue with 1:1 technology in the classroom.
We decided not to use the iPad as a GamePad for students. We want them to create, collaborate, and consume information with the iPad in as many subjects as possible. That is not an easy task. We looked for apps that made learning better and not as a way to keep students busy. They get the games at home, we need them to see technology as a way to learn and produce. I will say that we do have a few games on the iPads they can use on those days we would pull out board games anyway (rainy days, 100˚+ days, etc.). We try to get learning games that students like to play. There are some questions we needed to ask as we decided what to do, how to do it, and which apps we will use.

• How do we make an activity/assignment better by using the iPad?
• We did not want to make an activity harder or more time consuming for the teachers or the students.
• Is the iPad the best tool to use in the activity/assignment?
• Just because we have the iPad does not mean it is the best tool for the job. Sometimes a whiteboard is the better choice.
• What is the learning outcome of the activity/assignment?
• It is still about the learning.
• Which app is best for the activity/assignment and will the app make it better?

There are activities that we changed because of the iPad. There are many we kept the same. We started writing a few books using iBooks Author for the students. We take some of the articles/assignments we use and put them into books for students to read. In iBooks students can look up words, highlight important information, and bookmark pages. That has kept our paper use down.

Our use of Google Drive is huge.  We wrote a ebook to help students as they start to use Google Drive. We started with writing stories, and now it has become our student portfolio. They share their stories with their teacher and other students for comments to help make the stories better. They also create a folder and share it with their teacher. Students can upload pictures of assignments, activities, objects for their portfolio. We use the spreadsheet for students to monitor their improvement. They keep track of their assessment scores to see their improvement and for writing goals on a document. The teachers created a shared folder for dropping pages in for students, short videos for students to watch, and a place for students to download books or files.

Another app we started using is Explain Everything. We use it as a white board to record how students are doing their work. We could use free app Educreations or Doceri for the same thing, but there is more to EE. We have students take a picture of a story we posted on the iPad Photo Stream and import it to EE. Students read and record the story then upload it as a movie to their Google Drive portfolio. This gives us a fluency assessment that they can review later to hear improvement in their reading. They can mark up the story to show words they missed, how many words they read in one minute, and listen to how they read. Spelling sorts are our activity of choice. So we started using EE for sorting. They can cut out the words right in EE and save a stack of words to sort. Students sort the words and then write it into their composition book. We post the words on Google Drive in the shared folder for students to take a picture of. We have just started to crack the surface of what we can do in this app.

We have come up with some great uses of the iPads to help with organization and implementation of assignments and activities. We are always looking for more ideas. If you have any ideas or suggestions of what else we can do, let me know.

Going 1:1

Going 1:1 has been quite a process. While researching insurance and apps for my students and brainstormed management issues, I found that my district was not prepared for this issue. Moving from a computer in the school, on a desk, connected to a wall to an unteathered electronic device in the classroom and at home has shown some holes in our plans. We suddenly became reactive technologically instead of proactive. Wifi has had issues as the amount of devices purchased doubles in each school. We are now on an approval plan for apps within the district. I can see the reasoning for this. If we don't want to manage the iPads in our classrooms, or we are unsure what to do with them, games become the norm and the problem. 

We really need to prepare for the coming of the unteathered learning coming to our schools. What problems do you have with this new influx of technology?

Teaching is Technology

I was showing he teachers at my school how to use Apple Configurator after school today. We talked about the iPads we have and what we need to do to get them ready for students to take them home. We talked about why we will be using Configurator and how it make it easier for teachers to control certain settings on be iPad. The. We discussed the apps we can use on be iPad and what they will be used for. Then came the question that many  teachers think when it comes to technology.

Who is going to manage the iPads and sync them in Configurator?

This is an interesting question. Who should manage the iPads? 

When I got into education I arrived in my first room and the first thought I. My head was, who is going to manage the textbooks? I managed the textbooks. Education is becoming so much more technology driven that we need to take more time with it. I took time getting to know my teachers editions when I started teaching. I should take the time to learn the iPad I hand to my students. This is the new teaching profession. 

Second Chances in School

A couple weeks ago I was in a class with pre-admin teachers and the topic turned to whether we should make students hold the line or give them chances. I know there are thoughts about this on both sides especially when talking elementary vs. high school, but we are in education and our job is to teach. So we teach about how important it is to hold to deadlines. In class we discuss why we have deadlines. Then we hand out deadlines for assignments and work with those that are not meeting them. In education there should second chances. If the student is progressing in class and they forget an assignment, second chance. If they forget more than once, the teacher should be working with the student, not complaining that the student doesn't turn anything in. It is our job to help them no matter the age.
I can see that there are times we need to hold them to a line after working with them through the year, but we are here to teach the students, to work with them, to prepare them. I hear the comment that one day they will be held to a deadline at a job, or that college professors will not budge and you will get a bad grade. I understand those points. They might run into those situations. The college professors I had would work with me if I talked with them about an assignment being late. Most jobs work with employees to a point. Students will also be older and, hopefully, feel the job is important enough to take it seriously.
I hope I don't offend you when I say that the homework assignment they forgot to bring back was not that important. I might have been. What we need to think about is what are we doing to make the assignments important enough for students to not forget them. Threatening them with a bad grade does not make it important, it makes it an obligation. Turning the assignment into a project that they will want to get in because it is important to helping find an answer to a problem, or it will move their group to the next step in their project. That is important.
Sometimes we need to rethink what we assign and what we expect of our students. We should not expect less, we should expect more from them. We should also understand that they are human. Sometimes I have to think of them as my child and what I would do for my child in this situation. It is a fine line what we do as teachers sometimes. High schools should hold students to a high level of responsibility, a lot more than we do in elementary, but we should never forget that they are still learning.
The question should not be, do I give them a second chance? It should be, should I stop giving second chances? What do you think about second chances in school?

Flipping School is Starting

School is starting up again and I m ready to get started. We have quite a few changes coming this year. We have a new principal starting her first year. I am excited to show her how a flipped classroom looks and works. We also are starting a new math program with a technology piece that I am interested in seeing how it works. The publisher assured us the tech piece would be ready for our iPads at the beginning of school. We also are testing a new language program that has a technology piece. Same company, same promise about the iPads. My team has a little work to do to get the new Math and Language information in place and decide how we are going to implement thoughts I read by Ramsey Musallam on Explore-Flip-Apply.
As I put together a two-day class about the flipped classroom this summer, I came across some great videos and information that helped me understand more about what I want to do in my classroom. Here is the presentation I put together. I learned was that the flipped classroom is an change of mindset. Changing the way I think about the class, the curriculum, the homework, the management, and the way the students learn.
I came across a few articles about whether we need teachers or not. A computer can teach the basic curriculum points. As a teacher I need to help students be more curious about our world. I need to help students explore problems and language and how they work, not just do drill-and-kill work and have students memorize stuff.
Another thought I kept thinking about this summer was one by Mrs. Ripp, "Would I like being a student in my classroom?" I have been thinking about what activities I want to present to my students. Figuring out how I want to present the new curriculum in a way the inspires curiosity in always a challenge, but seeing students get excited about learning and about being in school is an exciting part of being a teacher.
This is going to be an exciting year.

Flipping Class for Teachers

I have been asked to teach a two day class on flipping my classroom. I am very excited about telling other teachers in my district about flipping their  classroom and how it will make their classrooms more student-based. I have been thinking about it for about a month now and it is coming up. I have done presentations about flipping but not a two day class. So I started my search for be right videos of information I want them to know. I looked at articles I want them to read. Then I thought that this class should be run like a flipped class. I will lecture a little, question a lot, and have the teachers watch and make videos, and do it at their own pace. We will have discussions as a class at certain points in the class to check progress and answer questions. This will give them a good idea how a class can run.

Our district is trying to set up deals with Edmodo and Schoology for assignment management. I have worked with Schoology a little, but I am interested I. Using Edmodo a little more. I like it's layout and ability to post messages for everyone to read. I will show the teachers both so they can decide if either works for them. I have used wikispaces for years to manage assignments and I will still work with that platform until I see a way to move away from it. Are there other online programs that work for assignment management?

In the end this will be a great experience for me as a teacher and hopefully for the teachers coming to see how to help their students. 

What's on Your iPad?

I love using iPads in my classroom. My students use Google Docs for writing and presenting. We use Educreations to work on problems and to show how students worked out their math or language problem. I am taking a tech class from our district and the one thing I am finding is the disconnect between teachers in the different schools. Our district tech department has managed the the maintenance of technology, but we need a central point of contact to find out what each school is doing. I follow the Ipad Insight Blog. A series that comes up every once in a while is "What's on Your iPad?" I think I will start something like that article that shows what is on iPads in different schools in my district. This will help everyone know what teachers are using in their classrooms for their students. I will ask teachers to show what they use and then what they use on their student iPads. I think I will have to use the questions iPad Insight uses. They are great questions. These are the questions for the teacher iPad.

1. Which iPad model do you use for yourself? (original, iPad 2, New iPad, Mini, storage size) Any particular reasons for choosing this model?
2. Do you use any sort of case with the iPad? If so, which one/s and why? 
3. What’s on your iPad dock currently? Do these apps pan out as your most frequently used? What are some of your other most-used apps / what’s on your first home screen? (and any reasons why you’d like to offer) 
4. How do you arrange your home screens? Do you use folders at all / heavily? 
5. What are some of your most used productivity apps on the iPad? Any that you use for work? 
6. How much, if any, book reading do you do on the iPad? 
7. Any favorite iPad games or fun time fillers? 
8. Have you got a ‘hidden gem’ type iPad app that more people should know about? 
9. Do you tend to pay much attention to your home or lock screen wallpaper? Change it up often?

These are the questions for the student iPads. 

1. Which iPad model do you use for your students? (original, iPad 2, New iPad, Mini, storage size) Any particular reasons for choosing this model?
2. Do you use any sort of case or covers for the student iPads? If so, which one/s and why? 
3. What’s on your student iPad dock currently? Do these apps pan out as the most frequently used for students? What are some of your other most-used student apps / What’s on your first home screen? (and any reasons why you’d like to offer) 
4. How do you arrange your home screens? Do you use folders at all / heavily? 
5. What student Apps do you use consistently for Language? Math? Science? History?  
6. Have you got a ‘hidden gem’ type iPad app that more people should know about? 
7. Do you pay much attention to your student home or lock screen wallpaper? Change it up often?

I am going to start this Series on this blog. I hope to have a few people send me information so we can all learn what apps are being used in our classrooms and why. Are there other questions I should ask teachers about their iPads?

Where Do I Start Flipping?

After wrapping up my UCET2013 Flipped Presentation this question was tweeted, emailed, and asked of me, "where do I start flipping my classroom?" As I thought about my presentation, I told about why I flip and how I flip and even what to do if they wanted to flip, but I really didn't explain how to start. Many of the people that asked this question were unable to attend my presentation. So this is my suggestion. This is not the gospel of flipping. There are many other flippers that might have other ideas and plans to use. Researching this topic will also help finding different ideas and suggestions on flipping the classroom.
The first thing you need to do is think about what you do in your classroom. My idea of the flipped classroom is changing the way I run my classroom so I make it student-based and not teacher-based. As I change how my classroom is, what will I be doing? So the question I ask is "What is the best use of class time with my students?" Then start with one activity that can be modified. If the activity needs a video to be made for students to watch at home or during class, make it. Pick a topic or an activity that takes up a lot of time in class. I started with a vocabulary activity that took a lot of student time writing in class. I made a short video with the information the students needed to have for their assignment and sent it home. That freed up 30 minutes a day of language time. Now came the great part, I found 30 more minutes a day I was able to spend more time working with my students in small groups. Make it something small to get a feel for it and add other things a piece at a time.
Give it time to work out. Any change will be tough, but keep it going for a while. Students and parents will need time to learn the new system and so will you. Make small changes as they a needed. Once it becomes more comfortable in the schedule changing it up, then comes the time to add or change other subjects or activities. As an elementary school teacher, I have a lot of subjects I teach throughout the week. I use video for three subjects only. I think that more than a couple videos a night can be too much for anyone. There are times when I have a vocabulary video, spelling video, and math video on the same night, but I try to keep it to two on a given night. Most nights there is only one and some nights I don't assign any. Whatever is needed is what is assigned.
After I started flipping my class I started reading a book called "Ready, Set, Science" and it helped me define what my core concept was that I wanted the students to know each day in math and spelling(Chapter 4). I also learned more about how to have better discussions in my classroom(Chapter 5).
Let me know how this helps you as you start changing your classroom. If you have any other suggestions, leave a comment.

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Flip Support from Administration

I just wrapped up a presentation about Flipping the Classroom at UCET2013. I did a similar presentation at Suecon in October and there were about 15 teacher in that presentation. This time I did two presentations and they were each filled with teachers sitting on the floor. I went over the basics of what a traditional flipped classroom looks like and then we talked about changing the traditional classroom paradigm of lecture to student centered discussion and investigation of concepts. As I talked and showed how I run my classroom, the teachers were very receptive. In the end I told them that my flipped classroom is an example of what it can look like. It has its problems like most classrooms. But the one thing I want them to take away is to think about how they want their classroom to look like. I posed this question, "What is the best use of your classroom time with your students?"
The one problem that I heard over and over during and after the presentation was about getting administrator help. I have not had much problem with this new use my principal is very supportive in what we do. She wished that more teachers in our school would give it a good look. I say wished because my present principal is retiring. I know the new principal and I am hoping for the best that she will be as supportive in our ideas. So what do you do to get support from your principal? What suggestions do you have to offer these beginning flippers?

Puttering around the Classroom

I was talking with my neighbor about putting in a garden. He has a large farm behind my house and gives me a lot of tips on what and when to grow vegetables. He has a garden that is twice the size of my house and yet he gives away most of his harvest because his children are all gone. As we discussed this fact, he told me that he gardens because it gives him time to relax and putter around in the yard. I wonder if the kids today have something to putter around with when they need to relax? Do video games have the same puttering ability as a garden? Do we as teachers need to provide an opportunity for students to putter around in the classroom? How would we teach them to find their putter activity?

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Waiting for Scripting?

My students use the iPads throughout the day and I get questions about what apps I use. But the question I get the most is how to use the iPad in the classroom. I see a few teachers that want the technology but are unsure how to use it. Then I see teachers that want the technology and are not willing to learn to use it. We complain about having a scripted language or math program to teach, but are we waiting for a scripted iPad program to come along so we can teach our class or subject?

Time to Forgive and Move On

At school on Friday I got the message that one of my good friends passed away. We had known each other for about 10 years and even though he was double my age he was a great friend that taught me many things. He will be missed by many, but especially by me.
As I thought about some of the things he and I talked about over the years, the one thing that I think about is a problem he caused with some of his family. He made some poor choices in his life that really affected his children. He was an angry young man and made some choices that drove some of his children to never speak to him again. When I met him he was in the process of trying to meet with all of his children one at a time to apologize and try to make things right with them. We talked for hours about his travels to their homes and how some of them would talk with him and others wouldn't even open their doors to let him talk. He sent letters, he made phone calls, he tried every thing he could think of to apologize.
This brings me to the students in my class. I have to think about how I react and work the students in my class when they make poor choices. Do I make them relive that moment over and over or am I able to move on from that situation and give them an opportunity to grow? Do I talk about how I cannot wait for this year to be over so I can get rid of this student, or do I tell them if they need a little help in school, or just to talk, come visit me? I guess what I am saying is that we all need a break. We all need a second, or third, chance in life. We need someone to say that we made a mistake, learn from it and move on. And then both of us move on. Students are still learning these lessons. I like to teach students about not burning bridges with their friends or with people in general. Sometimes I want to burn a bridge at the end of the year with a student that has been a challenge. But that wouldn't help them or me. Everyone needs guidance. If I forgave more students and let them move on, that might make situations better my class. As I remember the mission statements all teachers write in their first years in college, all students can learn. All students need the chance to learn. All students need opportunities. I, as a teacher, need to make that happen. This is the least I can do for my friend.
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Making Math Better

I found this draft on my iPad as I started writing a few thoughts. this should have gone out a month ago.

Ijust finished reading an article on "Think/Pair/Square/Share" and I need to incorporate that into my math time. I wrote about scheduling my math time so I can work with students more in small groups and one-on-one. At the beginning of my class I will have a single problem for students to work on that the homework video talked about, or a concept that we went over the previous day. Within that problem I will decide who needs the small group interventions and practice with me or the resource teacher and which will work as partners to practice the concept.

As I read the article above, I have decided to use the Think/Pair/Square/Share"information to identify students that me help. As they think on their own and do their work on their whiteboard, I will monitor those that need help and what they need help with on that problem. Then as they pair with their partner, I can hear what how they explain how they did the problem on their own and what they might have missed. This will help me know if they understand the piece they are missing as it is explained by their partner. The next piece is when they share with the square, or team, to see how they each did the problem. They will be able to learn from each other and listen to someone else explain the problem and how to do it. The final step will be the share with the class as I go over the problem with students from the group sharing each thing they did with the class.

I feel this will be a big benefit for me when identifying who needs the help. I was using the Pair/Share method, but adding the Think and Square will make the lesson even better.

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Making More Resolutions

It is that time again. Time to make a few resolutions and see what we can do to right the path we are on in the new year. I have a few resolutions for myself that I have made. Lose a few pounds by eating less chips and other treats. Change my snacks to fruits and vegetables... well... more fruits. Walk and bike a little more when I can. Being a little nicer to those around me. I do not think I am a mean person, but I think I can do better. A little more patience with my own children. I can give a more breaks to my students at school. I can always have more fun. Now I have not yet decided if I want to cut Coke out of my diet yet. It is my wooby, I guess. Maybe next year.

These are not monster goals like losing 20 lbs. or exercising daily, these are little goals that will get me to the bigger goal of feeling better and being a little more healthy. I hope that I can feel a little better and live a little longer. Whether these little things will do that, I hope so, but at least I am doing a little more. I also want to take more time each day to work in my yard and play with the kids. I do have a few bigger goals. I want to take more time to work on my lessons at school and rewrite the curriculum to add more time for my students at school to have more fun each day. I am also setting a goal to visit as many historical sites in New England during my family reunion in June. I will also ride my bike to school at least 2/5 of the school year. I figure that is a good goal.

I have read a few articles about writing resolutions and if they work or how long we can go before they fall by the wayside. Personally I do not think it is about whether we keep the resolutions, it is the insight we find when we look back on the previous year. What things do we need to change? What can we do a little better in our lives that will make ourselves a little better? What can we do so people will want to be our friend? Shouldn’t we be looking at what we can do to make ourselves a little kinder and gentler? A little more healthy? More helpful to those around us? Making our lives less about us and more about those we see each morning and work with each day? Will we ever become this person we hope to be? I am not sure, but the journey is the reward. I have a small poster in my classroom that we use to tell students that if they fail, it is the First Attempt In Learning. I stole that from someone (I need to work on that also, but I am a teacher) and I think it applies here with resolutions. So a resolution falls by the wayside. Try it again. One day, it will stick if it is that important.

Write a few resolutions. Make some that are really out there that are going to be hard to reach. Make sure you write a few that you know you can reach and do your best to make them part of your daily life. Make a few goals for your family, your work, and for you personally. Change is good. Change is needed. When writing resolutions I always think of the ABBA song, “The Day Before You Came” and I hope that by the end of the year I will be looking back saying those very words. I used to be this way, but now things are different and hopefully I feel better and people around me are better because of what I have changed.

All Means All

It has been an terrible couple weeks. Not because of school, but because I have been sick and I just cannot get over it. I am uncomfortable, a bit ornery, an really tired. My class has not suffered because of a wonderful program called student teaching. My student teacher took over about three weeks ago and has done a wonderful job adjusting to our flipped model.
I bring this up because I have been doing everything I can to get over this sickness. I took a day off and slept the whole day, I have been pounding the Vitamin C like there is no tomorrow. I have taken different forms of medicine to try them all out. The one thing I have not done is slow down much. I have college classes I am taking, an endorsement class, a student teacher (I still need to do the planning and lesson building with him), and I still have this habit of learning more about what to do in class. So I guess I have not been doing everything. I need to take some time off and relax. That just might help me get over this sickness.
Which brings me to my main point. If we look at learning as being healthy and not learning as a sickness, why are we not always trying to do everything possible to get our students to learn? I was reading the book "Simplifying Response to Intervention" and there was a part that said, "All students can learn, except the ones we decide cannot." It goes on to say that we say that all students can learn ann yet we pick out a couple in our classes that we feel will never learn. They are the ones that tend to cause all the problems. They are the ones that we tired off telling the same thing to over and over. The authors go on to say that, "all students mean all students that will someday be financially responsible adults.“ So if they are not learning, we need to treat that situation as a sickness and try everything possible to get that student to learn. Programs, interventions, differentiation, before school programs, after school programs, and even those things that are out of the ordinary.
There is a sickness in some our classrooms that needs to be taken care of. It makes us uncomfortable and the first solution we think of is to not worry about it. That does not take care of the problem, it only keeps it hanging on and transfers it to another teacher. Don't give up or forget any student in the class, or any class. I think of the show Phineas and Ferb. Dr. Doofenschirtz is a problem, and yet all the stories he eludes to when talking about why he is doing something evil tell about something bad that happened to him when he was young. He is looking for love and acceptance.
So what do we do? Keep working and finding solutions. If there is a kid that is making us uncomfortable because of the problems they are causing, find a solution. Do not put those kids off and let them by without finding a solution that works for them. All students can learn, means ALL students can learn. They deserve it.
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Completing the Math Flip

The next piece of our Flipped Classroom has started. We set up the homework for students to complete each night. Most of the students are seeing the need for the homework. We have a couple students that are not completing the work, but they get to complete it at school. That is where the next piece is coming in.

In Math class I have previously been doing the normal schedule where I have students practice their times tables as they come in to help with that skill. After a few minutes I get the students started on the notes for the math topic we are learning that day. After taking a few notes we work on a few problem and practice as a whole group and then do a few practice problems as I roam the room helping students that need a little help. Before I send them to their Language class, we review some concepts from previous lessons and then they head out.

That has all changed. It has taken me a few weeks to set up the way I wanted to work the class. The homework is Sal Khan teaching about the concept and the student taking notes and looking for specific vocabulary. We only have video homework 2-3 times a week. The rest of the time, we expect students to practice skills they need help with (times tables, subtraction, Carrying, borrowing). They can also work on the IXL math site for practice of specific skills we are working on that week. If they do not understand what is happening in the video or a specific piece, they write down a question on the bottom of the page that we can answer or go over the following day.

The next day I start with a question that goes with the homework so I can see what parts the students understand and what they need help on. I let the students work as partners and then explain what they did and how they ended up with their answer. I like to use whiteboards for this part of class. I walk around watching, listening, finding those that need a little help. After about 10 minutes I have them show me their work by holding up their boards (I hope to use the Educreations App soon  so I can play back what students did). I look to see their explanations and decide on four that need a little extra help and four that need basic skills help. This is also where I pull back students that did not complete their homework so they can show that they understand the concept. If they do not, they will watch the homework video so they will understand what we did.

After the question we work on the skills students showed from their practice and review steps to help us in finding the answers as a whole group. We practice a few problems going over the steps and answering questions about the topic. We have a discussion about missteps that might have happened and what to look for when we come upon a problem

We split the group into a couple small groups and a large group. Our resource teacher take the students that need basic skills and she works with them on the one concept I need them to learn that day while working on basic skills. I take the other small group and go step by step the help them understand what piece they are missing so they get the concept and can do a few problems on their own. The large group works on a math page to reinforce the lesson as partners, helping each other using a Tip, TIp, Tell format. If a student is unsure how to do a problem, the partner gives them a  tip to get them started. If they get stuck, the partner gives them a different tip. Finally, if they do not know what to do, the partner helps them through the process of getting the answer by telling them each step and letting the student figure out the problem. If they get finished with the practice page (not drill and kill, busy work) they are able to work on IXL to go into harder problems or review problems they need help on.

The last 10 minutes is spent as a large group reviewing past skills as partners using Kagan Strategies of pairing students. We use the Tip, Tip, Tell strategy as the students use one book, one pencil, one dry erase marker. They complete one problem and pass it to the partner to complete. The student with the book has to explain to their partner what they are doing and thinking as they work on the problem. The partner listens and tips them, if needed. The final minutes are spent as a class having students show how they arrived at their answers and the class cheering their successes.

This is what I imagine a flipped class being. 10 minutes of lecturing, 65 minutes of partnerships working together, small group work, differentiating and discussing skills and strategies. So much better than the 45 minutes of lecturing and 30 minutes of drill and kill. At least the students think so.

If I Knew Then...

I am taking a Technology Endorsement class offered by my school district. I have decided it is time for me to find it what else is out thee that I am not using and see what I can learn from the research done by the teachers.

The first assignment I did was to put together a plan to show what I think represents a 21st Century Classroom. I did a little reading and thinking about this topic. If I had control, what would I make my classroom look like? What technology would I have? What would I need to make sure I can reach each child in my class? So I started to write and this is what I came up with.

My vision of the 21st Century Classroom is less about the classroom and more about the ideas that need to be incorporated into the classroom setting. Moving the teacher from the front of the classroom to the side so the students can present more information as they organize their learning. The teachers becomes a guide to help students find the information. In elementary school there will be more teaching and guiding students as they learn the strategies and tools to help them organize the information. in this way, there is no schedule for students to follow, they are given a set of instructional guides and they pursue them in the best way they can, by making choices.The teacher then becomes the guide to help students learn to make the right choices to get the information they need.
The classroom itself needs to be able to be moved into groups of different sizes, depending on the projects and learning going on. Students become the focus of the classroom, not the schedules that teachers set for them. Students are encouraged to work within fluid groups. As they need a piece of information or help from one students, they learn with them and then move back to their project. There are no seating arrangements. There is just constant learning.
This classroom uses technology to further the lessons and help students learn. Technology does not need to become the center of the classroom. It becomes a support system, supporting the learning and work going on. There should be more than just a computer to find content and to deliver content. There should be many different ways to produce and disseminate information.
Curriculum and content is a resource of where learning comes from and not the starting point. Students make decisions, collaborate with each other in and outside the classroom, succeed, fail, and redesign in a supportive learning environment. Which comes to the assessment. The 21st century classroom provides opportunities for students to learn many different things and there should be a core of ideas that they learn, but they should be given different ways to show they have learned the concept and not just by a set of multiple choice questions.

I turned it in after a couple days and then started looking around my classroom a little closer. The first thing I noticed was my Smart Board. It cost quite a bit and I use it everyday, but when I have the students do most of the work and show it on the board, the board seems to be a large computer mouse. The younger grades in our school use it in amazing ways, but for what we use it for, I think I could use a Mimio Board instead. It would be a lot cheaper. I think I would not stop there. I would get rid of the whiteboard completely. In it's place, I would paint the front of the classroom with Magic Wall Magnetic Paint. Over that I would paint it with Whiteboard Paint. Can you imagine a hope wall dedicated to writing on? Add a a projector and a MimioTeach Interactive Whiteboard System. I could still use the wall as a mouse, but I could also capture and record writing, write notes everywhere, have many students work on problems at once.

The classroom should be a place students can come to put ideas together and make sense of the world. we can still teach them the basics they will need to help their ideas. Reading, writing, math, history, and science are important to learn and explore. I cannot wait to see what the next assignment is to help me explore what else is out there for me to use and explore.

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