Saturday, February 6, 2016

Throwback time to my first informed experience with flipping! Youtube offers so many great videos on flipping the classroom. In a previous class we had to watch this great video on basic setup for flipping the classroom. Katie Gumbar offers various instructional videos and provides a lot of information on her youtube site. Please check out one of her many videos!

This is a great set up for videos and easy to use. I also really enjoy using screencast-o-matic. You are limited on time but flipped classroom videos should only last around 10-12 minutes. You can record as you are writing on the screen and also highlight and underline key material. I think it is great for math videos. It is also nice if you are just quickly making a video at home you do not have to be in it.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Flipped Classrooms

Hey Everyone! I realize after viewing many classmates infographics that I might have let the Math Teacher in me take over and went a bit overboard with the statistics. As a result I wanted to present a little more information on the trend of flipping the classroom. In many traditional classrooms teachers lecture and students take notes. This can be challenging for many students to pay attention, especially during block scheduled courses. Also, the teacher does not really have a chance to truly engage with the students and see what they have actually learned from the lesson. Flipping the classroom can help with that problem. Teachers can post videos of lecture or completing examples of problems that students can view at home. They can take notes at their own pace and have that video to view however many times they need. Then students can enter the classroom with some established prerequisite knowledge allowing more time for activities and practice. The teacher saves time and can get away from lecturing and is able to do more interaction with students. Class time is spent with students "doing" rather than more passively just following along. This does take time to implement. Personally, I have tried it and the first time was not successful. You really have to set clear expectations for the students and make sure they all have the necessary resources to participate. Also, you need to know how to balance the videos with what will be done in class. As a result, you need to be willing to take a risk and adapt to each class. After failing the first time I implemented it I went about it differently the next time. I also made my students realize how it would benefit them. I made watching the video an assignment where they took notes. I then checked it for credit and was able to get right into practice problems. When students realized they could do the problems and did not have to sit through as much lecture they bought into this new idea. They even went on asking for future topics if I would make a video! I think this can be really beneficial for everyone, and it can really change how students and teachers interact and learn.

Here is a link to my infographic in case you wanted to check out the stats that support flipped learning! Flipped Learning Infographic

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Welcome!

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to my blog. Can't wait to start using this application for upcoming assignments.