The Flipped Classroom After 2 Days

On day 2 in my flipped classroom we watched the first instructional "videos" together. I wanted to help guide my students. I wanted to give them hints and suggestions of how to watch the videos and take notes. Remind them that if they are having trouble keeping up with the video they can, stop the video, rewind the video, fast forward the video etc... I did not want to just send them home to watch the video lessons without some guidance.

The good news. Not one student or parent has confronted me about hating this method. All the students like flipping the classroom, so far.

Next week we really get into the true flip. Every night they will have to watch a video lesson at home. Then come to class, work on their assignment and participate in some TRUE problem solving activities.

The only glitch I ran into this week is that the iTuneU server that is hosting my videos was down today. Hope this is not a regular occurence!!! Otherwise, I will have to host the videos somewhere else. My students need to be able to access those video lessons 24/7.

I hope next week goes as well as this week.

Coffee Cups Activity

As part of "flipping" my classroom I will be using my class time to have my students do some "Learning Through Problem Solving" (LTPS)

We have not yet studied arithmetic sequences. So, the following activity is a LTPS activity because the students have not yet learned any of the formulas associated with arithmetic sequences.

I will be using John Scammell's 7 step Learning Through Problem Solving approach.

Step 1: Show video Coffee Cups- Act1

Coffee cups--Act one from Jahan Khah on Vimeo.

Step 2: Ask the students- What question do they want to explore?
Hopefully the students want to know how many cups will they be able to stack on the shelf.

Step 3: Elicit student guesses: Have the students make guesses about how many cups they think will be able to be stacked on the shelf. As a class, agree on a range of reasonable answers.

Step 4: Ask the students what further information they need to answer their question. Show them Coffee Cups - Act2 to provide them with the necessary information.

Coffee cups--Act two from Jahan Khah on Vimeo.

Step 5: Allow students to work on the problem. Students who finish could be given an extension like, "Develop a formula to determine how many cups you could stack on a shelf of any height."

Step 6:Share student solutions. Have students share solutions with other students, or with the whole class using a document camera or chart paper.

Step 7: Show the answer video.

Coffee cups--Act three from Jahan Khah on Vimeo.

Finally, summarize what has been learned.

Day One of the Flipped Classroom

So, I survived my first day of classes of the 2011-12 school year. In fact, I would have to say that today went pretty well.

So far, my fears of introducing the "flipped" class to my Math 20-1's have been unfounded. They were not scared of the "flipped" classroom. Some said they thought it was a good idea.

I sent home a letter explaining the "flipped" classroom concept. This way the parents get the same message as the kids.

I used the following presentation to help explain the "flipped" classroom. In my letter to parents, I guided them to a link on the class wiki that will take them to this presentation. Hopefully, those that have questions and are unsure of things watch the presentation.

I hope that most parents are as receptive as the students were. We will see tomorrow. I may receive a tsunami of phone calls and e-mails asking about the "flipped" classroom.

Let the "Flipped" Classroom Begin!!!

Tomorrow is the first day for students at Cold Lake HS (CLHS). Teachers will be excited. Students will be excited. The 2011-12 school year will get underway. I will be rolling out the "flipped" classroom model in my Math 20-1 class. For those of you who do not know what the "flipped" classroom is here is a short explanation.

• Lectures/Direct instruction ars recorded in a video format and delivered on demand via the Internet
• Each night the students “homework” is to watch the video lesson for the next topic to be studied and take notes.
• Class time is reserved for student questions, guided practice, or group activities designed to help students more deeply understand the math they are learning.
• Because the instructor is not tied up with lecture, he/she can assist students in mastering content.
• This arrangement "flips" the traditional model by assigning lectures as homework and doing practice exercises in class.

I am excited about implementing this model in my Math 20-1 class but I am also nervous. How will the students react to this new way of running my Math class? How will parents react? Will "flipped" classroom work or will it fail?

Luckily, I have the full support of my administration. My fellow Math dept. colleagues are curious to see how this method works. They are intrigued. However, they are willing to let me be the guinea pig. None of them are joining me in "flipping" their math class.

Stay tuned. I will be blogging about my journey in "flipping" my math classroom.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

How to Have Students E-Mail Assignments to Folder in Box.net

Thanks to Wes Fryer @wfryer for tweeting out that students can e-mail assignments to folders in box.net. This feature will make a lot of teachers lives easier.

Here is how it works:
1. Sign up for an account on Box.net.
2. Create a folder in Box.net that you want your students to e-mail there assignments to.

3. Find the folder you want your students to e-mail their assignment to. You now need to open the "Options" menu. This is located to the right of the word "Share" which is located to the right of the folder.

4. Select "Upload to This Folder" and then in the sub menu select "Email Files to this Folder"


A window then opens that gives you an e-mail address to use to e-mail files to that folder. Share this e-mail address with your students and they can then e-mail you their assignments.

Online Tutorial and Collaboration

Recently I came across an awesome site called BigMarker. It is a lot like Elluminate but it is FREE. You can create a virtual room, upload files to share and view with others. View each other using your webcam. Share your desktop. And the best part of all for me, write on the screen. Being a high school Math teacher I need to be able to write when I discuss problems with my students.

After finding BigMarker and playing around with it, I had an idea. It is the end of the semester for my students and they are beginning to prepare for final exams. I can help answer my students questions while they are at school but when they go home they are really on their own.

So, I created an "Online Tutorial and Collaboration Room" for my students. I will be online in the room in the evening to help them with any questions they have and students can also enter the room and help each other.

I am really excited about the possibilities for this virtual room. I hope my students are as excited when I tell them about it tomorrow!!!

A Picture a Week for 52 Weeks

So, I have decided to take the plung. I am going to try to document every week of the year of 2011 in pictures. (Yeah I know I am starting a couple of weeks late!!) I tried to do a picture a day last year but that just did not work. I missed a few days then just stopped doing it. So, I am going to try to do a picture per week this year.

AI few different people tweeted out a blogposting of themes for each week. Here is the list. I am going to try to use these themes as my starting point each week.

Here is one of the better pictures that I took last year while in Denver for the ISTE conference.