Skyping in School!

In my quest to include more writing in math, I've been trying to figure out a way to make it something fun...not an easy task.  Enter Todd Nesloney (@techninjatodd) and John Fritzky (@johnfritzky) and our tri-blog project.  I connected with these two on Twitter & was asked to do a quad-blog with them.  We were unsuccessful at finding a 4th person, so our quad-blog became a tri-blog.  The premis of our blogging will revolve around math (as we are all flipping our math classes to some extent).

Each week, one of our classes will be the "bloggers", where the students write blog posts.  We haven't totally worked out what the posts will be about...specific math content, what we're learning currently, reflections on how flipped math is going, etc. are all some ideas I've been thinking about.  The other 2 classes will be the "commenters".  They will read the blog posts and will then respond to them.  Our hope is that students not only think more critically about math (and are able to verbalize it), but also that they are more careful with their writing...after all, someone will be reading it.

This week the students got to "meet" each other via Skype.  The process of getting Skype to work in all of our buildings (mostly mine) was a bit of a process.  Luckily, my tech team came through with about 20 minutes to spare!  The whole day my students were asking questions and watching the clock.  A few of my kids were literally shaking with excitement.  Me?  I was more concerned about making a good impression & getting the tech to work!  Once the Skype calls came through, the kids did great.  They were asking some really good questions, and it did what we (the teachers) hoped it would do...got the kids excited about writing!

In all honesty, this activity was one of the coolest things I've ever done with a class, and I am very excited to see how it plays out this year.

Things are starting to click

This week we have been very interrupted by the MEAP test (our statewide assessment), so I feared that I wouldn't get into the rhythm that I so much desired for another few weeks...Luckily, I was dead wrong!  To give you perspective, I think I need to back up to the beginning of the week.

On Monday, the kids followed the same MO that they've been following since we started truly flipping (only a few weeks), and barely turned in their homework.  It is one thing if a student doesn't have access to a computer, but it's completely another if they just don't feel like doing the work.  By Monday I had students who hadn't turned in a single WSQ for unit 2 (and we had 3 days of in class to work on them).  After another excellent #flipclass chat on Monday night, I decided to send out progress reports.  So the next day I got everything in order, and everyone who wasn't through at least the first 3 WSQ's, practice problems and quizzes received one.  Students were not happy about it...parents were even less happy (thankfully most parents were unhappy with their kids, and not me).  The following 2 days of math were like a different class.  My students were on task (with a few exceptions), and most of the kids were caught up by Friday.  I also had a handful of students who, by the end of the week, were done with all the learning goals, so I got to try something I'd been wanting to try all year...student made videos!

My students finally realized why I'm asking them to write practice problems in their WSQ's...so they have something ready when they make their own videos.  Many of my studentes were in the hallway when they were making their videos, and one of our intervention specialists was eavesdropping as he walked back to his classroom.  He commented to me later, "They're really talking about math...their conversations are right on target!."

Below are a few pictures that show my students working during math.

Making student made videos on the iPad.

Sharing the iPod touch to complete their WSQ.

Creating a video together.

Teaching each other math during our discussions.

In addition to math starting to finally click, we also got a chance to Skype with two other 5th grade teachers.  I'll be creating an entirely separate post on that topic...but in short, it was one of the coolest things I ever done with a class.

Once we got through Monday, the week was full of wonderful thinking, learning, creating and talking about math!

That was chaotic...and pretty cool too!

This week was a week of firsts.  We had our first assessment, our first front-loaded inquiry project, our first chance at watching videos & completing WSQ's independently, and our first chance to quiz out of a learning goal to prove mastery.

Let's take these firsts one at a time:

This week my students took their first assessment of the year.  Last year (my first year of flipping), my class average on test 1 was a 90% (after the students had a chance to take the retest).  This year my class average was an 83% (no retest yet).  While this is not as high as last year, I also need to consider how my classes compare in their baseline scores.  Last year's class averaged a 206 on the NWEA MAP test.  This year's class averaged a 204.  Slightly lower, but not a significant amount.  What I'm finding is that so far this year's class is performing close (or slightly lower) than last year's class.  So what was different?  One major difference was that I didn't let the kids do any of the videos independently during the first unit (last year I did).  While I find this necessary, I do believe that had they had a chance to watch them independently they probably would have done better.  Secondly, these are different kids.  I always find it difficult to compare one group of kids to another when personalities can vary so much.

After their first test, we attempted our first inquiry project.  You can find more information about it here.  During the inquiry project I had a chance to walk around and look at the students misconceptions that they already have.  As I asked them question after question, it was clear (even to them) that they didn't know how to solve the problem correctly.  That being said, I did have one group that were definitely headed in the right direction.

Upon completion of our attempted inquiry, the students were then assigned the first video in unit 2.  This was the first time that they were able to watch the video & complete the WSQ on their own.  There are definitely some kinks to work through, but overall it went pretty well.  When they came to class the next day I found that most (definitely not all) students had done the work & were ready to have a discussion.  That's when I ran into the problem of there being only one of me & a lot of them that needed to talk.  We developed a sign up sheet & I got around as quickly as possible.  One thing I found that helped speed up the process was letting the first person read their summary completely, then having the rest answer the guiding questions that were supposed to be in the summary.  My student's summaries must include the following:

• Introduction sentence - what was the learning goal
• Vocabulary sentence(s) - in your own words, define the key vocabulary
• Main points (5-7 sentences) - answer the guiding questions (these are HOTS questions)
• Example - come up with your own example of a question that is like what we learned about

I'm not sure what I expected out of the discussions, but I was able to clear up some misconceptions as we talked (mostly confusion about perimeter and area).  

One thing I want to adjust next week is finding a better way to manage the quizzing procedure.  I spent a lot of time giving/checking quizzes for students because they wanted to move on to the next lesson.  What I found was that barely any of time was spent actually working through problems with kids, it was all talking with them about math.  I feel that was beneficial, but I still need to find a way to get around and check in on the kids as they're solving their practice problems.

I also am noticing a potential problem brewing.  I have a few students who have a lack of motivation to do anything at home.  This could be solved if they use their class time wisely because I'm not requiring a video every night.  However, they also are the students who accomplish very little during class.  With me doing mastery teaching, they are going to HAVE to take some responsibility in their work or they will not get very far.  I'd love some advice on that particular issue from anyone who has had the problem in the past.

After math that day (because we only had one day of that this week) I felt many things:  energized AND exhausted, excited AND frustrated...it's amazing how one person can feel so many emotions in the span of an hour!  Luckily it was much more energized and exciting than the latter."

Our final first of the week was the students being able to quiz out of certain learning goals.  As I mentioned in my post last week, I had the students take a pretest and mentioned that if they did well, they could potentially "quiz out" of certain learning goals (because they already know how to do them).  This week those students had a chance to take those quizzes, and many of them did, in fact, quiz out of certain aspects of the unit.  So as of now, I have 60 total students who are doing a variety of different things that span four of the five learning goals in our 2nd unit.  It is exciting to see the students excited about the fact that they can learn at their pace.  While this benefits everyone, I think this really benefits the "high" kids who (in my humble opinion) are often left to fend for themselves because they "already get it".  I could write an entire blog post on that topic, but this is not the time or place for me to get open up that particular can of worms!

That being said, the week was full of exciting, organized chaos...and I loved it!  

Whoa, that's crazy!

Last week we finished up the last video that went with our first unit.  At the end of each unit, my math series has a "practice test" that is given to help the students see exactly what types of questions will be on the regular test.  Similar to last year, I had kids all over the board when I scored them.  That is not unusual, as I'm looking for certain things when I grade their tests (for example, do they show their work, label their answers, etc.) that they may not know on the practice test, but surely know on the actual test.

I had roughly 15 students (of my 60) who scored 97% or better, so I gave them the option to just test Friday & get it done, rather than wait until Tuesday with the rest of the class.  They all chose that option (and they all did well).  Then they took a pre-test for the next unit.  I explained to them that if they showed on their pre-test that they knew how to do certain learning goals, then they wouldn't be expected to do the WSQ's for those goals (they could just take the quizzes & test out).  They just stared at me.

Finally one student spoke up & said, "So you're telling me that if we already know how to do something, we can just skip it & move ahead."

I said, "Yes, isn't it a waste of your time to sit here learning stuff you already know?"

His response, "Are you for real?"

My response, "Yes, I'm for real."

His response, "Whoa...that's crazy!"

So here's the thing...now I'm going to see whether all my thinking/pondering/rambling/musing this summer will pay off.  Is this going to work?  I don't know yet, I guess we'll find out this week, but if it does, then whoa...it would be totally crazy!

Attempting the WSQ

My plan for the beginning of the year has been simple...lots of hand holding.  I plan on having my students complete WSQ's to go along with all of our math videos.  I anticipated that it would be difficult, which is why we are doing pretty much everything as a group.  Up until now, we have watched the videos together, written summaries together and asked our questions together.  What I have found so far is that writing summaries about math is HARD!

The kids want to show a problem, and then show the solution.  That's not a summary (at least not in my book).  I have given the students some guidelines about what should be included in a complete summary.  They are as follows:

• 1 sentence that introduces the topic - This is definitely NOT difficult.  My videos always start out with our learning objectives, and all they have to do is restate it.
• 1-3 sentences explaining the vocabulary - Again, this isn't very difficult.  The only challenging part is that the students are being asked to explain the vocabulary in their own words, no copying straight from their notes.
• 5-10 sentences that explain the main points of the vides - This is VERY hard.  My advice to the kids is to try write it as if you're explaining it to a 4th grader (I have 5th graders).  They can use examples to help them explain themselves, but their explanation has to be more than just solving the problem.  I've recommended them using time order words to help them out.  First....Then..., etc.
• The final part of their summary is the students coming up with an example problem of their own. I want them to use these when they make student made videos in the future, but we're not there yet.

After chatting on Twitter with the infamous Crystal Kirch, she recommended that I use some guiding questions for the kids to answer in their summary, rather than it be a straight up open summary.  I like the idea (add it my ever expanding list of things to do), and I do think it will help give the kids some focus.  So I sat down this weekend to develop some guiding questions for my next unit.  I've got a grid below that breaks down how I'm going to assign things next unit, as well as the guiding questions I have.  Hopefully it helps, because right now the kids are floundering :(

I'd love some feedback on what you've been trying, and whether you've had success incorporating more deep thinking into math.

First Week Keepers - Goal Setting

One thing I worked on last year was helping the students develop goals, and then work towards them.  We often reflected on our blogs in regards to how the goals were coming along.  This year I found a really cute activity that connected goal setting to art (not one of my specialties).  Basically I had my students come up with 2 goals for the school year.  One had to be school related, one couldn't be school related. 

My goals were:

1) I hope to create more real world math application projects.

2) I hope to run at least 3 times a week (and not just when I'm training for something).

Then we drew a little picture of ourselves peeking over the goals.  They turned out totally cute, and I've somehow suckered my students into believing that I'm a good drawer (ha!).  

I got this idea for this (and the directions for the drawing piece) from an Art Projects For Kids blog.

First Week Keepers - Creating a Classroom Vision

As much as I love teaching, I tend to dread the first week of school.  I recognize and understand the need for all the team building that takes place, but I want to just jump right into the curriculum!  So this year I was on a mission to figure out how to start curriculum (sort of) but also include a lot of community building activities.  I'm happy to report that there were several activities I did with my 5th graders that I will definitely keep for upcoming years.  Full disclaimer...none of this has anything to do with flipclass, so if you want to tune out now, go ahead (I promise, no hard feelings).

Vision
At one of our back-to-school PD days the teachers participated in a vision making activity.  We're currently reworking our district vision, and they wanted our input (go figure).  As we were completing this activity, I thought about how I realize I have a vision for my classroom, but do my kids?  Why not complete the same activity (with some changes) with my class.  So here's how it went down:

First, I posted the question, "Why are we here?" on the board and had the students write their personal opinion on a sticky note.  I got a few giggles (and a few odd looks) when I told them to write what they think, not what they think I want to hear.  From there, they paired up with one other person & tried to combine their thoughts onto a new sticky note.  Then they paired up with another pair and combined their thoughts to a new sticky note (now a group of 4).  In the end, I had six different answers to the question I posed earlier.  The picture below shows what they came up with (their words, not mine).

That was all for Day 1...on Day 2, when the kids came into the classroom I had combined their six opinions into one, and I asked them if I managed to get everything in.  The following was on the board:

We are here to learn so we will be successful in life.  We want our learning to be fun and applicable to the real world.

Most students liked it, some weren't totally happy yet, so I asked them what they would change.  We then had a really good discussion about how we should put something in there about people learning differently, and how it's important that everyone gets a chance to learn.  I also had a few stuck on the desire to add something about sports.  I asked them to tell me more, and one talked about wanting to get an athletic scholarship, therefore he needs to do well in school...huh, I could've easily brushed his idea aside, but I'm glad I asked the follow up question.  So here's the final version of our classroom vision.

We are here to learn so we will be successful in life (college, sports, jobs).  We all learn differently, but we all CAN learn.

I thoroughly enjoyed this activity, and will continue to use it in future years.  And while this was pretty powerful for the kids to have a say in, it's going to be even more powerful when I reference it this year during our lessons.  Everything we do is going to connect back to this vision.  

After we finished the vision, I asked another question: "What can you do to help us accomplish our vision?"  Again, they did some independent thinking, and put their ideas on sticky notes.  Out of that activity came our class rules.  These are rules that the KIDS came up with, not me.  Now that's not to say these are the only rules we'll have this year, but I plan to let the kids realize it when we need to add a rule.  

I'm hoping that since I've done all this from the ground up, rather than the top down, I will see more buy in this year...let's hope so.

PS - I'm really glad that a few kids had #4 down, because I certainly like it ;)