Challenging Assumptions: A Post Flipcon15 Reflection

John Armato // Flickr

The last few years of teaching has forced me to challenge normal assumptions about teaching and learning. I’ve done a great deal to test these assumptions, whether through my work on flipped learning and standards based grading. This year’s FlipCon showed me that there is still much work to be done.

The great Paul Andersen of Bozeman Science gave a wonderful keynote and workshop on the first day. I must digress for an interesting observation; Paul Andersen’s Blended Learning Cycles are similar to my Mastery Learning Cycles. At first, I thought I may have unconsciously borrowed from something I read or watched about his course. But I soon realized that we had similar inspiration. We were both inspired by the mastery flip class movement, as well as Ramsey Musallam’s criticism of mastery. Ramsey, another flipped educators, argued that inquiry should play a large role in science instruction; therefore, exploration should happen before direct instruction from video - hence the creation of flipped learning cycles. A second similarity between our models is the mandated small group or one-on-one discussions with students after the first year of experimenting with our flipped learning cycles. Both Paul and I experienced a disconnect from the learning of our students when we incorporated asynchronous learning in our respective courses. We both saw the need to fix our courses by putting us back into our courses. 

This is where Paul’s insights have helped me going forward. He advocated the use of design thinking in education. He bluntly, and correctly, argued that teachers need to accept responsibility for fixing issues in our courses. If the class is not working, it is most likely the teacher who is the issue. Just as Paul and I identified and responded to a major issue after year one of our flipped learning cycle, teachers need to redesign their courses to address problems. Whenever something is not working in my course in the future, I will remember Paul’ challenge to use design thinking to fix it.

Kate Baker and Lindsay Cole led an engaging discussion about grading practices during their presentation. It dovetailed with my presentation with Amanda Meyer about standard based grading. Both sessions touched on assumptions about grading practices. I was pleased to see that there is an appetite in the flipped learning community to rethink what we grade, how we grade and the purpose of grading. In the polls conducted by Lindsay and Kate, a majority of the teachers were in favor of flexible due dates and allowing students to redo work. Even though I consider myself progressive about grading, I am still trying to figure out how to discourage students from taking advantage of my willingness to make accommodations. Specifically, Aaron Sams raised the question of making students feel the sting of procrastination without contaminating the grade, which should reflect learning.

The final workshop I attended was also led by Lindsay Cole. She discussed the use of student generated content. She advocated letting students teach other students through the creation of content. Lindsay made an important distinction between student projects and content. Projects typically cover content already covered and are typically made for the benefit of the teacher to evaluate the learning. On the other hand, student generated content is generated for the purpose of teaching other classmates. Of course, projects are typically shared with classmates during presentations but student generated content is intended to actually teach or cover the content of the course. This topic is of great interest to me. Some of my students who strive for level 4 on some learning targets create similar projects that I use for remediation for other students. Lindsay’s presentation showed me that I haven’t pushed the envelope enough. Rather than relegating the student mastery artifacts to the remediation library, these projects can be the main vehicle for teaching the content. I do wonder if students, especially middle school ones, will be able to internalize the content while creating the projects and whether the audience will effectively learn the content. The final obstacle is Lindsay's structure seems more consistent with synchronous rather than asynchronous courses. However, I am encouraged by Paul Andersen’s challenge, I’ll have to redesign the course such that student generated content is a viable option - moving to synchronous learning for certain units and having student groups initially learn from learning cycles before teaching to other students are ideas that come to mind.

Looking Back on My Second Year of Asynchronous Learning

Due to specific issues in asynchronous learning last year, I started the year by scaffolding mastery. The scaffolding seemed to help students learn the organization of the course before attempting the challenge of asynchronous learning. This year, students were closer together at the end of the year, than in the previous year. While most students were successful, the students who lacked motivation and follow-through continued to struggle.

The most frequent piece of advice my students left for next year's students have to do with keeping up in an asynchronous class. To help students stay afloat, I will mandate cumulative exams. I hope the exams will act as deadlines without completely taking away independence, which many of my students valued. The added benefits of cumulative exams is preparation for final exams and it provides more data for me to evaluate student progress on learning targets.

I tried differentiating the final exam with three versions based on percent of the content covered: 90%, 97% and 100%. After some protests from students, I let students choose which final to take rather than mandating the version. The overwhelming majority opted for the most difficult exam and averaged a "B+." Unfortunately, the students who opted for the lower exams performed poorly, with only one student earning a respectable "B." Aside from a few marginal passes and the lone "B", the handful of students who opted for the less rigorous finals failed. I wonder if announcing there will be different finals altered the study ritual for struggling students. In addition, all but one of the struggling students worked from behind and used a lot of effort in the final weeks to play catch up, rather than prepare for the final. Another confounder is these students also failed other final exams.

Earlier in the year, I missed the synchronous discussions of past years like Socratic Seminars. Perhaps along the way, I got use to doing without them but I no longer see them as a great loss. If I'm being completely honest with myself, these discussions weren't as transformative and powerful as I know they are in some other courses. At this point, offloading these discussions to online forums in the engagement segment at the beginning of learning cycles, seem to be an appropriate decision.

I do, however, need to refocus on offering some synchronous activities like formative assessments to build a sense of community and maximize opportunities for students to collaborate and help peers. In an asynchronous class, group member choice is limited to the students working on the same step. Including more of these synchronous assessments and learning opportunities, students can collaborate with new group members.

The asynchronous debate is still the biggest source of concern and pride. In the exit surveys, many students cited the independence as their favorite part of the course, while roughly the same number cited it as the most challenging aspect of the course. Right now, I plan to continue running an asynchronous course, not only for reasons cited in previous blog posts but because so many students never have to opportunity to learn how to work independently, set priorities and manage their time. These skills are needed by adults but are infrequently developed in primary and secondary schools. I'll continue to fight the good fight...

Related articles

• Scaffolding Asynchronous Learning

Looking Back on my First Year of Standards Based Grading

The move to standards based grading solved many issues from last year. Conversations shifted away from percentages to learning. When a student struggled, we talked about specific learning targets rather than scores or whether an assignment was turned in or not. Equally as significant was the shift in my role. I wrote at the end of last year's reflection blog post, I felt like a study hall monitor, spending the bulk of my time checking off assignments. This year, I'm proud to report I spent most of my time answering questions, giving feedback and challenging students as they tried to convince me they understood learning targets. 

I had a better clue about what my students knew and did not know. I was better able to communicate the progress of each student and many students had a much clearer idea of what they needed to work on.  Admittedly, a number of my students shared they didn't pay attention to the "I can" statements. I believe a solution is to change the hot seat discussions; students will decide how they want to prove to me they understand an "I can" statement before gaining permission to take a summative quiz. 

The tracking system and grade book were clear and helpful. All activities were aligned to learning targets. In previous years, students argued they could learn without completing certain assignments - this was not as much a criticism this year. Even if some students did not pay attention to the "I can" statements, students were aware of what they needed to do and why they needed to complete certain assignments.

Most important was the buy-in of my students to revise and redo assignments. Many of my students appeared to have or develop a growth mindset regarding science class - or at least, this particular science class. Of course, some students didn't want to do quiz error forms and the obstacles I put in place for permissions to redo quizzes, but they all wanted the redos. 

Given that some students paid very little attention to the standards, it's no surprise that only a handful of students opted for mastery level on the standards. Some students shared reluctance in completing the projects because they were fearful of falling behind. Students also questioned my prohibition of using class time for these projects - a decision made to encourage students to move forward and not fall behind, which I am currently rethinking.

There are other tweaks that come to mind. I wonder if I should require students to earn a perfect score on the quizzes to earn proficient, instead of 80%. The argument makes sense. If students really understand the concept, they should be able to answer 5 out of 5 application level questions. This would require expanding my question bank and opening quiz attempts to five, instead of three. I would have to adjust my retake policy to account for the increased attempts. Alternatively, the most recent, not the highest, score on a summative assessment will stand. If a student retakes a quiz and earns a lower score, then that score will be used to evaluate the student. Again, if a student truly understands a concept, they should be able to pass a similar assessment a few days after a previous attempt. If they earn a lower score after a subsequent attempt, then arguably, the student did not really understand the learning target.

The most important adjustment I need to make is crafting the learning targets that span over several units. This year, I focused on the content standards specific to certain units. This was a decision of convenience. Unfortunately, the result was inconsistent and informal tracking and assessment of the important science process skills like organizing and analyzing data and using evidence to support claims. 

Even though I'm rethinking some of the finer details and execution of standards based grading, I have enough evidence that the model works. I look forward to a second year of standards based grading. 

Related articles

• The Urgent Need for Standards Based Grading
• Quarter One Reflections
• Looking Back on My First Full Year of Flipped Learning

Flipclass Resolutions in 2015

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I usually avoid making resolutions in my personal life because they rarely come to fruition. However, I followed my professional resolutions last year. They really catapulted my course and held me accountable. For that reason, I offer professional resolutions for 2015 below:

1. Continue to explore differentiated learning. In particular, offer alternative ways for students to acquire and process content.

2. Investigate project based learning in an asynchronous course.

3. Similar to number 2, enhance the role of data analysis and inquiry throughout the course. Even though all labs are student-designed and data-rich, I wish to incorporate these principles during non-lab opportunities. Some ways to accomplish this task is to increase the role of inquiry through case studies, assignments, POGILs, problem sets and projects. 

DIfferentiation is Good Teaching: A Review of "Differentiation From Planning to Practice"

After learning some frameworks and theories about differentiation from Carol Ann Tomlinson's “How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms", I yearned for more practical strategies. Rick Wormeli's “Differentiation From Planning to Practice" did not disappoint. Rather than summarizing the book, I'll list what I learned, both things I already do that are consistent with the research and things I want to do in order to be more consistent.


Helpful Research

1) Differentiated Processing: One piece that was new to me is differentiating processing activities. Currently, I use the same processing activities after a video lesson - practice quiz, guided notes, and posting and responding to online discussion forums. It's now clear to me that students process the material in different ways and ought to have options for processing the content. What I'll plan to do is give students more options of processing after a lesson - perhaps they can use their journals to choose from the following:

• summary paragraph
• Creative RAFT, poem or story 
• Complete or create a graphic organizer 
• Compare & contrast assignment 
• Frayer method 
• Play a game with a twist - like charades, pictionary, charades or taboo

The processing activities can be organized in think dots, cubing, think tac toe or choice boards. This approach could work with my current system because the processing activities can be seen as level 1 out of 4 in my standards based grading world.

2) Building background or give experience to get background: I already accomplish this through the exploration activities prior to lessons. Even if students don’t possess the optimal priming experiences, they will gain this experience through the exploration.

3) Priming- I prime student brains by offering guided notes, a list of the "I can statements” they will learn about, a unit overview and potential agenda for each lesson.

4) Primacy-Recency theory: we remember the first and last things we learned in a chunk of time. This means the first and last minutes of class are crucial. I have to do a better job designing warm up activities that engage students fully in content. I have to move away from the housekeeping activities at the beginning of class. The same thing can be said for exit tickets; they should be as closely related to content as possible. Housekeeping and non-content related metacognitive activities can be done at other times in the lesson.

5) Explore similarities & differences: Students learn more effectively when they are asked if asked about similarities and differences. This is consistent with the idea of schema and brains wanting to make connections between preexisting schemata. In some processing activities, I need to ask how things are examples or non-examples of a concept.  The tricky thing is the brain is ineffective at remembering distinctions if learned at the same time. If possible, I need to teach  similar ideas days apart.

6) Novelty: While it’s important to prime the brain, it’s also important to switch things up and break from the routine. Brains are effective at picking up contrast and important moments. I need to encourage more divergent thinking by asking for arguments against what they learned, describe concepts without using certain words, etc.

7) Memory: Middle school students are typically limited to memorizing 5 unrelated facts.

8) Socializing: I already structure my course to be as social as possible. Most assignments and tasks can be completed in groups or as individuals. Students can pick and choose to what extent they wish to be social and with whom.

What’s clear to me is the heart of differentiation is just good teaching research-based practices. Providing choice and alternative routines and assignments are also important but meeting the needs of all students has to start with solid pedagogy.

Related articles

• A Review of "How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms"
• Differentiated Grading: Fair Isn't Always Equal

The Sweet Sauce: Reflecting on "Flipped Learning - Gateway to Student Engagement"

I recently finished reading "Flipped Learning - Gateway to Student Engagement." This book chronicled the path several teachers took from Flip Class 101 to Flipped learning. Typically, teachers who go down the flipclass road start by assigning students to watch videos at home and complete traditional homework at school. Their next destination, often called the Second Iteration or flipped learning, can take on many forms, from mastery, to PBL, to UBD, to Explore Flip Apply or even to my model, Mastery Learning Cycles. The difference in these reiterations is the focus is on learning and how best to facilitate it.  

The "final" destination of each teacher varies based on teacher personality and philosophy, strengths and weakness, interests and preferences, as well the culture of the school and support from administration. The most salient conclusion from this book is there really are countless types of the "sweet sauce." To borrow an analogy presented in the last chapter, Prego became successful because, rather than trying to design the ONE spaghetti sauce preferred by most people, they departed from their competitors by creating varieties of sauces which turned out to be the best for a variety of people. Everyone has their own favorite flavor of spaghetti sauce, just as flipped teachers eventually adopt the model that works for them. 

So far, my sweet sauce seems to be a combination of Standards Based Grading and Mastery Learning Cycles. Students are assessed on how well they understand specific objectives and demonstrate important competencies, rather than merely being evaluated through points or averages. Students demonstrate mastery of these competencies by progressing through  modified 5E learning cycles at their own pace. The flipped videos are only used in one particular phase of the learning cycle to supply content knowledge and at other phases just to provide instructions for labs and other important procedures. This iteration will continue to evolve and hopefully closer approach my sweet sauce. 

The other useful application of the Prego analogy relates to student choice. Just as consumers are free to choose the spaghetti sauce they prefer, many of the flipped teachers highlighted in the book eventually provided choices to their students - choice in how they acquire content (My video? Another teacher's video? Textbook? Website? Simulation?) - how they processed or applied content (Lab? Problem set? Game?) - and how they demonstrated learning of the content (Quiz? Project? One on one chat?) 

The potential of flipped learning is indeed a gateway to student engagement. 

Beyond Flipclass - a Post Back to School Night Reflection

A couple of weeks ago, I presented the curriculum to parents at Back to School Night (presentation, here.) While many of the components of my presentation were similar to last year, one major difference stood out: I rarely mentioned the term "flipped class." I still operate a flipped class but it has become a footnote amongst all of the other things I do in my class. Flipped learning, while still a structural element in my course, is no longer the focus- it is merely a tool or means to an end. 

I recall Ramsey Musallam (@ramusallam) explaining that flipped learning is not a pedagogy and Jon Bergmann (@jonbergmann) saying that flipped learning is not all about the videos. While these statements were intuitive, I am only learning their true meaning now. Using flipped videos should not be something to boost about because it really is just a way to present content. While using flipped videos is an improvement above synchronous lectures, they are still basically lectures. However, using flipped videos does make class time available to do the things a teacher may want to do. For me, flipped learning is a way to differentiate the pace of the course. Students can learn concepts at their own pace, revisit and redo work, get help from peers and/or the teacher - all during class time. Students can now provide evidence of their learning in a standards based format. Students have more time to design and redesign experiments, collect and re-collect data, as well as analyze data while I'm present to help troubleshoot. Students can choose how to demonstrate mastery of content, "white board" explanations and decide when and how often to take quizzes. They can decide to what extent to complete specific activities and assignments. In short, I've found my way to move along the teacher vs student centered continuum.

The videos that students watch are merely a resource - they present content and explain lab instructions. They are just a vehicle to move toward a more student centered classroom. Just as a person wouldn't spend too much time explaining the type of airplane used to go on a honeymoon to Hawaii, I didn't feel the need to explain the specifics of the flipped videos used to open class time for more student engagement and ownership of learning. 

Introducing Mastery Learning Cycles to the World: a post FlipCon14 presentation reflection

I had the privilege to present at FlipCon14 about Mastery Learning Cycles (MLC.) I originally discussed MLC in a blog post last year, where I described it as a "mashup" of Mastery learning and Explore-Flip-Apply (EFA) models. In my mind, this hybrid solves the problem of allowing students to learn at their own pace and still promoting thoughtful inquiry through structured learning cycles, rather than a checklist of activities to plow through. The packed classroom and dozens of virtual attendees who watched the live presentation online probably affirm other teachers have interest in mastery and/or EFA (session notes.)

The Flipped Learning Network "flipped" the conference, which meant I had to assign pre-work. Since most veteran flipped teachers are familiar with mastery learning, I assigned a blog post about EFA written by Ramsey Musallam (@ramusallam) and asked teachers to create a learning cycle. The plan was to spend some time during the presentation to front-load this model and the rest of the session having teachers share their cycles. Even though lack of homework completion prevented execution of this plan, I was able to offer a resource for those who wanted to extend their learning after the session. 

The feedback in person and on twitter were positive - perhaps even more so than I expected. I think I did a nice job engaging the audience at the beginning with a karate belt tying activity that demonstrated the power of flipped learning and mastery learning. 

Tweeted by +TheAlgebros 

I also had some opportunities for teachers to talk to each other with discussion prompts. My slides were clear, text-light but image-heavy and did a good job outlining the strengths and limitations of the mastery and EFA models. It may have taken too much time to get through EFA and mastery but the front loading helped outline the strengths of MLC. Perhaps the strongest part of the presentation was sharing my particular learning cycles with student work. I spoke in detail about the simple inheritance MLC by demonstrating how each activity offered a rich learning experience for students. I also talked briefly about the evolution learning cycle just to demonstrate some variation, like labs at the beginning during the Explore phase and differentiation during the Apply phase. 

If I do the presentation again, I'll hope to have some examples of MLC in different disciplines and utilize more opportunities for interaction like polls and more frequent turn & talk prompts. I'll make sure to repeat comments and questions from the live audience for the virtual attendees. I also need to remember to share the link to the feedback form. 

Now that the presentation is over, I have the summer to revise some of my MLCs and look forward to other teachers adopting and sharing their MLCs. 

Related articles

• Mastery Learning Cycles: a Mash Up of Mastery Learning & Explore-Flip-Apply

Onto my Second Iteration of Flipped Learning: A Post FlipCon14 reflection

If my personal lessons learned from FlipCon13 were about the logistics of video making and setting up a flipped class, then this year's lessons were all about the "second iteration" (as Troy Crockum frequently mentions) or tweaks to my flipped class and connecting with the community of flipped educators.

Last year during FlipCon 13, so many flipped veterans said over and over again that flipped learning is not about the videos but it was a message that a baby flipper, like myself, could not internalize. But now that I have a YouTube library of good but not great videos and I'm primed to tackle more important questions of inquiry, project based learning, standards based grading, student blogging and 20 percent time, I really have internalized that mantra.

This year during FlipCon 14, I strategically selected sessions that would help me improve my second iteration of flipping. This meant that most sessions were part of the "Beyond Flip class" strand. Some of my thoughts and take-home lessons regarding a few sessions are below.

Keynote: "Living in Beta" with Molly Schroeder
This was a wonderful keynote that challenged me to further promote working in beta, or experimentation and revision in my class. Since I use a mastery model, I feel pretty confident that my students are usually working in beta. They're encouraged and even mandated to revise their work until proficiency. The real lesson I took away from Molly's session is that I need to be comfortable with allowing myself to work in beta. If companies like Google can fail with tons of unpolished products and still be seen as a successful company, then surely I can dare to fail as well.

Flipping DI with Lee Dewitt
This was a timely session for me since one of next year's goals is to differentiate instruction. The pre work and the session gave me some neat ideas about how to differentiate instruction. Although I'm happy with the Mastery Choice boards as my main vehicle to offer student choices, I can see the benefit of mixing things up. Perhaps some learning cycles will work best with choice boards, a 2-5-8 menu, a RAFT assignment, tiering or cubing. I'll play around with these options during the summer.
The most exciting thing I learned from Lee's session is how she scaffolds mastery in her course. My 8th graders struggled with staying on track and I'm hoping a better transition to self paced learning will minimize these issues.

Making the Grade with Jennifer Haze
This session was advertised primarily about standards based grading, although I learned some neat tricks about formative assessment as well. I really like her peer to peer techniques in formative assessment like "quiz, quiz, trade" and "find the matching answer." Adding these techniques to peer instruction will enhance the synchronous offerings in my asynchronous course.

Engaging videos with Jonathan Thomas-Palmer
My videos are serviceable and usually get good ratings in terms of learning. However, my videos are not particularly engaging. I do use the engaging design techniques Jonathan mentioned in his session, like changing the screen every few seconds, use transitions sparingly, purchase an external microphone or limit background light for the picture in picture feature. After the first few videos, I even included questions throughout the video to encourage students to pause and think. The most important thing Jonathan said that I needed to hear was that I need to enjoy myself in the videos, like I usually did during live direct instruction in the past. I'm too formal in my videos and need to make sure I'm having fun when I record the videos. I don't see videos as the most important aspect of my class and will most likely avoid redoing most on my videos; however, I will use that important piece of advice to make new videos.

Innovative Pedagogies with Julie Schell
I've been looking forward to Julie's presentation since I missed her during FlipCon 13. I already incorporate peer instruction into my class at least once per learning cycle. It has been successful and most students rated this strategy favorable, even more so than flipping. In this presentation, Julie explained and demonstrated how Just in Time Teaching and Peer Instruction work together. The Just in Time Teaching (JITT) technique requires students to answer two conceptual questions and submit one feedback question (e.g. what they found most difficult or what they still wonder about) regarding a concept they learned in a coverage assignment outside of class (e.g. flipped video or a reading.) The teacher reviews these responses prior to class and uses the responses to generate ConcepTests to be used for peer instruction. The hardest part about Peer Instruction is generating the higher order engaging questions. JITT can help me generate more of these questions.

In addition to these wonderful sessions, I met great people whom I already follow on twitter. What a wonderful community of welcoming educators. I look forward to further connecting and learning with my PLN and incorporating lessons learned from FlipCon14 into my class.

Related articles

• Flipping is really not about the videos: a post FlipCon13 reflection
• Flipped Learning Network Announces Program for 7th Annual Conference
• Flipped Learning Network Launches Interactive Online Program for FlipCon14

A Glimpse into the Future of #flipclass: a one year anniversary blog reflection

Flickr // Nubobo

This is the one year anniversary of Wilson's Flipped Lab, the blog where I reflect on my experiments, successes and failures in the flipped class. It's fitting that I originally started this blog exactly a year ago as a project during FlipCon 13 (explained here) because today is the first day of FlipCon 14. I'm happy to report 63 blog entries of my thoughts and experiences in this past year. I'm hopeful that other flipped teachers and those considering the flip have and will continue to learn from this chronicling. I'm unsure how many read this blog but it has been successful in it's intended purpose to help me reflect about my pedagogy. 

Many of my posts have been about the immediate past or immediate future. I'd like to take this opportunity to dream years into the future. These are the hopes for my courses. 

- Self directed passion-based learning: What if my students can pick and choose which topics to explore, projects and experiments to design, which content to curate and choose from in order to learn, and how to best represent their learning? What if students decided how to be assessed and what standards and levels to be evaluated by? 

- Authentic assignments and audiences: what if students were always engaged in an authentic learning experience to be shared with a global and authentic audience? What if their learning occurred as a necessary component of solving a real world problem that would help countless other people? What if students no longer have to ask, "why am I learning this?" What if the purpose of learning all of the skills and content of the course were self evident and inherently obvious to my students?

- Students learning from students: what if the primary learning materials were created and curated by students? What if students learned from and were held accountable by other students? 

These are the burning questions that I struggle with. In my current practice, I am far away from answering them. Yet, I see the seeds to answering them. Whether it is setting up an asynchronous course, curating alternative and optional learning opportunities and learning materials, aligning these materials to each course standard, or creating real world case studies and projects, I have a glimpse into a more student directed and centered education. I must have the courage and discipline to transform these wonderings into action. 

Related articles

• Looking Back on My First Full Year of Flipped Learning
• Flipclass Resolutions in the New Year: Week 15 reflections
• New Beginnings on Flipped Day
• The Results of a Semester of Flip Class

Teaching Screencasting Through Flipped Learning Cycles: a post Camtasia Workshop Reflection

Camtasia Studio 7.0.1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A colleague and I led a workshop on Screencasting through Camtasia. The premise of our workshop was to organize the full day workshop in a 5E Learning Cycle of Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate.

Engage: 
The purpose of this first segment was to generate interest in screen casting and demonstrate why participants should want to learn to use Camtasia. I handed out my son's karate belts and demonstrated how to tie them and asked participants to do the same. Immediately, the limitations of live direct instruction were obvious - different participants got lost at different spots. This introductory activity led to a nice discussion of how videos can be helpful when teaching concepts. Participants understood that sharing a video showing how to tie a karate belt would have been more helpful because participants would've been able to rewind, pause and rewatch at their own pace. 

Explore: 
The next phase demonstrated what can be done in screen casts and identify best practices for screen casting. I shared one of my first (and flawed) Camtasia screen casts with the group and tasked them to provide feedback (eg regarding clarity, color scheme and sound quality.) Participants submitted feedback and questions via a Google form and we used those responses to brainstorm a list of best practices, which included the need for contrast between text and background, keeping videos short and asking questions throughout the video, to name a few. We also briefly touched on some crucial pedagogical issues: how videos are part of a larger learning cycle, why you should avoid spending too much time perfecting the videos, the limitations of recorded lectures, etc.

Explain:
The Explain phase included direct instruction where we led a quick orientation and walk-through of Camtasia. Participants followed us in real time to record a short screen cast with the webcam enabled.

Elaborate:
The bulk of the workshop was the elaboration (or application) phase, where participants worked at their own pace to edit and/or create videos. We shared a Zip folder with editable Camtasia files, which all had a flaw that could be corrected with a specific skill, like trimming, annotations, zooming, etc. We shared a document outlining the task for each video along with a link to the TechSmith tutorial demonstrating that particular important skill. In addition, we also shared the link to the entire TechSmith library of tutorial videos.

Participants spent four hours spread out in different rooms working through the guided assignment and/or creating their own videos. 

Evaluate:  
We provided access to a Google Drive folder for participants to upload their videos or provide links in a Google document of their videos hosted elsewhere. We spent the last hour of the workshop showing the videos created by participants. We all commented on the videos and ended the session with final thoughts and participants provided feedback about the workshop via a Google Form.

Final thoughts: The feedback was unanimously and overwhelmingly positive! Participants appreciated how we framed the activities through a learning cycle and used screencasts to teach screencast creation. The powerful thing about our decision to use videos was that it allowed for participants to work at their own pace and to select what they wanted to learn, which only reinforced the strengths of screencasting in education. We've all been in technology workshops where the presenter elected to run a synchronous live tutorial: the advanced participants get frustrated waiting for the novice stragglers to catch up; and of course the moments when the presenter pauses to troubleshoot for the one or two folks with tech related problems. Leading the workshop only strengthened my resolve to continue developing my flipped course with elements of asynchronous learning and content organized into learning cycles. Hopefully, some of the participants were convinced by their experience in our workshop that flipped learning and screencasts can add wonderful elements to their courses.

Related articles

• Review: Camtasia Studio 8 raises the bar on interactive video creation
• Camtasia: Screencasting on the Mac with Style [Review]
• Camtasia 2.5 for Mac (Review)

Looking Back on My First Full Year of Flipped Learning

Wikipedia // Gary Bridgman

This year, I've organized my content into Mastery Learning Cycles, which is a flipped learning model that blends mastery with Explore-Flip-Apply. This is my attempt at reflecting on the most salient points of the school year.

Positives

No More Teacher in the Center: I'm no longer the center of attention and class time is reorganized for higher order tasks and independent and collaborative learning. Students took responsibility for their learning. They made choices about how to spend "homework" and "classwork" time. If they wanted to study or do a lab instead of watching a video or completing a problem set, they made the choice that worked best for them. If they wanted to leave a group because the dynamics or pacing didn't work, then they made those changes. One consequence that emerged was as the year progressed, students found ways to get their questions answered other than by asking me. Some students asked classmates and others did research. I have to admit to missing answering questions but I do love the student ownership of their learning.

Growth Mindset: The retaking of randomized quizzes and the mandatory redoing of labs and problem sets until perfection have helped create a growth and grit mindset. Students understood that their performance can swing significantly by the end of a class period. They no longer tended to freak out when things were not going their way. By the middle of the school year, students were sharing their disappointment on a quiz, informed me of what they need to do and then executed their plans. 

Achievement: The traditional indicators for student achievement were up this past year. Grade averages were higher than in past years while the number of academic notifications dropped. (More information to come.)

Research Based Pedagogy: I used more research based techniques. Aside from Mastery learning, which has been known to be effective for more than three decades, I also used learning cycles, Peer Instruction and more inquiry based labs.

Tweaks

Refining the Teacher's Role: Next year, I want to spend less time as a "study hall" monitor and more as a facilitator of learning. As students became more independent, I spent more of my time checking off assignments and recording scores. This interfered with spending quality one on one time with individuals. I rather spend more time conducting small group and peer instruction. 

Standards Based Grading: I want to move to Standards Based Learning (Grading.) The grade and grade book have to be more meaningful and provide more clarity. To that end, I will have fewer mandatory assignments and hope to give students more choices to demonstrate mastery of learning. 

One on One Talks: I want more one on one talks with students so that I have a better idea how to best serve each individual.  Perhaps I will require one on one talks before taking the first attempt on a quiz. During these talks, students can show me how to solve a problem in real time. These talks can also prevent students from rushing through content and taking quizzes before they're ready. Perhaps I can have some of these talks as part of the mastery task at the end of the learning cycle as well. 

Meaningful Quiz Attempts: To further prevent wasting quiz attempts, I'm also rethinking how to address redos. I may mandate quiz corrections and/or remediation after the first and/or second attempts. I have mixed feelings about the mandate, and may only mandate it for failing quizzes and/or for specific individuals. The idea of my changes is to hand over autonomy to my students - increasing mandates undermines this philosophy. In a similar vein to support students, perhaps on an individual basis, I'm considering notebook and iPad checks to help with organization. 

More Immediate Feedback: I most likely will add more step-by-step solutions to answer keys. This year, I only included partial keys because I wanted to make sure students completed the problem set. However, since more of these assignments will be optional, then it may be more useful to have some worked out answers and some with only answers. Again, this will allow for more instant feedback and give me more time to work with students, rather than checking steps of problems for all assignments. 

Meaningful Assignments: I also wish to include more interesting, memorable and meaningful assignments. By increasing choices, I may be able to generate more excitement about assignments. The use of choice boards as mastery checks will be helpful here as well. The projects I used were based on good ideas but their execution were highly flawed; I need to do some more learning about project based learning. 

Inquiry Focus: I want to include more inquiry labs and have DNA barcoding as the Science Night project. To allow for the time for both, I'll need to reevaluate the important topics and streamline the course to make these accommodations. I've identified some topics and learning cycles that are already taught in the high school biology course so I may make some learning cycles optional for students who finish the course before others. 

Final Thoughts
All in all, it was a solid year of some key changes. While student success indicators are higher than in past years, students had mixed responses about their feelings of the flipped model (a topic of a future blog post.) As expected with something drastically different, my execution was a bit uneven and I have a lot of room to grow. At the very least, this first year was a successful experiment in shifting the teacher outside of the center and making students more accountable for their learning; I expect to enjoy more success as I improve on the caliber of assignments, figure out some logistics and provide even more student choice. 

Related articles

• Mastery Learning Cycles: a Mash Up of Mastery Learning & Explore-Flip-Apply (wilsonsflippedlab.blogspot.com)
• Students taking Responsibility for their Learning in a Flipped Class (wilsonsflippedlab.blogspot.com)
• Reflections on my First Attempt at Flipped Learning (wilsonsflippedlab.blogspot.com)
• The Urgent Need for Standards Based Grading (wilsonsflippedlab.blogspot.com)
• The Results of a Semester of Flip Class (wilsonsflippedlab.blogspot.com)

The Results of a Semester of Flip Class

Now that a full semester is complete, I can judge the effectiveness of the change to flip class. The results confirm my perceptions of positive change. 

Results

1) Student achievement is up from previous years.

Quarter 4 of '12-'13 was first quarter of flipped class

2) Academic Notifications are progress reports sent home for struggling students. I have sent fewer academic notifications this year. 

 

3) The number of students averaging in the 90s has increased. 

4) There has been no change in the number of failing students

5) I have better relationships with students. I no longer have to manage behavior during content presentation; the most significant behavior issue I have to deal with now is making sure students are on task. More eighth graders have asked me for recommendations this year than in all the previous years combined. My job satisfaction has increased.

6) Since I have recuperated class time, there are more opportunities for project based learning. In previous years, I did not have any projects. This year, I had three projects in the first semester. 

Major adjustments from the first semester

1) I had a few horrendous workflow issues early in the first quarter. I required students to use multiple sources to acquire and keep track of work. After feedback from students, I streamlined this process. I created one assignment sheet with links to all handouts and assignments. 

At the beginning of this semester, I have done away with the tracking sheet since some students did not use it on a consistent basis. I opted to display the required weekly assignments in class; this information is also posted on the homepage of the website. This should greatly reduce any questions about expectations. 

2) The asynchronous nature of the course, made it difficult for students to work with different groups. In addition, it also diminished the community feel of each section. I started to use synchronous assignments to give students the opportunity to work as a class and with different individuals. Some synchronous activities are labs, Socratic Seminars, Peer Instruction and the projects. These have helped with both problems.

3) In the middle of quarter 1, I started to meet with individual students in class after failing a quiz. This helped me gauge their misunderstandings and suggest remedial activities. (Over the summer, I hope to increase my Library of remedial assignments.) I offered students an opportunity to retake part of the genetics exam, even though I did not have this plan. I allowed students to retake part of the exam if they submitted all outstanding work, retake any quizzes they did not receive perfect scores on, and submit test corrections. All but two students (out of 6 or 7) increased their test score in the retake. Even though they loathed the requirements, some told me that it helped them. Unfortunately, the two students who really would have benefited the most, did not take advantage of this opportunity. I'm unsure how to address this issue, other than explicitly including the offer in an Academic Notification. (I neglected to do this because I did not originally plan to allow students to do a retake.) 

Future adjustments in Semester 2:

1) More frequent check in times with students. Although, there are mandatory and optional check in assignments, I did not have an effective way to enforce them. I will be more diligent about checking in with students. This should help keep struggling students accountable (the tracking sheet did not work with struggling students because they typically ignored it.) This will also increase scores because some students neglected to show me assignments in previous quarters, even though they may have completed them. 

In general, I just need to hound kids more often. 

2) More optional assignments or components of assignments: I received some feedback that not all activities are required to understand some concepts. While I'm skeptical that all students can gauge what they need, I will be flexible with students who have demonstrated success. 

3) More engagement with my Personal Learning Network and resume weekly blog posts: in the first quarter I did not engage my PLN as often as during the summer. I regret missing consecutive Flip Class chats on Twitter. In December, I stopped posting weekly reflections to my blog. Even though some weeks are not note worthy, the habit forces me to reflect on successes and needed adjustments. I should at least draft a weekly reflection even if I choose not to post it to the blog. 

Institutional obstacles:

1) iPads are limited. 

• They don't reliably print. I'm not sure the nature of the issue. In semester one, I started to print copies of handouts but that caused a lot of waste. I will no longer print the handouts and will encourage students to use Notability and/or Google Drive. After a semester, 8th graders have a better handle on iPads.  
• These devices do not support Flash. I frequently use online simulations. It is unfortunate that students cannot use their devices for all work. It's hard to plan for laptop usage since the course is asynchronous.

2) Headphones: I should purchase a class set of headphones since some students neglect to bring headphones on a day they need to watch a video. In some instances, students are forced to watch the video in the hallway, which decreases my ability to hold them accountable. 

Conclusion: 
The first semester switch to the flipped class was a successful one. Students are performing better and my job satisfaction has improved. Even though there are still tweaks and improvements to be made, the outlook for this flipped class is positive!

Flipclass Resolutions in the New Year: Week 15 reflections

cyberscooty

I plan to make some changes, which could only occur at the beginning of the school year. However, in the sprit of the New Year, I have identified flipclass New Years Resolutions which will take place immediately. 

My Flipclass New Years Resolutions 

1) Flipclass chat and more general engagement on twitter and G+

Immediately following FlipCon 13, I lived on twitter by participating in the weekly flipclass chat and following #flipclass. Once the school year started, engagement with my PLN dropped tremendously. I've learned so much from my online peers and I'm resolved to continue this learning in 2014. 

2) Engage one on one, force the issue, especially those who are most resistant. 

The switch to flipclass has been mostly positive and I haven't experienced the great resistance I initially expected. However, I have not reached each student. A small minority have not internalized the mindset and skills required for success in the course. I pledge to take a more active role to engage the students who have not made the necessary adjustments. 

3) Alternative assessments like PBL and projects and incorporate SBG 

In this first full year of flipping, my focus is creating content and test banks to support asynchronous learning. It's a great first step but I expect the real benefits when students have greater autonomy in how they learn and are assessed. My long term goal is to develop a standards based rather than assessment based course. In the meanwhile, I can make the transition by offering some alternative options for learning and assessment. 

4) Analysis of flipclass efficacy 

It's self evident that teachers ought to evaluate their work and make adjustments. While I have received continuous student feedback about the course, videos and units, I haven't administered an exhaustive survey about flipclass, in general. 

5) Volunteer and apply for more presentations 

I learned tremendously from my PLN about flipclass. I consider myself newly baptized in this way. Excuse the analogy but I feel obliged to convert other teachers. To that end, I will volunteer to lead presentations to share these learnings. 

I hope these resolutions will not have the same fate as the customary  resolutions of loosing weight, spending less time at work or visiting the doctor more often. But rather, I hope these resolutions will transform my class into a model flipclass and motivate students to demand other teachers to consider changing their practices.