Written by What an amazing day! There were so many highlights and new avenues to explore. Once I get through repord card comment writing, I’m itching to start on the new aspects of my action plan . Here are a few things that really stood out for me today:
-I had a great discussion with the Flipped Classroom group. It was pretty cool to see Padlet used as a way to record minutes. More importantly, some key issues arose that really spoke to me. I’ve listed a few here:
- How often should flipped classroom lessons be released?
- What should be done about students who didn’t see the video being discussed?
- Are there other ways to flip a classroom that don’t involve videos?
-I’m really excited to use memarden to gamify French vocabulary and grammar learning. I love how it can be customised to each lesson and used in multiple ways. I’m hoping that the young boys at my school will find it engaging and useful. My biggest concern is implementation and how I’m going to get enough iPads. Perhaps I’ll just have a few iPads in the class and it will be a reward or a station. Alternatively, I’ll make the games match the vocabulary videos that I assign and the kids will play them at home. I’ve given the founder Ramesh my contact information and we’ll see how it goes.
-I chose to relocate to the large atrium for my Ed-venture with Sara Spencer who gave me a wonderful Youtube tutorial. She taught me a considerable amount about building my digital portfolio by starting multiple channels. Check out my Youtube channel Monsieur Gibson and the playlist Songs. It’s not much now but I’m hoping to increase it and start a few new playlists for each grade that I teach.
The lunch with the entrepreneurs was pretty exciting. It was great to see their passion and willingness to listen and answer questions about their product. Thank you very much Garth and Justin for making it happen. I can’t wait for the last session on April 25th!
Sandy,
this seems like a great, and well focussed action plan. Your three questions are great ways to help you focus your ideas.
How often should flipped classroom lessons be released?
— it really depends on what your purposes are. My strong recommendation is to make flipped videos that are NOT specific to a class or to a concept that is unique to a class. Try to make the videos very specific – but not directly to a student, but rather to a concept, OR make it general enough – so that it can be reused at a later time.
What should be done about students who didn’t see the video being discussed?
– This is an opportunity for differentiated instruction: get those students to watch the video in class, while you work with the other students to conference with them, or develop the subject/content/skill with more depth
Are there other ways to flip a classroom that don’t involve videos?
– Yes, of course there are – and it’s been around forever – it’s called reading ahead! 😉 I think that flipped learning is just a reinvigoration of getting students to learn on their own, then use class time as a way to explore, reinforce, support or challenge what they’ve learned. John Dewey was talking about this approach in the 1800s!
I hope these help, and I know that you and the other French Teachers have created a great support group here.
So happy you enjoyed the day, and found it valuable. (and I love the title of the post here!)
Hi Sandy,
I enjoyed reading your blog and sense that you are diving in and using some innovative teaching methods for the first time. The cohort members are an invaluable resource; both in terms of experience and out-of-the-box thinking.It is great to hear about the sharing that went on at MaRS.
Enjoy the experience!
Jan