An open letter to the class of 2014 ap gov students

Thank you!  You were my first AP Government class with the iPads and the first to have the course for 27 weeks.  I came up with a pretty crazy idea the summer before you started the class to flip the class.  It was because of you that this little experiment went so very well!  You started the class with an open mind, you gave me incredibly helpful feedback, and you took ownership of your own learning.  It was because of this effort that I have evolved into the teacher that I am today.

Not only did you DOMINATE the AP exam in May, well above the national average with 25% of you receiving the top score of a 5, but the flipped class helped me build a stronger relationship with all of you than in any other year.  Normally, I would have been the one talking all block rarely listening to your thoughts and opinions.  However, last year, you were the ones talking and I simply got to listen. I loved our 10 minute Q/A at the start of the day where I could talk to everyone.  Your thoughts, insights, and questions deepened my understanding of our political system.  Your humor and wonderful personalities made the 27 weeks fly by!  I will always remember the heated Mock Congress debates, jokes at Saturday review session, and cleaning the courtyard/eating food.

I hope that experiencing a flipped classroom in high school will help you in college, as it seems many are going towards the flipped method.  However, I know you will succeed in all that you end up doing because of your humor, intelligence, curiosity, and hard work!  Thank you for all you have brought to my teaching career.  I can't believe what a different (and better) teacher I am because of your willingness to work through the first year of the flipped class!

Congratulations!!!!

Letting go...post AP Test

The AP Government test has come and gone!  Whew!  As any AP teachers knows, the post-test AP classroom is much less stressful!  However,  since I teach mostly juniors, this means I have a month to "fill" with economics (this course counts as their government/economics credit).

I use google presentations that are shared with all of the students to give an outline of what I want to cover including links to any resources that are necessary.  To be honest, this is usually a tough time to really get kids to engage.  They have worked hard for the last 24 weeks to prepare for the AP test and now they are basically ready to ease into summer break.

However, as we were covering cost benefits analysis yesterday (doesn't it just sound thrilling??), I asked students if they had any questions.  One young lady asked, "What is the stock market?"  Before I could answer, several students were chiming in with what they knew about the stock market.  We had a great class discussion including concepts such as stock, corporations, board of directors, NASDAQ, retirement accounts, etc.  The kids were tuned in and using their iPads to research questions that came up.  One of the kids suggested an App called Stock Wars, which as it turns out, many of them have played on their iPads.

Since it was near the end of the block, I asked the students to download the app (and downloaded it myself) to start the block with the next day.  I had good intentions to play with it last night and get it all figured out so that I could plan out a great lesson with it, but that didn't quite happen.  So, I went into class without a plan or an understanding of how to use this app.

I started the block by telling the kids to play with the app for ten minutes and asking those who have already used the app to raise their hands.  I had a little trouble getting logged in and so couldn't really monitor the room to help kids who were struggling.  But, a funny thing happened.  The kids who had used this app turned into the facilitators.  They were excited to help anyone (myself included) who was struggling with the app.  By the time I got logged in and ready, the kids were engaged in the app. The kids were shouting out what stock they were buying and how it was doing (the app operates in real time right with the various stock markets).

I am not a fly by the seat of my pants type of teacher, but this block really helped me see exactly what happened when I let go of control for a little bit and gave that control to the kids.  Since I told them I didn't know how to use the app, the kids took complete ownership of the room.  I hope to incorporate parts of this into my freshmen algebra class as well as next year's AP government class!

a plan is hatched!

I had the pleasure of carpooling with the one and only Stacey Schuh yesterday for a training in Clare. For those who don't know her, she is an Instructional Technology Consultant at the Jackson ISD.  She and I were talking about the disconnect that sometimes exists between consultants and teachers because of the difference between the ideal world of educational technology and life in the trenches with 34 freshmen in an algebra class (or really any other class).

So, in an effort to merge those two worlds, Stacey and I are going to pilot a co-written blog that will be shared via Twitter.  Stacey is going to first write a blog that explains an ideal version of technology in the classroom.  This might involve one specific tool or app or multiple apps.  The emphasis will not be on the tool itself, but how this technology will improve student-centered learning in a 1:1 environment.

I then, will implement this technology into one of my courses.  Right now I serve as the math coach, where I pull struggling students out of their math classes.  I also teach a Pre-AP class for freshmen and AP government.  After I have implemented the lesson, I will add to the blog how it went with my students and hopefully a summary of what the students thought about this particular lesson.

Finally, both of us will give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.  This way, we can create a repository of lessons that are instructional-tech and teacher approved!

If anyone wants to join in, let us know!

Something kinda cool happened yesterday

Yesterday was the first day back from break.  You know that type of day...everyone is still on break schedule and anything that was taught before break might as well have been taught last year.  In my current position, I pull struggling students out of their math classes to work with them in smaller groups on the same content.  Yesterday, we started our study of quadratics.  Our classes are pretty traditional in terms of flipping.  Kids watch videos at night and then come in and do problem sets during the day, though many of my students often watch the videos in class. 

Since the students were not assigned a video over break, I decided to introduce quadratics in a different way.  The Common Core is big on the idea of comparing and contrasting different function families.  So, we reviewed linear and exponential growth/decay functions.  Then, I put y=x^2 on the board and asked them to graph it on their graphing calculators (we use the desmos app).  Then I put y=5x^2 and asked them to graph that simultaneously.   Then, something a little crazy happened.  My students (even my first block sleepies!) were super curious.  "What if it was 100x^2?"  "What if it was -5x^2?"  And one of my favorites, "what if it was y=x^3?"  I allowed them to play for a while and within minutes, students were sharing patterns they had discovered.  "So, if it is an even exponent, it looks like a U or upside down U."  "If it is odd, it is kinda like an S."

This led into an interesting conversation about how quadratics are different than linear functions and even how solving them is different. 

Many people think the idea of the Common Core or even problem/project based learning has to be complicated and time-consuming for the teacher.  However, my experiences yesterday show just to the contrary.  Sometimes if you just start students down a path of exploration, they will take off and discover thing that are well beyond Algebra 1 material!  I had never seen this group of students so engaged and excited about math before.  I hope to continue this momentum through our next 9 weeks of quadratics study!

It's about the Journey...

It's been about two years since I started with the flipped classroom and the more I pull my hair out because it is not perfect yet, the more I realize it has been about the journey. 

• A from Sage on the Stage to facilitator of knowledge
•  A journey from learning from only those within my department to learning from people all across the world at any hour on any topic (Thanks Twitter!)
• A journey that includes weekly conversations with educational professionals across the world simply trying to improve student learning (looking at you #flipclass #miched)
• A journey from "sit and get" PD to an edcamp style PD of "choose your own learning adventure"
• A journey from thinking my videos would be the most important part of my Flipped Classroom, to realizing it's all about the relationships and student centered learning.
• A journey to realize it is ok for me as the teacher to say "I don't know, let's learn together."
• A journey to being really sad at the end of an AP government course because I feel like I am losing my "team of learners."
• A journey of being ok with failure from myself, my students, and our administration because failure is not an end, but a means to improvement.

Education is not a profession to get into if you must be perfect.  I always assumed that if I worked as hard as possible, I could achieve that perfection, when really, it's about the journey.

Day 1 of a flipped class: setting the tone

Student Centered from Day 1

I used to hate the first day of the semester as a student and now as a teacher.  I was always overwhelmed by the amount of information the teacher gave out and as a teacher, always felt like I set the tone of the class as boring!  So, with that in mind, here are a few ways I now start the first day.

• AP Government
• Video Syllabus (10 minutes): I show this to the students and ask them to take notes just like they would on a content video.  I tell them to tell me when to pause it and how they knew what to write down for their notes.  It is my way of teaching them how to watch a video.  I also show them how to download videos onto their iPads at this time using roadshow if need be.
• Sample problem-based learning assignments
• Homework is then the first video that shares information they can use to solve the in-class problem.  
• Tomorrow in class-we spend 10 minutes on a Q/A with the material, then delve into more problems to solve.
• Math
• Start with a problem-based assignment even if it is not perfectly aligned to that night's  videos
• Yummy Math-Should you go for it on 4th down?  Talk to students about using math to solve real-world problems.  
• Give students time in the group to work on the problem, walking around the room when needed.  Model good group behavior and thinking skills beyond just giving up.  Even if they cannot solve the problem, ask them what types of things they would need to learn how to do to solve this problem. 
• Ask students to record their  group's answer and report on something like Today's Meet 
• Explain that the nightly videos will help students learn the types of materials they will need to solve real world problems like that one as well as do well on tests.  Take time to download the first video with students on roadshow and watch in class while students take notes on Guided Notes.  Ask students to tell you when to pause the video.  Model what good video watching and note taking looks like.
• Start the next block with a warm-up that covers the material in the video.  I think here it is ok to be a little drill and kill, though if the warm-up is multiple choice, you could add in friendly controversy where students have to debate what the right answer is.  This is a good opportunity to check each student's notes.  Those who have completed the notes will have time to work on tonight's homework.  Or as my colleague Tyler Bartolacci does, these students get to go on a shape scavenger hunt around the school while I (the math coach) supervise those students who did not watch the video!
• Teaching the syllabus comes in as the need arises.  For example, talk about late work before the first homework is due or talk about test re-takes before the first test.      

Strips of paper entertained and educated my students for 50 minutes

I have to admit that I pride myself on being a technologically advanced teacher.  I try to incorporate technology into just about everything that I do.  The AP Government test is essentially a vocabulary test, so I have students create quizlet sets, we look at online current events to find vocabulary words, but I still find that students struggle with vocabulary comprehension.  I thought for a long time about how we could use our 1:1 Ipad technology to help with this comprehension, but couldn't come up with anything great.  So, I went old school!

I typed out a list of all of the important vocabulary words we have covered to date, cut them into strips and put them into envelopes for each table group.  Then, we played several games with these vocabulary words. My room was more alive and energetic than ever before.  Students were telling me this was one of the best activities we had done in class and it literally involved no technology at all!  Here are a few of the games variations that I used, feel free to add more!

1. One students from the group tries to describe the word and the others try to guess.  Groups compete to see how many words they can get through.
2. Two students have to describe the word to the others in their group but each student can only say one word at a time.
3. Students have to draw a  visual representation of the word for others to guess
4. students have to act out the representation of the word for others (this was not super successful, but it was fun!)