Musings from a high school Teacher
I am Back!2/12/2014 Well that was a major blogging hiatus! :(
The end of my last semester saw so much activity that I just didn't have time. I have been thinking a lot about what my semester in Digital Media Arts was like, and what worked and what didn't. What worked:
What is not working:
All of this has been a great learning experience, and I am not done. I have so much further to go. I can't wait.
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Documentary complete!10/11/2013 Thanks to the efforts of four of my amazing students who opted to help document this process, and help edit the documentary. We are done! Excellent work ladies and gentleman! You can check it out here on my home page or on my youtube channel
Two weeks in review10/7/2013 I wish I would have had more time to blog as we went. I feel like I had so many great things to say but no time to sit down, as this was a full-on adventure. I did manage to jot down a few things here and there, so I will add them now, but know that Robyn and I had a blast. I think the kids had a rich experience, and as they edit, I get more and more excited to see the final products. I think I learned just as much as the students did.
Things started out a bit more in the traditional classroom realm, as Robyn was not yet familiar with flipping and we had content students needed to understand before embarking on a film adventure. What happened next is simply a testament to the power of observation. We noticed that the hands-on activities used to explain concepts (you will see them in the documentary of this process) provided deeper meaning than the stand and deliver moments of our "pre-teaching". Neither of us think we could have done this project without first pre-teaching some skills, but we both agree that we would do it a bit differently next time. This process was especially fun for me as I got to try out some exploratory ideas in a software-based course. I think it has given me a better idea of what works and what really doesn't. Let's hope I can transfer that to graphic arts and photo editing. I talked with Robyn the other day about what she saw in the process. We only had a couple of minutes as we were both busy organizing our weeks and an out-of-school video shoot, but here is what Robyn had to say: "Today we had a flipped classroom in our Drama / Media Arts. Kids were excited about scouting locations and securing shot lists. When they had a question, they asked one of us, excited to get an answer and then would leave to go and continue planning. To me, I felt happy. This is learning at its best. You are there to give guidance and massage an idea and add a little spice to their brilliance or concept that might need a bit more discussion. In a lecture class, they disengage. Even if I feel like the information is valuable, it seems there is only a certain amount of time that you can have a one way conversation, even if you feel like an expert. On the other hand, today felt invigorating as a teacher because they did have background which enabled the freedom to explore on their own. Where is the balance?" The last point seems to be something we continue to come back to. We keep talking about this project with others and that is the sticky point every time. How much information is enough information? I agree with less is more as do most teachers. The trick we have discovered is gauging when less is really too little. This is definitely an ongoing project for me and all of my wonderful colleagues who have been working with me on Flipping. Next chapter to follow. Documentary coming soon. It is being edited by students as we speak. Flipping Film and Media Arts9/25/2013 I am so very lucky that I have a colleague who is adventurous enough to take me and my crazy flipping ideas on. Robyn, you are one in a million! The two of us have embarked on a team teaching odyssey. We are flipping our classes and teaching a film unit to three separate classes, ranging from grade 9-12. We have taken the explore, flip, explain theory and applied it to a software driven course, and enmeshed it with a very interactive high energy drama course.
So far so good! I am currently editing my very unprofessional handheld documentary style recording of the first two days. I have since noticed that it looks like I do nothing as we only have video taken by me of Robyn. Oops! Fortunately, you can see my flipped pieces on this website under the Media arts tab. I just have to say I have a whole new respect for the brilliance that is Robyn Sheppard. We have what should be a college professor of film teaching high school drama. How can it get any better? The students have been a little shellshocked by the change of pace from a traditional learning environment. While reviewing the dailies, however, you can see that they are enjoying themselves and definitely learning. I think this is what it means to explore, then flip, and explain. I see how taking the procedure of film can be flipped. I am still working on how to make the procedure of editing more in line with our goal. The work continues... Working in the flipping fish bowl9/20/2013 image http://2048x.org/misc-wallpapers/29/funhumor-happy-goldfish-jumping-wallpaper-for-ipad-4.html It's often hard to reflect on your teaching practices when you feel under the microscope. I love that people are interested in flipping and I welcome the collaboration, as I feel a bit adrift in a sea by myself on this one. However, there is an aspect of expectation that comes with an open door policy. It is hard to try something new, not be sure how it is going, and have an audience of your peers waiting for the results to be positive. Or, maybe some are waiting for them to be a complete disaster, so that it can be said it doesn't work. I feel like I have hardly gotten my feet wet and already I am being asked to teach others how to do it. It's overwhelming and intimidating at times. At the same time, it's reassuring because it means I might be onto something here. I struggle with my ultimate goal, which is to use flip as the mechanism to spend more quality time with each and every student in the way that they need me, and to engage them in a way that remembers play and exploration. I have ultimately been forcing myself to go through this process by learning flipping and inquiry in a flipped classroom kind of way. Inquiry is coming more slowly, as I struggle with the chicken and egg that is teaching a software based course. In order to have effective play and exploration, you need to have some knowledge of the programs. It's incredibly intimidating to open a program and see this: I wouldn't even know where to begin playing if confronted with this, having no background knowledge. So this begs the question: How much previous knowledge is needed in order to have engaging successful exploration? I DON'T KNOW! This is my big question for the time being.
I am currently immersed in Flipping 2.0, which is further fuelling my fire of curiosity. It is so well put together, yet I have not found a section on flipping in the technology classroom. I know most flippers use the technology as a means of delivering the content for only in-time learning, but what if the technology is the learning? You would think that it is simple just to follow the principles of blended learning and explore/ flip/ explain, and you are set. And yet, here I sit on my Pro D day contemplating how on Earth do I make this work? Flipped classroom8/13/2013 I am gearing up for the year ahead and really evaluating what flipping means to me and how I can create a student-centered environment. I have tapped into great resources through my PLN and feel more supported in this journey than ever before.
I feel deeply that flipping, blended learning, and inquiry-based learning are going to revolutionize how I teach. I long for colleagues in my own school to share this adventure with. I am looking forward to our summer professional development days and sharing my more cohesive though ever evolving view of the flipped classroom, and hopefully getting some fresh ideas and cross curricular projects happening. I am just finishing up a video to try and quickly sing the praises of this pedagogical shift, to show my colleagues, and to hopefully explain and spark some conversation. I thank Ramsay Musallam for the keynote speech and some of the diagrams in my video that sparked this for me. You are an amazing educator. I am also so grateful for the conversation and encouragement of @c_durley, @a_mcsquared, & @ math_johnson. I can't wait to see how this ties in with resilience and the gender gap. Twitter overload8/6/2013 If I could follow every link on my Twitter feed I might come close to understanding the flipped classroom. I am in awe of the shear proliferation of some of my teacher colleagues around the world. It's humbling to say the least. I have started my flipped journey and have revamped my youtube channel. I plan to upload a few videos in the days to come and I only hope they have the effect that I think they will. The flipped mentality is an interesting one. I started looking at the flipped classroom 2 years ago, but I wasn't sold on the idea of delivering content by video, then working in class. I think part of my skeptisim was the fact that our school internet is unreliable and very slow, and not all of my students have access to technology at home. How could I hang my hat on using so much technology when the infrastructure just isn't there? We have had some changes over the last two years and I tried a unit of "flip" or what I thought was flip. Turns out I was just flipping out! That unit was a disaster! No one watched the videos. We ended up re-watching them in class and the activities that were to accompany this endeavour never really took off as we never had enough time. I was nearly ready to shelve flipping all together. CanFlip13 saved my flipping life! Moved!7/12/2013 To check archived blog posts follow this link as I have just moved sites :)
http://sd8learns.sd8.bc.ca/lorijones/ Lori JonesStriving to explore flip: explain in order to engage! Archives
September 2017
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