The Undiscovered Country

The school has moved. This ought to be interesting. Everything is new and shiny and I am hoping to keep it that way. My room looks so different from the place I taught for 12 1/2 years. The students and parents have been helping move in a lot of different parts of the building. The one area that has been off-limits so far has been the gym. That will be unveiled on the first day of school. I imagine there are going to be a lot of ooohhs and aaahhhs at that point. The first days is going to be so exciting but is going to be a major change for everyone.

I excited overall but probably most excited about the new way that I am going to be able to use technology in the building. We are going to have a cart of chromebooks for check out for the upper school and middle school classes. I can see myself using those just about every day in my 7th Grade History class. Now that the Internet will be much more available with a server that is actually designed to have bunches of kids using the internet at the same time (not like the old building) I am planning on developing much more for the wiki for each of my history classes. I am still trying to figure out how to invite the kids to become members and will tackle that this week. My plan is for each of them to have a page to put their projects stuff on and then have topics for each of the major areas we are covering. They then will be able to add stuff. I spent one day looking for different media to add to my 6th Grade (Western Civilization) and 7th Grade (Non-Western Culture Focusing on Asia and Africa) pages and added probably 25 videos and another 2050 links just to show the students how it is done. Hopefully I will even be able to have the students blog about what we covered in the class on a weekly basis on the main part of my webpage.

I have some work to do on math so I can finish putting lessons up on the first half of the book. That should not take me too long since I only have a bout 3 more to go. Hopefully the kids remembered how to do percents over the break.

Starting to prepare for my talk at ICE on Flipping my classroom. I borrowed the IPad from the school and have started to experiment with using the Educreations and ShowMe apps. Still trying to figure it out but will over time. My gift to myself this year was a document camera. I am planning on using that to show how to record lessons using that system. I figure it is probably more likely for someone to have access to a document camera or an IPad than a Mobi board. I have a lot to do to plan for this but it should really keep me on my toes for the next couple of months.

No matter what these next few weeks are going to be some of the most exciting in my career.

The End is Here

All that work I put in during the summer was worth it but I have had to start recording lessons again and posting them to YouTube. I started last week and plan to do a few lessons over the weekend so I can stay ahead of the students. We are moving on to percents and I have started to put together some of the graphics that I will need to keep going. It was definitely worth it and it seems to have helped quite a few students and even parents to understand the math more effectively. One thing that I am looking forward to this year is the semester exam. I am going to give back to the students copies of their tests from the six chapters we will have covered and let them know which videos they should review before the test. Hopefully this targeted review will be better than the one I normally do that covers all of the material. Since we are moving to a new building with better internet capabilities the students should be able to all watch at the same time different lessons.

Just today I found out that my proposal for the ICE conference has been accepted. I am going to be presenting on flipping a classroom by using wikis and videos. I have until the start of March to put something together and I hope that I will as interesting as the people who I have learned from at ICE before. I am hoping to borrow an IPad from the school so I can see how to use it to develop lessons through that format. Exciting times and busy times.

Parents Have Their Say

So we have had our Autumn set of Parent Teacher Conferences. For the most part they were the usual check in with parents that have great kids and just want to do what they feel is right by meeting with their kid's teacher. They all went well and even though they are a long 3 days (yes that is right, three days) it really is great meeting with the parents.

This year, whenever I had a chance, I pulled out the computer and showed off the website wiki. I let the parents know that there is so much stuff out there that I wanted to share but did not have time that the wiki is where they should send their kids who were looking for more. Whenever I am watching something easy on TV I search for interesting stuff to put on line. So far the most popular stuff are the Deadliest Warrior videos that I have embedded for the different chapters. Only a month and a half and I will have the students looking for this stuff since we will be in the new building and there will not be the dreaded "buffereing" problem. I am going to love that new building and I think the kids will really get a kick out of sharing stuff.

One thing that has been taking me a lot of time recently has been digitally recording the work of the students so we can add it to the site. I have been spending a lot of time scanning in material so I have a record and I already have pictures taken of the larger projects. It will take some time but I think it will be worth it to put the kids work on the site.

For math the overwhelming response for the parents was extremely positive. Just about everyone was really happy and most said their kids were watching the videos regularly. For some of the students I need to remind them that they should look over the material when they get home if they are stuck on the nights homework but for the most part the kids are using it as a first preview. I am wondering how much the kids will actually need a math book if they have this resource. One parent said I could practice a little more on the videos and have higher production values but even they were impressed with the amount of work. I am at 1900 views and counting. So they must be doing someone some good out there since that is a lot more than I would have expected for my students.

Some of the World Is Watching

So it has been a while since I updated my blog. Been kind of busy with grade reports and did not have much time. I will get better.

So I am chugging along and looking forward to meeting with parents to see what they think so far. I asked the students after the first quarter of the year was over what they thought. So far they have been positive especially since they have not been getting much homework other than watching a 5-10 minute video. Most of the students have been able to finish the homework in class which is great. I have spent about 5 minutes going over a couple of problems on the board and then I have just been rotating around and checking work for the rest of the class. I have been able to catch a lot of the mistakes right away and addressed them with the students. There are still a few students who need to finish it up at night and stilll students who make mistakes but I have had a a lot more time to work with students individually.

One of the coolest moments so far this year was when one of my students pointed out that one of the videos that is on my YouTube account has been viewed over 300 times. We have not even gotten to that video yet in my math class. I had no idea what they were talking so I pulled up the account. So far this year I have had over 1600 views on the different videos. Whoa. That I did not expect. I have a bunch of videos that we have not gotten to in class that already have 50 views. I don't know who is watching but I have enough views that YouTube e-mailed me to see if they could pay me to put ads on my videos. I said no, but still very cool. It reminded me that I need to get back into the habit of uploading more videos. It will feel great when I have made it through the book. The kids even had some suggestions of how to make the videos more interesting by adding problems with things like Storm Troopers.

Another reason to love YouTube. The view counter

I guess videos are not magic bullets. The results are in from the first test in math and they are not all that surprising. The students who I expected to struggle struggled and the students who I expected to do well did well.

So what did I learn from this:

Well the videos only work if you pay attention to them and watch them closely. Some of the students were more behind than I thought at the start of the year. And I need to work on building up the students enthusiasm for the subject.

So how am I going to fix this, well I have started a three pronged approach.

First, I had a pretty frank discussion with the students about my expectations for them watching the videos. After checking the counter on YouTube I mentioned to the students that it was pretty clear some of the students were not watching. Unfortunately that sets up a problem because the students who are most invested in the class and are probably doing the best are watching the videos and already understand how to follow the procedures. So I either bore those students by going over the material again in class or have to work with 4-5 students who did not have the time to watch a 5 minute video. So I think I am going to start including a problem at the end of each lesson that the students have to complete that follows the steps outlined in the lessons. My hope is that then they will immediately get some practice and at the same time will be more invested since there is an actual grade for handing in the completed problem.

The second part of the plan is to help the students figure out what they are doing incorrectly and fix it. So five of the students who were not happy with the test scores will get a chance to re-take their test. But they first have to write out what they did that was incorrect in each problem they made a mistake on and then figure out the correct answer. Hopefully this will allow the students to think more about what they did incorrectly and then they might do better the next time around. I do not really care how long it takes them as long as they figure it out in the end.

To increase their enthusiasm in math I am going to totally ditch the regular material at least once a week and work on a problem that does not have a nice easy solution with a clear set of steps to follow. This week the students tried to figure out if they could run one lap around the athletic field at a faster pace than the marathoner who just set the record pace could run 26.2 miles. They could not but they had a pretty good time trying it out. We then had a really productive discussion on how to solve the problem.

So that is my plan moving forward in math. In history I need to get back to looking for material for the wiki to add. I could get lost with all the stuff out there but will eventually start to get the kids involved in it. At least when the kids handed their projects in to me this week I was able to take pictures so I can add them to the wiki for the class.

Judgement Day

Well it is here. The first test day in math class. I am going to be really interested in how this turns out. Hopefully all of the work and prep will be worth it. The kids started the test today but this first one always takes some extra time because it deals with decimal multiplication and division. One of the main things that I wanted to focus on this year with this group of students is computation. Overall it is a relative weakness for the class and I have worked to make it a habit in the class to show their work. They are already tired of one of the phrases that I use all year long: "Paper is cheap." I am going to ask them to rate how helpful the videos were and any advice they could give me to utilize them effectively. I am also going to honestly ask them what is the best way they think I could make sure that students watch the videos on the night that they are assigned so they can be prepared for class the next day.

In history, I am still in the starting blocks for selectively flipping the class. I am collecting videos and sources a bit at a time and putting them on my Wikis. The Non-Western Culture class that I teach 7th Graders in has been going very well but we have not had enough time in the computer lab to explore material yet. The students are working in groups to develop maps of Asia. They are using drywall paste on plywood and they have been really excited about the process. This is the last week we are working on it and they are finishing up painting the different regions and including other geographic forms like rivers. I felt it was important that they understand the impact of geography of the regions before we started on their culture and history. Also the first three chapters from the book do a survey of the geography of the regions so the project works well to build on that understanding. Once they are done with the project we are going to spend much more time collecting and sharing the resources out there with each other and the world.

First Parent Feedback

We had Miniature School and I talked and talked about the classes with all the parents. Since most of the students I had last year many of the parents already know the drill about how I have a website (http://www.roycemoreschool.org/teacher/montgomery/index.html) and try to put the information out there about my classes really clearly. So I was able to spend a lot of the time talking about the changes I made this year.

For my history classes, I emphasized the wiki for each class. I showed how it was set up and some of the things that I had uploaded to it so far. The parents seemed interested and pretty supportive. One thing I can not wait for is when our school moves to the new building in a couple of months. We then should have much more reliable web access and laptop carts for classes. I do not think that the parents quite got that I am expecting their kids to contribute to this page. I am going to start with the Seventh Graders and work with them first. I have had them the longest and know them pretty well. That class focuses on Non-Western Culture and I am finding lots of resources to start us off well.

The overall feed back from the math parents was positive. They appreciated the work that I put and said that there students are watching the videos that I have made at my YouTube account (andymoteach). They seemed pretty impressed that I had spent so much time preparing and that I have the first third of the year done and on-line. One thing that was a little bit irritating but helpful was the only criticism that I got. A parent commented to me that I could be more clear when I spoke during the videos. The frustrating part was that this was the parent who I asked to critique the videos after I did my first few. She said that she would but did not get back to me. Oh well, we all have busy lives but I just wish I had gotten her feedback. A couple of parents even said that they learned stuff from my videos where I was teaching math the traditional way with example after example. I really have been emphasizing that most nights the students may have a little homework and also a video or two to watch. I need buy in from the parents so that their kids are on top of this. The kids say it has been useful but I do not know yet how much they are getting out of it. Some are saying it is boring and others are saying it is just right. And I am pretty sure that some kids are not yet watching the videos regularly. I certainly am spending less time in class going over the material and that is allowing me to work more with the students that need the additional help. I am learning that this is a balancing act of how much work to assign and also a trust exercise on how much can I expect a bunch 13 year-olds to follow through when there is not a clear assessment after. For the students who need to the most work I am still trying to figure out how to have them pay the attention they need to. I might have them copy the problems down at so they can follow the steps more closely but I do not know. Their first quiz is on Tuesday so that should be interesting. I have a feeling that I am going to be meeting with a few of my students over lunch or after school the next couple of days.

Week One

My name is Andy Montgomery and this is my record of my attempt to start changing the way I teach by flipping my classroom.

My plan this year is to work towards flipping some of my classes regularly. I believe that this will allow me to do more interesting things during class instead of lecturing and managing to make sure that the students understood the lecture.

I teach in an independent, private school and am lucky enough to be able to try new things without having to ask too many people for permission. I teach four classes of history and one class of math. I have been teaching the same classes for most of the past thirteen years and while I always included new ideas and material I felt that this was the year I should really shake things up and get the students more involved.

I started this summer focusing on my math class and started to make my own series of videos that mimic Khan Academy. The main difference is that mine and clearly focusing on the lessons that we are covering through the textbook instead of having to pick and choose from Khan. I worked using a Mobi board and started to put lessons on a YouTube account (andymoteach if you are interested). It took quite a bit of my summer but I was able to create videos for a about a third of the way through the year. I will continue to build on this whenever I can. I planned on having the students watch the videos at home and do most of the work in class. As they got used to it and we got past the mundane process of decimal addition through division I hope to start to do more explorations in class and have the students watch the videos at home. I will keep you posted on how well this works and the adjustments I will have to make.

In my other classes I decided to start setting up wikis so I could post interesting material that supplements the textbook. My hope is that my students will soon start to scour the Web and find additional resources that we can then use to expand our understanding of the material.

So those are my goals and this is my record of what worked and what did not for the year. Hopefully others that follow down this path will avoid the many mistakes that I am sure to make and be able to feel like they have someone else out there that was as daunted by the challenge but bravely tried to do something different to help their students.