On Friday, my classmates and I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) conference in Grand Rapids. I was impressed with the number of educators who participated and a bit overwhelmed at the number of sessions to choose from. I ended up attending three one-hour sessions: "Tips and Tricks for Organizing Your G-mail," "Flipping Your Math Classroom, Grades 7-12," and "Effective Strategies and Tools for the Differentiated Math Class." I had initially planned to attend a session about project-based learning, but it took a while to navigate the complicated set-up of the conference, and it was full by the time I arrived. At that point, I decided on the G-mail session that was next door. Each session provided some interesting information and sparked some ideas for my teaching practice.
The "Tips and Tricks for Organizing Your G-mail" session was not directly related to my teaching practice, but I did come away with some ideas about how to filter my e-mail as it comes in. When I am teaching full time, I plan to create a filter that sends all e-mails from parents into one folder, from students into another, and from administration into yet another. I did not know that you could create these filters just by knowing an e-mail extension or by using a few key words, and I think it will be helpful to have my inbox sort itself before I see it. My G-mail is already pretty organized with labels and stars, so this was the main take away from that session.
The "Flipping Your Math Classroom, Grades 7-12" session was probably my favorite of the three. I have been intrigued by the idea of flipping my math classroom ever since I first heard about it last semester, and this session provided another example of this model in use. I was interested to hear about the note sheets that the presenters require their students to complete as proof that they watch the videos at home. They also discussed how they use stations during class to address the fact that some students will not have watched them, some will have watched them but have a lot of questions about the material, and some will be ready to tackle application problems. Their description of this set-up had me thinking about how the flipped model can be a great tool for differentiating instruction. Finally, they provided a list of several tools for making and posting the videos, as well as using online quizzes as pre-assessments that the students complete after watching the videos the night before class.
The "Effective Strategies and Tools for the Differentiated Math Class" session was definitely interesting, but it was probably the least applicable to my own teaching practice. The presenter was from a school with very different demographics and teaching challenges than my field placement. As such, I felt that a lot of the strategies she discussed would be less effective in my classroom. For example, she uses a lot of online math games so that her students, who range from 2nd-grade to 9th-grade level in math, can all be working on something relevant. While the limited data that she shared with us seemed to support this strategy, I do not think that it would be appropriate in my classroom.
Overall, attending the conference was a solid educational experience for me. I think I would have gotten more out of it if I were deeper into my student teaching or already teaching full time. I sometimes find it difficult to think about how I could use these types of ideas in my own classroom when I am working within the constraints of my mentor teacher's set-up. I think that having more freedom to try different things and experiment with various activities and tools will open a lot of doors for me in the future. Perhaps I will get a chance to attend MACUL 2015 as a first year teacher!
Do you remember any of the tools that people mentioned for flipping their classroom?
ReplyDeleteOne of the challenges that I have discovered about the flipped classroom is that it is hard to get students to watch the videos. One of the people in the flipped classroom workshop that I attended mentioned a hosting website that kept track of who had watched the videos (or at least clicked 'play'), but I could not catch the name of it.
The presenter of the workshop taught a drafting/career-tech class. So, students were already working on computers. He was able to find some spare monitors and have the computers set up with dual displays. So, students who hadn't watched the videos at home could watch the video on their second screen while running CAD on the main monitor. That seems like a great idea, but I don't have the physical space or resources to do that in my placement.
I think that the flipped model has value, particularly for electives and particularly for seniors/juniors. Students could watch a video introducing Spanish vocabulary and grammar at home and then spend all of their class-time practicing with real human beings. Upperclassmen tend to make better use of their time, at least until the spring before graduation approaches. For younger students, I just don't think that the majority have discovered the common sense to do homework before coming to class. They're still just tall 8th graders: used to spending most of their time coloring and eating paste.
Let me know what other thoughts on the Flipped classroom or if you remember any of the specific tools that the presenters mentioned.
I need to work on my Gmail skills... right now it all just comes piling in willy nilly and I need to keep on top of it. In my mentor's classroom email communication is scarce but it's something I really want to build up when I start my own classroom, so I need to make sure I'm organized before I begin. I'll look into those filters but I might ask you for some more specific pointers.
ReplyDeleteI am so skeptical of classroom flipping, mostly for the reasons Nick mentioned above. I do think there are some contexts it could work in but my current one certainly isn't one of them. That said, the stations you describe are a really interesting model and they could be fantastic if the setting is right. I'll be interested to hear more if you venture further down this path!
It was really interesting to read about a Math teacher's point of view on the conference. One of the sessions that I attended, "Using Technology When Differentiating Instruction," actually focused mainly on Math and how to use apps and various websites like sumdog.com, tenmarks.com, quiz let.com etc., to differentiate instruction. I'm wondering if your flipped classroom session talked about this at all and if you think apps and websites would be feasible in your classroom or any flipped classroom. I guess I'm also just wondering if many other sessions talked about different apps and learning websites or whether it was just the ones I went to that were jammed packed full of them.
ReplyDeleteHey Erin!
ReplyDeleteI would love to learn more about the g-mail filters that you found out about during your first session. That sounds like a great time saver, and a great way to stay organized.
I'm also intrigued by the flipped classroom model. Due to the lack of technology in my placement classroom and the demographics of the city I'm teaching in right now, I know it wouldn't be possible, but I would love to create a flipped classroom experience in the future and see how it changes the students' understanding of the material. Did the speaker of the flipped session offer to send you guys the note sheet that he has the students fill out to show that they've watched the video? It would be great to see a copy of what that looks like. I have the some of the same concerns that Anne and Greg mentioned above, but I have been coming around to the idea of the benefits outweighing the hassle.
I also wanted to go to the differentiation session, but chose to go to the lightening talk session instead. Based on your time there, I believe I made the right choice, but I'm bummed that the differentiation session wasn't that helpful. Especially in math, I find differentiation to be one of the most difficult things to implement in my classroom, so I'm always looking for more information on how to enact it successfully. Let me know if you come across any good "differentiation in the math classroom" materials!
Erin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing about the sessions you attended at MACUL! As you already know, I also attended the session on differentiating math instruction. I agree that I don’t know if it was very relevant to my own practice. Even though I can understand what some of the challenges are that she faces in her school, I don’t know if I feel like some of the practices would be very appropriate in my setting either. I have used on-line math games, but I also think that the social element of talking about math with your peers is very important. It seems like finding the appropriate time to use the games is important to do.
That is great to hear that you found the flipped classroom session to be helpful! I’m interested in hearing more about it. I’m specifically interested in hearing about instances where it has been successfully implemented in high needs districts, but I would also love to hear more about your thoughts on how to use it to effectively differentiate instruction. I hadn't thought much before about how the flipped model allows for this.
Looks like you will be the girl to ask about organizing my gmail then when I have the time to do such a thing! While not necessarily education related that is a very practical bit of information to get from the conference.
ReplyDeleteI love how the flipped classroom also had aspects of differentiation built into it. However I wonder if the presence of a station for students who were not able to watch the video the night before would increase the likelihood of students opting to not watch them on purpose knowing that they could in class, was there a penalty for this behavior? I am so intrigued by the idea of flipping a science classroom because the application of science is what is so important and interesting, but I think that the school climate would have to be one that matched with those expectations.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you got a lot out of the session; no doubt you should shoot for going again as a first year teacher.
The Gmail filters will be HUGE for you. It's amazing how--as with any job I suppose--your inbox can paralyze you!. I think a great way to extend this would be to teach your students how to filter their own inboxes as managing email becomes a more necessary skill.
As for the "flipping" session, do you mind sending along one of those note sheets. I'm curious to know how the teacher set that up.
Thoughtful stuff, as always.