Final Reflections Post

My project goal was to create a lot of videos of lecture content to begin flipping my classroom.  While I created some videos, I didn't make as many as I thought I could.  This was mostly because it is time consuming and I needed to create an entire interactive Chemistry course.  I spent a lot of my 80% time trying to figure out how I wanted to teach Chemistry and how I would integrate technology and PBL.  Now, I'm finally getting to the "nuts and bolts".  Either way, my work this summer involved improving my learning environments for students by integrating technology and student project opportunities.  While I didn't achieve all of my goals, it's an ongoing process and I will continue to develop content throughout the semester.  I am determined to have a mostly flipped classroom for Chemistry and A&P by 2nd semester.  I would like the courses to be very interactive online for a variety of reasons. 

I was influenced through a variety of ways.  Hearing about flipped classrooms from our math department motivated my change.  Additionally, watching Bozeman science videos, I realized that I could create my own content that way.  He's more interesting, but I'm sure I'll get there.  I didn't really receive any feedback from peers, but it's probably because I couldn't attend classes and was a little late in the game.  Overall, I'm excited about my project and its continuation.  Learning how to make the screencasts and sitting down with the Showme app made me feel a lot more confident about creating these videos.  That was my major setback, but it was easy to overcome.

I'm hoping to hear feedback from students about their learning.  A lot of students gave positive feedback about math teachers that flipped their classroom.  I hope students are motivated to learn this way and actually watch the videos.  I plan to give Quia quizzes (which I mostly copied from other teachers using similar content...so helpful!) after video topics.  I won't count them as quizzes, but more as warmups for class.  I will also be creating pre and post assessments for every subunit. 

If I were to start over, I would get going sooner.  However, I took so many classes this summer that I simply didn't have time to start the Summer Institute work sooner.  Also, the classes I was taking were shaping my own class content, flow, and presentation.

I won't really know if what they are learning now is better than before.  I know it is different and will be new, but I don't have any way to compare considering I wasn't teaching Chemistry last year.  For A&P, I can compare last year and 1st semester to 2nd semester.  My changes will really need to unfold during the year, because my main concern was getting Chemistry solid.  Here is a link to the Chemistry wiki that I have invested most of my time into.  You can also look at my other wikis on the left hand side.

Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership: School, school, more school...and now I return to school

In terms of engaging in professional growth, I've spent most of my summer taking classes.  I've taken an intensive lab safety course to improve our science lab safety at MSHS.  I've "brushed up" on college level Chemistry to improve my level of instruction to students, better preparing them for their future.  I've played around on some Coursera courses (but didn't complete them from lack of time).  I've also been involved in the Summer Institute.  Though I wish I could've attended more classes, I feel that I accomplished a lot.

In addition to classes, I've been collaborating some lessons with a fellow Chemistry teacher in Michigan.  She has a wonderful implementation of technology and we are hoping to create some projects together.  For years, she has created annual safety videos at the end of the year to show her up and coming students.  I've always enjoyed showing her videos but am hoping to have my students develop the same, and we can share our content.  I look forward to other great collaborations, as well.

Learning to use Showme was a big step in my own professional development, but it was so simple.  This is a curriculum video that I created on Temperature scales:

Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity: Opportunities for PBL

I've really struggled to integrate project-based learning, while still maintaining the accountability of a standards-based class. There just isn't enough time to ensure that students are effectively learning what they need to know for college, while allowing them to explore and apply their learning to life's problems.  I feel that I have merged the standards-based and project-based this year by implementing semester long projects in my A&P and Chemistry courses. 

I had a great time with some semester, student driven, projects in Environmental Science.  Students were able to choose a way to impact the community involving Environmental Science.  This was a bit to open-ended the first semester, and students struggled to stay on task and on schedule.  During the second semester, with a smaller class, we were able to develop a project as a class.  Students chose to work in Bloggett Open Space with the Rocky Mountain Field Institute.  They blogged about it and loved the experience.  But, the expectation of outcome in Environmental Science is different from that of Chemistry or A&P.  Environmental Science is a course designed to get students thinking about science in their world.  Chemistry and A&P are designed to prepare students for college level work.  So, developing projects for these courses, while challenging student intellect, was a struggle.

Recently, however, I discovered some great curriculum put out by NSTA.  Forensics in Chemistry takes students through a semester long exploration of a murder scene.  They use concepts from regular chemistry and apply them with inquiry skills to test and explore the unanswered questions of the case.  Diagnosis for Classroom Success for A&P takes students through clinical applications of A&P content.  I'm excited to implement both of these this year as semester long projects to compliment my classes, merging project based learning with standards-based learning.  Students will use a variety of technology to communicate their findings and collaborate with each other. 

The video I am posting for this is actually part of my summer project, creating content/lecture videos for students.

Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility: Keeping work in school

The greatest lack of digital citizenship and responsibility that I found in my class was with homework assignments.  Pretty regularly, I received homework that appeared copied from another student.  Many times, the copying was obvious but sometimes, the copying was discrete.  Regardless, it's unacceptable.  So, I have chosen to develop lecture videos for a flipped classroom environment.  Not only does this allow me a greater understanding of student achievement, but it also allows me to control academic dishonesty.  Additionally, working on practice problems, while in class, rather than lecture, notes, etc. gives less time for students to become distracted on their devices.

I've decided to use a combination of ShowMe, Explain Everything, and the Screencast-o-matic.  I think that each app has its benefits depending on the type of instruction I am providing.  Below is a ShowMe video that students will use during the first week of classes to review scientific notation and percent error.

Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments: Building a wiki...again.

I've spent a lot of my time working on how to use technology in a Chemistry class.  I'm accepting that I still don't have all of the answers, but I have a start.  In three years of using iPads, I've taught different curriculum each year, and I feel like I haven't had the time to perfect and improve upon my class.  While I reapply the things I'm already using, it's difficult to find the time to improve when I'm busy fixing new curriculum and disposing of a chemical mess.

I spent a lot of time investigating the textbook that I would like to use.  CK-12 has really improved its textbook materials for upper level sciences, but I think I will be using a traditional book this year.  I made this decision based upon my personal iPad and electronic textbook use.  My curriculum, assignments and quizzes are online and I find it difficult to switch from one to the next, while staying focused.  For students that feel differently, I do have an online version available.  I think the hard copy book is easier to navigate with other stuff.  I was not tied to a textbook in Physical Science or Environmental Science, but I feel these sciences have a little more freedom and less pressure for future expectations.

I have mostly set up my wiki to have my Chemistry curriculum online.  I've also posted district Chemistry EL's which were never on the MSSD website.  I want to begin creating my notes slides and recording lectures for homework, so that students can work on problems or labs during class time.  I would also like to learn more about how the math classes are using iPads to better serve my students in their Chemistry problems.

Overall, I'm concerned that my use of technology in Chemistry is not as creative as it was in my other courses.  I'm struggling the find a balance of time between having students ready for college Chemistry courses and integrating technology.  I have learned a lot about how technology is currently used in college science courses, but it isn't in exciting or creative ways.  It is mostly in procedural ways involving formatting lab reports and handing in basic assignments.

Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: My baby steps towards the "big picture"

To be quite honest, I'm behind in class because I bit off more than I could chew this summer.  I've been taking a lot of courses to further my own abilities to teach content that is relevant and rigorous and to maintain a safe laboratory.  I've tapped into a lot of online PD resources that are free and also costly to achieve these goals.  Now that I'm at the tail end of my own learning, I'm ready to recap the process and put it all together.

Through taking these courses, I've been able to further evaluate how I want my own classes taught.  Chemistry and A&P are both meant to be preparatory courses for college.  While these college courses involve a lot of memorization and math practice, I'd like to compliment that learning with some inquiry.  NSTA has a few great resources that I'm using, incorporating forensics and clinical applications into both courses.  Additionally, I've been evaluating my own online learning and have found resources that better shape my own understanding.  Filling in personal gaps, I've run into many helpful websites and ideas to aid student learning.

From taking my own classes, I feel that I have found a great balance between learning content and applying content.  I've decided to use CK-12 for a textbook in my classes.  They have vastly improved their content for upper level science courses.  I will also use my wiki to post my own lecture videos and math problems (the only weakness with the CK-12 book and the newer Chemistry textbook in my classroom is the lack of math application in Chemistry).  I've essentially been investigating how I want everything to look, where I want my content to come from, and what content is most important to prepare future scientists.  I've completed these tasks through taking my own online courses and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.  I'm finally ready to move on and build my own online learning environment.

Goals 2013

Classroom Learning Environment Reflection

In middle school, my classroom was more student centered.  I've shifted to around 50/50, and I think this is an appropriate amount for teaching higher level science courses.  With a complete student centered environment, students are given the freedom to explore their interest within the course.  While this sounds fascinating and progressive, students lose important pieces of learning that they require for college preparation.  Additionally, students tend to waste a lot of classroom time.  Last year, I introduced a semester long project that was open ended within environmental science.  Although I had clear weekly objectives, students wasted a lot of time and lacked personal motivation and ingenuity to keep the project afloat.  The class had a lot of struggling students.  I think that student centered classes work best with students that are intrinsically motivated and perhaps higher achieving.  Perhaps I will introduce more opportunities for personal learning in my honors class.

I would say that my classes are mostly differentiated and otherwise whole class or individual.  Students are given options for how to take information and produce projects or assignments...for the most part.  I like to give options, but found that I had to require the use of technology more and more for upperclassmen, who were mostly resistant to integration.  I have shifted the overall design of my classroom, but I think that is more of a result of working with older students.  I do think my students would define my classroom similarly.

Moving On...

This year, in the Summer Institute, I want to develop more of my own video lectures for student use at home.  I would like to have a blended classroom to allow more time for hands-on learning at school.  Instead, I feel like I've been wasting time, assigning little homework and trying to cram lessons, hands-on learning, and review into one class.  Then, the remainder of the review goes home.  I want to assign the lectures for home and incorporate more experiences within class for questions and exploration. 

Learning Environments is my focus, as I move towards a blended learning environment, but I will need to use a lot of learning from the Digital Backpack, as well, to create quality videos for student learning.  Specifically, I want to use a Youtube channel to post videos and I would like to use screencast with video.  I will know that I am achieving my goals when I am able to do this smoothly.  I also want to work on learning some great ways to compliment student video viewing.  I'd like to hear from other teachers about if they do notes pages, etc. and how successful those notes pages have been.  I would also like to improve upon providing student feedback.  I'd like to hear about successful ways that teachers are providing feedback through the iPad...in a way that doesn't take a ton of time.

In terms of integration, I would say I hover around Modification and Redefinition.  I've been able to redefine tasks in some science classes with how students report achievement using video, pictures, Skitch, Dropbox, etc.  However, every lesson includes one modification task, at least...many other things are more around augmentation or substitution.  I don't think this is a problem, other than I would like to improve on how students receive classroom feedback and how students receive basic instruction.  My major goal, a blended learning environment, is really just substitution.