Odds & Ends Update

Wow - it has been a long time since I have written!  I have been very busy and trying to cut back on work so I can de-stress.  I also have a student teacher, which was at first very stressful, but now I am happy to have a bit more time on my hands.  Here is an update on the craziness of what I've been working on.

The Flipped Classroom
I have thoroughly enjoyed flipping my Honors Biology classes and am now teaching my student teacher the reasoning behind the flip.  She has totally embraced the student-centered classroom where they construct their knowledge and the teacher is a guide on their journey.  She is even making her own videos!  I am also so happy that some graduate students have emailed me about reading my blog for their Education classes.  It inspires me that future teachers also see the value in the flipped model and I want to help in any way that I can.

Technology
I am an active member of my school's technology committee where we are looking to go 1:1 (each student has a device) in the next two years.  I am trying very hard to secure funding (we are a private school) for a pilot program of Google Chromebooks in my classroom for next year.  Any advice on grants is greatly appreciated!! We also have a technology roundtable next week hosted by DyKnow where several area schools will brainstorm ideas surrounding going 1:1.  I will certainly report back what I gained from this discussion.

AP Biology
A huge chunk of my time recently has been spent wrapping my mind around the new AP Biology curriculum that begins next school year.  As I have written about before, I tried to flip my AP Bio class this year but the amount of content and the pace made it nearly impossible.  I still use constructivist thought and inquiry to inspire my lessons, but I would not consider it a "flip".  I am hopeful that I will at least get to a 50/50 or more flip with AP Bio next year.  It helps that I am getting (for the first time) my students that I taught Honors Biology to last year - I know they should have the prerequisite knowledge!

YouTube
Some of you may have noticed that I had to remove all of my videos from my YouTube channel, EaglesBiology.  Last week, several teachers, including myself, received notices from Pearson that we were violating copyright laws by posting their images in our videos.  I am appealing this decision as we speak and I hope to get the videos back up soon!  Flippers beware - don't use textbook images :)

My Flipped Classroom, Part 2

It has been two months in my flipped classrooms and I think it is a good time to reflect on how this new perspective has impacted both my students and myself.  In this post, I will reflect upon AP Biology and in my next post I will share how Honors Biology is going and how I use portfolios to aid that particular flip.

The “flip” in Advanced Placement Biology suffered a bit of a hit about 3 weeks into school.  Looking back, however, it was the best thing to happen to me, though at the time I felt like the worst teacher in the world.  I was so gung-ho over the idea of the flipped classroom that I went nearly 100% with it right away.  The students were assigned chapters and videos to complete on their own at night in order to have time in class to do discussion and in-depth activities that applied their “already learned” knowledge.  While I thought students were spending an hour each night with the material, it turned out they were spending twice that and still felt unable to keep pace with the material (about 2 chapters/week).  Needless to say, they were extremely overwhelmed and not truly learning the material at all.  Fortunately, through much reflecting, I was able to adjust and now use the “flip” about 50% of the time.  I realize that there are concepts that do need direct instruction at this advanced level and pacing, and other concepts that can be assigned for review by the students (i.e. mitosis).  The students still watch videos and we still do in class discussions, but there are times where I “lecture”.  I put quotes around this term, because I no longer lecture in the traditional sense.  Through this new “flipped” model, my whole perspective on my role as the teacher has changed drastically.  Even though I am in front of the room, I by no means deliver the material to them.  Instead, I challenge them – ask probing questions, force them to make connections to previous chapters, and frequently group them during this “lecture” time to repeat important concepts to one another.  They cannot sit idly by as I drone on and on as I did in previous years.  This new perspective has added immense energy to this class and the students enjoy themselves.  It has also provided a bit more time for lab analysis – an important skill both for the AP test and for their college futures.  Most of all, though, the students have slowly taken charge of their learning because I have forced them to.  I am learning to challenge them without overwhelming them – a difficult balance to attain. 

How do I know that students are taking charge of their learning?  I have seen a huge increase in students emailing me with questions, coming in early, and staying late to get extra help.  I have also heard that many get together on weekends to study and do labs with one another.  I have somehow managed to get them to see that this is THEIR class and not MY class.  Additionally, I have hopefully made the classroom environment conducive to actually learning instead of just achieving high grades.  I am allowing quiz retakes and test corrections this year – something I never did in the past.  Now that the focus and responsibility is put on them, I feel it only right to give them the opportunity to correct their mistakes and learn from them.  A poor test grade does not help a student in any way.  But coming in early, going over their test with me, and then making corrections will hopefully increase their learning of those topics.

Some of you may be reading this (thanks for getting this far!) and thinking, “how is this “flipped” teaching any different than other good teaching methods?”  TAKE HOME MESSAGE FROM ME: IT’S NOT ANY DIFFERENT!!!!  I, personally, have become a better teacher because of my flip, but the flip is certainly not a prerequisite for great teaching.  There recently have been many naysayers on the flip (another post entirely), and one criticism is good teaching is still good teaching, so why should teachers go through the trouble of flipping their classrooms?  I agree!  For me, it was a perspective change – the flip was simply a vehicle that allowed me to put the learning back into the students’ hands and transform myself into their learning guide instead of their disseminator of information.

To sum it up, I finally feel like I am teaching the AP Biology that I want to teach instead of the class that the College Board tells me to teach.   The great Kim Foglia once told our listserve that students will learn best when we teach the class WE want to teach – as far as both material and methods.  AP Bio is the reason I got into science in high school and it is my favorite course to teach – now my students see and feel that passion through my videos, our discussions, and the manner in which I challenge them daily to “make connections” to the world around them.

The Nuts and Bolts of Flipping

What is flipping and how does one go about doing it?  First, let me tell you that it is never too late!  Students can adapt to most situations, so even if you did not start the year off with a flipped classroom, I truly believe you can make the transition at any time.  In fact, just last week a fabulous first-year teacher we hired over the summer came to me and asked for advice with her Honors Chemistry class.  She felt she was boring them and “noting” them to death with PowerPoints.  I told her she needed to have the courage to give up some of the material and let the students take on the responsibility of learning that material through small group work or other activities.  Literally, the next day she came back in my room with a huge smile and an excited attitude about the change in her perspective regarding that class.

At the bottom of this post is an infographic that has been making the rounds on Twitter – it does a great job explaining the flipped model.  It would also be great to share with skeptical colleagues, administration, and parents.

While I am going to share with you how I make my videos that my students watch on their own time, I want to emphasize that the flipped classroom is not just about the videos.  In fact, the videos are simply a means to an end.  The end goal is to get more class time (read: one-on-one time) with students to dig deeper into the material through activities, labs, and real-world problem solving.  Instead of delivering notes all day, I now have so much more time to pursue interesting and exciting adventures with my eager students.  I also have more time to assess each student’s understanding and give extra help where needed.

But, to many, the most daunting aspect of flipping IS making the videos.  My advice is to start small and use as much material that has already been produced by others as possible while you are still getting your feet wet.  Here is a list of the 25 best free online educational videos – definitely add Khan Academy to that list, too.  Personally, I have decided to make my own videos for my Honors Biology classes and use Paul Anderson’s videos for AP Biology.

I feel that most students will respond better and learn more from seeing and hearing their own teacher on the video they watch at night.  In the comments section of this article, there is interesting dialogue on this topic.  I would be very interested in reading further research on the validity of my “feeling”.

Paul Anderson actually made a YouTube video for teachers on how to make a screencast for your students – this helped me a lot!  Always remember to keep the viewer engaged with movement, writing, and interesting examples or stories to highlight your point.  If you don’t want your face on the video, you don’t have to – there are options out there with just voiceover.  In my most recent videos, I have decided to engage the student even more by assigning tasks during the video that we will then discuss in class the next day.  For example, they have to come up with their own analogy to the parts of the cell or they have to copy down a table I show in the video regarding plants vs. animal cells.  Hopefully, these assignments cause them to interact with the material in yet another manner besides reading and watching the video.

Like Paul Anderson, I use ScreenFlow for Mac, but this is an expensive option (I did the free trial before committing).  Other options include Camtasia, Screenium, Jing, CamStudio, and iShowU.  My videos are 10-15 minutes in length and include everything I want my students to know about that chapter (most chapters have 2 videos for them).  It is time consuming to prepare, record, and edit each screencast.  I pretty much set aside a total of 3 hours per screencast.  It takes about an hour to make the PowerPoint that I record over, then I’ll spend 15-20 minutes making notes about what exactly I want to say and when, then I usually only do one take of 10-15 minutes, and then editing takes about an hour (at least with ScreenFlow).  I feel the product is well worth it and will hopefully last me a few years before I decide to make new videos.

Catch-22 Of The Flip?

I just had the most interesting phone conversation with a parent.  First, let me say that a professional goal of mine this year is to call at least one parent a day.  On average, I have accomplished this goal and have been very happy with the results.  Today, I actually spoke with 8 parents – crazy, I know.

I was calling to let this particular parent know that her daughter can come in tomorrow morning to re-take a quiz that she did not do very well on.  I then asked how she thought “Suzie” was handling the material of AP Bio.  We both agree that she is understanding most of the material but is struggling with how to study on her own since so much of AP Bio is left for the student to undertake on their own (the book is 56 chapters long). 

Suzie reads the entire chapter, watches the videos, and takes great notes – just like I have asked every student to do this year in my flipped model so that during class we can do activities, labs, and critical thinking problems.  Then her mom said that as a parent, she is concerned that her daughter is at a disadvantage because in class I will spend all of my time catching up to speed those students who did not read or watch the videos (she did say this in the nicest and most concerned way).  I told her I appreciated her saying that (I actually said she had “balls” for saying that to me!!! We both laughed and she said she liked me for it – whew!). 

Anyway, I said that might be a valid concern for other teachers, but that I have already called the parents of the handful of students who are not keeping up with their end of the bargain.  I reiterated in no uncertain terms to those parents that their students must keep up or they will fall behind because I cannot take class time to cater to them.  Students must help themselves and do the homework before I can help.  Now, if a student has done the homework and is still struggling, then I absolutely will take class time to help them.  At that point, they at least know enough to know what they DON’T understand about a concept.

This is the catch-22 of the flipped model – what if students don’t watch the video and read the book?  What if they don’t come to class prepared?  This is a much bigger can of worms, I believe, that is related to students taking responsibility for their learning.  In my profile on this blog and on Twitter, I state that my interest is “in putting the learning back into the students’ hands”.  For so long, students have been spoon fed exactly what they need to know for standardized tests and asked to memorize it, only to forget it a week later (I know because this is how I got A’s in high school a decade ago).

But now, we as mentor/teachers are asking much more of them and I believe that this can only be a good thing.  College is not spoon fed to them and life certainly is not spoon fed to them.  They need to know how to study and learn material and then apply that knowledge to new and different situations.

On Terie Englebrecht's (aka @mrsebiology) blog, "Crazy Teaching",  she writes

“Students need to learn that the only person that has power over their own learning is them, not us.  We teachers can influence it, guide it, tear it down, or build it up....but it is not ours.  Learning belongs to students.  As teachers, we need to find powerful ways of giving students power over their own learning.”

Very well said!! 

As I spoke to parents today, the common theme was that their student was struggling with HOW to master the material.  My response was that I will give them an array of resources to use and they must decipher for themselves which resources help them the most.  If they are exposed to concepts from all different angles, I believe they will better retain the material.  For example, they watch the video on enzymes, do an enzyme catalysis lab with me in class, and also read the sections on enzymes in their book.

I apologize for the long post today, but I wanted to end with the most interesting comment made by “Suzie’s” mom.  She said she was worried for my sake because parents might start complaining about me to the principal when their students’ grades drop from not doing the homework and coming to class prepared.  She supports my methods and agrees that students need to take control of their learning, but fears that other parents might not see things the same way.  I had never thought about this before – should I really be worried?  I sincerely hope not, but I will keep you posted.

My Flipped Classroom, part 1

It’s been about three weeks since the start of school and I am loving every aspect of my flipped classrooms.  Today, especially, was a great day.  The students came in to class having read their book, watched the videos, and taken notes on their own.  They immediately got into their small groups and worked on critical thinking questions and problems on the current topics.  I had a whole 45 minutes to walk around the room and check in with each of the six groups at least twice (usually three times).  I had no lesson plan, no PowerPoint, no checklist of things to get to.  It felt great!! I was able to meet each student where they where at with the material and guide them along on their way to deeper understanding.  At points, I would address the whole class on an important point and give relevant examples or put drawings on the board.  Before this year, I had only read about “teaching naked” – in fact, this article on teaching naked was one of the catalysts for my switch to the flipped model.  Here is another great article on what the flipped classroom is by two of the creators of the model, Jon Bergmann and Jerry Overmeyer.

I have learned some very revealing information about my students through this increase in one-on-one time with them.  First, I was extremely surprised to see that my freshmen Honors Biology students seemed to roll with the critical thinking exercises much better than my senior Advanced Biology students!  When I passed out the questions in AP that asked them to make connections between topics and apply their knowledge, they immediately flipped through their textbook and looked up exasperated when they could not find the exact answer in the book.  Perhaps this is because the seniors have had 3 years of teachers who operated this way (I’ll admit, I taught some of them two years ago).  They were incapable (at first) of actually THINKING on their own.  On the other hand, I set the expectations very high on day one with my freshmen, so they don’t know much else.  Second, the students who I thought would “get” a certain topic right away actually struggled, but I would not have known this if I wasn’t walking around constantly asking questions and giving formative feedback.  For example, in a simple biochemistry review in AP Bio, the students had to figure how many times acidic a solution of pH 4 was compared to a solution of pH 9.  One group of very smart girls had written down 600x and moved on to the next few questions!  I was then able to ask some questions and guide them to the right understanding of the pH scale.

The flipped model takes me out of the role of “disseminator of information” and into the role of guide and mentor.  Some call this authentic learning – where the student is creating their knowledge from interactions with others, hands-on inquiry, and applying knowledge to new situations.  I am only beginning to learn about authentic learning, but I think I am on the right track.  Below are some tweets from last night’s #edchat on Twitter that really resonated with me regarding my view on my new role in the classroom.  I am so glad that many other teachers are thinking towards the future, too.  Come back for future updates on my flip!

@jonbergmann :Teachers need to be the chief learners in the class NOT the chief disseminators of knowledge #Edchat

@isteconnects: IMO good teachers teach students how to learn for themselves using all tools available. That's the paradigm shift I'd like to see #edchat

@tomwhitby: I think we are slowly moving from a cotent expert model to a expert moderator model. Giving a fish vs learning how to fish. #Edchat

@NeagSchool New via@atugend: The Role of Mistakes in the Classroom http://t.co/9rQpqSB #edchat #k12 #education -kids learn through mistakes.@NeagSchool

@jonbergmann @Aaron_Eyler I see the paradigm happening as I train tchrs about #flipclass all over the world. #Edchat

@wmchamberlain @tomwhitby To me it isn't about the method as much as it is about the whole process: learner, content, delivery method, facilitator #edchat

Welcome!

I decided to take the leap and start blogging.  Many factors triggered my openness and willingness to share my reflections on teaching, science, and learning.  Most recently, the post, “Seven Reasons Teachers should Blog” by Steve Wheeler made me realize just how much good can come from this daily (or weekly) record of thoughts.  I then started to read and follow several other teachers’ blogs (see my list of blogs I follow).  It is amazing how much I have learned and been inspired from my personal learning network.  For my first post, I’ll introduce a little about myself and what I hope to share/accomplish with this blog. 

You may already “know” me from Twitter or YouTube as “EaglesBiology”.  This is my third year teaching Science at a 700-student (and growing!) Catholic High School in Ohio.  I currently teach Advanced Placement (AP) Biology, Honors Biology, and Project Lead The Way’s Principles of Biomedical Sciences.  I also am the assistant coach for our girls’ varsity tennis team.  My undergrad was in Microbiology and I was convinced I would get my PhD in Cancer and Cell Biology.  But a few months into the graduate program I decided to change my path and felt truly called to teaching.  I have never made a better decision in my life (except for marrying my husband, of course).  There is hardly a day when I wake up and I am not truly looking forward to my day with my students.  Saying that I have passion and love for my “job” is an understatement.  This is not a job to me, but my way of life and my way of shaping the lives of young adults. 

My first two years of teaching featured the standard science fare of notes, in-class activity or lab, and giving nightly homework over the notes from that day.  Let’s be honest, I did well to just survive my first year, but I also learned a lot about what worked with students (but mostly about what did NOT work with students).  Last year, I was ready to tackle everything, but was also shocked to become co-chair of our department due to an unexpected departure of a teacher the day before school started.  I was excited to teach all Biology (instead of Biology and Chemistry) last year and put my heart and soul into teaching my students everything they needed to know.  But my methods again were old-school; I would engage them with notes and labs and keep them busy with homework and worksheets.  At the end of last year, I wrote a very candid reflection of how I felt the year went and decided that my whole way of thinking about my classes and students needed a serious overhaul over the summer.  The days of feeling as if I were a hamster on a wheel with nothing to show for my work were over.

This is when I discovered the idea of “flipping” my classroom through my AP Biology listserv.  I decided at the end of May that my classroom would look entirely different by the first day of school in August.  I spent my summer learning about the flipped classroom and about constructivist theory.  I was determined that I would no longer TEACH my students the material and have them be only passive learners.  Instead, my students would discover the material with one another and I would be their mentor and guide through their learning journey.

I hope to share my ups and downs with my flipped classrooms as well as comment in general on science, education, technology, learning, teaching, and putting the focus back on our students.