Classroom

Student Videos

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Since I first went to CUE in Napa Valley in 2011, I have been integrating student videos into my routine. I often have students create their own tutorials which I then post on my class website for all. This serves two purposes for me. First, I don’t have to make a tutorial for students to refer to with key concepts. Secondly, I use the tutorials as unobtrusive assessments. Today, this was a very valuable lesson for me. I sent two top students out to create a video on multiplying with decimals. They proved to me that they knew what they were doing so off they went to the office to create their lesson. It wasn’t until after school that I was able to view the video. While watching, I saw 2 misconceptions both students had. The upside to all this? Well, I can now go back tomorrow and target the misconceptions (with the whole class), because if these two have the wrong idea so does the rest of the class. And, they aren’t as proficient as I thought (or would like them to be). I guess it was a good learning day for us all.

 

Multiplying with Decimals (with misconceptions)

GTA Mountain View

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Well, I’ve applied again. This time I had several people look over my application questions and video and give me feedback. Many thanks to all those who helped. It was all due last week and I felt good sending it off. So, here is the video portion of the application. It was rather difficult to put in all the cool things that happen in the classroom in one minute. Hope you enjoy it. We had fun creating it.

Student Video Tutorials

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As we all know, one of the large pushes for Common Core is that students will have a deeper understanding of the standards. One way in which this can be accomplished is through peer tutoring. Add in a video camera and you have 21st Century tutoring. The focus of the videos/projects should be the content, not the quality of  the videos. The following video is a student explaining the process of multiplying 3 – single digit numbers. Viewing this video, I immediately know that the student has a firm grasp on multiplication. The focus was on the process. Admittedly, my one suggestion to the student would be more details for clarity (i.e. first explain that in order to obtain the final answer, one needs to multiply 2 of the numbers then multiply that product by the third digit).

Multiplying with 3 numbers from Lisa Nowakowski on Vimeo.

 

This particular video was filmed with an iPod by a 3rd grader. The video was then uploaded to Vimeo.com (Vimeo is a great alternative if your district blocks Youtube & Youtube Education). I then put the video on my classroom website for all to view. You will also notice that nowhere in my description did I mention editing. The videos can be done in one take. Again, the focus is on the content of the material.

Videos are also a great way to assess student understanding. The videos can then be placed into a digital portfolio.

Some parameters could be:

  • Giving time limits
  • Telling students where to stand in the video
  • Specific topics

Have fun with it! Your students most definitely will.

Inspiration

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I love it when I am in the middle of a lesson and I get a ‘brainstorm’. My students are so used to it at this point in the year. Today was another ‘brainstorm’ kind of day. We were just beginning a lesson on Geometry. Today was the review of 3-D shapes — sphere, cone, rectangular prism, pyramid, cube, and cylinder. So there I am ‘blah, blah, blahing’ away, when it hits me… Have the kids make ’em… Out of pipe cleaners and paper and whatever else! Brilliant! And of course I stop the lesson to write it down. Wouldn’t want to forget my own brillance!

When I am finally finished, sounding much like Charlie Brown’s teacher I’m sure, I share my idea with the students. Together — because most of my great ideas are just a base, and not fully formed — we worked out the specifics. So in the end, groups worked together on how to make the shape assigned, find out how many vertices, edges, and faces AND then make a short video. They did a great job. Here is a sample video.

And tomorrow I will try that whole flip the classroom thing again. Hope it goes better than last time.

The ‘Flipped’ Classroom

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I recently stumbled upon the concept of a ‘flipped classroom’ — Yes I know, it’s not THAT new. I have been fascinated with it for months now. Essentially a flipped classroom is where the ‘basic’ learning and lecturing is done outside the classroom — generally at home for ‘homework’. This allows students and teachers to arrive at school the next day ready to dive into deeper concepts, projects, and/or tasks. As I teach 3rd grade and not all students have access to a  computer (or internet) at home, I wasn’t (and still aren’t) sure how to accomplish this successfully. So today I ‘dabbled’ with flipping a classroom. We are fortunate to have a computer lab with 30 computers. We are also fortunate enough to have EnVision Math (Pearson) in our district for grades k-5. So the students were assigned certain learning videos. Then later in the day, we had our lesson. Was it a success? Not so much. I’m guessing it has more to do with the learning objectives than the process. You see, we are beginning ‘long division’. That wonderful task of dividing a 2-digit (or more) number by 1-digit. As it was a hard concept for 3rd graders, I will try ‘flipping’ the classroom again. Maybe with something a bit easier. I’m thinking I may have better luck with some Science concepts. I’ll keep you posted.

Please share any experiences you have with flipping a classroom. What worked? What didn’t?