Whiteboard it ...

I have been reading some articles and blogs on white-boarding.  It seems like a pretty simple concept and it reminds me of the old school slates that the one-room school houses used to have.  Each kid would have their own slate and chalk and could write their answers on the slate to show the teacher their work.  I see the white-boarding idea as the same thing.  I have tried a few different activities with the whiteboards and it has worked pretty well.  It is pretty simple; you give a group of kids a whiteboard and let them go.  It is a quick, unique and easy way to have students and/or groups of students answer questions, draw examples, demonstrate knowledge or apply material.  I love to have the students use pictures and symbols to answer questions too.  They love using the dry erase markers and write on these big sections of whiteboard.  Whiteboards are easy to erase and totally reusable.

To make the whiteboards simply go to a home improvement store and get two 4 x 8 sheet of mar lite (shower surround) and have your HS wood shop class cut it into sections.  They cost anywhere from $6.00 - $10.00 per sheet.  You can cut up some old T-shirts to use as erasers and then get some Dry-Erase markers.  You can be up and running for about $30.00-$40.00 easy!  The diagram of what I use in my class is for 2 different sized white-boards based on a class size of 24-32.  The large boards can be for up to 8 groups and 24 small boards to be used in pairs or individually.   The large boards are 32” x  24” and the smaller boards are 10.5” x  12”.  I have a diagram pic of the cut sheets below

 Here is an example of an activity I did in class just yesterday.  We have been learning about emotional management and have been learning skills to act “different” when we get angry, frustrated, anxious, etc.  The skill we are working on is Decision Making.  They have already seen a vodcast on the skills and we watched a clip from “According to Jim” from youtube (see “Using YOUTUBE to help YOUTEACH”).  Now we are looking at making good decisions. 

I gave them a decision making worksheet (click here) and they had to come up with 6 choices concerning a situation I gave them.  The idea is to show there are always options … good ones and bad ones but there are always options.  They filled out the worksheet in pairs and then I had them write down the options they came up with AND draw a stick figure picture to represent each choice.  They also needed to somehow identify the option they felt was the best for the situation.  I then had them bring their boards up to the front and display them on the front board as we discussed their choices.  Again, the point was to show how many options they have in any given situation and to practice their decision making skills.  He kids had a blast using the whiteboards and coming up with pics to create for their options.  Some get pretty creative like “Throwing a Monkey at them” …. ;-) 

The white-boarding activity can be used for lots of different things and it puts the creating in their hands.  Instead of me at the front writing things, they can be doing it at their desks in pairs, groups or individually.  You can use it for review games, content games, graphic organizing, Pictionary activities, etc.  The sky is the limit.  Having a quantity of markers is a plus but even one color is fine.  The kids just like doing stuff on the boards.  Here is where you see your art kids shine in class!!

Give White-boarding a try.  You are only limited to your imagination.

Using YOUTUBE to help "YOUTEACH" ...

I’m sure all of us that are using technology and conscious of the Flipped Model are more than familiar/comfortable with youtube.  I know there are lots of other video platforms out there like Vimeo, Schooltube, etc … I am using youtube because it is what I am most comfortable with and it is not blocked by our school district ;-).  I also go right from youtube not from downloaded sources and the clips are short.  I am not trying to "watch a video" but merely using a short clip as a means to create deeper understanding or a discussion point for class.

Using video clips can be great visual and conceptual tools for a lesson.  I use them all the time for “case studies” in my area of health education.  I am amazed at what is out there to use as supplemental clips to aid in discussion, demonstrating a point, connecting a concept, etc.  it sometimes is as simple as typing in a situation to search and viola … you’ve got a bunch of clips to choose from.  You can pretty much use youbtube just like a search engine or even use a search engine's video search.  I simply type in a show I think would work and some buzz words like "Big Bang Theory Breakup" "According to Jim Anger", "Seinfeld Gonnorhea" and see what shows?  Sometimes you can click the similar links that pop up and guide you to a perfect clip somewhere else.  Try to be as specific as you can in the title to narrow a search. 

Now obviously there is a lot of inappropriate stuff out there so I would never blindly pull up a clip and show it in class.  Also beware of student suggestions on-the-spot too.  Many kids will say “Oh, pull this video up it is perfect for this situation.”  Their view of school appropriate and an adults’ view of school appropriate are WAAAAAY different.  I am all for student suggestion but I definitely preview before I present.  I have been burned on that one before!!

Here is an example of how I used a clip from “According to Jim” off of youtube to illustrate a point about emotional management.

First, the students have watched 2 vodcasts about emotional management.  Vodcast 2.1 talks about how the brain processes emotional stimuli (Amygdala & Pre-frontal cortex) and Vodcast 2.2 talks about the 6 skills for reacting better (Recognizing A.N.T.s, Using diffusers, Compassion, Decision making, communication & relaxation).

We have talked in class a little about the concepts of the A.N.T.s (Automatic Negative Thoughts) & Diffusers.  I then play the clip and have the students answer questions either on paper or in a google doc connecting the concepts from the vodcasts, class activities and the clip.  I love using popular TV sitcoms because they are usually well known, funny, and usually accurate in some exaggerated spectrum.  Seinfeld, although dated, provides many good life lesson clips!!  I also like “the Big Bang theory” especially in dealing with communication & relationships.  There are a ton of shows out there but those have been a few I really like.  PSA’s are also great to find too.   Usually short but very powerful (“this is your brain on drugs … any questions”) we tend to remember those!!

In a classroom setting, I simply pull the clip up in class and we watch it together, but you could easliy link the video off of a website or moodle and have the kids watch it and answer the google doc questions in small groups or individually.  Lots of options here.

Here is the according to Jim clip and the According to Jim google doc with questions I use. 

I also included a few other clips I use in my class over the semester.  (Keep in mind I teach health & sex education so I have a little more “spectrum” to include .. ;-)

  

Seinfeld "Shrinkage" (Male reproductive system)

  

TBBT "Screwed" (Relationship problems)

 

Montana meth Project "Not Gonna Be that Guy" PSA

   

Give some clips a try to make your content a little richer and open up those classroom walls to the world. 

Streamline your class with QR codes

I have started a new obsession with QR codes.  QR codes are those square thingys that a lot of advertisers use to get you to their websites.  QR codes though are simply a link to a website, document or any other web based thing.  Now that I have been getting more comfortable with web based activities I am seeing the convenience QR codes can offer.   I am 100% in on putting the learning on the shoulders of the students and giving them every opportunity to get the information at their pace.  QR codes have become another tool to help with that. 

I have completed my first semester of flipping my health education classes.  I have vids done, note sheets done and vid quizzes done.  Now I am in the process of tweaking those things as well as the classroom activities I do.  I have worked to trin my students how to access the classroom materials from a variety of settings (basically problem solving) so they have options.  I have my website www.healthteacher.com where all my vids, notes and quiz links are.  We have a classroom account on Edmodo where students can access my videos from a shared folder, students can subscribe to my YouTube channel or they can pick up a cd with the videos on them. 

For my note sheets, i usually print them out and have them available in the classroom and i have them on my website for download.  Now, I am in the process of converting my notes from a PDF format to google docs where I now have a web based document.  Students have two options to get the note sheets.  Pick one up in class or download an print one off the website.  I worked on this first semester but I found that most kids watched the video & took the quiz without taking any notes.  That bit them in the butt come unit test & exam time.  Now I hand out the note sheets (I call them W3's Watch, Write & Wonder  - another blog on this to follow) so everyone's gets one.  Then, if they "misplace" it, they can pick up or download a new one.  I think this also helps remind them to watch the vodcast when they have a W3 in their hand.

What I can to now is copy my video URL and go to an online QR code maker and create a QR code for my video.  I can label and post that code anywhere now.  In the classroom, on desks, on the walls etc.  I thought .. "Why stop there?"  I then took the URL for the video quiz and made a QR code for that.  Now I can post that code where I want.  Now the kids can just scan the code and the video or quiz will pop up right there on their phone, iPod or tablet.  Now the question is where to put these codes? 

Well I had another break-through and thought, "what if I put these codes right on the W3?"  Viola .... I tried it.  On my notes sheet I put a QR code in the top corner for the video and a QR code on the bottom corner to link to the quiz.  With that one note sheet they can link directly to both the vodcast AND the quiz without going to any other sources.  In a sense it streamlines the process and make access quicker.

I also use QR codes on scenario worksheets in class.  I attach a QR code to the bottom of the sheet that is linked to a google doc with questions to answer.  Now they can just submit the answers and I can see what they have completed.  This eliminates the "do we still need to keep this?" question.  They submit it at the end, and I can record scores and check work with no paper trail.  It also makes make-up activities easier when they can look at a scenario sheet online and scan the QR code and submit questions without ever printing off a piece of paper or picking anything up from me.  I simply gives them what they need when they need it.

You just need to have your students download a scanner app (free on both iOS and Android) and they are ready to go.  It's been pretty fun playing around with QR codes and finding new ways to use them.

Students or Lab Rats??

This is week two of a grind that I usually don’t see until mid-May.  Students seem to be “quitting”??  I am dumb-founded?  I even talk to other teachers in different areas throughout my school day and ask:  “Do the kids do anything for you guys right now?  Do they care about anything?”  The answer usually comes back to me as a barrage of venting about the same struggles they are having.  “When we care more than they do .. When we are putting more work into learning than they are .. “ are comments that seem to come out way too often.  I don’t disagree at all.  These are teachers that are creative, hardworking, experienced, passionate, young and experienced.  We are all perplexed by the low motivation and lack of effort students are putting out. And it seems to be increasing.

 Even when kids are given opportunities to re-take a test, they don’t unless it is under a D.  There are a few that always do but those students are few and far between these days.  I have seen it over and over again in my classes.  I teach health education!!!  It’s not rocket science!!  Kids will still get a D on a quiz that they can take twice but say “It’s too much work, I passed”  Maybe I am only speaking about my community?   Maybe this isn’t happening all over but either way my question is why?

I have all my lessons via video (vodcasts).  None are over 20 mins and the shortest one is a little over 4 mins.  My students get virtually no homework other than the videos and a short online quiz a couple times a week.  We do a lot of group work, problem solving, activity based things in class.  They are not sitting and getting anymore.  That part of class has been great for me.  Kids say that my class goes by so fast, but most are unprepared for the activity because they don’t watch the vodcasts?  And the “catch-up” process can be laborious.  Unfortunately, I don’t have computers in class and not all kids have iPods or phones.   I keep saying this should work better than it is!!!?  I don’t get it.  I’ve been a lecture based teacher for 17 years now and I wish I would have started this process a long time ago.  The class is going much better now than in the past, but this should still be working better!!?  It is engaging; higher level thinking, activity based, why aren’t kids eating this stuff up??  Tons of questions roll through my head as to why kids are working harder to NOT do anything … anywhere??

I was venting like this to another teacher who is flipping her science classes and she said something that hit me like a dump truck.  She said “The kids are getting tested to death and they are sick of it!”  BAM!  I wonder if that was it.  Our district has us handing out CBA’s (Common Based Assessments) like they get $100 for each one we collected!  I am not in a core class so the CBA tidal wave hasn’t really hit my shore as hard as other areas.  Math, Science, English, Reading …. Tsunami!!  In talking to a veteran math teacher he expressed how he has no more autonomy in his class anymore.  Work on a problem, take a test, work on another problem take a test …. on and on it goes. 

My co-worker in science said the same thing.  So much is riding on these CBA’s in our district we can’t even teach anymore …. Data, data, data!  More data …. Even in the Physical education classes, they have to do one day a week of in classroom work AND do 20 mins of sit-down reading in the gym on a regular basis.  Instead of going to Phy. Ed. Class to be active, now we are telling kids to sit down more??!  My kindergartener (Who LOVES Phy. Ed) had to sit and color one day as part of the “instructional time”.  He said it was his low for the day … his FAVORITE class was his low that day?!

I think kids are tired … they are sick of taking tests, they are sick of being rushed through everything, they are sick of seeing teachers in panic mode all the time because of all the data that may or may not come from these tests.  Kids are having breakdowns at a crazy rate according to our 2 counselors who are doing the work of 4.  (We have a student body of 1600 and have 2 counselors – down from 4 a couple years ago).  Another symptom that may show kids are done with the “testing model”! 

Today, I stopped.  I gave the kids an organizational graph, a packet and a website and said we have two days to do this and it should only take one, work with whoever you want, use the website, use the packet, listen to your iPod we just need to have these done by Friday.   You could have heard a pin drop!  It was like I gave them crayons and a Scooby Doo coloring book and they were in the zone.  You could almost hear the room go … “ahhhhhhhhhh”.  It was another confirmation that they are tired.  No testing and no major pressure and the brain could slow down and work at a reasonable pace. 

It made me think … why are the ones who are working least with the kids making all the decisions about what works?  Even school boards … how many have classroom experience?  Should administrators be required to teach one class?  All these questions came to me.  I don’t have the answers but I do have opinions and experience that testing kids to death isn’t working.  It’s like a big experiment and these kids are the lab rats we are patiently waiting on to give us results on a doctoral hypothesis.  With changes in education these days a teacher’s voice isn’t able to ring out anymore.  There doesn’t seem to be the checks and balances we used to have.  I just need to work more at teaching in a way that works while I still can.  My flipped class is working better than my class was when I lectured but I still have a ways to go.  I guess we are proving that the saying “Paralysis by Analysis” really can happen. 

Flipping ... Work Smarter Not Harder

My first semester flip is about over and so far it has been a lot of work but it has paid off.  I have a renewed energy for teaching in new ways.  My brain has been stimulated a ton.  I have learned new technologies like Socrative, PollEv, Edmodo, Twitter, QR codes, etc … I have made new connections with educators online and in person.  What a ride so far …

My blog post today is another A-HA moment as to why the flipped model seems to be a method I will continue to incorporate as I continue to hone my craft.  I had an all-to-common event happen in class where a student was removed from class due to behavioral issues.  This was a student who consistently did no work, missed a lot of class and butted heads with about every teacher he had.  It was a matter of time before he reached a point where he was “below the line” so to speak.  So, due to this behavioral issues the administration intervened and he is spending the remainder of the semester in “in-school” suspension.  He is still enrolled in health class so I still need to give him the work to complete for the remainder of the semester (approximately 2 weeks).

Now usually I would need to rifle through the text, identify the content we will be covering and then come up with either questions from the text or an assignment, project or worksheets to give him.  Initially I fell back on old habits and started going through the book and racking my brain for content.  We have 3 more vodcasts left to finish this semester and as I was adding those to the checklist of things for him to do … the light-bulb went off!  “This kid is missing like 10 vodcasts & quizzes from the semester!?  Why am I creating new stuff when he hasn’t done the “old” stuff yet??”  Viola!!!  I simply printed off his missing video work (Quizzes & notes) and gave that to the cooperating teacher in ISS.  All the info he needed was already done, he just needed to watch the vids, take the notes and take the quiz for each. 

Now I don’t want to seem like I am just casting this poor student off, but  true to the purpose of the Flipped model, the learning was HIS responsibility and he has all the tools he needs to learn the content – he just hasn’t done any of it yet.  Now he has that opportunity to get his work done, get some badly needed grades in the books and prepare for the upcoming semester exam.  I don’t have to create busywork for him or re-create the content.  The content is already there just waiting for him to take advantage of it.  No extra stress on my part, no extra work on the cooperating teacher’s part, just a little guidance, direction and youtube …. ;-)  The prep work is done … he just needs to do it now.  No new “busywork”, just the necessary course content that is available to him 24/7.

It almost seemed too easy but I’m not sure when teaching (or learning) turned into being hard and frustrating.  It is so satisfying to know that I can still provide the same quality of education to a troubled youth at the end of the semester as I have been able to provide for the gem of a kid all semester.  The information is set up to be there when the student decides to access it. 

Will he do it??  I don’t know … that is up to him.  I know that when he decides … the information will be there waiting for him!!

Skype & Polleverywhere Combo

I recently did a skype activity while also using polleverywhere as a way to generate discussion.

The Story ....

My health classes were just beginning a unit on Addiction. To start the unit off I usually share a story about my wife who, in her younger days, didn’t make such good decisions.  She had gotten involved in the party lifestyle at a young age and by the time she had reached her junior year she had gotten into an alcohol related crash that totaled her car and broke her right femur in 22 places.

After seeing how a lot of her friends were drinking AND doing drugs she got rather bitter about her “consequence” when she only drank … thus thrusting her into a more hardcore party mindset.  By the next year she began experimenting with drugs and even selling drugs.  She wound up getting into a 2^nd accident where she crushed her right ankle.  There was irreparable damage to her lower leg/ankle.  This time she “woke-up” so to speak and realized that she couldn’t keep living this kind of life and made some positive changes.

The set up ....

The first class day, I share the entire story (pictures and all) with the class.  I usually do a big dramatic rendition of the events as if these had happened to two different people that I knew.  I reveal at the end this happened to the same person.  It is kind of entertaining because I get a lot of comments like “what is she stupid?”, and “you’d think she would’ve learned?!” …. Then the big reveal … it was my wife (I usually show some family pics and let them figure it out … it is a shocking revelation.  (My wife and I have been married 17 years and I have been doing this for a while so I have had my wife’s blessing.  She would also admit that in those days she wasn’t real bright so the comments aren’t offensive but ring more truth than not.) 

 Usually after the presentation, I am flooded with all kinds of questions about her shoe raise, what did her parents think, does she still drink .. etc.  Schedules don’t always allow for her to come in, and she can easily get frustrated when a teen looks at her with the “Yeah, but that is you … I am not THAT dumb” kind of look  ;-)  she isn’t as refined as I am … tee hee

The "Light Bulb" ....

Wondering how to make the personal experience a little more convenient, I got the idea a year ago to use Skype!!  Viola … we could have her in class and the kids can interact and talk to her and she doesn’t have to leave the house.  Some classes only need like 20 mins and another might take the whole hour??   Most of the time I would get a few good questions and then kids would sort of “time-out” so I wanted to generated more discussion.  This year I started using Polleverywhere in my classes and realized this was a perfect complement to a Skyping activity.  The kids can send questions and I can monitor and read them in a flash.  It worked awesome!  Kids could ask questions and not worry if they were getting too personal and it allowed me to re-word questions that might be confusing otherwise.   My next challenge may be to have the presenter open the poll on another device so he/she can see the questions as they come in.  My wife, for example, could have the poll up on her iPad while she is skyping us on the computer.  That way she can see the questions as they pop up in real time and can answer them accordingly.

I realized that with the Flipped classroom model gaining popularity and classes starting to use Skype and other video chatting platforms it seems to be a perfect complement to each other.  Even with a guest speaker, it allows kids to text questions during a presentation as they think of them, and I (or the presenter) can answer them as they come in.  It can also be a check at the end to see if all the questions got answered in the presentation.  I was also able to use the Mobile app so I can monitor the poll right on my smartphone and not be tied to a computer.  It worked very efficiently.   If your presenter has this technology, I think it could be a very engaging way to interact with a presenter.

 I hoping to schedule a few more Skype sessions with some “experts” in the health & Fitness field next semester and I truly think that Polleverywhere is a great tool to use to help draw questions out of students.  Maybe this is old news for those out there using technology, but using skype and Polleverywhere in tandem was a great success.  So if you are interested, give it a try.

 FYI … The kids like the Tweet option in polleverywhere and the pollev.com/ feature seems to be the easiest as you can “push” your polls to mobile devices.  Just my observation … J

“Words with Friends”

This is a review game that is great for having the kids go through vocabulary that has been covered during the lesson.  You can use words/vocab that are core words as well as supplemental vocab that you have used throughout the unit.  There are a lot of variations you can use to the game but the overall idea is to get the students thinking about the vocab/definitions and figure out what the word is.  I usually use this game as a review for the human sexuality unit:

The basic plan ….  

I have done it a couple different ways:

Teacher led:  Here, I would NOT give them the list and tell them where the word will be played and then give them the definition and have them work to spell the correct word.  (Ex.  I would say “Using the ‘L’ in LOVE going down, what is the male reproductive organ?”  The students would then scramble to spell the word PENIS.  Then I would say, “Using the ‘P’ in PENIS what is one of the fluid producing glands in the male reproductive system?”.  They would scramble to create the word PROSTATE … and so on.

Student led:  Here is where I would give the students the letters and the list (with the code key) and let them go on their own.   The students receive their bag of letters (I have them laminated for reuse over the years) and a list of definitions.  For this activity I created a code key for them to follow so they would know what words get combined.  The code key is shown below:

 So basically, we start the game off together to get the first word set (LOVE) and then the rest of the words start to build off of that.

Teacher vs. student led really depends on how structured you feel you need to be with your class.  I have done both and they both work fine.  The student led is a little more planning but not too bad.  I allow them to use notes, phones, iPods, etc . . . . to look up definitions.  Ideally they use their notes to show that they have them to study for the test/quiz!  These are all terms we have covered in vodcasts and in class so they should have them in their notes. 

 Other variations:  Really the sky is the limit for this activity. 

 Crazy Crossword:  You could give them letters and have them create their own crossword graphic organizer.  Have them spell & interconnect as many words as they can and see how many they can create. 

Word races:  Say a definition & see how quick they can spell out the right word

Really this activity can be used in any unit and the kids seem to respond to it pretty good.  They seem to like finding all the letters and making the words “old school” style.

I know there are other variations that could be created, so this was just a little peek into what I have done with a “scrabble” idea.  I have a copy of the list I use with code key on it HERE if you want to check it out.

Here is a little video of a student led version: