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An Example of How Flipped Learning Works

1/25/2014

In a spin-off of last week's blog "Flipped Learning", I will be discussing how it can be used in a technology shop class when you are in a pinch. My class was just about finished up for the year and the final was coming up. This test was high stakes for me as the results of this test directly impact my teacher evaluation. For those in NYS it is my SLO or Student Learning Objective. I am also counting this test as a grade for the students. With so much riding on the Technology Education Exam I knew that reviewing not only a couple of days before the exam was necessary but a must for the day prior to the exam. As luck would have it our district had a 2 hr. delay on the day of our test and it was pushed back two days due to scheduling issues. On one side I was okay with this as it gave me two extra days to review for the test. On the other side I lost two days that was needed to complete my last Technology Unit (Home Repair). Here is a breakdown of how this unit normally runs.

Flipped Learning in Tech Class

Old plan
Day Activity
1 Teach Plumbing & Sheetrock repair
2 Teach Residential Electricity
3 Group 1 (Plumbing unit), Group 2 (Sheetrock unit), Group 3 (Electricity unit)
4 Group 1 (Sheetrock unit), Group 2 (Electricity unit), Group 3 (Plumbing unit)
5 Group 1 (Electricity unit), Group 2 (Plumbing unit), Group 3 (Sheetrock unit)

With the delay my time was cut from five days to three days left of Tech class. I didn't want to ditch the unit as the students love it, and I think it is one of the most important lessons that I teach. So in a last minute effort I decided to change my normal delivery to flipped learning. I grabbed a video camera and a portable stand and started recording my plumbing, sheetrock, and electricity lessons. (It is amazing how much faster your lessons go when you don't have constant interruptions from the students) After recording the lessons I put them up on my class web page. A common folder / intranet could work too.

New Plan
Day Activity
1 Group 1 (Plumbing unit), Group 2 (Sheetrock unit), Group 3 (Electricity unit)
2 Group 1 (Sheetrock unit), Group 2 (Electricity unit), Group 3 (Plumbing unit)
3 Group 1 (Electricity unit), Group 2 (Plumbing unit), Group 3 (Sheetrock unit)

As you can see I was able to get the unit done in three classes rather than the five that it normally took. When class started I quickly introduced the unit, divided the class into three groups and had them watch the activity that they would be working on. After the video the students went to the shop and completed the activity. This was repeated over the next to classes.

I have taught this unit for ten years, ten times a year. Yes that's 100 times not to mention all the repeated times for those not listening, at band lessons, or out sick. The students did awesome, they knew what they were doing which made my day so much easier. Overall the entire unit went much smother than ever before. I was finally able to enjoy working with the kids instead of answering hundreds of questions a class because they had forgotten how to do the activity.

I highly recommend teaching a couple of lessons via video. As you can see it can save you time, energy, and your sanity. It is also beneficial for the students as you are freed up to help them with questions they have while you are teaching them at the same time in the videos.

Please comment on your experiences or with questions you may have.

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Flipped Learning (Learning via Video)

1/18/2014

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A while back I was having my teacher observation done. The lesson that I had prepared for the day involved one of my screencast for learning SketchUp, a free CAD program. I gave a lesson that was describing what an array is and how to create one in SketchUp. This was done via video lesson because experience tells me that it would be extremely difficult for an entire class to follow this lecture and successfully create the array without asking at least 3-5 questions each. With a class of 20 that would could add up to be a lot of questions per class not to mention I would be teaching this same lesson in my other four sections. Using a screencast or video allows the students to go back and listen to the instructions as needed. I must say videos are awesome if you have a 1:1 computer/student ratio. I have found that when students watch the videos they are more focused on the content then when I am lecturing to them. They seem to take more accountability for some reason. The lesson went smoothly as planned, I was praised by my administrator for using Flipped Learning in my classroom and how well it worked. I replied thanks not knowing what Flipped learning was as I had never heard the term before.

Over the last year I have created close to 70 videos for my students to use in class not because of the Flipped Learning movement but simply because it works. One of the best reasons to use videos to teach is that it frees up the teacher to help struggling students. I have also found that my course was running about 20%-25% faster than before, allowing me to cover more material. Another added bonus is the ability to get students who were absent or at a band lesson caught up without giving them the in a nut shell version of the lesson. Preparing videos is time consuming, in my case it pays off quickly as I have five sections of the same course twice a year. In other words I teach the same lesson 10 times a year. My students seem to be disappointed when I don't have a video for the day's lesson. I have approached other teachers with how powerful this method is and am normally greeted with a comment of how they don't have time to do this. I guess I think differently then others and tend to look at the big picture. Making one ten minute video could take 30 minutes worth of time with editing. If you have 3 sections that use the video it just paid off in one year. If you have 10 more years left of teaching you just saved 5 hours of teaching time that can now be used to help struggling students. I have twenty years to go so in my case a ten minute video lesson equals about 33 hours of time that has been freed up. Please Like and Comment below. I welcome your thoughts and experiences with Flipped Learning.

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After school project for Technology class

1/12/2014

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Crane Erector Set

When I was a kid I used to play with Erector sets with a friend. The Erector sets taught me valuable lessons of mechanics and simple machines. It also enhanced my understanding of illustrated directions. I never had one myself but when I went to his house it was the first thing we did. For Christmas I bought the Crane set for my son who is about to turn 7. I knew going into it that I would be doing most of the steps and would be letting him do the easy steps. Together we built the crane and we both had a lot of fun doing it. The entire time we worked on the project I was thinking of how cool it would be to buy a couple of kits for my 7th graders at school. I know the management of running a full class using the kits would be expensive and exhausting. So I continued to brainstorm of how I could use Erector sets in school. I came up with the Idea of having an after school Technology Club with a limited number of students. I am hoping the school will pick up the tab for the kits so I don't have to do any fund raising, yuck. The kits can be used over and over again as they are built out of metal. The level of difficulty varies depending on the kit that is purchased, I am going to try to purchase 5 kits and run them in groups of two or three. Three of the kits will be beginner kits and two will be more advanced. The students will have to complete an easy build before attempting the more complex builds. Of course over time some parts may go missing or get broken, but since the parts are universal you could scrap one kit and use it to replace missing parts in other kits. I am excited to get this started and intend on approaching our principle or the PTA to purchase the kits. I really think it will be a hit with the kids. Please share your thoughts and experiences below.

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Using CODE.ORG

1/11/2014

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CODE.ORG was recently updated and some cool activities for students to use have been added to the site. The site shows students in an easy to understand format how simple computer codes are made. There is no prior knowledge needed to use the site which is nice. The students start off by programming an Angry Bird how to move on a pre-made board. The activities start off easy and gradually increase in difficulty. The students can work at their own pace an track their progress at the top of the page. At first all of my students found this to be fun and exciting. As the 80 min. class passed about 25% of the students started losing interest. An estimated 5% were truly hooked and stayed after with me to continue using the website. I believe it was well worth the time to introduce computer programming to the entire class even though only 5% were truly interested. I say this because now they know if programming is something they may want to do for a career. My experience using their site was a great. I would advise that this be an hour long activity for middle school level and maybe two hours at the high school level. Please share your experience by commenting. www.code.org

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Advise for new Technology Teachers

1/11/2014

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Recently I made a page that is full of useful information for new Technology teachers. This is a good read for those who are in the process or just starting your teaching career. This page was written based on my experiences over the last 13 years of teaching technology education in CNY. I hope you can take away something useful from it. Click here to see the page.

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An Example of How Flipped Learning Works

Flipped Learning (Learning via Video)

After school project for Technology class

Using CODE.ORG

Advise for new Technology Teachers

C. Szyikowski

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