WELCOME! You have arrived at my Blog on flipping my classroom and moving toward 21st Century Learning Blog Page

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Can you start each class with a space race?


It is midway through 2nd Semester and I have some informal student feedback and self-reflection that I would like to record. 



Up until now, I generally start off my flipped classes in 1 of 3 ways:
  1.  TaSQ quiz (click on links to learn more), using Socrative.com or a similar application where students can connect via their own device,
  2. A "Run The Gamut" activity, where 1 volunteer answers 10 questions in a row in front of the class. The questions are always focused on topics we have covered already in class.  I like this activity and I always tell the students who are observing that "they should be able to answer all questions asked, and if they can't, that is their indication that they have some work to do".  Students are provided with the ability to call a "life-line", where they can call a friend" etc., 
  3. I have students post their questions from the previous night's video on todaysmeet.com, using their own device (or a borrowed one) and as a class we discuss the answers.  I love this too, as the students always come up with great questions that I would not have thought of.
This past week, I felt as if we were losing momentum in my Grade 12 class.  So yesterday, I put it out there. "What's going on guys?  Why the long faces? What are you not enjoying? etc etc.  We had an open conversation.  And I was surprised by their input. 

It was unanimous.  No one was interested in running the gamut ("they are all shy" they say - that's a totally different topic) and they all hated posting questions on todaysmeet.com and told me that it was BORING.  

Wow!  Who knew?  Just when you think something is going really well, you find out it is not.  I truly thought they loved it -  Every other day for the past 2.5 months they have been coming in, and automatically loading their questions into the platform.

Student compliance does not equal student engagement.


However, they did tell me that they loved socrative.com and in particular, the space race game.  Grade 12's!! Space Race???? Again... WHO KNEW??



So as any reflective educator would do, I immediately stopped questions in todaysmeet.com and have not done "gamut" since.  Now I'm at a loss!  How should I start my class everyday by making it engaging, fun and time well spent?  I can't do the space race everyday...... or can I??

Other exciting things:
  • A few PDSB Teachers and I attended the BEST Conference EVER two weekend's ago.  The Google Apps For Education Summit in Kitchener, ON #gafesummit.  My colleague and I took copious notes and will share them with anyone who wants to take a peek: Google Summit Notes.  I will share some ideas of how I have been incorporating Google Apps into my classroom every day since. That is coming! But for now...  Scripts are my favorite.  Students are getting more personalized feedback, more often from me!  Very exciting! (There is way more to it than that...stay tuned).
  • Catch me at the upcoming Ontario Business Educators Association Conference May 1 and 2, where I will share my flipping experience both days.  I will share how I got started, what I do, and some new things I have learned recently.  Perhaps someone there can tell me exciting ways to kick start my class each day.

No comments:

Post a Comment