Week 2 - flipping going well!

I have to say I am impressed with my Gr 11 students and their level of engagement in this new FLIP routine. 95% of the students have watched the video's and TaSQ'd.  With respect to the TaSQing that they are supposed to be doing - not only are they doing it, but they are putting effort into it.  I took some shots of them and their sheets. The picture of my students is very representative of what both periods look like... busy students working together and engaged!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is not just the honeymoon stage.  If you look at their TaSQ sheets they are all very similar and you can see that they are even trying the problems I give them in the video.  They are writing serious summaries and "reflecting" on the video.  We had our first assessment this week and compared to similar assessments at this stage in the course the results were GREAT.  I only had 4 students in both classes below level 4 (A for those of you not familiar with the Ontario levels).  

 
The other really neat thing is that I had 30% of my students absent for 2 days this week for SHSM certifications and I know that they are going to be able to get caught up easily.  Communicating with them on Angel and Remind 101 has been so refreshing.  As a matter of fact, on Tuesday I texted them through Remind101 at lunch to get them to come see me and guess what...... they did.  Not so easy to find AWOL students in the school.  Now it is!!!

By the way, I have to direct you to Crystal Kirch's blog 

http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.ca.  If you think I have great ideas - I have to give her all of the credit.  I get all of my ideas from her.  Instead of TaSQ she WSQ's  (sounds like Wisk), which means write, summarize and question.  I wanted to make it sound like a TASK that they had to do.  I highly recommend doing either.  All of the modelling and explaining how to watch the video's the first week has paid off.

Grade 9's:

Yesterday, I tried something new.  Every year, I get the grade 9s to write me a business proposal on a business of their choice that they will be working on all semester.  I usually "tell" them what I expect and what the marking scheme will be.  Yesterday, we took the whole period and I asked them "What is a business proposal?", "What should be included in one?" and "what makes a good one?" etc.  Away they went in groups of 3 to find the answer.  Then I mentioned that I would like them to make one for me, but it was up to them how to do it and how I was going to assess it.  We spent the rest of the period agreeing on what to include in the proposal.  Guess what?... they all couldn't agree on some of the points.  So guess what we did?..... I told them to choose for themselves what they wanted to include.  I can't wait to see what I get!  We even went as far as determining that it must have proper spelling, punctuation and grammar and that it must be professional looking.  Stay tuned for more on this when I see what I get.  For the rest of the course, I will try to get them to choose and be involved in decision making.  Should be fun.