This past month's excitement.

This past month has been busy, which has precluded me from blogging recently - hopefully this will change going forward.

We have been working on our 21st Century Learning Framework.  This has been exhausting yet rewarding. Take a look at it here.  We are working on a roll-out plan for staff to use this framework in their lesson planning and "shifting" to more of an inquiry based, partnering stance with students. 

Also, a team of two other teachers, my principal and I, were excited to present at this year's ECOO Conference.  During our presentation we gave a snap shot of "CPSS's journey toward 21st Century Learning".  We were very thrilled to see that we had a lot of interest.  There was standing room only.

I have also been involved in a new PDSB video on flipping.  A very exciting part of this video, is that 2 of my students discuss their experience in flipping.  (Both female students in this video are mine!!).

One of the initial purposes of this video was to use it during a professional learning session on "The Flipped Classroom".  Several of us in the video, as well as, resource teachers from the board, spent a day at Castlebrooke S.S. running a session for staff who are interested in trying it out.  It went very well!

Now for my classes.  Grade 11 Accounting has been going well.  The flipped classroom has actually been a blessing in disguise as I've been absent a lot at all of these workshops, PL sessions and conferences.  While I was away, they kept up with the lessons and the work and we didn't fall behind.  The past two days I've been working with them and can see that they worked very well while I was gone.  Well Done Grade 11's!

Grade 9 Business has also been fun - this is a tough group to keep engaged.  We have been focusing on Digital Citizenship.  To make it a bit more interesting and to set the stage for the remainder of the course... I set up a group Twitter feed @FitzeeCPSS, where my Gr 9's can tweet from this account.  Take a peek at the tweets if you get a chance.  Today we tweeted about Anti-Bullying, as this week our school is very focused on it.  I plan to use this often for the students to tweet about what they are learning. 

Stay tuned for more!

Assessment Success

GRADE 11 FLIPPING UPDATE
This week we had an assessment to see where everyone is at.  I still have that niggley feeling that something is wrong and that there are several students that are not keeping up. I know that it is because it is "right in my face" more than it has ever been.  So I continue moving forward ever faithful that what I am doing is better than traditional teaching.

After the assessment, I was so pleasantly surprised that both class averages are in the high 80's.  I did not change the test up from previous years, so that I could compare results.  I did change transactions and amounts, so that no one could cheat.  In previous years, at this point in the course the averages for this test would have been in the high 70's to the low 80's.

I have to believe that the "one-on-one" contact every day is working.  I have a student that blew me away.  This student isn't much into working hard, doesn't come on time very often, however scored very high!  I think it is working. 

I also had a conversation with a couple of the 11's that are planning to take the 12 course next semester.  I asked them if they wanted me to flip it and it was a resounding YES!!! 

The other thing that I started this week was a "TaSQ Quiz".  Students were able to use their TaSQ sheets to write the quiz.  Students who failed to TaSQ were not very happy.  I liked it. Hopefully, this will motivate them to TaSQ fully each time they have a video to watch!!  It serves as an advantage to them during TaSQ Quiz Time.  I hope to do this 1x/week.  Keep them honest.

Finally, on Friday morning I looked at YOUTUBE to see how many views I had of my video.  There was only 11 of 46 students.  I wasn't thrilled for obvious reasons.  I sent them a Remind 101 and 30 mins later I had 35 students watch it.  By the way this was the morning I thought of TaSQ Quiz!!!

This week, we move on to the Expanded Ledger and the Income Statement.

GRADE 9 Update - This week we were working on logo's in publisher.  We made a contest for them to take a picture (like clip art) off the Internet and duplicate it using publisher (not easy).  They were so engaged it was nice to see.  Also, they were learning all of the techniques that I want them to learn in order to make their Business Logo's. They did GREAT!!!  I'm printing them and posting them on the wall for the Gr 12's to choose the winner! 

My Big "A HA" Moment!

This week I was not enjoying my Flipped Class. Something wasn't right.  It took me about two days to finally go "A HA"!!!  I was working with my Gr 11's and several of them were struggling with transactions.  It was really getting to me.  Why?  How is this possible?  The flipped class is supposed to work.  They had watched the videos (well most of them), but they were not "on top" of the material as I had expected them to be. 

It was really started to bug me.  I was thinking "maybe I should go back and teach them as I would have traditionally... they would be sure to get it then.  Right?....... Wrong.....

Then if finally occurred to me... "I just am realizing who is struggling.. WAY BEFORE.. I would have in the past".  Because I am working with each student each day, I now know exactly what each one is capable of, who is doing the work, and who isn't.  Wow.... how powerful is that?  In the past, it would be, more than likely the quiz or assignment that would indicate to me who got it and who didn't.  Now I know BEFORE the test.  Now I can spend more time helping them and pairing them up with other students.  This realization, I think was key.  I seriously, was doubting what I was doing and ready to bail on what I was doing.  Now, I have realized the power of "flipping".  The good news is... I'm going to keep going.