REFLECTION TIME!!

Well, I think I have finally finished making all of my Gr 11 Accounting Videos for this year.  So I think it is a good time to reflect.  I had a discussion with the students about my videos and we had a vote.  One question that they got to vote on was how I should finish the remainder of the videos for the course.  I asked them "Would you prefer, shorter videos (4-6 mins) rather than longer (8-14min) ones".

However, the clincher was... they would be responsible to watch more each night."  It was 90% of the students who preferred shorter videos EVEN if they had to watch more in one go.  They explained that:

• They can then break it into two or three sessions to do their homework - they felt that once they started a long video... they felt they had to sit there longer and finish it.  If there were shorter videos..... they could do them individually at different times.  They would pay more attention
• They can easily go back to certain topics and more readily "find" topics/material that they needed to review
• They felt they were accomplishing more with more videos.   
• They felt that their attention span would be better with two videos that equalled the same length as one.  (It doesn't really make sense, however, I get it.)

So with this feedback, among other suggestions, I made the remaining 10-15 videos into shorter chunks.  We will see how it goes.

On Thursday, I had a TaSQ quiz (see earlier posts about this) and they did really well!  I'm so proud of them.  They are still watching the videos.  The implementation of the TaSQ quiz has been good.

Other suggestions to make the course better that I'm slowly realizing (took me a bit of time... to figure this out....should have thought of it sooner)...

• Post any material used to make the video (i.e. power point slides, SMART notebook files, worksheets etc) in my Class Web Site (ANGEL).  Some students would like to make use of them as well as the video's.
• Post a master sheet of all video links in your class website.  I had a couple of instances where students came to me and said "Miss, I couldn't watch the video.. the link didn't work for me...."... Ok this is a mystery for me, because the other 43 students were able to access the video through the link.... but believe it or not.. I trust this student.  And regardless, if you believe them or not,  if you give them a master list of video links they can't use the "excuse" the link didn't work.  

Other things that I've been thinking about for next semester to make my flipped classroom even better.

• In my class website (ANGEL), I would like to put mini- quiz's that the students can do to test their own knowledge
• I will INSIST that all students join my Remind 101 class group. (right now I have 75% of them.. and it works great for them).  This way I will know that 100% of the students can get my reminders.  
• Post the list of video links right from the start so students who want to work ahead can.
• Have a "QUESTION" of the day.... related to the topic and the video and use this question as a basis of the lesson.
• Allow the  class to work in the lab more often to give them more opportunities to use accounting software and other tools.
• Bell Ringer questions each day (perhaps use these questions in my assessments... this may even get some of the late students to class on time).
• Get parents to sign up to my Remind101.  (This would be for the one or two students who may need a little extra help to remind them to watch the video's)

During my class time, I also am looking for ideas to build on what I am already doing.  Here is a list of things I do during my class time:

• Question Time:  Students question each other (and the group they sit with or the whole class) on the previous night's video.  I often get them to come up and write their questions on the SMART board and we answer those questions as a class
• Group Work:  Students are responsible to submit, or present, by the end of the period a group response to the day's work.
• TaSQ quiz's ... this has been good to keep them on track.  Often I use this as formative rather than summative.
• Problem and Knowledge Time: Work on accounting procedures and problems to actively practice what we are learning.
• Lab Time.... to transfer manual skills we have been working on to the computer (i.e.Simply Accounting and/or Excel) to see how it all comes together.  I still like the manual as students learn how journal entries affect the accounts and financial statements. They would miss this (I believe), if we spent the whole time in Simply Accounting.

I feel this year, now that I'm flipping, I know my students better, I know their capabilities better, I know who to focus on more, I know when to get parents involved earlier, I know when I need to review material for the class before the test, not after the test.

I'm glad that I was able to "trial" flipping with my 11's.  Next semester, I have an 11 Accounting and a 12 Accounting.  I plan to flip both and incorporate my learning's into the 12's class.  I'm just starting to make those videos and I'm really trying to make them succinct and interesting.  I also hope to incorporate as much of the learning's as I can into both sections.  Too bad there wasn't more time in each day... next year will be excellent... I will have the videos done and I can take it TO THE NEXT LEVEL!!!  

My other section will be 11 Marketing, whereby I plan on doing much more inquiry based, project based learning with the students.  It will be a busy semester!

Peel District School Board Flipped Video

Yesterday was a surprise.  A colleague of mine came up to me and said "I saw your video and it's pretty cool stuff - I never realized what a flipped classroom was until I watched it".  I was wondering how he saw my video and what video he was talking about.  Then I realized that PDSB Communications Department has posted this video about the flipped classroom on the front page for all PDSB staff.

The video is pretty informative and has the perspectives from other PDSB staff who are also flipping.

Take a look when you get a chance.

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!