A Hangout On Air about The Flipped Classroom ~ Hawaii Style and Time

A little group of Hawaii educators held a Hangout on Air about The Flipped Classroom last evening.

It was fun!

We're very casual about the way we pick each week's theme. It usually happens while we debrief after a hangout. Anne Torige suggested the flipped classroom, for instance, because she was interested in learning more about it.

This HOA was our fourth, and also a first for our little group: we had a special guest.

I had invited Mitch Krulewich, a new teacher at our school, to talk about how he flips his math classroom.

Mitch follows the flipped learning model closely and he's very happy with the results. What a robust discussion we had!

I especially enjoyed hearing about Mitch's philosophy about sharing his Vimeo tutorials (generous) and his take on the value of tutorials created by the teacher (his students report: more beneficial) [starting at 14:48].

The only glitch was that Mitch could not get his video to work. Luckily, his audio was podcast clear.

We also did our customary "Show and Tell" round of sharing on the theme.

• Chad Nacapuy introduced us to Educreations and Explain Everything [17:29]
• I  shared Jon Bergmann's article "10 Questions to Ask Before You Flip Your Classroom" and Teachers.net's Flipped Classroom resources. [21:51]
• Michael Fricano II spoke about Flipping Your Faculty Meetings, Camtasia by TechSmith, and TodaysMeet. [36:27]
• Anne Torige and Jody Brown, both Hawaii school librarians, asked questions and provided wonderful support.

Here are our notes (bit.ly/GRflipped) on the links we shared, and included are some links we've found since. Mahalo to Chad for adding great notes of Mitch's presentation.

Here's the embedded Google+ post (another first since Google just added this neat feature) of the Hangout on Air.


Our HOAs occur when most U.S. residents are sleeping!

... which brings me to the great story behind this Flipped Classroom HOA.

This tweet yesterday morning caught the attention of Jon Bergmann, one of the pioneers of flipped learning:

We'll be discussing #flipclass tonight: «10 Questions You Should Ask Before You Flip Your Classroom | @JonBergmann» http://t.co/AVEdbRySpp
— Linda Lindsay (@mauilibrarian2) September 10, 2013

His reply?

@mauilibrarian2 what time?
— Jon Bergmann (@jonbergmann) September 10, 2013

Long story short [20:34], ALAS, it would be too late for Jon on the East Coast, of course. 1:00 a.m., to be exact.

I'm astonished that Jon would even consider joining our little HOA. What a hangout that would have been!

We are seriously thinking of holding our HOAs earlier in the day or on the weekend to accommodate special guests in different time zone! And how about hanging out outside, with a little Hawaiian-style background? Now there's an idea... :)

We are definitely Hawaii casual in our hangout approach. We have no glitzy intro for instance, we can improve the quality of our video, and we're learning as we go along. But we're professional and serious about sharing what we learn with other educators.

And best of all, we're having fun with it!

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Next week, we'll be sharing our anticipatory impressions of the upcoming Global STEMx Education Conference. Thanks for the suggestion, Mike!

Conference co-chairs are Lucy Gray, Steve Hargadon, and Jim Vanides, so the conference is sure to be a winner. The event will be totally online, round-the-clock, September 19-21, 2013.

Since the name of our HOA is Google Rocks! and I want to keep that title, I'll be looking for Google connections throughout the conference.

If you're interested in watching us live, check out Live Hangouts on Air on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at around 7:00 pm HST.

Or if you'd like to view later, you can look for the uploaded YouTube video shortly after, assuming the recording goes well, here.

Have fun with it!

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@mauilibrarian2
G+

Mrs. Lac Experiments with the Flipped Classroom

Lectures in the classroom? No, lectures via video, for homework!

It's no secret that Mrs. Lac is a pioneer at our school. Her latest teaching leap, only several weeks old as of this post, is causing quite a stir.

This is it in a nutshell: class work and homework are reversed. Students watch and take notes on videos demonstrating chemistry principles and they come to class ready for discussion and questions.

What's so good about? It encourages collaboration, and it keeps the students engaged.

Here are some comments from Mrs. Lac's Honors Chem students about the new system:

Ruby: I like the flipped method because I am able to to take notes at my pace...not rushing with half the information. Being able to come in and ask questions on what we saw or read is helpful. The pros are that you can take better notes and you can review the material as many times as you need. The cons are that it would be more helpful if you have the teacher there to answer questions as you see the videos or read. Over all I think the flipped method works pretty well.

Michael: It makes you more focused - you have to do the homework. It's easier to take notes. Pausing and rewinding are really helpful.

Carissa: I like the new system because it allows us as students to go about learning and taking notes at our own pace without worrying about holding up the class or asking the teacher to wait while we write things down. It also gives us the resources to go back and look over what we learned while reviewing for tests and quizzes because we have all of the videos already downloaded on our computers. However, the set up does make it harder when you really don't understand a concept, because when you are given the homework in class you are unable to complete it. But Mrs. Lac is very good about offering extra help during and after class, so this is rarely a problem.

John: Mrs. Lac is giving the same tests as she did before, but the scores are higher.

Mrs. Lac calls her new program a blended/hybrid one. She still does her PowerPoint lectures and her demonstrations.

Mrs. Lac notes: "I feel more in tune with where each individual student is. I see the struggles right away and I can deal with them immediately."

Here's more information about the flipped classroom:

•How the Flipped Classroom Is Radically Transforming Learning
•Reverse Instruction: Dan Pink and Karl's "Fisch Flip"
•Teachers "Doing the Flip" to Help Students Become Learners"

Last but not least, check out the @cybraryman1's Flipped Classroom page (just out today!) for many helpful links.
 
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Twitter hashtag: #flipclass