Blended Learning

       Have you been hearing all the talk about this "new instructional method" called "Blended Learning"?  What about being asked all the time "have you flipped" your class?  Have you been told you will do this by your school administration, but nobody has explained to you how to do it?

       I've seen both experienced and new teachers both get the "OMG I'm going to blow if they tell me I need to learn one more new technology tool on my own. Grrrrrrr"  Usually accompanied by other not so scholarly words. 

         You will find many different definitions of what "blended learning" is if you Google it.  I like the definition that I found in the Edutpoia article"Blended Learning: We Are All New Teachers". It cites that there are many definitions of blended learning to be sure, but for our purposes let's take the definition of blended learning from Innosight Institute which defines blended learning as: a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home. The institute even goes on to say: there are four models of blended learning that categorize the majority of blended-learning programs emerging across the K-12 sector today. These four models are: Rotation, Flex, Self-Blend, and Enriched Virtual. (Not a perfect definition by any means, but one that gives us food for thought.)

       Wow, what a mouthful and a lot to digest and think about! Don't panic, essentially what they are saying is that the teacher and student uses multiple methods to deliver the education. Some by online, some by face to face, some by independent research, some of the pace of delivery is set by the teacher or school, and some is set by the student. Essentially it means you use technology to help meet all of your students learning needs.  It's just a more technology based version of "doing whatever it takes" to teach your students.

       In all of my research I yet to find anything better than Math Johnston's "What a Flipped classroom is not" that you can find on his YouTube channel. He explains this concept is easy to understand terms for you, students, parents, and administrators.

      The trick to successfully blending your class so that you "FLIP not FLOP" it is to find what works best for YOU and YOUR students.  There is no one way to do it or just one magic tool that works for everyone. Don't be afraid to try new things. Do NOT think that you have to use "experts videos" because they know more than you do.  Believe it or not, your students actually pay more attention and learn more from your "unprofessional" videos. 

        Also, you do NOT have to be the expert on the tools, you are already the expert on your content area. Have fun and allow your student to try new things. We learn more from fail at the first time, than what we get right the first time.  Just tell them up front "We are doing this unit over XYZ.  You will be excepted create XYZ, refer to the rubric I have given you. you will be allowed to use whatever tool you want to create it, just show it to me and explain why you want to use it.  But be forewarned I am not an expert in that tool and you will now become the class expert on it".  

      I promise you the time to spend to blend or flip your class will come back to you 5 fold at least.  I blended/flipped my classes over 10 years ago before there was an official term to call it.  I did it so I could best serve my students, after all there are 20-30 of them and only one of me.  With my instructional websites and videos, the students are able to get help with a step when they need it and work at his/her own pace. Kids love it, administration love it, parents love it, I love it because I never have to explain what it is that were are doing or learning in my class.  It's right there for everyone to see. 

      Feel free to borrow any of my units or lessons. I purposely made everything public for you to use.  :)  Let me know if they help you and have FUN blending/flipping your class. https://sites.google.com/site/mrsbaxterworld/  

My Some Cool Web 2.0 Tools Blog
My Going Green Project Based Learning Site from the CTE Summer 2014 Conf.


Work Cited:

• Website Title: YouTube
• Article Title: mathjohnson
• Publisher: YouTube
• Date Accessed: September 29, 2014

Website Title: Edutopia

• Article Title: Blended Learning: We Are All New Teachers
• Date Accessed: September 29, 2014

1st EVER CHS Lip Dub 2014

Our First Conroe HS Lip Dub!!

We're going viral! We are doing our first CHS Lip Dub to the song "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors.  I'm sooooooooo excited that my campus is finally doing a lip dub. This has been a dream of mine and a couple of other staff members to do for over three years now.

NOTE: If you don't know what a "lip dub" is = "Google" or "YouTube" it. There are lots of awesome and not so awesome ones out there.  We did a "twist" to ours, it's not just the same old walk down halls singing.  :)

It's easy to find the videos, but not the explanation of how they went about creating it. Thus, the reason the post was born.

The MOST important thing you need to do when you want to do something like this is = TEAMWORK! We have core team of 16 staff members who have helped with all the different parts. No one person can do it all. You have to work together!  Here is our awesome TEAM and what we all did, to help make it a success. Let the people who are awesome at what they do = do what they do best. Why would I try to plan the formation of the band kids to spell out "PRIDE !" on the field?  Our band directors know how to do way more cool and complicated filed formations. I have no clue how to actually video and make the scenes look cool, but others do.  You sure don't want me trying to teach you how to sing or dance either.

The other thing you need to do is to use Social Media to your advantage!  Our campus Twitter acct., ISD acct., & counselors acct. sent Twitter tweets out bi-weekly telling students to go sign up to be a part of our video. Our campus FB page also posted links and encouraged people to join. Of course our Conroe HS campus website promoted too on our main splash page. 

My areas of expertise is Organization, Communication, & Technology. So here is what I did to help get this organized and out there online. That way the kids and staff could all access info, without us having to send emails daily and use up the email memory. (A personal pet peeve of mine.)

#1 = Set-up a Google Drive folder that anyone can see  http://goo.gl/ol8jpc.

A. Share edit rights with only the core group of organizers

B. Create a planning calender using Google Docs, so everyone can see the dates

(You know how we educators LOVE calenders!)  
C. Check ours out  to get ideas for how organize yours

D. Yes you can put videos here (if your ISD doesn't have that blocked in the admin  console) and use it to share the choreography steps if your ISD has YouTube blocked.  
(BOOO!! Unblock it for secondary at least people.)

#2= Use Google Forms to create a online Sign Up form  http://goo.gl/zW8wxn

A. This is so we can plan and prepare for the # of kids being filmed

B. If you send an email from Gmail = you can send it "Bcc" to all the email addresses   

you get from the sign up form. To remind kids when to film, what to wear, bring your signed release form, etc...

C. SECURITY NOTE = make sure that you turn off "Share with anyone who has the  link" for the Google Form results. Only three of us have access to our data.
D. Don't forget to "turn off" accepting responses to the form, once your due date has passed.

#3= Use Google Sites for it. http://goo.gl/OqCh6f

A. Create one that breaks out the lyrics that need to be learned by group

B. You can upload dance choreography to YouTube and embed it into this site

C. Then just share this site with staff and students. This is how kids and parents want 

to  be able to access information. So why not give it to them the way they understand and want it?

#4= Use YouTube to "go viral".

A. Make sure you have gotten written permission from the author of the song to use it. 

We had to get this from both the author AND the publisher. We have email proof  that we can use our song. Be forewarned, getting this permission took us two months!  YouTube can and will pull audio from videos, if you can't prove this.

B. When your Rock Star filming team gets done filming and editing post the final product on YouTube. I will share ours as soon as it gets done.

C. SECURITY NOTE = only one person on your campus should keep the original finished video. We have an AP who will keep ours, part of the agreement we have to be able to use the song.

I hope this helps or inspires your campus to go out and "go viral" in a positive way. Let me know how it goes for you.

Cool New (and some not so new) Web 2.0 Tools that can help you "flip" your classroom.

 Are you looking for new tools for your "tool bag"? Do you want to "flip" your classroom but have no idea what tools can help you do this? Then the following tools are for you! Let me know if these help or if you have any others I can add. Enjoy! 






Multimedia Presentations and Videos: 
Prezi: http://prezi.com/ Prezi’s zooming canvas opens up the classroom to active learning and interactivity, making lessons understandable, memorable, and fun. 
Emaze: http://www.emaze.com/  emaze is the next generation of online presentations, empowering you to create an amazing impression through design and technology. all you need to do is choose one of our templates to begin creating an amazing presentation. because there is no second chance to make a first impression.
BrainShark: http://www.brainshark.com/ Online presentations with videos, voiceover, and transitions 
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/ Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars. 
Screencast-o-matic:  http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/screen_recorder  you can use the free version or pay $15 yearly. Easy to save to your computer the video, upload staright to YouTube, or their server.
Present.Me: Screenr: http://www.screenr.com/ 100% web based screen recording and sharing. 
Animoto: http://animoto.com/ The easy way to create and share extraordinary videos of your life. Our online video maker turns your photos, video clips and music into video in minutes. 
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ Share your videos with friends, family, and the world. 
WeVideo: http://www.wevideo.com/ Online video creation platform, providing editing, collaboration, and sharing capabilities across any device. 
Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html Free capture anything you see on your computer screen, as an image or short video, and lets you share it instantly 
Camtasia: http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html Professional capture anything you see on your computer screen, as an image or short video, and lets you share it. 
Tellagami (APP): https://tellagami.com/
aTube Catcher: http://www.atube.me/video/ create & download video
PodBean: http://www.podbean.com/ Free podcast hosting  
Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/


Gamifcation:
Zondle: https://www.zondle.com/publicPages/welcome.aspx/ 
Kahoot: Teacher = http://kahoot.com/  &  Student = http://kahoot.it
Classcraft: https://game.classcraft.com/  a free online educational role playing game (RPG) that teachers and students play together in the classroom.
Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/ Teach basic programing, create games, stories, etc...

Words/Writing/Vocabulary Tools:
Tagxedo: http://www.tagxedo.com/ Turn famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text. 
Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/ A "toy" for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.
Flip Snack: http://www.flipsnack.com/ publish captivating online magazines, turn PDF's into online flip books
StoryJumper: http://www.storyjumper.com/ Create your own story book and bring it to life
ReadWriteThink: http://www.readwritethink.org/ Lots of classroom resources, my favorite is the Cube Creator http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/games-tools/cube-a-30180.html 
Bitstrips (APP): http://www.bitstrips.com/ Create cartoons of yourself, friends,etc
Storybird: http://storybird.com/ Create your own stories with images and share them
Study Ladder: https://www.studyladder.com/ Create educational problems to help your students learn
Word Magnets:  http://akidsheart.com/gamesd/wgames/magnets/wmagnets.htm  create sentences, words, etc...
Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/ Teach basic programing, create games, stories, etc...
Blabberize:  http://blabberize.com/ Make your images talk
Voki: http://www.voki.com/ Get your own avatar and even have it talk with your voice


Communication Tools: 
Google Docs/Drive: https://drive.google.com/ Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, etc..... 
Remind 101: https://www.remind101.com/ Safe one way text messaging updates for students, parents, and community. 
Celly: http://cel.ly/education Celly is an easy way for teachers, coaches and administrators to communicate with students and parents; Send school wide alerts and updates to parents about classroom events; Schedule reminders about parents and friends; Use polls and surveys to keep students engaged. 
Dispatch: https://dispatch.cc/ The end of "reply-all" chains. Dispatches are intelligent group email addresses for your projects. No more noise. No more hassle. 
Socrative: http://www.socrative.com/ Multi platform/devices student response system Poll Everywhere: http://www.polleverywhere.com/ Real-time polling for mobile devices, web, and presentations. 
Survey Monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/ Website surveys 
Youblisher: http://www.youblisher.com/ Turn your documents into online publication with "flappable" pages 
Padlet: http://padlet.com/ online board to share ideas
Real Time Board: https://realtimeboard.com/ create online brainstorming "white" boards
Mail Chimp: http://mailchimp.com/ Dynamic and interactive email distribution, think creating your own list serve 
Infuse Learning: http://www.infuselearning.com/ 

Website/Wiki Creating: 
Google Sites: https://sites.google.com/ A free and easy way to create and share webpages. 
Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/ Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others. 
Edublogs: http://edublogs.org/ Safe, secure & easy to use. Used for e-portfolios, class sites & much more... Trusted by over 2million educators since 2005. Weebly: http://education.weebly.com/ Easily create a classroom website & blog Manage your students' accounts; Accept homework assignments online; Keep your parents up to date. 
Smore Pages: https://www.smore.com/ Create online one page flyers websites. SnapPages: http://snappages.com/ An easy way to create an online website. Now anyone can build and manage a professional quality website with drag-and-drop simplicity. 
Wix: http://www.wix.com/ Create a free flash or HTML5 website with Wix.com. Customize with Wix' website builder, no coding skills needed. Choose a design, begin customizing and be online today. 
Wibki: http://www.wibki.com/ A personal visual bookmarking service with a social twist.

Open Source Photo's: 
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/ A online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, and securely. 
Free Tiiu Pix: http://freetiiupix.cwahi.net/ Free photographs for students & teachers with no gimmicks, hidden fees or registration required 
Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/ A nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. 
Everystockphoto: http://www.everystockphoto.com/ A. search engine for free photos. These come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo's license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos. Membership is free and allows you to rate, tag, collect and comment on photos. 

Online File Share For Team Projects: 
Google Docs: https://drive.google.com 
Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/ 
Cubby: https://www.cubby.com/ 
Live Binders: http://www.livebinders.com/
Evernote: http://evernote.com/

Misc:
Bubbl.us: https://bubbl.us/   Free application to brainstorm online
Online-Convert: http://www.online-convert.com/ Convert anything (audio, video, etxt, PDF, etc..)
Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools: http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/
Pintrest Web 2.0: http://www.pinterest.com/esheninger/web-2-0-tools-for-educators/
Web 2.0 Guro: http://web20guru.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0+Resources


Last updated September 29, 2014

Learning terms, concepts, vocabulary can be FUN!

We all have run into a curriculum unit that was complicated or just not fun to teach. How about that kid who just won't do the research paper, brochure, or Power Pt that you assign. After all your giving them options on how to deliver it.... right? That's RTI or differentiated instruction.... right?

You want them to get up and present the material they learned (sometimes we pray that they learned) and find out the kid just will not get up in front of the class to speak. No matter who much he speaks in class, sometimes when you are speaking or when he should just be working.

Ok so what can you do to make it more interesting or FUN? Try using multimedia videos like GoAnimate, Animoto, Voiki, or document camera avatars. Here is how I used them to make Biotechnology more interesting and entertaining for them and me. http://goo.gl/pZ5mr Watching videos and discussing the grades earned according to the rubric I give. This is WAY more fun than me taking home reports, etc... to grade all on my own.

What do you need?

1-Well one a grading rubric for the students so that they know what you are expecting and what do they have to do to get the "A", "B", etc.... This takes away the whole guessing game and "why did you give me....." conversations. I show mine all at once and we grade them together based off of this rubric.

2-Computers with internet access and microphones. I use $7.00 dollar combo headphones a mics that I get from my ISD's warehouse. I've used dollar store ones before and they worked fine. One year I even bought 4 of the really nice $10.00 ones that they kids shared.

3-A working email that they remember and can access. I find using non district issued works best, because often our filter blocks even these sites. They need it for college and scholarship applications anyways. Just make sure they remember it or write it down for you, because someone always forgets. That's why I have the option of using my document camera, for those kids. I even allow them to use Photostory or Movie Maker if they prefer. I want them comfortable and producing, so the media doesn't matter, just the content.

4-GoAnimate = just set up your account and follow the online examples. Its truly a drag, drop, and type program.
GoAnimate.com



5-Animoto = usually limits you to 30 seconds unless you setup a education account and get a code from them. Then make sure they use your code when they sign up. It needs images and music to create.


6-Voiki= just set up your account and follow the online examples. Its truly a drag, drop, and type OR speak using microphones program. If you use the type method, you can even use different languages!


7- Document Camera = I limit them to 20 mins use time with it. They have to tell me exactly what they plan on doing before they get to pick an avatar that comes with the software and film it.

To Power Pt or to Prezi/Video.....

Okay here is a very common problem that I run into in the classroom and here students complain about, all the time.......

"Death by power point". This is when you turn your PPT into a written "slide show" about your lecture, often word for word. That is not what makes an affective tool to reach and keep your students interest.

What I have started doing, and we are having great success with in my classes. We use PPT as our textbook, especially since now the textbook budget has been "cut". Even TEA is mandating that textbooks now be published with a ePub, PDF, etc.... So my class our textbook is the PPT. When I actual lecture or present something I use a Prezi, Animoto, or You Tube video that I show and we discuss as we go. For those who work in ISD that blocks You Tube even for staff you can use Teacher Tube or Vimeo. Upload the video you make or want to show to them. Even Google docs now allows for video uploads. Think about, what would you prefer? Don't you "roll your eyes at in service when they start reading PPT word for word?

There is a time and place for the "old school" PPT and we still use it. I just no longer use them as my "lecture". I find letting the students go, explore, find the info. from off of my PPT, or "Google It" is ever so much more affective for my students. I introduce it and lecture from off the Prezi or videos. I know longer have kids that "fall a sleep" when I need to introduce a new concept.

Here are some examples for you to compare. Which method would you prefer to be taught with and why?

G2K_Baxter_Exam-2011

More PowerPoint presentations from Rachel Baxter

Getting To Know Mrs. Baxter on Prezi

How to Draw ACAD Problem #3 PPT/PDF http://goo.gl/X4VHo

How to Draw ACAD Problem #3 Video