Day 2 of reteach flipped

Day 2 went well. my rambunctious 7th period had a harder time staying focused, well some of them. The day was calmer since the students all knew what to do. Tomorrow is test day so hopefully it will pay off and their test scores will rock!

Great day! with reteach

We finished our unit 4 before Thanksgiving break but had to wait till we got back to test per district testing calendar, well needless to say the test scores were not good at all. This unit was not flipped but the reteach kind of is. I grouped the questions by TEK and make videos for each and posted them together with other example questions for them to do on their own using proprofs.com on my Edmodo site. I'm really loving the show me app on my iPad, it's great for late night planning with videotaping. I gave them back their tests, asked them to get out a different colored pen and their math notebook. I told them to watch the video, if they think they understood and got the questions right then check the end of the video and move on to the practice problem. If they didn't get it, watch the video, correct the problems, and take any additional notes in their notebook about the topic. For example if they missed the question on slope, write how to find slope and what slope is in their notebook. They worked in partners, grouped by level, and worked at their own pace. They all were on task and seemed to be really liking this style.

We are doing this today as well, and anything they still don't get they can do tonight to help them for the retake tomorrow. They had one computer or macbook, some even used ipads or tablets per pair and I had them spread around the room which made it easier for me to walk around and assist them. The one thing I would say to improve this is having headphone splitters and extra sets of headphones, most kids have their own headphones and they'd share with their partner but if they didn't it made it hard to hear.

Day 2- The first time they had to watch a video for HW

I will admit, I was nervous today about them coming in prepared. I had a couple message me on Edmodo about not getting the link to work, which I tried to help but on my ipad and laptop I had no issues. For the class practice, we were finishing up a group problem from last week, and this time I gave them to finish I used to go around and look at their notes, answer their questions, and stamp their sheet. Most had them done :-) I was impressed. Those who didn't have them done were later told to get on a computer or smart device and watch them (well not 1st period- I had 2 other people come into observe me and i forgot this step with them). Those who did their notes in class, had an assignment to take home as their practice since they didn't get practice time in class. I was really please with my first 3 classes, most had done their notes. I was however discouraged by mt last class, when only 5 had done them. :-( but it ended ok, this group is my lowest performing class and having that time with them to show them how to access the notes, take the notes, and monitor them really helped and I hope they see the benefits of doing them before class. The activity today was practice problems on point slope form and writing equations of lines given the slope and a point or y intercept. I had 6 questions, but I had 2 levels of questioning. They questions were on two different colored paper, so the students didn't know they were different. I purposely grouped them according to skill level and gave them a card that told them what problem and color to go to. They rotated around and I walked around helping and clarifying things as needed. In the beginning of each class there was some wait time for some groups because I couldn't get to everyone at the same time. But they really just needed the confidence to know they were doing things right.

As a reflection of today, I like how I walk around and stamp notes, but I need to figure out a quicker way to do it so it doesn't waste so much time in the beginning. I am pleased this year so far with the positive comments and actions of my students. This is much better than my implementation last year when I did it at semester with Algebra 2 students. This hopefully is a good sign that this will be a positive change for my classes and my students performance.

They had no homework tonight, we will do whiteboard practice tomorrow over the same thing and on Wednesday I'll give them a short quiz to assess more formally.

Day 1- Implementation

I have been trying and trying to implement the flipped model all year, but with a new curriculum and a new subject matter, and grad school...time wasn't my friend. so finally at the start of the 3rd six weeks I was ready. I emailed out a video and letter (I used one I found from http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/2012/08/3-new-intro-videos.html ) to the parents introducing myself in video form and asking after they went through the video to answer a few questions on proprofs.com. I was very surprised how few responses I got to the parent email. But I went ahead and the next day introduced it to the students. Again I borrowed Mrs. Kirch's video for students and showed mine most of it. I had edited her WSQ, and i explained how things were going to work in our class now. Most seemed to be excited about this. I explained to them how I would still be teaching them, but now in a more purposeful, efficient manner. I also told them how if they didn't do their traditional homework and they continue that pattern with not doing their new flipped homework that they'd still get the same results. There were some non-believers, and that's ok, I just tried to tell them how the benefits really will be benefits if they do their part.

I explained to them the stamp sheet they'd get would be to keep up with their completion and we modeled the first days notes together. There was some technical difficulty but I worked through them and explained how to take notes on their own.