Today was Day 1 of the Flipping process...well sort of day 2. I made my first video using prezi and camtasia studio. This was the only program I could find that could both record the screen while recording a video on my web cam(that isn't made for a mac) I really like the program although I only have the trial version for 30 days. Anyone have a spare $300? Well I was happy with the video. I posted it on my website using youtube and screencast. I did screencast so the kids(that didn't do their homework) could watch it at school. I also made some DVD's so the kids that didn't have a computer could also watch it. I didn't know what to expect as far as how many people would do the video, but I'd say around 75% watched the video and took good notes. I set up the video so there were 5 vocabulary notes which made for some easy note taking while some students definitely went beyond the basics.
I had to do a lot of explaining today so the students would understand the process which was basically that the people that didn't do the homework would lose responsibility/self direction points and would be watching the video before working on the activity. The activity was basically a sorting activity with questions to be answered on a worksheet. It worked with the concepts they learned in the lesson(levels of ecology).
Overall I think the process went rather well. I learned some things I'd change about my assignment, but I'll always find things to improve with any lesson. The kids did well and my first impression is that they did do some learning from the video. Many of the kids said they watched it many times. I'm assuming that's because I'm so darn interesting!
The next video I'll be working on will probably be one about energy in the ecosystem although I'm thinking next year I'll work on one about habitat vs. niche and abiotic vs. biotic.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
A flipping good idea...hopefully
OK, I think one of my focuses for the year will be the beginning stages of flipping my classroom. I've done some research and it seems like an interesting idea. I don't think it will work in all situations but I do think it will be effective for many topics. So far I've started with my first video that will be about some basic ecology. I'm going to try different types of media to keep things interesting. I'll be starting with a prezi that I'll narrate and probably be saving in youtube.edu. One thing I'm wondering right now is what activities I'll be using in the class to show their understanding. And in many of the videos I've seen there is a small frame with the teacher's face doing the lecture but I don't know what program they use for that. Guess it's time to e-mail Dana.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
August 9th Training
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