So in the last week, I've recorded and edited about two hours worth of content with my co-conspirator, Andrew Thomasson.  I wrote about what we've been up to in the previous post, so I won't spend too much time on that.  Right now, I have a few exciting announcements:

1. ShowMe, the iPad tool I use to create videos on an interactive whiteboard (you can see all my videos here), named me one of the first ever Master Teachers.  If you go to my profile, you'll see the little title next to my name.  It's a big honour, and I really appreciate the value they see in my work.

2. I will be co-presenting a Language Arts/Social Studies Flipped Class webinar, with Troy Cockrum, Andrew Thomasson, Crystal Kirch, and Karl Lindgren-Streicher, and another presenter TBD. We will be discussing lots of questions Troy and I have received in the last few weeks, and I think it will be a good introduction to flipping English for those who struggle to know where to begin.  We'll also address Social Studies because of the links in the Common Core Standards (for ELA people and others unfamiliar with them, the CCS in Social Studies aren't content-based - they are literacy/skills-based), with Karl as our resident expert History teacher.  Crystal will be there to help moderate and take questions from viewers.

We will publicise the link on Edmodo, Twitter, and our personal blogs (e.g. here) on Monday, as the webinar will take place on Tuesday at 5 PST.  All you need to join in is an internet connection!  I hope we'll have a good turn-out, and that it will prove useful to people.

3. Finally, I will be starting a project based on a previous blog post about my first day of school activity, White Blank Page.  Here's some additional information, as we're seeking 1-3 more high school teachers to join us (because I'll have seniors, it just seemed wrong to open it up to 6th-8th graders, as it will be heavily collaborative between students).  So far, Karl Lindgren-Streicher and Andrew Thomasson will be joining me on the project.  We'd love to have other teachers of ANY discipline, so long as they teach HS and can commit to the project.

Students would add their questions to a Google form, and then we would archive it on the project's website.  Each semester, students would choose a minimum of one question to work on.  There are lots of ways to do this, but the three of us will probably use it as a Google 20% project, where students get roughly one class session a week to work on it.  Finished projects would be posted to the project website, where students could comment on other projects and get ideas for their next project.

This project is constantly evolving, but we'd like to have at least four, but as many as six, dedicated teachers signed up to the project before 10 August.  If we have more interest than that, we would be HAPPY to help you set up your own project (this would be ideal if a lot of middle school folks wanted to do their own!).

******

Also, if you didn't notice, I have made some changes to the organisation of this website.  I added a tab for Thomasson & Morris Instruction, which is where you'll find updated information about my collaboration with Andrew.  Our future plans are HUGE, so check back frequently to see what we're working on.  Right now, I'm attempting to cut together something coherent out of our (ridiculously fun) chaotic 65 minute recording session from yesterday.  As we go on, it's feeling more and more like two friends hanging out, rather than doing "serious work" - and I think that's great.  We want students to see us having fun, but also working hard, and I think we're finding that balance.  

I'd also like to publicly thank Andrew for being the best collaborative partner I could wish for.  He keeps our crazy ideas in check, and has allowed me to be more excited to be a teacher than I ever have been in the last nine years.  I look forward to seeing what we'll accomplish together over the next few years.

If you have questions for us, you can contact us here, on Twitter (@guster4lovers and @thomasson_engl), or at our shared email address: tmi@morrisflipsenglish.com.  We also have our own YouTube channel, where all of our videos will be housed.

Andrew and I were actually about to start recording video #4 when we got this.  It took me a few minutes to calm down from the sheer excitement so we could film.

Here are the videos:

And all of this was made possible by Twitter.  Imagine that.

Oh, and PS, if you hate the videos, then it's all Andrew's fault.


(j/k!) :-)

Today was legitimately one of the most exciting, and probably important, days of my career.  

Today was the day that Andrew Thomasson and I made our first attempt at collaborative video.  Now I do a lot of ShowMe videos, but having my face and my entire screen in the video is not quite as comfortable for me.  I mean, ShowMe (ironically) lets me hide.  Screencasting a Google+ Hangout is new territory.

We have been sending tweets and emails and texts back and forth hammering out details and plans, but it was time to take the plunge and get it going.

Our tweets right after the screencast sums it up pretty well:

Here's what I learned about screencasting and editing in Camtasia for Mac based on this experience:

1. Having a plan is a good idea.  We outlined the entire video ahead of time, but allowed for spontaneous dialogue and direction.  It wasn't as polished as it could be (and will be as we get better at this).

2. The teacher/student dynamic (Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams made use of this in their collaborative videos) works pretty well.  I think it's the best way of showing the process, rather than just lecturing.

3. Camtasia really is awesome.  It took me a while to figure out how to do everything I wanted, but I'm relatively happy with the editing.  It was pretty easy to get it up and running, and even though I had to pretty much learn everything as I went along, the 12 minute video took me about 90 minutes to complete.

4. Working with someone else makes the video so much more powerful.  I can't possibly overstate this.  Making a ShowMe video is great.  But having TWO teachers combining wisdom and practice to teach a lesson?  That's just phenomenal.

5. Having someone else preview the video helps catch errors.  I had a spelling mistake, an unfortunate Google auto-correct moment, some misaligned camera angles, and a few spots of dead air.  With those tweaks, it was much better.  And I wouldn't have caught them or made them if someone else hadn't been involved.

6. Every Flipped teacher should try a collaborative video at some point if they can.  It pushes you to be better than you are alone.  And that's what teaching is all about.

Okay, enough about me.  Here's the video.

We're recording Part 2 tonight.  Stay tuned for that one.

This entry will grow as students complete their final projects.  Here are two projects on how to understand new words you encounter when you read.  I didn't check the powerpoint before she presented, so there are some errors.  But overall, I'm proud of what she did. 

Well, week one is over.  And I have so many thoughts to sort.  I mean, I've had about 18 hours of class time since I last posted.  Crazy.

To organise this a little bit, I decided to put it in sections with bold titles.  Feel free to skip around - this is not really a linear post because of how much I have to write about!

Student Responsibility
Here's the big lesson I learned this week:  When you give students some authentic responsibility, they become more responsible.  I've put the responsibility on them for figuring out how to earn their credit hours (for more information see the Flex Time section).  Not only is it teaching them the real-world skill of managing their own attendance with a time-card system, but it gives them a freedom they've never had before.

The coordinator for the program walked in and noticed how many "trouble kids" I had in my room and how engaged they were, how exciting the atmosphere was, and how HAPPY the kids seemed.  I had three of "those" trouble kids playing a grammar game on ChompChomp today, and they actually played three more games than I required (with the sound turned up to accompany their own sound effects of pleasure when they got their prizes for right answers).  They thought they would get in trouble for "doing too many games" so they kept pretending they "accidentally started it over" because they were A) having so much fun, and B) learning a lot.  That moment was pretty freaking cool.

It's also been cool to see older students respond to some of the mainstays of my FlipClass.  We used Today's Meet for live response while we watched Anne Frank: The Whole Story (on YouTube! all of it! three and a half hours!).  They loved being able to ask questions.  And with firm rules up-front (I've learned the necessity of that), they did really well with it.  Their questions were awesome.  Their engagement was awesome.  They still felt the power of the film while slightly distracted.  And again, their questions often showed how wide the holes in their understanding really were.  We discussed history, vocabulary, plot, philosophy, pretty much everything.  It scares me to think how much they don't understand if we don't do things this way.  And it's fun to see what's in the kids' heads while we watch something.

Self-Paced Flipped Mastery Model
This program is designed to be credit recovery, based on the needs of the students.  Instead of doing busy-work, they are doing skill building assignments with specific feedback for where they need improvement.  I've divided all the assignments for this first unit (focusing on diagnosing and building specific skills) into two different tracks: Skill Track and Daily Work Track.

The DW track is built on four areas: 
1. grammar (see the DOL/grammar section for more details)
2. silent reading (see the RSS as SSR section for more details) 
3. effective research techniques (we use A Google A Day...yeah, just see the Google a Day section...)
4. checks for understanding (daily exit tickets through Edmodo)

Then there is the skill track.  I went through the Common Core Standards for California and identified some important skills they needed to master:
1. Choose evidence from a text and use it in analysis
2. Determine a theme/central idea and analyse it
3. Discuss how the author uses techniques and what effect it creates 
4. Determine meaning of new words through various techniques
5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language and the nuance/complexity of a text
6. Write an objective summary of a text
7. Use descriptive, sensory, show-not-tell language in writing
8. Explain a concept in writing in a clear and effective way
9. Persuade an audience in an appropriate way using claim/counterclaims
10. Speak in a variety of settings in genres/purposes appropriate to the setting

So I built assignments that cover each of those main skills.  The first assignments assessed, then built on those skills.  I made videos where appropriate, and used sections of Rena's Promise, a memoir from a Holocaust survivor.  Here are some of the assignments and what they assessed:

1. Read this section of Rena's Promise, write an objective summary, and find three quotes to fit a theme.

2. Find a pattern in the text and move the black circles over every word in that pattern.  Then explain how the pattern shapes or affects the text.

3. Take this section of Rena's Promise and re-write it from a different perspective using show not tell language.

4. Research what "resilience" means and find three people who show resilience in some way.  Write it up into an essay in a standard expository format.

etc.

Now, while students do the daily work all at the same time, they work on the skill assignments at their own pace.  As long as they complete a certain set of skills by the end and can show mastery of those skills, they pass.  For the kids who work at a slower pace, the mantra I keep giving them is "Quality over speed or quantity."  It's amazing how much better their work got once they realised that they didn't need to rush to finish it at the pace their classmates were going.  So some kids are on S3, and some are on S13.  It's pretty cool too, because the kids who have higher skills get to do it on their own, then help their friends when they get to that same assignment.

It's working out really well so far.  It also allows me to quickly identify the students who really need my help to build their skills, and which students just need practice on their own.

I know someone will ask about grading, so this is the best answer I can give: the daily assignments are worth less than the skill assignments.  I only grade completed skill assignments so the ones they don't get to don't even factor into their final grades.  I will give them mastery finals for whatever skills they have worked on and that will determine a larger part of their grade than the skill assignments or daily assignments.  So it's points-based, but not entirely points-driven.

Grammar & DOL
Looking at the DOLs I used this past year, I realised that there were a few problems with it.  I've been using the Caught'yas that have Shakespeare plays as the source of the daily sentence corrections.  I've written about it in previous posts already, so I won't rehash it all here.

But the problems I noticed were: 
1. students didn't get targeted help in their weak areas
2. students lost track of the story when it was so spread out
3. we didn't apply it to their writing right away, so it wasn't quite as effective
4. some students said (in their final course reflection) that they would just wait until we went over it together and then submit it on Edmodo so they "didn't have to try that hard"
5. it was a lot of the same with the capitals, punctuation, etc. with not enough emphasis on more difficult skills (who vs. whom, numbers, etc.)

So I made some changes.  Here's what we're doing:
On Monday, we're watching a short clip of the part of the play covered that week.  Most are available on YouTube.  After that, I have them do the DOL on their own and submit it. 

On Tuesday, they check their DOL from Monday, where I've posted a comment with whatever skill I think they most need to work on.  Then they have a few minutes to go play a grammar game based on that skill and post the results on Edmodo in Tuesday's grammar activity.  After that, we either correct Monday's DOL together or I give them a new one.  If I give them a new one, I have them do it on their own first and submit it.  Then they click "Resubmit this assignment" and we do it together.  

I use Word to revise the DOL on the overhead, and I've started using "Track Changes" to make it easier for students to follow, due to my student teacher's excellent suggestion (thanks Samantha!). The kids correct it in Edmodo and make sure to take all the notes before they submit it again.  That way, I can see how they did on their own, then keep consistent with the Caught'ya method of making all the corrections together.  It's working pretty well.

On Wednesday, we do the same thing as Tuesday, only they submit the DOL on their own, then I give them an immediate grammar game to work on before we go over it together.

The final DOL of the week is on their own to see what they've learned.  I only assess them on what they've worked on in their grammar games that week.  I think I might add some questions about the plot from the week's DOLs to assess if they're following the story.

Here is a screen shot of what it looks like (the first one is the one the student did on her own, and the second is the one with our notes/corrections together):

A Google A Day
In our #flipclass chat a few weeks ago, we talked about teaching students tech skills, but particularly research skills.  I was pretty intimidated by this, because I've never taught kids how to Google.  I just assumed they knew how...until I saw them do it.  

Yeah, they need help.  Desperately.  That's were Google a Day comes in.  Every day they get a new question that requires careful googling to find the answer.  I will post a tip each day (explaining how to use phrases in quotation marks, using google as a calculator, dictionary, or translater, using +/- in searches, etc.) and then they play.  Sadly, the school network blocks Google+ so kids just have to play the "regular" game and write down their time and their answer.  

The kids really enjoy it and I've seen them use some of the advanced search tools I've taught them already.

I'm still working on the next steps for these skills.  If you have ideas or lessons, let me know!


RSS vs. SSR
I stole the idea of using RSS feeds for SSR from The Tech Classroom (the blogger is another English flipper...a rare breed of English teacher!)  She wrote about the idea a few months ago, and I thought it wouldn't work for my kids.  Until I figured out that we could use Google Reader instead of an app (Pulse) for kids without smartphones (because strangely, unlike my regular-year classes, my students right now don't all have smartphones).

Setting up the Google Reader was easier than I expected.  I set two requirements: 
1. They needed at least one news site (I recommended BBCNews or CNN)
2. They needed at least one science or technology site (I recommended Wired, National Geographic, or KQED's science/technology pages)

No one pushed back at all to those requirements.  And just to make sure they got how to do it, I left my RSS feed on the screen so they could see how I used it during reading time.  I, of course, added I Can Has Cheezeburger? to mine, and when I heard them laughing a little, coinciding with when my scrolling revealed a new LOLCat, I reminded them that they could add anything they wanted to their feeds.  

They LOVE RSS time.  It was by far the biggest vote getter in the week one survey question "What is your favourite daily activity from class?"  Here are some of their responses:

"rss is my favorite because we get to have a quiet time to read what we want"

"Rss is my favorite because I usually read news and updates on what is going on today, or at the moment in our society and i feel well informed."

"RSS because I like to read about what's going on in the world"

"I like RSS because I actually read and it was things that I WANTED TO READ not what someone told me to read. And I was able to read things I found interesting."

and my favourite response:
"RSS is the best because I get to see what kind of new news is going on the world...like the article I read today on Pulse that Titan might have life."

How cool is that?  On top of loving RSS, they were so excited about what they had read six hours before that they had to put it in their answer!  Love it.

Need more proof that they love it?  Here's a video I took yesterday during RSS time.

Flex Time
When I started writing this post, the school day was "over," but I still had one student working long after the bell announced the end of the week at 2:10.  What could have possessed a 17 year old boy to stay an hour and a half after summer school was over for the week to read a few articles and write summaries of them?  It was the flex time system I talked about a little in my last post.

Want to see the best visual proof you can get for the efficacy of using Flex Time?  School starts at 8:20.  These videos tell a pretty amazing story.

The details of the Flex Time system:
1. When students come in, I record their time on a Google Doc.  I also record when they go to lunch, come back from lunch, and leave for the day.  

2. My IWE adds up the minutes they've earned every day, and I pass those along by posting a list on Edmodo twice a week.  In the Exit Tickets they do on those days, I ask them to tell me their plan so I know they're thinking about it.

3. If they want to come in early or stay late, I ask them to request that a day in advance so I can plan for it.  The really crazy part is that there are always five or six kids who are standing outside my room waiting for me when I get there at 7:30.  We "start" at 8:20.

4. If they decide to work through their breaks or lunch, they have to be on-task, just as they would be normally.  If it veers into socialising, I give them one warning, and then move them away from each other.  I've only had to move one student on one day.  The next day, he moved back and was fine.

5. They get two 10-minute breaks during the day.  If they don't take them, they can "bank" the minutes.  It's so awesome for this main reason: I don't have to write passes.  If they need to use the restroom, get water, take a call, change clothes, get some food, or whatever, they just tell me that they're taking their break.  Because they are self-paced, they can choose the time that works best for them in their workflow.  And honestly, only about half of my students have ever taken even a single break this week.

6. When they've earned their credit hours, they are done with the course.  The only caveat is that they have to have mastered their final assessments before they are done.  I have kids who have banked a full day's worth of minutes already because they have soccer practice, a doctor's appointment, or a family obligation at some point this summer and they're already planning for it.


*******


Still reading?  I think that's it.  If you have questions, let me know!  Thanks for reading.  It's crazy that even though I am properly exhausted (for issues unrelated to teaching or school), I am still super excited about teaching.  And I can't WAIT to get back to work in August.

The even better news is that my current school offered me all the sections of Green English 11 there are.  That means that I'd get to keep my students from this past year.  I won't have to teach them how to do Flipped Class...they already know.  They have Edmodo.  They have Twitter.  They get me.  They like me.  I like them.

Pretty freaking awesome.  This could take flipping to the next level for me.  It's new content for me, but I'll also have an English 10 so I can perfect that curriculum over another year.

There is so much to be excited about....including the fact that my school is paying for my virtual registration for FlipCon12, AND paying me to "attend" with a few of my favourite colleagues.  And they're buying us copies of Flip Your Class too.  

School just doesn't get much better than that.

This post is not just any post.  I took some rough video of my classes in action.  When I say rough, I mean rough.  It's me walking around with my cell phone camera filming what class ACTUALLY looks like when students are all working on different tasks. 

This self-pacing is pretty new to my kids.  I've taught for 8 years where most of the time, all my students are doing the same thing with me all at the same time.  That's how this year started.

But I wanted you to see what it REALLY looks like, warts and all.  I'm not saying it was a good class period or that it's exemplary of the flipped model.  It is what it is.  And I wanted that to be out there and say that I'm NOT perfect, and probably not even GOOD a lot of the time, but I believe that self-reflection is the KEY to every successful educators.  I need others speaking into my classroom and my instruction so that I can get better.  So if you have advice for me, or think I could improve somehow, I'd REALLY like to know.

I filmed most of the period, so here are the videos, in order.  I didn't edit anything.  The only thing I did was stop periodically so that the files were small enough to upload to YouTube.  Sorry about the shakiness and weird angle (I cut off heads a lot of the time).  Again, it is what it is.

***

To really understand these videos in context, you need to know what I wanted to accomplish in this class.  The objectives for this class period were different, based on where they started:

For kids absent for the mastery Night test:
1. To take the test, then go on to the next priority/activity so they can catch up

For kids who didn't achieve mastery on the test they took the previous day:
1. To have them identify the holes in their recall of Night
2. To review the chapters/skills on which they didn't show mastery
3. For students who REALLY struggled on the test, I wanted them to get a bigger picture review using Sparknotes.  This will be controversial with other English teachers, I'm sure.  However, here's my thinking:  I know they all read the book, because we did it together.  They will not be able to re-read the entire book, and that's not the best use of their time anyway.  As an English major, I used Sparknotes for review before class (I rarely ever failed to do the reading, and even if I did, Sparknotes wasn't enough to save me in a discussion class).  I also want them to know where to go for help when they need a quick review.

For the kids who DID show mastery:
1. Students will brainstorm SOAPS elements to start their own fictional story on the theme of resilience.

The overall objective was, as usual:
1. Students will take responsibility for their own learning by completing tasks to best move them towards mastery of the content, with my help as needed.

***

I started filming after going over the instructions with them for what needed to be accomplished during the period (this was a 45 minute period on a late-start/common-planning-time day). 

Here is the Edmodo note I posted with instructions:

When the video starts, we've just gone over those instructions.  It starts about 90 seconds into the period.  You'll see me clarifying instructions, circulating amoung students, fixing technical problems, grading quizzes, and helping students prioritise how to begin their review for their mastery test.

Sorry that the video is messed up in the next one.  I didn't notice it was upside down until about 10 seconds before I stopped recording it.  But there's only about 10 seconds between the next two clips.

Here is the end of class.  For added fun, a kid tries to start a fight in the classroom across the way at about 7:00.  Sorry for the swearing.

That's it.  I'm a little nervous putting it out there like that.  It's raw, and it's real and it's reflective of a normal day in class.  So, yeah.

***

If you're curious about the assignments, here are the review and Short Story Task 1.


Reviewing for the Night Mastery Test

Here is the breakdown of questions.  Erase any question numbers that you got RIGHT.  That will leave you with a clear idea of what you need to review:

Questions by Chapter:

Chapter 1:    1          2          3          5          6

Chapter 2:    4          7

Chapter 3:    8          9          10       11

Chapter 4:    12       13       14       15       16       17       18       19       20

Chapter 5:    21       23

Chapter 6-7:            22       24       25

Chapter 8-9:            26       27       28

For any chapter that you got less than 70% on, you should complete the following activity.  Use the chapters or Sparknotes to complete it.

Chapter ____:_______________________________________________

Important Events:

Questions:

How can you connect events, people, or ideas in this chapter to what occurred historically?  In other words, how does the historical fiction relate to an event or phase in the actual time of the Holocaust?

 
Questions by Skill:

Literary Devices:     7          16       19       25      28       29

Irony:             22       23

Theme:          5          10       15       24       27

If you need a review, there is a video about the literary devices you can watch on your phone (it’s at www.showme.com/cherylmorris).  If you need to work on a specific skill (metaphor, personification, simile, irony, theme, symbolism, etc.) ask me and I’ll give you an assignment.

What I need to review before taking the test again on Friday:

How I am planning to do that:


***


And here's the short story task:

The Resilience Project

You are to write a 750-1000 word short story that explores the concept ‘resilience’. To help you plan, draft and publish a story that is engaging and shows your development as a writer, this task features FOUR separate parts.

TASK 1:  The plan

In your plan you need to show that you have thought about what you will write about in your story and how you will use language and structure to create an engaging story. To help you plan your story, answer the following questions. You may want to type up your answers into a word document or as an edmodo note. 

1.     What is the purpose of your story?

·        to entertain/inform/educate/enlighten/confront/move

2.     Who is your audience?

·        young adults/children/adults/educated/outsiders

3.     What do you want to say about resilience?

4.     Who will be your characters? (protagonist and antagonist)

5.     Where will your story be set?

·        country/city/culture/time period

6.     What style of genre will your story be?

·        realism/Science Fiction/Gothic/comedy/action/fantasy/romance

7.     How will it begin? How will it end?

8.     What crisis or obstacle must be overcome?

9.     What research do you need to do to help create a believable story?

·        Research: settings/genre/characters/ concept ‘resilience’.

10.     What skills do you need to master to create an effective and engaging story?

·        narrative structure/dialogue/figurative language/building tension

DUE DATE: Task 1 must be submitted to your teacher via edmodo or on paper by FRIDAY.


***

Well folks, that's it.  Please tell me what you think!  I hope it is a little more real to you now that you can see what it's really like in my classroom.

So I got an exciting opportunity recently.  I made contact through Edmodo (in the Project Based Learning community) with an Australian English teacher, Bianca Hewes, who runs this blog.  Like me, she's been teaching for eight years.  Also like me, she's having her students use technology in meaningful, real-world ways. 

For their unit on Catcher in the Rye, she is having them think about the theme of resilience.  She had them make a video in response to some questions about resiliency and how teens become resilient. 

Here's the video her students made:

My students were really excited about making a response video.  The first class to be filmed was 5th period.  Here is their response video (edited through YouTube's video editor).  The sound isn't great, but I did put in a subtitle track to help you when the volume was really bad.  It doesn't work that well for the part where it's really needed, but if you listen with headphones on full volume, you can JUST ABOUT make out what is being said.

Anyway, check it out:

Here is the video first period made:

Here is the video that same class made to explain some of the slang

Here is the 6th period video

I'm pretty proud of them for what they've done thus far.

I have two more classes to compile before we can do the next step, but this part was so much fun that it makes me wonder why I haven't had students make video before.  I mean, with my iPhone and iPad, taking the video was super easy, and then uploading it to YouTube was literally only a click away.

I can't wait to start the next part!  Ms. Hewes has agreed to have her students make another video in response to ours this week.  Then we'll be writing short stories and essays about resilience and our students will edit/review each others' work.  This takes project-based learning to a new level and it is one of the coolest things I've ever done in my career.

You can follow the project on Twitter at #resilience12, or you can read about it here or on Bianca Hewes' blog.