Flipping the Classroom

I talked about the Flipped Classroom a few months ago and if you go back to that post there is a great info graphic that talks about what it is. I've been thinking, pondering and trying to brainstorm about how I can flip my general music class for my middle school students. I just introduced, Edmodo,( which I talked about in this post --> Edmodo ) to my 7th and 8th grade students. If you have not explored Edmodo and are looking for a very user friendly micro blogging environment that is safe and secure, go check it out. Moving on- I really would like to do this and I'm going to figure out how soon but in the mean time, in my research for ideas, I came across an excellent set of videos that would be great for a flipped history class. Crash Course in History videos can be found on YouTube Edu. They are 42 high quality videos that present history; each average 12 minutes long. I watched the first one and felt that they were definitely appropriate for high school students, perhaps middle school depending on your students. Crash Course also has 35 videos for Biology. I recommend taking a closer look at these if this is your course, either as a student or teacher, and perhaps use them to flip your own classroom.

Well this still brings me to no big solution for myself in flipping my classroom, but hey, I'll figure it out. And when I do, you will definitely hear about it.

History teachers- you may also enjoy History for Music Lovers also on YouTube.

Remembering 9/11

There are many thoughts and opinions about how we should teach about the events of September 11, 2001. Larry Ferlazzo, who I have mentioned before, has a "Best of" list for teaching about 9/11. If you are looking for resources you should definitely look at his list.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am a fan of dogs. So I am most interested in the search and rescue dogs from 9/11. There are a few books out on the topic that offer amazing pictures of these dedicated canines. One that I own is Dog Heroes of September 11th: A Tribute to America's Search and Rescue Dogs by Nona Kilgore Bauer. You can purchase the book through many retailers.




Perhaps you might find this video from explore.org a touching tribute to these dogs.

Google Doodles

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww

So I totally admit this is not a cool web tool for education but being a Star Trek fan I found the Google Doodle today pretty awesome.

Although- I do think Google Doodles can be a great spring board to discussions. I always keep Google as my default homepage so when I turn on my projector I don't have to worry about some less desirable story showing up in front of my class. (Thank you Google for that.) Many times there has been a Google Doodle that either myself or someone in the class will notice and comment wondering what it is about. So naturally we have to click and go investigate. We have had some great learning moments that might not have been what I planned to do in class that day, but we all walked away having gained knowledge we didn't have before.

You can even search Google Doodles and view past ones. Something to use perhaps as an introduction to a lesson.

So don't just zip past that Doodle! Teach out of the box once in a while.

Vocabulary Tests online

VocabTest.com is a wonderful resource for assessing or practicing SAT vocabulary. A colleague of mine and expert Literature teacher, Jennifer Borth, uses this site for her students. She uses the Vocabulary Workshop Book Levels. Students are able to take a variety of tests using the vocabulary words from the book they are using. When finished, they can email the results to their teacher or they can print out the results. The tests are date and time stamped and show which words were correct and those marked wrong thus helping both the student and teacher know where help is needed.

VOCABUZZ! is a new vocabulary game students can play against one another. They score more points if they are the first to get the answer correct. But they don't know if they beat their opponent until the clock runs out.





This site is truly teacher and student tested and they love it. It has made what could be a dull study to engaging and fun. Gold star for this site!✩


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Postscript to Puffin, iPads and eBooks at my school. Sad to say that the eBooks did not work, even with Puffin. I ended up downloading a section from the eBook, putting it in my Dropbox and then opening it up on the iPad. Flash components do not work but you can at least read it and no heavy text book to carry around. Our students should be able to do the same by using their eBackpack in lieu of Dropbox.