CEP 820 Final Reflection

As the semester begins to wind down, I think about the goals I set forth for myself at the beginning of the MAET program here at MSU. As I began to learn more about the process of “flipping” the classroom, I realized that there was so much more to it than I had been previously informed of. It’s not just showing videos for homework and doing the homework in the classroom; it is about changing the process at which students learn and attack problems. For me, as a math and physics teacher, having students watch and learn on their own was an interesting experience on many different levels. First, I had to make sure I had all the videos loaded correctly, and second, I had to share the lectures with my students. Throughout this process I have learned that at the present time I do not care for the assignment of watching the lectures at home. At the high school level, the students lack accountability and find other things more important than completing their lessons. However, I found that students like the videos as review of the material rather than using them as a part of the initial learning process. As a result, I have created a LMS site that serves the purpose of transforming my physics class into a hybrid course.

Now, onto the fun stuff. My thought process of creating a “flip” based model classroom was one that was brought to me by the administration. They had me read Flip your Classroom and I bought in to the idea of changing the culture of my classroom. I found a few videos, explained the process to my students and even practiced taking notes while watching the videos. I then assigned watching the videos as homework for my students so they could learn more about it as well. I had realistic views that the implementation of this process would not go about without any kind of hitch, however, I did not foresee the lack of high-speed internet access as one of the problems. While most of my students do have access to high-speed internet or smart phones that allowed them to watch the videos, there were a few of them who were unable to watch them. Our school has very limited access with computers since we only have two computer labs, one of which is a full-time classroom. The other lab can only be accessed when the media center is open. This severely limited the amount of time that the students could watch the videos here at school was a detriment to the process going smoothly. We are in a rural district so going to the local library was out of the question as well. The lack of computer usage time had me deflated until I realized how much the students benefitted from having access to the videos at home for review or missed lessons. I realized that I would need to use the computer lab as a resource and make sure I plan far enough in advance to give my students the chance to access all of the videos. Through the process of CEP 820 I have turned the underutilized videos into a hybrid classroom. I now get to see my students watch the videos and their thought process after they have learned the new material.

This approach has had both advantages and disadvantages. The major advantage is that students get to learn and work at their own pace. I have a mix of different learners in my classroom, like most, and the ability to watch the video as many or as few times as they want was a big help to them. My students had the ability to pause the video when they would normally fall behind in a normal classroom lecture. The way the students approached the practice problems seems different in the way that they could replay the video when they were solving a similar problem. The disadvantage was the lack of discussion about the lecture. Although they still discussed the lesson, they lacked the spontaneous connections that are made when they interact with each other in a typical classroom setting. This reminded me of Bloom’s Taxonomy and caused me to criticize myself in the regard that I am not pushing my students to a high enough level. They were getting the basic ideas down, but they were not critical of their own work. I think this fed from a lack of discussion so as the semester went on, I made sure that I started to integrate questions that pushed my students farther up on the Taxonomy chart. That leads me to where I am now.

I have created two units on www.MyHaikuClass.com for my physics students but I know that I can still do more for them. I teach three other classes and want to begin to slowly integrate those units into a hybrid classroom model. I like this idea because students have the ability to learn and discover at their own pace while I have the opportunity to walk around and answer questions that are not covered within the video. With the current state of the school community I believe this gives me the greatest utilization of the classroom and internet. I know that there is room for improvement and someday this will be a great resource for my classroom. As Benjamin Franklin stated “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

Professional Learning Plan

Looking back at my Personal Growth Plan from CEP 810, I can say that I am coming closer to my goal of “flipping” my classroom. While there is not a true definition of a flipped classroom, I want to create an environment where students are able to learn ideas at home and then come into the classroom and have a genuine discussion proving they understand the material. However, as much as I would like students to do this every night on their own, I know they would get burned out by checking the site every night. I would like to transform it in such a way that my online portion of the classroom becomes the support section to what is learned in the physical classroom.

I hope to continue improving the connection between my online and physical classroom by making sure there is a near seamless transition between them.  My goal is to have one course outlined with guided notes. I think that this is a very realistic goal for me to complete by the end of the summer. If I dedicate myself to a unit a week I will have the course set up by the end of the summer. I also want to make sure that I do include the benefits of using an online CMS. I want to include videos and screencasts, regardless of whether or not they are created by me or someone else. My main focus is that my CMS is utilized as an asynchronous learning environment.  This will give students the chance to review and catch up on material when they are absent or confused. In addition, I have realized that I am very capable of committing this time as long as I set that time aside.

The goal that I think I’m going to need the most help with is making sure that I’m not “using technology, for the sake of technology”. The purpose behind integrating the technology is for me to push my students to higher levels of thinking. My students do a good job of recall and remembering basic ideas and concepts. I want them to do a better job of making connections of those concepts and the real world implications of those concepts. This should follow along with Bloom's Taxonomy where students are pushed to compare, contrast, and analyze. I think that I will have the support and help from my fellow colleagues with this goal. They can peer review my site and add insight to ways that I can further improve upon my CMS. The whole thought process of trying to improve the connections of concepts will not only help students in my classroom but also in their other classes. There is the possibility of changing the culture of the class and I want to be to be a positive part of that.

WPP Part D

Formative: I was able to implement my project in part.  Due to snow days and ACT/MME prep, my plan of adding a second lab this week was scratched.  We had another snow day this Wednesday and that has been four days in the past weeks that we have had off.  I did get one simulation run during the time period and was hoping to get a second lesson in about gravitational force.  However, due to time limitations I will not be able to complete a second lesson during this course.  I am excited to see the results of a second attempt and try to implement some changes to see if that allows for better connection for students.
Summative: After the first introduction of online simulations with more focus on driving the connection between concept and application, my students were able to have a sustained conversation about momentum and different types of collisions and what would happen based on elasticity.  Based on the one time implementation I believe that it was a success and that students will benefit from further inclusion of online simulations.
Approach/Lessons Learned: Lessons learned for me were that much like lessons in the classroom, lessons that are based on the use of technology can need different levels of explanation as well.  There were students that needed very little in terms of direction and then others needed specific parts of the simulation explained.  At first I tried to let them struggle and explore on their own but due to time constraints I had to direct them towards the main concepts of the lesson.
Changes: Some changes that I would make to the inclusion of online simulations would be to have two sets of directions.  One set would be somewhat ‘bare bones’ and then I would provide a second set that goes further in depth.  They were also able to make the connection between momentum and kinetic energy.  
Conclusions: Just like a normal school year you can never prepare for the unexpected especially when it comes to Mother Nature in Michigan.  In addition to the weather, we were under pressure to review for the ACT/MME.  These are two completely different styles of science tests.  The ACT focuses on reading charts and graphs with little (17%) focus on comparing and contrasting hypotheses.  Then the MME pulls content from Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.  I think that the inclusion of online simulations along with questions that are more inquiry based has driven my students to a better understanding of material.  I plan to continue adding online simulations into every unit for the rest of the year.

Course 2.0 Part A

Wicked Problem Part C

The past two weeks have been a little hectic.  Last Monday we had our second snow day of the year because the back roads were a sheet of ice.  However, I did not get to experience the joy of the snow day like most of my peers, I was at the Kellogg Center for an ACT conference.  Since, we were working while the rest of the district was off we were given a compensation day which, I had to take that Thursday and then Friday was professional development.  So I had students for two days and then this past week we had students for three days.  Monday was mid-winter break and then Friday we had another snow day!  So needless to say the past two weeks have been a little hectic.  However, I was able to have my students work on an simulation this past week, where they had to make predictions and then run several simulations and describe the results.

I had my students work in our science lab room, where they were in small groups.  I gave my students the following worksheet and they had to work two 48 minute class periods where they had to have the packet completed at the end of day two. (Note: one the first page the images are overlapping, but aren’t that way in my MS Word version. Darn capability issues)  They had to go to Phet website and launched the simulation.  The objective of this lab is for you, the student, to make a connection between mass, velocity, elasticity, and momentum.  Also, students are to work on practice problems at the end of the lesson.  The background knowledge students have coming into the lab is that they know Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and the basic definition of momentum.  At this point in the class we have not covered different types of collisions, only that the forces are equal and opposite.  
I decided to search the Phet site and look for a document that has already been created and modify it to match to what I expect from my students.  I started the lesson off by having a brief discussion of what momentum is and where it comes into “play” in the real-world.  After that short discussion I passed out the lab.  Then, with the help of my projector, I showed the students how to get to today’s lab.  Once I had showed them how to get the lab and set up their initial experiment, I took any last minute questions and left them to work on their own.  Now, I quickly realized a flaw in my plan.  The charts that I had included made perfect sense to me, however, that was not the case for them.  I immediately had several questions as how to fill out the charts and what some of the meanings were.  I did have the different headings labeled beneath the chart but it was slightly different than what we had talked about before.  Very quickly, my co-teacher and myself scrambled about the room to talk to the six groups to clear up any confusion and prevent further questions on this issue. Their questions certainly are not a bad thing, but we wanted them to be able to use their time efficiently for the rest of class.  From there, we made the decision to help reduce redundancy with the recording of data and had students cross off some of the cells that they had to fill in.  That alone eliminated most questions.  In the current version of the lab I have already crossed off those cells.  Students were given freedom to change values as they progressed through the lab.  This allowed for them to try several different situations and decide which one they wanted to record.  In the future I think I would have made a note for them to play around with it and then make a decision on what data to record.  It also allowed them to make some generalizations about what happens to the momentum of objects when they collide.  By the end of the first day, most students have completed the first section of the lab and were starting to look into inelastic collisions.  I added a comparison of kinetic energy so students who finished early could make some conclusions about conservation of energy while the rest of the class was catching up to them.
To start off day two, we discussed the findings of the class and their thoughts on the change of momentum of two completely elastic objects.  This also provided time for absent students to catch up with the lab.  As it turns out students enjoyed the format of inelastic much better because they were not given a chart to fill out this time rather, they had blanks to fill in.  This time students were familiar with the format of the lab and had a much easier time recording data.   At the end of this section students were once again asked to calculate kinetic energies and make note of changes of energies.  Also, there are some concept questions asked in regard to inelastic collisions.  Students then had three practice problems where they had to solve for velocity or mass of an object after a collision.  They also had to use the idea of elastic collision or inelastic collisions.
Finally, we started day three off with a discussion of what happens to the objects when it is an inelastic collision and how that differs from elastic.  Then, students started to make the connection of elastic and inelastic collisions to their practice problems.  I was excited to see that connection made between the lab and application, whether it be a small one or a complete understanding.  I could have told students the difference between inelastic and elastic and then how to set up those problems, but that was not the case and they were able to make those connections on their own.
After all was said and done with the lab I asked students for suggestions as to how I could make this lab better and whether or not anything lead to confusion.  Most mentioned the format of the table and what exactly had to be recorded.  Besides that, there were very few concerns from the students.  They said it was laid out well and they had a good idea of what was expected of them.  As for me, I was exceptionally pleased with the result of the lab.  I have thought about adding more directions to it but there’s the pessimistic part of me that thinks “that’s less they are going to read”.   So, for now, I am holding off on the idea of adding more directions besides the introduction session held in the classroom.  

Mobile Learning

I was looking at teen data for what activities they participate in when they are online.  I was shocked by the fact that only 13% use twitter online but then I looked at the date of the survey which was July 2011.  I wonder how much that data has changed since then.  Then, another survey from Pew Internet showed that 77% of teens (12-18) own a cell phone, but what I wish I knew was how many of those phones have internet access.  I currently have my students use their phones in class for responding to the calculator function and checking their grades.  I also have them listen to music while they work.  I have noticed that when they are listening to music they seem to stay on task longer.  I haven't thought about having them research articles or ideas by using their phones in class.  To me that idea is something that is done in the library or computer lab but the truth is we have a wealth of knowledge within reach of our fingertips.  This has me thinking about ways I can have students research a topic in small groups and then come back together to discuss their findings. This could also be done as a jigsaw.

Data Visualization Blog

After playing around with ArcGIS Explorer, Many Eyes, and Google Fusion, I have found that there is a large difference between them.  I am familiar with ArcGIS from working at the City of Ann Arbor and helping maintain their sidewalks but did not realize the true depth of the program.  It's an extensive mapping program that stores data and can publish the results in many different fashions.  I was hoping there was going to be an aspect of ArcGIS that would allow the publication of "simple" data, for example, data from excel.  Nevertheless, it appears that most if not all of the data is dependent upon geo-mapping.  Granted this could be used in a earth science or engineering classroom where students would have to analyze data based on a map.  The second data visualization site that I visited was Many Eyes.  Many Eyes brought the attention to representing data in a way that I had not thought about before.  The flow chart of UN Climate Strategy was interesting to me.  I think that I could use this site in my Senior Math course where students work on statistics for half of the year.  The only issue I had with it is that JAVA kept locking up my browser and I had to "kill" my pages several times.  I hope that, the issue is worked out in the near future.  Last, I used Google Fusion because I have used Google Docs for a lot of other school related work and haven't heard of it before.  Initially I wanted to look at my student growth, by comparing pre- and post-test data.  However, I ran into an issue because of the way I have my table setup in Excel made it a challenge to work with in Fusion.  Therefore, I went and got some data, gas consumption of my 2001 Taurus, that was more user friendly for Fusion.  This is how I know I am a math nerd when I was keeping track of my mileage and gallons used.  Just now it came to me as I'm making my students prepare for the science portion of the ACT, that having them create their own charts and then commenting/analyzing classmates charts will help them on the test.