Flipping 2.0 Book Order

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"Flipping 2.0 --Practical Applications for Flipping Your Class"


If you've decided to flip your class, you probably have new questions: How do I do this? What will it look like? What will students do in class? How will I create learning experiences for students outside of class? What have other teachers done? Flipping 2.0:Practical Strategies for Flipping Your Class seeks to answer your questions. And it opens the dialogue for us to continue to learn together. In this book, you will follow practicing classroom teachers as they walk you through their flipped classroom journey; why and how they made the change, what obstacles they overcame, the technology they used, and where they are heading next. As a flipped learning teacher, you need time to check out workable solutions that other teachers have created. Look inside their classrooms and learn from their experiences. Watch flipped teachers at work. Pick the brains of those who ve been there, and join the conversation. You ll find something useful in every chapter. And there is a chapter just for you in this book. With a chapter on mastery learning by Brian Bennett, two chapters on English by Cheryl Morris/Andrew Thomasson and Kate Baker, two chapters on social studies by Jason Bretzmann and Karl Lindgren-Streicher, two chapters on math by Audrey McLarenand John Stevens, two chapters on science by Marc Seigel and David Prindle, Google tools for flipping by Troy Cockrum, two chapters on technology by Cory Peppler and Tom Driscoll/Brian Germain, part-time flipping by Kenny Bosch, elementary school flipping by Todd Nesloney, middle school flipping by Nichole Carter, world languages flipping by Heather Witten, tech ed flipping by James Michlig, co-flipping by Cheryl Morris/Andrew Thomasson and even flipping your professional development by Kristin Daniels. Read Flipping 2.0 today and make your decision to flip a reality.
 
The cost of this amazing book is $24.95 plus $3.00 shipping. 
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I am excited to share my thoughts on flipping the traditional classroom in this great book along with so many other great contributors that includes authors from around the country and Canada.

*PLEASE NOTE: 
-Orders placed to Canada have a $6 shipping fee.
-Orders placed outside of the main U.S. and Canada  have a $14 shipping fee.
We will ship your book as soon as soon as the order is processed. Contact me directly at kennybosch@hotmail.com with questions.

 

2013 Lawrence University Outstanding Educator Awarded to Kenny Bosch

http://blogs.lawrence.edu/news/2013/05/two-state-educators-recognized-by-lawrence-university-as-outstanding-teachers.html

Not a Broadcast but a TouchCast

One of areas I felt I could grow the most as a professional was my ability and effort in communicating with parents. In the past, looking up phone numbers and contacting home was usually more work than it was worth. I say this because all too often, I would call and get an answering machine never knowing if the message was received or deleted. Over time, Infinite Campus (IC) was introduced in my school district and this tool greatly increased my communication with parents. I found IC to be a useful tool, but again, it limited what I was actually able to communicate to parents to nothing more than a basic group email and maybe an attachment.

Last school year I was given an iPad and I began to explore and find useful apps in my professional life. What I found and began to implement was an app called TouchCast. TouchCast is an iPad app full of functional, useful tools to help broadcast information, ideas, surveys, documents and much more. As a presenter, you are able to add sound effects, incorporate live news and sports feeds, change the lighting, use a whiteboard and my favorite, type out your ideas into the teleprompter to use during your TouchCast, just like the pros.

Some of the ways I have used TouchCast so far include:

1. An introduction to TouchCast and ways that teachers could leverage this tool:
http://www.touchcast.com/bosch/Heres-How-to-Use-TouchCast-as-a-Teacher

2. I flipped parent/teacher conferences by sending out this TouchCast a few days before conferences covering the basic parts of my classroom leaving more time to discuss each student and their performance in class.
Regular U.S. History http://www.touchcast.com/bosch/The-Latest-on-US-History/
A.P. U.S. History  http://www.touchcast.com/bosch/The-Latest-on-AP-US/

3. I participate in a Twitter book discussion on the third Tuesday of each month related to the book Flipping 2.0 Practical Strategies for Flipping your Class, of which I wrote a chapter. I was asked to make a brief video of some sort introducing my chapter. I used TouchCast to make this brief video.
http://www.touchcast.com/bosch/The-Latest-on--Flipping-20

In my classes, I encourage students to use technology to share with the other classes and the world what they have learned (See three part blog below). I will introduce them to TouchCast this year and show them a few projects as exemplars. In my A.P. class I am thinking of a new project where students will use TouchCast to present a news story from any time period they choose. One example could be: students dress in Colonial Era clothes and present a news broadcast of the Boston Massacre or Boston Tea Party.

If you have an iPad, look into TouchCast and experiment with ways in which you and your students could incorporate this great technology into your course.

20% Time, Genius Hour or Student Choice. I call it "My Interests." Part III of III

Part III of III

Any instructional strategy or method can lose its charm or effectiveness over the course of a year-long course and having alternative options for students helps to keep the course exciting and new for everyone involved. Below are a few options I have experimented with and enjoyed implementing last school year.

Option 1:
Part of Friday "My Interest" became a show and tell or how-to time where I would call up students to explain exemplary work and how they made their project using tech. The students were honored to be the ones leading discussion, they competed to be the next ones to get to be the example and they taught me new technology along the way.
*Note: In the beginning of the year I would model some technology for them and give them some ideas on how to use the technology.

Options 2:
Other ways I utilized "My Interest" days was to have students "huddle up" with similar projects. So, if three students worked on organized crime they huddled up to discuss what they learned, used their devices to look at each others work on Edmodo and discuss and comment. Then, as a class we could have each group report back on what the learned as the "experts" on their topics.

Option 3:
To change it up, on Fridays of my choosing I would have a representative from each topic get with other topics so that there were people in your group that had not studied the same topic and they could ask you questions. Meaning that each a group had someone that studied organized crime, flappers, prohibition, ect. Each student in the group became the expert on their topic. We would almost always come back as a large group and have a class discussion of the chapter.

The fun, exciting part as a teacher was that every hour and group was unique. I enjoyed being able to walk around the room and participate in group discussions with each one presenting me with new challenges!



If you enjoyed what you read here, please follow me on Twitter- @kennybosch. If you would like to order a copy of the book I was a  co-author of for more examples of the flipped classroom from a great group of authors, please see my "Flipping 2.0"  blog below.

Thanks for reading!

20% Time, Genius Hour or Student Choice. I call it "My Interests." Part II of III

Part II of III

Wednesday and Thursday
These two days are essentially the same as Monday and Tuesday with the exception that our chapter quizzes take place on Thursdays.

Friday: My Interest Day
As we cover the chapter I encourage students to watch for something that they are really interested in learning more about and making it their "My Interest" project for the chapter. They may begin the project at any time but it is due by Friday.

Here is a brief example of  how this works. When we cover a chapter on the 1920's there are a lot of great topics to cover and the students can choose anything related to the topics in the chapter. I really give them a lot of freedom to choose here and the results have been great. The chapter on the 1920's has two paragraphs on Al Capone, three paragraphs on Prohibition, two total pages on the Women's Rights Movement. Students could go on and learn more about anything in any direction and that is what both my students and I love. Student could learn more about social standards for women in the time period related to dating. I teach 15-16 year olds so this is a topic of great interest. With regard to prohibition, some students went on to learn about modern states and their drinking age and drunk driving laws. The topic of Al Capone led students to want to learn more about other nefarious persons from the time period.

Students used technology (tech from here on) to present their ideas and I encourage them to work with partners every other project. I encouraged them to try new tech with their projects or, to at least try out tech they are familiar with (PowerPoint) and try new ideas in that medium-add a link, a video, embed a link, have a live Twitter feed, etc. Students amazed me with what they produced. Students used: Animoto, Doceri, Educreations, CloudOn, VuVox, YouTube with their own verbal narrations, Prezi, Tumblr, Pintrest, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Presentation, custom timelines, and many more. One student even recorded herself singing her favorite song from the 1940's!

20% Time, Genius Hour or Student Choice. I call it "My interests." Part I

This past school year I decided to flip my regular U.S. class and incorporate more student choice. I have always tried to make this happen, but to be honest, the technology was not there yet. Once my school developed a strong enough WiFi system and students were allowed to use their cell phones in school I was able to implement what I called "My Interests."

As a teacher of 14 years I have always tried to find ways to push my students to want to go beyond the text and learn more on their own about anything in the chapter that interests them. Like anything else in teaching or life, when you are truly interested in what you are working on, it feel less like work and is more fun! To begin this process I thought about what I wanted to see happen in our classroom. 1. I wanted students to still read the chapter for core content. 2. I wanted my students to explore beyond the text in a topic that interested them. 3. I wanted the students to share their ideas with their classmates in a time-friendly format. Flipping our class and "my interests" projects made it happen.

Here is a typical week breakdown using the text and "My Interests."
-We start out with chapter five that has four sections to it: 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4

Monday:
I introduce chapter 5 sections one and two on Monday and take about 15 minutes covering the sections introducing key ideas, terms and people. I purposefully leave information gaps on topics to make students interested in finding out more. Students then read for 25 minutes or so reading as much of each section as they can in that time. Students take their own notes, being sure to include the key ideas, terms and people I spoke of at the beginning of the hour.  Students love that they can move through the reading at their own pace on their own schedule. Near the of the hour I have the students "huddle up" with classmates and discuss what they learned. I enjoy the huddle time as I am able to walk around the room and listen/participate in their discussions. My interactions with my students are unique to where each person/group is at that day, that hour.

Students may continue on with the reading of the two sections that night, or if they feel they are far enough, finish off section two the next day in class.

Tuesday: 
I begin class by gauging where the students are at in their reading. Next, students are given 25 minutes to again read and taken notes on their own. After this time, we have a five minute huddle and then a large group discussion of those two sections. I have found that the students are more prepared and more comfortable with class discussion due to the fact that they had class time designated to reading and they had time to bounce ideas off of classmates before large group discussion.

If students want to work ahead at any time and read the other sections, they may. Students love the ability to move at their own pace.

*Please check back soon for Part II and III in the near future.

It's about... time. Three examples of how to make personal connections with students.

The most important commodity of life is something that is intangible-time. We all wish we had more time. Time to get work done, time to relax, time to sleep, time to spend with friends and family, time to connect with people. Unfortunately, most of us put off the last four items for the sake of the first one.

As a teacher for fourteen years now, I have been successful in one area of my instruction without a doubt, making personal connections with my students. I have had other colleagues ask me: how do I make such great connections with my students, how do I get my students to complete work on time, how do I get my students to be respectful, how do I get them to open up and tell me so much about their lives? The easy answer is, time. The best way any of us can show we care about someone is to take time to listen.

Here are three easy ways to take time to make personal connections with your students:

1. Start of each day or even one day a week telling a story about yourself.
I always begin every Monday with asking students about their weekends, where did they go, what did they do? I ask them if any of them saw a new movie, had a sporting event, etc. In the beginning of the year I model this by asking these questions, but knowing they most likely will not answer, so I tell them about my weekend. Invariably, one of the students will speak up and share something and then another. It takes five minutes or sometimes more, but the dividends pay off in the long run. The students will know you care about them simply by taking the time to ask them about their lives and not only focusing on what they know about the course content. Once they tell you about what their interest are it is easier to make connections. Taking the time to do this is easy and a fun start to the week.

2. Brief conversations while checking off homework
I check off homework one to three times a week and use these opportunities for brief conversations with students. I do not speak to every student, every time or for very long, but these are still conversations that matter. I make comments about their soccer jersey, their hair, their shoes, the t-shirt with of their favorite band they are wearing. It is simply noticing people and making them the focus of the conversation. Of course, I notice their work and am I sure to mention when I see improvement in their work and genuinely convey my happiness in their work. To be honest, they care more that I notice them than their work, and in doing so, they begin to care more about their work.

3. Pay attention to the little things
When students walk in the room I focus on noticing any changes, slight or overt and making it a point to talk to the student about it at some time. I had a male student this past year who wore the same handful of shirts all year. When he came to class after Winter break with some new clothes I made sure to talk to him about them and tell them how great they looked. I had a student that wore automobile t-shirts and used his shirts as a conversation starter. When we began 20% time with technology projects every chapter he moved his passion for cars into his education( I will have more on my experience with 20% time in a future blog). When a female student made a significant change to her hair style by having a pixie cut (yes, I looked up what to call that type of haircut on a female as to not offend her), I told her in front of the class that "I like your hair." This small gesture helped her to open up and talk more in class from them on. When you take the time to notice people, they will appreciate the attention and give it back in your classroom.

The best way to make connections to your students is to be open, honest and genuine. Your students want to know you are a real person, with friends and family members. I enjoy sharing my life outside of school with my students and I find it even more enjoyable to know more about them. When each of us think back to  our favorite teachers, they were the ones who cared about us, shared at least a little bit about their personal lives, but most of all, they took the time to care and listen.

How Doceri helped me flip my class

Doceri is a  free Ipad app that transformed my classroom this past school year. Doceri is amazing because through WiFi, you can control your computer via your Ipad.

When I was given my Ipad I was unsure how I was going to utilize this resources in my classroom. I began to look for whiteboard apps and experimented with a few different options. What I was looking for was a basic whiteboard to write on. What I found far exceeded my original goal. Most whiteboard apps are just that, only a whiteboard. You can write on your Ipad screen and only you can view the work. Doceri is a whiteboard app that allows you to choose any background and have the image able to be seen by all in your classroom (or anywhere you have a LCD projector and a surface). Through Doceri I am able to control my classroom computer PowerPoint presentations, make notes on the slides in real-time, screen cast any image on find on the internet to my Smartboard and much more.

In years past I would find interesting resources, news articles, etc and bring them into the classroom and pass them around for all students to see. I would usually begin by walking around the room holding up the item, discussing the connection to our class topic and then passing the item(s) around the room. With Doceri and my Ipad I now take pictures of the item and screen cast them to my Smartboard for all to see and discuss. Due to everyone having access to the information at the same time we are all able to disucss in real-time instead of a delayed response as the item makes it way around the room.

Near the end of the year, during a current events discussion the topic of "soft-skills" future employers are looking for came up and I found an article in the local paper. I took a picture of the article using my Ipad and then used Doceri to screencast the image to my Smartboard for a brief class discussion. Using Doceri I was able to highlight some key parts of the article.

  

Another use of Doceri came to me when a student brought in an original WWII newspaper that was not in the best shape. My student offered to pass the paper around but instead I took some pictures of the newspaper, added some questions to the end and made an on-the-fly presentation to use in 10 minutes. 

 I used Doceri to make a custom presentation when I met with  parents and students for the 2013-14 school year. I made over 30 custom slides and presented in a large meeting room where I was able to walk around the room while I discussed the material. 

Before Holiday break I wanted to make a card I could "give" to my students in our paperless classroom and again Doceri was the answer. I used the custom made card from Doceri, added my text (and even sound) and then posted the card to my Edmodo page and scheduled the send time to be the end of the day.

What you read above was a small sample of the ways I have used Doceri in my classroom. If you have an Ipad, a LCD projector/Smartboard or even a wall, Doceri will allow you virtually limitless ways for you and your students to share content and present ideas.

To see how I use Doceri as a coach click here: http://doceri.com/blog/2012/11/basketball-coaching-with-the-ipad-and-doceri/

Follow me on twitter @kennybosch for more edtech ideas.