My Home Away From Home

Just thought I would share a couple of pictures of my classroom for those getting interested in my blog to have an image in mind of where I do some of my best work. :) 
This is a picture of my room. It is an eMINTS classroom with a 2:1 ratio. I'm working on getting it to be a 1:1 ratio. 

 Finally got it done! My favorite quote is now much larger on the wall for all kids to see. Everyone needs some good motivation once in awhile. 

Christmas in January

My neighbor across the hall (Renee) and I are extremely excited about the set of 15 new headphones we just got in today! So many more possibilities now! We LOVE the attached microphones! The kids are just as pumped as we are!

Edmodo

I've begun trying to incorporate Edmodo into my classes this week as well. Edmodo is kind of like a Facebook, but for school. It can all be moderated by the teacher as to what kids can and do post. You can also post quizzes, polls, etc. I'm still learning many of the uses for Edmodo in the classroom, but the little I know about it so far seems as if there are bound to be hundreds or thousands of possible uses. 

So far I have my 6th graders using Edmodo. They just finished up a project of making a Google Presentation on Plate Tectonics. As they found helpful websites on Edmodo, I had them post those websites on a discussion post on Edmodo. That way they could help each other out and remember which sites to use themselves. If they had questions for sites to use they also posted those questions onto Edmodo and other students would respond with help. I also used Edmodo to inform them of a quiz they would be having the next day in Google Forms, and I wrote a post for them to comment on what they had learned so far about their current topic of where volcanoes and earthquakes occur around the world. It was great reading what they had to say. 

I will be sure to share more uses of Edmodo as I find and use them. 

*One of the ladies in my current Master's class shared the idea of using Edmodo in her classroom to have kids do book discussions with their classmates in other hours on the same books that they were all reading. I thought that was a great idea! This makes me want to have my kids working on various projects in one hour and sharing with kids in other classes who were assigned to the same project. 

I LOVE GOOGLE!

Any educator who is not using Google Drive in his/her classroom is MISSING OUT! I LOVE GOOGLE! I have found so many uses for it. I am extremely blessed to have an eMINTS classroom with a 2:1 ratio of desktop computers, so we can use the computers for a lot of projects. This weeks new one was to create and submit a quiz to the kids through Google Forms and then install Flubaroo into the Google Spreadsheet to automatically score those quizzes. Super SUPER easy after figuring it all out. We will be using those quizzes more often to see if the kids are understanding what they need to as we go. The program also automatically hi-lights the failing scores and hi-lights the question that receives the lowest scores so you can easily see what the kids are not understanding. I will attach the directions below for how to use this program. Teachers will not be disappointed with this one! 

http://www.flubaroo.com/flubaroo-user-guide#step4

I must add that all of our students have Google Accounts through the school, so I simply emailed this form to them after setting up an email group including all of my 6th graders.

Classroom Update

The flipping saga continues. :) 

I thought I would give an update of what my students are working on now and share new ideas of new units as we begin them. 

I have two preps: 5th Grade Science and 6th Grade Science. 

5th Grade Science: My students have been filling out a moon phase chart for the past month. Each day they enter my classroom their first job is to fill out their planner (of which I post the daily assignments/objectives on my website https://sites.google.com/site/libbertsdomain/). Their second job is to get onto the following website and record the moon phase for the current day. http://www.calculatorcat.com/moon_phases/phasenow.php

If it is a Monday, students must catch up on their moon phase from over the weekend using the following website. 

http://www.almanac.com/moon/calendar/zipcode/65101/2011-01 

After they do those chores at the beginning of class, then they begin work on their current on-going assignment. The one we are working on now is they are making a Prezi for the moon phases. Students are responsible for learning why we have the moon phases, the order of how the moon phases transition, how each phase looks, and what the names of each phase means. They will then put that information into a Prezi. I provided the rubric for them and they use it to guide them through the assignment. 

6th Grade Science: The sixth graders also know that when they enter my classroom they need to fill out their planners and see what we will be working on for the day by looking on my website. After they fill out their planner, they are also supposed to begin work on their current project. A few are finishing up making a Google Presentation on Plate Tectonics. I, too, gave them a rubric for this assignment and then they are responsible for creating the slides based off of what the rubric requires. I also have them research the information themselves. 

Most of them are finished with that assignment and have begun the next one, which involves many aspects. The first thing they do is use the internet to research locations of 20 major volcanoes and 20 major earthquakes that have happened around the world. They are to type the data they find (location, magnitude, date, etc.) into a Google Spreadsheet which they create themselves and share with their group members. After they get that data collected, they will use a blank poster board and create a topographic map of the world by either drawing the continents or printing them off, put the grids for the lines of latitude and longitude, and then plot the locations of their earthquakes and volcanoes. 
I'm very anxious to see how they do with this assignment. It's going to be a challenge for a lot of them, but I told them that I knew it would be hard and I knew they could all rise to the challenge. My kids are truly enjoying my classes. They want to be engaged! 

I will keep you updated on how things go and what else we try! 

Why I'm Flipping Out

I truly believe that in order for someone to give their full heart to someone or something else, they first need to be inspired. I have been inspired by technology. In recent months I have found more of the full potential that technology offers the education world. Children currently in schools are considered to be "digital natives". Technology was all around their world before they even saw the light of day. Those of us who have been around a few more years (I know I'm still near the bottom of that totem pole), are considered to be "digital immigrants". Many of us were here before a lot of technology ever was. Children, "digital natives" thrive for using technology in all aspects of their lives. Adults, "digital immigrants," seem to be scared of technology. They are afraid of it because they don't know how to use it or perhaps are worried that the technology can do more than they can. Some adults are scared of their jobs being replaced by robots or some other form of technology. Regardless of our view, we have to all come to the realization that any children born from here-on-out will be considered "digital natives." They will only know a world of technology in many forms. We don't even know what will exist by the time this years babies are considered to be adults. Technology is emerging at an incredibly fast speed. Because of this I have realized that I need to try to stay up with the times and keep my middle school students engaged by teaching them in ways they learn best... through the use of technology. They don't want to sit stagnant in desks and read through textbooks and answer questions on worksheets. Think back to your schooling days. Can anyone remember one special worksheet that you did? I don't remember hearing people say, "I remember that Chapter 9 Worksheet 9.1 that we did in Math class. It was the bomb!" I do hear people talking about projects, though as they reflect on educational careers. Students remember the projects and experiments and other adventures that they got to use hands-on learning during the course of the activity. They remember the things that engaged them. They often also don't remember what was told to them, but rather what they had to research and present themselves. For these reasons as well I'm trying to change my classroom from one in which I am at the front of the room doing the lecturing, reading, teaching, etc., to one in which I am walking around the room as the guide and facilitator. I'm "flipping" my way of teaching. I see the students as being on a tour and I'm the bus driver. I take them to where they need to go, but it's up to them to get off the bus and explore the excursions. This blog will be my way of sharing my journey through flipping my classroom. It is a slow process, but so far an intriguing one. I have a new-found love for my job again. I have to admit that I was already getting bored and wore out with the way I was teaching. This is a whole new way of teaching, and it is great! Please continue to check in to see how things are going as I'm working to "flip out inside my classroom".