It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
-Andy Williams
It’s the beginning of August. I’m sitting with 50 fantastic educators from across the country. I’m at Silver Spring at Discovery Education Headquarters. This must mean it’s another year of the Siemens STEM Institute! During the week, you can follow the goings-on through the Institute Website, or visit the site often as we populate it with resources and come back often!
Tonight’s Keynote speaker is Dr. Lodge McCammon, follow him on Twitter, a pioneer in not only using video, sound and motion to enhance educational practices, including classroom “flipping”, but also encouraging low-cost, simple-to-implement solutions. Check out Lodge’s YouTube Channel and enjoy his work, especially his series of 50 States Songs.
Today Lodge shared one of his catchy songs, this one featuring planetary motion, moons and their orbits. His kinesthetic lecture technique challenges us to apply movements with meaning by finding simple movements to represent otherwise complex topics.
I have written about Lodge’s talks here on the blog before, and invite you to go back and check out his powerful educational message. My first go-around with Flipping was also documented here on the blog, along with some mid-year reflections and tools.
So, where do I go from here?
Well, to be honest….I made lots of videos last year and some of them suck. Some I really, really like, and were on-target for my classroom expectations. Others…not so much. My goal this year is to review all of my videos and assess their effectiveness, then edit, re-shoot, re-format…whatever it will take to make my videos work best for kids. You can check out my many algebra and stats videos on my YouTube Channel.
SO, I NEED YOU YOUR HELP TO RIP APART MY VIDEOS!!!
Below are 3 examples of videos I used last year to “flip”instruction. Each of them was made using a different device or format, and while there are parts of each that I think are effective, none of them are perfect. I invite you to leave comments about any or all of my videos here, or in the YouTube comments.
Video 1: Completing the Square. Made using Doceri.
PROS: Content is clean. Mostly on point. After assigning this video, was able to quickly dive into problems the next day.
CONS: Probably too long. Tried to cover too much in one video.
Video 2: Random Variables. Made using SMART Notebook
PROS: These are not easy example problems. Students can go back and “rewind” to think about processes.
CONS: These are a lot of rules in this section. The different format types may make it difficult to identify the “big ideas”.
Video 3: Samping Distributions. Recorded live in my dining room.
PROS: After some initial discomort, I find I have the most fun doing these live videos, and that perhaps they do a better job in engaging students with the ideas.
CONS: Am I clear? Are the visuals good enough?
So I invite you to rip apart my videos, provide guidance, comments, and share your success stories with flipping!
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