Making videos for flipped lessons

So obviously I like flipping my classroom. I think that doing so gives my students many advantages (see my previous blog post for more detailed information).

One of the best advantages is the students having access to my lessons anywhere and anytime they need them. Need to review? No problem! Not in class? You can still get the information! Want to take your time learning the material? Go as slowly or as quickly as you need!

When we (the fabulous Kelly Tobecksen and I) started flipping our lessons, we were challenged with how to do it. In the past, the RMHS Spanish Department has always used scaffolded notes for any grammar lessons. We knew that we wanted to use those notes as a jumping off point. Along the way, we've learned quite a few things. Here is a rundown of some of the options that we've used and found useful.

Explain Everything 

This is the app that we have used primarily to create our videos. It is a paid iPad app ($2.99), but only the teacher making the video needs it. The beauty of Explain Everything is that it is a very comprehensive app and allows us to import our scaffolded notes and use them similarly to how we have in the past in the video. This video tutorial highlights some of the great features of the app.  

Educreations
While I have not used this app to create any video lessons, my students have. On a number of occasions, we ask the students to make their own video explaining what they are learning at that time. Educreations is a great app because it has good features, but is simple and free. Here's a short tutorial on using Educreations.

QuickTime
I just learned about QuickTime as a video creator recently from Andrew Prazeres and Elliott Olson. These two fabulous RMHS Social Science teachers told me that QuickTime can be used not only as a means of playing videos, but also to create them. I tried it out the other day and it works! QuickTime is great because it's free (assuming it's already on your computer as it is mine) and it records everything on your screen and your voice, too. The only drawback, in my opinion, is that a laptop/desktop doesn't allow me to write on it the way an iPad does with an app like Explain Everything. While I haven't made any videos for class with it yet, I do envision myself using it. Here's a super short video of me, using QuickTime, explaining how to start making a screencast with QuickTime.

EDPuzzle
I learned about EdPuzzle at the NICE MiniCon in January. While EDPuzzle isn't used for making the videos, it is used in conjunction with the videos you've made to create some more structure. This year I teach Spanish 2 and Honors Spanish 4. We flip lessons in both levels. In Honors Spanish 4, most of the grammar concepts we cover are a review from previous years and I want the students to feel free to watch, or not watch, the videos depending on their comfort level with the material. In Spanish 2, given the younger age and the new material, I like the idea of knowing a little more about how they are watching the videos. With EDPuzzle, I can take the videos I've already created and embed checks for understanding/quizzes into them. I can also see view information on who watched the videos, the time it took them, how they answered the questions, etc. Having that information is great! This video is a great short demo of using EDPuzzle.

YouTube
All of the videos that Kelly and I create are uploaded to YouTube. Once on YouTube, we create a public playlist with all of the videos for a class. Last year when we started experimenting with this, we made our videos private. Why? I'm not totally sure. If someone else wants to watch them and learn, why not let them? Here's the link to our Spanish 2 playlist so you can see what I'm talking about.

I also want to talk about YouTube as I don't think it's always necessary to create your own materials. There are TONS of educators out there making videos. And many of them are exponentially better at it than me! As of now, we have decided to still create our own videos, but also always link students to other videos that we think could be helpful. For us, the videos of Señor Jordan are great. One of the only reasons we don't use his videos instead of ours is that his are in English and we prefer our lessons to be in Spanish. However, we link them for the students because in the end, we really want the kids to acquire the knowledge. If his videos help them, so be it!

So that's what we're doing in a nutshell. We have kept it simple so that it's educational AND still manageable for us. Also, while getting started making the videos was a little bit of work, we've now built up a great video library and more importantly, given our students access to valuable educational resources available when and where they need them.

All about studying abroad

This post is dedicated to a topic near and dear to my heart....studying abroad!  Personally, I have studied abroad a number of times.  For my undergraduate degree, I spent my junior year in Sevilla, Spain.  For my graduate degree, I spent three summers in Querétaro, Mexico.  With my husband's doctoral program, I spent two weeks in Rome, Italy (for this one he did the studying).  In addition to these formal experiences, I also had the chance to live in Paris for about six weeks one summer with a French friend.

What can I say about studying abroad other than it is 100% AMAZING!  These trips honestly rate up there with marrying my husband and raising our daughters as the most formative experiences of my life.  Prior to going to Spain in college, I had only traveled in the US and with my family.  Living in Spain, staying with a Spanish family, attending class, traveling throughout Europe, seeing the lives that other people lead, having bad days, getting lost, being misunderstood, and being so far out of my comfort zone changed me in so many ways.  That experience (and all the subsequent trips) taught me to see life from someone else's perspective.  Studying abroad taught me to recognize and appreciate the privilege that I had growing up.  It taught me to see people and not stereotypes.  It taught me that being uncomfortable helps me to grow in ways I couldn't have imagined.  It taught me that there is so much out there that I have yet to experience.  

So what does this have to do with me as a teacher?  Every year I spend more and more time talking with my students about the glory that is studying abroad.  While I haven't formalized the goal (mostly because I'm not sure how to measure it!), I would like to increase the number of students that I encounter who go on to have some sort of study abroad experience.  As I tell them, I don't even care if they go to a Spanish-speaking country to learn Spanish (although I do like to highlight the advantages of doing so), but I do think that living and studying in somewhere other than their home culture is SO important that any destination for any length of time is invaluable.

As I was thinking about this post, I surveyed my Facebook friends to see who had gone abroad, where they had gone, and why they had chosen to do so.

Here are some of the places to which they traveled:

Costa Rica, Spain , Mexico, Ireland, Australia, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Germany, and Indiana 

Here's why they decided to study abroad:

to pursue a Spanish minor, to really learn Spanish, to travel around Europe, to learn Italian, to take a course in tropical ecology and evolution (although she then changed her major to Spanish), improve speaking skills, take in a new culture, travel, get graduate credits, experience teaching from a different perspective, try new things, challenge oneself, meet cute European girls, and to become a better Spanish teacher

Now to the challenge...what can I do to help students see the value in studying abroad?  Stayed tuned in!

Go see Pilsen!

I love Pilsen.  It's such a cool neighborhood in our super cool city of Chicago.  In years past, we've had the opportunity to take students to Pilsen this time of year for a day of Mexican American culture touring the neighborhood, visiting the local businesses, EATING, and also for a tour of the National Museum of Mexican Art.  Everything about these field trips has been amazing and such an awesome learning experience for our students.  The museum in particular is a highlight.  I have been there at least five times and every single visit I'm excited by the exhibits they have.  While I've been to there at different times of the year, the trip in October/November is definitely my favorite!  Every year the museum has a big exhibition for El día de los muertos (The Day of the Dead).  While I haven't had a chance to see this year's exhibit, I know that it's worth a visit.  According to their website, this year's Day of the Dead exhibit is called Rito y Recuerdo: Day of the Dead.  It looks pretty awesome and I need to get a visit planned ASAP!  One of my favorite experiences is purchasing a sugar skull made  and personalized by the Mondragón family.

I think that going to visit this neighborhood gives someone the chance to not only know more about our spectacular city, but also to learn more about Mexican American culture in a very friendly, comfortable manner.  This kind of trip is especially educational for younger people to know more about the big world they live in and how so much of it is so close to us on a daily basis.

ClassDojo!

This is the second year that we've been using +ClassDojo at RMHS.  While it's not perfect, I really do love what it has to offer and what an awesome tool it is in our classrooms.  If you haven't checked it out yet, here's the link.

In my department, we've always struggled with how to best record students' use of Spanish in the classroom.  Up until last year, we went with the good ol' student roster printed on a clipboard to record their participation.  Every time we wanted to record a student's spoken Spanish, we found a pen and marked a +.  At the end of the unit, we'd count up all the marks and calculate a score.  Pretty old school, no?  Just the physical drawback of always having that same clipboard and piece of paper were enough to make the system stink, let alone the lack of teacher-student (and then family) communication.

The awesomeness of ClassDojo is that it allows students and their families to see in real time, from any internet-capable device how much Spanish the student is choosing to speak in class.  We've customized the behaviors so that we mark a positive point when a student speaks in Spanish and a negative point when a student chooses to speak English when she/he could have chosen Spanish.  Now when I want to mark a student's efforts, I simply click on his/her avatar on the ClassDojo app on my phone (or iPad or laptop) and away we go.  

While I'm not sure if using ClassDojo has increased student participation in Spanish, I do know that a) it has made my part a lot easier and b) it has increased the transparency of the whole process.  I want my students and their families to be involved in their education and to be able to understand exactly what I see from them in the classroom.  Instant feedback is such an amazing part of all the new technology that has been coming into our classrooms the last few years.  I'm really happy to have been introduced to this program.

Flipping our classrooms

This year in Spanish 2 and Honors Spanish 4, we are working with elements of the flipped classroom.  Before we go any further, check out this video that, in about three minutes, explains the basic idea of the flipped classroom.

What does this look like in our Spanish classrooms?  We've started working with the flipped model into our grammar lessons.  Rather than lecture students on a grammar topic like the present indicative, we send them home with a video and guided notes so that they can learn the lesson at their own speed just like the video mentions.  We post all of our materials on our Moodle page with links to the notes, the videos on YouTube, and also additional practice activities to help the kids see if they really understand the lesson or if they need to go back and review.

In addition to flipping, we've been using this model to help us differentiate inside of the classroom.  When we get to class the next day, we discuss students' questions, do a quick review, and then take a 10 question multiple choice formative quiz.  With the score of this quiz, we split students into groups for activities of various levels.  Typically the group with a higher score work on more advanced activities in which they are using the grammar to produce new work of their own.  The middle score group works on activities to strengthen their knowledge of the material.  There are so many activities on the internet that can help the students.  We post many of these activities on Moodle, but also encourage students to share other resources they find.  The lower group typically works in two stages.  First, those students will work with the teacher, review the lesson, work on questions, and get individual attention.  Then, they will work on some of those activities from the middle group in pairs to reinforce what they are working on.  At that time, we, the teachers, have the ability to circulate through the classroom and give individual attention to any student needing it.  At the end of the lesson, the students take a short 10 question fill-in formative quiz to assess whether they have met that day's lesson objective.

This is the second year that I have personally worked toward flipping.  I LOVE IT!  Taking the lecture out the classroom was a huge step.  Giving students the opportunity to work on ability-specific activities makes me feel that I am actually serving the students' individual needs and not just telling them what they "should need".  I also feel that I am empowering students to see themselves as the director of their own learning with my role as that of a coach.  In education the catchphrase right now is that we should avoid being the "sage on the stage" and shoot for being the "guide on the side".  I couldn't agree more.  In the past even on days when I thought we had written great plans, there was a certain amount of blank staring when the students were able disengage from the lesson.  Having our technology, flipping our lectures, and individualizing our lessons has increased student engagement in such a positive manner.

The problems?  I would say that the biggest pushback I get from students is that this model involves them engaged in their learning all the time and they aren't used to it (and don't always like the hard work!).  I think that using this model is a culture shift in education and that as the students begin to see results, they will get excited by what they are capable of achieving.  We, as teachers, strive to have our students invested in their own learning and think slowly we are getting there.

Overall, I am incredibly pleased with what we've achieved so far and look forward to increasing student-led learning in our classrooms!  

¡Los selfies!

Our goal in Spanish class is obviously that we are helping students to become Spanish-speakers.  We are very fortunate to live in an area with lots of exposure to many Spanish-speaking cultures giving our students various opportunities to practice their Spanish skills in the community.

Last week, one of our Italian teachers, Tona Costello, shared a wonderful idea with me.  When students have an opportunity to use their language skills in the real world, they take a selfie of the moment and share it with the class.  So, for example, the student is out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and has the opportunity to order in Spanish.  The student can take a selfie with the waiter (also known as an usie) and share it with the class.  I really want the students to see all of the opportunities that exist out there for them to work on their skills.  The more they speak, the more they'll learn!

**Update Tuesday, September 16***

Here's the first "selfie" I've received.  Since he was on the Kennedy, he wasn't really able to do an official selfie.