I’ve wanted to be a teacher ever since I was 15 years old. I remember the English teacher who helped me love having Socratic discussions. I remember the band teacher who challenged me as a young adult. I remember teachers coming to swim meets, concerts, plays, and even graduation parties when we were done with school.

As a teacher, I’ve continued to grow my love of teaching by working with my colleagues to grow in our practice. My first principal showed me that it was okay to ask questions as well as proudly share what we’re doing in our classes. Doing so taught me how to grow in my own learning. He also gave me the okay to go to my first professional conference, where I learned about Flipped Learning, where I first heard about TechSmith.

Through all of this, I’ve developed a new love of teaching teachers. I shared at my first conference after nearly a year of flipping, and I caught the bug. I continue to look forward to sharing successes, failures, insights, and questions, at conferences. I also look forward to being challenged and being forced to explain why I do what I do in the classroom. It’s where growth happens. It’s also where I feel like my career is taking me.

I went to Colorado in the summer of 2011 and shared my learning. It’s also where I got to meet Dave McCollom and Troy Stein for the first time. Ever since then, I have had a fantastic working relationship with TechSmith.

I’m very excited to (officially) announce that I’m going to be shifting into a new role at the beginning of March. TechSmith has asked me to join their Academic Team as the Academic Customer Solutions Engineer. So, what does that mean?

It means I’m going to be a resource for teachers regionally and across the nation. My purpose is to help teachers use technology in their classrooms more effectively. I’ll be the bridge between classroom practice and TechSmith as they look to help teachers solve problems through the better use of technology.

While the timing isn’t ideal, leaving in the middle of a school year, I believe this is the correct next step in my career. I’m simply stepping aside in order to serve where I believe I can make a greater impact. I won’t have my own classroom anymore, and that’s a very difficult thing for me at the moment. But, I’m looking forward to having my feet in many, many more classrooms as I transition into the new role. I’m excited to continue to work with everyone I’ve worked with in the past as well as people I have yet to meet.

The 6th Annual Flipped Learning Conference is being held this June 17-19 in Stillwater, MN. Registration is open, and I took it upon myself to generate a little buzz with some Snagit fun. You can see each of the promotional fliers below. Feel free to repost them or Tweet.

We hope to see you in June.

I came in today and found out that every computer in the building is being used for testing for the entire week. That kind of threw off my plans. So, I came up with a quick activity I thought I’d share in case you’re in the same place with your chemistry.

We did an activity a week or so ago in which students placed chemical reactions into five categories based on their similarities. These, of course, were synthesis, decomposition, combustion, single replacement and double replacement. Today, we’re doing something similar with note cards. I’m hoping to see two things:

1. I’d like to see if they remember the indicators for each type of chemical reaction and B) They’ll copy down these representative reactions into their notes for reference as we move on in identifying reaction types.

` <http://instagram.com/p/V6uZMejk1V/>`__ Color coded cards. Photo is CC-SA by Brian.

I took example reactions and wrote each chemical down on an individual note card. I also threw in a couple of distractions to make sure kids were thinking about ion charges and bonding. I chose to put the balanced coefficient with the chemicals so kids have another clue to whether or not their reaction is correct (if it is right, it should be balanced).

They’re thinking and engaging with the cards, making critical decisions about which to include, and which to throw away. It is also forcing them to work together, listen to input, and make collaborative choices and then adjust based on feedback.

*UPDATE* – Since I’m doing this activity on the fly, I came across a problem I hadn’t anticipated. I noticed students were not putting the proper “punctuation” into their notes (plus signs and reaction arrows). To correct for this, I had them write them in neon marker on the tabletop to help them space the cards out correctly. You could also do this by including plus sign and reaction arrow cards in each set.

I saw a post from Alan Levine this morning that connected back to an old DS106 assignment. I’ve started dabbling in the 106 community this year, so I decided to give this one a crack. The assignment was to use a painted romance novel cover and overlay some text, making one of the creepiest Valentine’s Day cards ever. Here’s what I came up with:

Weird, huh? To do this, I downloaded a photo from the public Flickr folder and then imported the image into Snagit. Then, because I’m very happily married, I Googled some pickup lines. I chose one of the creepier lines I found and then used the text tool to overlay the quote and export as a new image.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

I love adventure stories. I can’t wait to read the Lord of the Rings series with my kids someday. I’m excited to look at Tolkein’s maps and talk about whether Frodo, Sam, and the Fellowship should have taken a different route.

As a teacher, I ask myself the same questions every day. Did I make the best decision in the path that I’m choosing? Should I be the one leading the group? Should I backtrack and try a different direction? It’s part of teaching. It’s part of life.

We need to help our students navigate a non-linear activity (learning) within a system that demands linear thinking (standards, testing). Roadblocks and challenges aside, how do we set the path? How often do we have to make corrections? How far back to we jump? I think there are some major areas in our classroom landscape that will help us move forward.

1. Home – Home is comfortable. In the LOTR series, home is the Shire. It represents quiet, comfort, and safety. Our students enter our classes each year with a home mindset. They’re comfortable in what they know. As the teacher, we have to coax them out of their own comfort zone and into something unknown. From here, students are relying on our wisdom and leadership for the path.

2. Sage Forest – It’s easy to jump on stage and being spewing everything we know. We don’t have to answer to anyone, and our pupils dutifully follow along. We have total control and our word is taken as truth. Unfortunately, this limits the exposure our students get to the larger world, save for the window that we provide. It is isolated, and while our kids can learn, it often isn’t meaningful. Think Yoda on Dagobah. Luke could do a lot of fancy tricks when he was alone, but Darth Vader handed it* to him when he tried to put his learning into practice.

3. Plain Crossway – This region isn’t uneventful, but it isn’t terribly exciting, either. The travellers and the the leader can discuss the appropriate path, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter which direction you go. This can be a good thing, but oftentimes leaves the traveller feeling unsatisfied. In other words, the teacher isn’t acting as a sage, but isn’t really providing enrichment or growth on the basics. Instead, they’re focusing on making it alive to the other side rather than building a new trail together.

4. Digital Highlands – Navigating the peaks and valleys of the digital learning space takes a person who is confident, wise, and willing to take risks when they can’t see around the next corner. Digital learning is an important piece of the learning space, but it cannot be the only learning space for our students. We have to allow for forays, but we can’t get sucked into the bottom of the digital sphere, never to emerge again.

1. The Great Beyond – The goal…the unknown…the unknowable. Hopefully, as we move from region to region in school, our students learn valuable skills that will help them move beyond school and into “real life.” Ultimately, we cannot stop our students from getting to this point, but we can equip them to better deal with it when we get there.

One space isn’t more meaningful than another. The meaning in each space comes in how they’re combined with the other; the journey isn’t defined by one stop along the way, it’s the trip as a whole that brings meaning. I know we all love Twitter and apps, but let’s try to remember that we have to vary our focus and settings to have a good story to tell.

If you’re on the Internet frequently, you may have noticed a new phenomenon spreading across the tubes called the Harlem Shake. If you haven’t, well, you’re in for a treat. Take a look.

Crazy.

I can’t resist this kind of thing. So, I want to put together the first Internet Dance Party (from what I can tell, at least). It will take you 60 seconds of your time and the returns are enormous.

1. Go to this YouTube video of the song. We only need the first 30 seconds.
2. Record yourself on your webcam (or other recording device) doing something normal. Typing, reading, grading…whatever, for 15 seconds.
3. When the beat drops at the 15 second mark, record yourself throwing down some sick dances moves. Costumes are encouraged.
4. Save your video and upload it to this folder.
5. Watch for the link with the finished video.

Thanks to Jeremy Macdonald for introducing me to the Harlem Shake.

Update 9:00 PM – I added a link to the docking procedure run earlier this morning.

If you teach science, get on Twitter or Facebook and follow NASA. Now.

I know a ton of science happens here on the ground, but what I love about NASA is that they’ve embraced the fact that science can be shared with social media. They have one of the best online presences by an organization I’ve ever seen. They have Twitter accounts for most of their major missions, including the Voyager spacecraft (which are still operating, if you didn’t know).

They livestream most of their satellite launches so anyone can watch.

Heck, this afternoon, I watched a Russian supply probe dock with the ISS live. That was quickly followed up by a tweet from a Canadian astronaut on the space station.

Progress 50 just docked to our Space Station! I was right at the hatch, it made a quick sliding scraping noise & then a solid thud. Success!

—Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) February 11, 2013

Long story short, NASA is making science real for an audience that will (most likely) never get the chance to experience the work they do first-hand. I share it with my students. Maybe, one of them will see what science is all about and be inspired to begin a science career.

I want to go to space now.

NASA media of note

Voyager 1 – Twitter

Voyager 2 – Twitter

ISS Research – Twitter

Commander Hadfield, Canadian astronaut currently on six-month ISS mission. – Twitter

Curiosity Rover – Twitter

NASA TV – Archived footage of launches, ISS events, briefings, press conferences, etc. Also, includes links to NASA UStream page.

NASA YouTube Channel

I originally wrote this for the INDOE 28 Days of Learning blog as part of Digital Learning Month. This is a cross post of that article. I removed the byline inserted by the INDOE and the bio at the end.

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What does your typical class period look like? If you’re like me, you have between 20 and 30 (or more) students that are all vying for your attention so you can meet their needs. There’s nothing wrong with that…in fact, you’re at your best when you’re working one-on-one.

But, in reality, how much one-on-one time do you get with kids? Probably much less than you would prefer. We’re often relegated to the front of the room, at the whiteboard or projector, speaking to a large (mostly captive) audience. Then, we get some time to practice as a group before the class period is over.

This is not effective.

I want to propose a simple solution to help mitigate the lost time in whole-group instruction: record a lesson. Or, record multiple lessons. Record something that can be moved out of the public space (class) to the private space (on-demand), wherever and whenever that may be.

Now, some of you may be thinking that this is far too hard to do on a regular basis, and I’m here to politely disagree. Screen capture technology has improved dramatically in recent years and it is easier to get started now than it ever has before.

There are some websites that I visit frequently. My class website, a few news outlets, and some blogs that help me wake up in the morning (or afternoon). I also hate the bookmark bar. I think it’s ugly and I usually have it hidden in my Chrome browser. Now, it does appear on my “New Tab” page, but I’d rather get rid of it entirely.

I came across an article that showed me how to take any website and put a link on the Chrome “App” page. This is different than the “Most Visited” section, which makes it helpful if it isn’t used enough to make that list.

The process is very simple:

1. Open up the page you want to save as well as a new tab (click the images to enlarge).
2. Click on the page favicon – the little icon that appears to the left of the URL in the address bar. Sometimes it is an icon, other times it is a blank page.
3. Drag the favicon to the New Tab and drop. It will create a link in your Apps page.

So, why do this rather than use bookmarks? Simple answer: speed. Many times, I want to get to a particular site. Rather than clicking through multiple levels of bookmarks (if they’re nested) or scanning the bar, I know what sites are on my apps page. This could be especially useful for teachers in Chromebook environments.

Any other Chrome tips for usability and improved workflow? Leave some thoughts in the comments.

Liza Basden is a chemistry teacher in Illinois that I connected with earlier this year. Periodically, we’ll share resources with one another for labs or other activities that we run in our classes. Last week, I was browsing for a lab to run with students on the different types of chemical reactions when Liza sent me some awesome pictures from her own class:

@bennettscience Inspired by your How Big is a Mol activity to find more ways for my Ss to express their creativity pic.twitter.com/86J2ljP

—Liza Basden (@lbasden) February 1, 2013

` <https://twitter.com/LBasden/status/297358080230952960>`__

I really like the fact that she pulls in inquiry to get the students thinking about similarities and differences in the chemical equations before the students begin to categorize them as single replacement, double replacement, etc. It forces the students to make connections between various chemical equations that are really quite obvious when we sit down to compare. Plus, asking them to draw out a representation of the reaction pushes critical thinking and analysis of what they’re learning, which increases retention and understanding.

She was kind enough to share the prep materials and the student papers and has given me permission to share these materials with anyone that may want to use them in their class.

If you end up using this activity, we’d love to see some photos of your student’s work shared either here in the comments or shared Twitter.

All photos in this post are from Liza Basden, used with permission.

One of my new favorite stops in my morning reading is the Fast Company series. I subscribe to the Design blog, but I also browse the Create and Exist blogs as well. I came across a post on the Exist series on a new initiative by the city of Bristol in England. Citizens can text codes on inanimate objects in throughout the city and have conversations. The point is to have fun in the city. The point is to interact with our surroundings. Are you a ghost? Photo is mine Nooooo! Photo is mine.

I got to thinking about how we don’t interact enough with the spaces we have in schools. So, I began a small project. I created QR codes with simple text. Some are little quips such as this gem from Brett Clark:

@bennettscience Are you a ghost? How did you walk through me?

—Brett Clark (@Mr_Brett_Clark) February 1, 2013

Another awards a “Curiosity Badge” (totally made up and unofficial…for now) that students can retrieve just for being curious enough to stop and scan. The whole point of this is to be fun, and to get kids and staff to interact with their surroundings.

I chose to use Delivr to create the codes because they offer tracking and scan analytics. I haven’t received and data yet, even though I scanned a few myself just to make sure they worked properly, so I don’t know about reporting times to the account. Hopefully, I can gather some unofficial data about technology our students already have in the building as we continue to improve instructional tool use.

Hopefully, if this catches on a little bit, I’ll add some small quests and other achievements students can earn. I’m also planning on entering small challenges like, “Tell someone they matter to you,” in an effort to get people in the building communicating in positive ways with one another. I’m also hoping students begin to have “random acts of creativity” that help us grow together as a school.

Have you started something like this in your school? What suggestions do you have?

If I were to track the number of copies that are made in school each year, I think it would turn into a fantastic conversion problem for my students. How deep would we be able to fill a room with used copy paper? I’m sure we’d all have our eyes opened at the amount of material that goes through our classrooms each year.

Schools are also looking to go as paperless as they can in order to cut costs. While I don’t agree with the rationale for cutting paper, it is an important factor to consider when we think about the amount of waste we put into the environment. But, the infrastructure required to go completely paperless is often out of reach. There are some ways you can cut down on paper in your class, even if you can’t go completely paperless.

1. Use your space – This year, I was introduced to the neon Expo white board marker, and they have changed my life. These markers write on top of the lab tables and wipe off easily with a damp paper towel. Kids can now do scratch work on the table, and then call me over to check their progress. Plus, kids always love being able to write on things we usually tell them not to write on. I have also seen teachers use regular white board markers on desks that have polyurethane veneers. (Be sure to test it yourself before handing out 30 markers, though). http://instagram.com/p/UgolGlDk9D/ Neon dry erase, my photo.
2. $2 interactive whiteboard – Frank Noschese wrote this post a couple of years ago, and I went out and did the same for my class last year. I think for my classroom, it cost me $35. And, Lowe’s or Home Depot will cut the boards for free. Double win.
3. Track large handouts – I provide note packets for each unit my students go through. This is a lot of paper, considering each packet is 4-5 pages (double sided, of course) and 120 students looking for a copy with each new unit. So, I print them once, and then post the packet on Google Drive. The problem I had, is that students would often lose the packets, and then they would tell me that they never got one in the first place. In the moment, I would usually go print another one, which led to a lot of wasted paper. Now, I keep track of who receives a copy by having them sign their name on my grade sheet. It saves me extra copies, plus, now they can’t pull the wool over my eyes and they manage to keep track of their papers the first time around. Checkout signatures, my photo
4. Class sets – This seems silly, but go back to making class sets of materials. I do this with quizzes, and I ask students to either do the question on the desk or on scrap paper. Which leads me to…
5. Keep scrap paper – I started keeping a scrap paper bin in order to reuse as much as I could. Oftentimes, a student would make one mistake and then throw their paper away. Now, it gets trimmed and thrown into the scrap bin. Now, rather than using notebook paper to complete an assignment or exit slip, students grab some scrap and we can reuse perfectly good white space. Scrap box, my photo.
6. Post it on the Internet – This one seems to counter the title, but ask yourself, “Do my students really need a hard copy of these questions?” Often, I say no. Now, with that being said, I definitely recognize the benefit of having something right in front of you. But, find ways to create prompts or questions that can be put online as a Google Doc and then answered in writing on scrap, in their notes, or even on the table. It’s easy to throw up on the projector if you don’t have computers available, and it’s there for homework if you run out of class time.

These are just a few simple suggestions. Any others are welcome in the comments.

I think we really need to redefine what it means to interact with something. Part of the problem is that our schools (and even our culture) have developed into things that want to consume. Our students come, and they want to just get the answer to move on. Teachers have even developed into people that give the answers so they can move on. There is no meaningful interaction.

Learning is interactive. We need to talk, digest, challenge, and question new ideas or tools. It takes two-way communication. It takes hard conversations and furrowed brows.

So, can we create truly interactive content? I think there are some ways to begin to build a bridge to cross the gap, but I’m not totally convinced that even come of the best iBooks out there can do that yet. They’re still built for students to consume. We need to move beyond clicking play on a video as our interactive portion.

How have you seen students interact with content, digital or analog? What are some versions of things titled interactive, but are really meant for consumption only? How do we bridge the gap?

I’d love some thoughts in the comments.

Photo Credit: incurable_hippie via Compfight cc

I’ve been following Dan Meyer for about 15 months. I don’t teach math, but the way he talks about teaching math makes me want to teach it. If you’re not familiar with his writing and development of Three Act Math, you should read the linked post and go check out his site dedicated to free materials.

Recently, he’s moved into developing web-based “textbooks,” if they can even be called that. Essentially, he’s taking intuitive knowledge of math (draw a square) and then directing the user through the process of either confirming their previous understanding or correcting their misconceptions. What really caught my attention was this activity on squares. Stop reading now, check it out.

Dan teamed up with a teacher/programmer named Dave Major (who also wrote a post about the squares activity). I really began to think about how this could be done in science.

Flipped Learning is all over the web. I use it, my friends use it, and we’ve all seen some amazing things happen in our classes. Honestly, I think video is reaching a point where it can help move us into meaningful digital learning spaces, but it isn’t enough. We all know that.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to move content into adaptive digital environments, much like the Better Best Squares activity. PhET simulations by UC Boulder are a good first step, but there is still a disconnect between the task (usually paper based) and how the student interacts with the program.

I’m wondering how we can begin to make responsive programs like the squares example for science. One thought, initially, is that simulation parameters could be set by a student, much like the square they draw. Every following step would be A) integrated with the class responses, and B) based on the initial setup.

How else could we do this in science? Are there any programmers that would be interested in trying to build some kind of pilot program? Any teachers that would be interested in writing curriculum for this project? Let me know in the comments.

This spring, I’m asking my homeroom students to perform some type of service project. The type of project is up to them, but I’ve encouraged them to think as locally as they can. Whether that’s the school or the neighborhood they live in doesn’t matter to me.

I have a couple that already have ideas to build off of, but I’d love to see some other types of projects that were successful. If you have some examples (or know people with examples), I’d appreciate your feedback on the form embedded below.

On Saturday, 1/19, we held the first Michigan Flipped Learning conference in Byron Center, MI. We recorded as many of the sessions as we could, so I’ve linked them all below. They were recorded with Google+ Hangouts On Air, so some of the audio and video might be a little less-than-HD, but the resources are valuable nonetheless. I’ve also linked public Google Documents created with links and other notes from the sessions. Feel free to share these resources with colleagues that may be interested in Flipped Learning.

Morning Keynote – Keynote Slides

Flipped Learning 101 – Notes Only

Flipped Learning in Science Discussion – Notes

Flipped Learning in English Discussion

On Saturday, January 19, over 150 educators from across Michigan and northern Indiana are converging on Byron Center High School to spend the day talking about Flipped Learning. The event is free, and I’m excited and proud to be a part of the planning and running of the conference.

We’ll be streaming various sessions throughout the day using Google+ Hangouts On Air. This means you can watch live during the session or you can go back later and watch an archived copy. The sessions will be broadcast by the presenters (see below) and all of the videos will end up in a playlist on the official MIFlip YouTube channel. The segments being streamed are highlighted in yellow on the document.

You can also follow the learning with the #MIFlip hashtag on Twitter all day.

[UPDATE 11:17] – This sessions link (as well as the one above) takes you to the conference schedule. Hyperlinks are being added to the document so you can easily navigate to the proper YouTube channel for viewing live.

You may have missed this story out of California last week.

A student brought a shotgun to school with the intent of killing some other students who had bullied him. He shot one student, and two other students and a teacher were injured. What the headlines missed is that the teacher and a colleague managed to talk the student into giving up his weapon.

No other shots were fired.

The shooting is a tragedy, but the real story here is that, contrary to what the NRA says, there are other ways to stop people with guns.

These teachers are heroes because they risked their lives to protect the victims but also to protect the life of the shooter. Relationships are the way to protect our students, not more guns.

I did a webinar yesterday afternoon with Marc Siegel, Deb Wolf, and Ramsey Musallam on the various ways Flipped Learning can be incorporated into a science classroom. We spoke about changing mindsets, thinking about mastery learning and standards based grading, and using video tools in class along with other ideas and tips.

Ramsey spoke near the end of the broadcast about using inquiry learning in his Explore-Flip-Apply method. I asked him, “Ramsey, how do you train your kids to work well in an inquiry environment? I’m not sure mine could handle that from day one in the semester, so what do you do?”

Ramsey came back by saying, “Actually, I drop them right in from day one. I don’t really train them in anything at all. Kids have an innate curiosity that we have to tap into in order to fully engage them in the content.” (Or something along those lines.)

Now, let me preface this by saying I’ve heard Ramsey say this over and over as I’ve gotten to know him. But, I never really put any faith in my students.

I decided to take it to heart. Today, I had an entire lab planned out with procedures, data tables, and follow-up questions. I knew what my kids would do, and they would fill in the blanks and then move on. I decided to scrap the entire lab and go with one statement:

I have a sample. It has water attached to it. I need to know how much water it contains.

The only question I asked them for this lab is: “What percent of my sample is water?”

I didn’t have enough faith in my classes. I didn’t really trust them to do anything like this. I was proven wrong this morning. For you science folks, our average error from the first two classes is two percent. Two. My students have encouraged me, and from what I’ve observed, they’ve felt proud of their work. They were so excited to hear how close they had come. I haven’t seen energy like this in a while.

I’d lost sight of the excitement that should come from science…from discovery. I’d lost sight of the process because I’d focused too much on the end result. I can talk about the process, but I need to have them go through the process.

My students can now explain how to find the mass percentage of part of a compound. They can do it better than if I had stood up or recorded a video and taught them. Tomorrow, we’ll involve mols somehow and see what happens.

Hopefully, my students will begin to feel more trusted and more empowered in the process.

I want to propose something crazy: I think we talk too much about education technology. I’m guilty of it, and it’s been weighing on me over Christmas break. Maybe I’m projecting some of my concerns out there, but let me explain a little bit.

2012 seemed like an edtech explosion to me. Every week, I would hear about some new tool that lets teachers and students do this or that, which is great. But all of the focus was on how the tool will revolutionize or change your teaching. The problem I have with this is that too many people are falling into the trap of trying to teach to the tool, rather than using the tool to teach.

There is a major distinction that needs to be made: pedagogy must be the focus of any teacher improvement plan. What is our philosophy of teaching and learning? How do we approach instruction and assessment? What content is important? How will we work with students to support learning? Then, at the point where we are supporting learning, when the ground work has been laid, we can begin to look into technology. I am saying this as a confessed non-practicer (at least consistently) of the workflow.

I’ve fallen into the trap of seeing something awesome and trying to squeeze it into the class for the sake of using it. There is no lower connection for me, so meaningful use doesn’t translate to the classroom space.

What I’m hoping to see (and participate in) are blog posts and articles that walk readers through the process of choosing a tool. What goals are you trying to accomplish? How does that tie into your learning process in the big picture? How are students supported? How is your process supported? How did that tool meet or not meet those goals?

We’ve got the resources and we’ve got the product reviews. It’s time to start putting them to better work together.