ALL of this was new to me, but Sophia guided me along. I took the flipped certification course on Sophia which helped teach me again about flipping and it gave me even more tools on how to flip. The course is easy, free and well worth the little bit of time it takes! Sophia offers a FREE screencasting tool that will put your screencast into your Sophia tutorial. I'll blog about the specifics of Sophia another day because there is just a lot that should be shared.
However, this post needs to be on video creation! I wish I could remember who quoted everything or gave me certain ideas pertaining to flipping because few are my own. However, there was one concept that I read a lot that goes something like - Flipping is NOT about the videos. The main focus should be on face-to-face instruction time that you are able to get with the students IN CLASS. So even though you should put time into planning and creating the videos - what occurs in class is really what flipping is all about. The collaboration that is able to happen between the students and teachers, the extension activities and small group interventions that are able to occur is what really appealed to me as a teacher.
However, during Spring Break, because I hadn't really seen flipping in action yet, I did devote a lot of time to the videos. The content that I was going to teach centered around the measurement unit, which was perfect because there were a lot of real world connections with measurement.
Perimeter Video
So, below you will find my first 'flipped real world video.' My aunt video taped this with my iPhone and I used Camtasia to edit the video. The handout that the students filled out included a simple chart that included the title of each puzzle, length, width and unit. The students then calculated the last column - the perimeter. Having the students fill out something DURING the video also allowed me to know if they watched it or not.
Circumference Tutorial:
The next three videos were in the same "Tutorial" on Sophia and the students were asked to complete the entire tutorial one night for homework. The first video is a screencast that I made using Camtasia. I used SMART Notebook software for the lesson and printed the slides for the students to fill out with the video.
The next two videos I made were of the 'real world nature.' As you will see in this video, I ended up making fun of myself about half way through and the kids thought it was hilarious :) The handout that went along with this activity was a simple four column chart - the title of the columns was object name, diameter, RULE and circumference. The students would fill in the columns as instructed in the video and then they would determine the rule after filling in the entire page.
And yes, we did talk about having the car running in a closed garage :) It's funny how many math topics and other topics we could discuss based on such short videos :)
Finally, here's the last video for the Circumference Tutorial. Altogether the tutorial was a little long, I think the real world nature of the videos were able to keep the kids attention:
So, these were my first attempts at flipped videos. In class the students discussed the vocabulary, what they measured and we talked in small groups about my videos. We cleared up any misconceptions that were posted in the comments section on Sophia and were able to do a lot more extension activities. Not all went smoothly however and my next three posts will be titled "The Good," "The Bad," and "The Ugly."
Lesson #4: When making videos, be yourself! Add humor, be natural. The kids are invested in YOU, not a robot.
Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. - Mary Lou Cook
I hope you have fun creating the videos and your students not only learn a lot but enjoy them as much as you do!
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