Interconnectedness Part 2

Forgive me as I am a little behind, but one of our goals was to talk about a time we had some interconnectedness in our day to day teaching profession.  For me one of the biggest ways in which we do this is in our science PLC's.  We get together and discuss our data as a department and ask ourselves how we can become better as a teacher and as a department.  One of the most difficult things about doing this is you have to constructively judge your colleagues.  I am fortunate that my PLC contains 4 teachers total and we have developed a good trust, but often times this goal of giving good constructive feedback does not occur and this can create problems within the PLC.  This past month one of our major focuses was the ACT test and how we are going to approach preparing students to take this from a science perspective.  This is the first year all of our students will take the ACT and typically they have prepared with private classes or on their own.  Our department looked at ideas and our current ACT data to see what we can do to "reach the next level".  Lastly, when it comes to attitude, I think it is important to keep a positive attitude and always be asking yourself "How can we get better?" and "What do we need to do to get better?"  That is the purpose of a PLC and I think the interconnectedness we show as a department really helps us answer those two questions.

Post MEA--Action Research

After our conference last Sunday I am feeling very comfortable with my research and the position of my action research.  The hot topic I attended was the flipped classroom and I was able to discuss flipping with current educators who are flipping and those possibly interested in the flip.  One of the bigger worries of teachers beginning to flip was the amount of time it takes to flip.  Comparing notes with other educators, it became clear that the older the section of students, the longer the video and the more prep time.  My typical AP Chemistry lecture can be 13-16 minutes, while a video for 8th grade algebra was 5-7 minutes.  The research typically states about 1.5 minutes per grade level is about the maximum amount of time students will stay with a video.

My biggest suggestion to those interested in flipping is to simply take baby steps.  Don't bite off more than you can chew.  Find a system and platform (Smart Recorder, Camtasia, Moodle, YouTube, etc) that works well for you and your students and stick with it.  Also, you don't have to flip everything at once.  My main suggestion is find a topic that you'd think be a good fit and attempt it with your students.  Once done with that possibly expand to a chapter or unit.  Also, do one class at a time.  Prepping videos for multiple classes can get confusing and time consuming.  The front end work is difficult, but a few years down the road your curriculum will be set!

Lastly, I'm starting to see the benefits noted in literature through 8 weeks of school.  Most of these are my informal log, but soon will be backed up by surveys/data.  The amount of activities that I'm being allowed to do in class in comparison to my colleague is starting to add up.  Students are starting to note that in my class we do more labs and activities, and its simply because of the amount of extra time I have to do them.  My fellow colleague is interested in doing a flipped classroom, possibly as early as next year because of this reason.  After two units, my class is scoring higher on the same assessment than my other colleague as well, hopefully those results continue!  Lastly, I find my students are more engagement and excited to come to science.  I often have to temper their enthusiasm in lab and activities, but all and all I am very pleased with the progress of my action research.