While doing research for my masters, I’ve leaned heavily on my personal learning networks to find emerging trends and issues in the educational field. I frequent sites like Edutopia, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and several Facebook groups dedicated to teachers. I read the articles posted on the sources critically, looking for how experiments were run to see what might be missing and what could be done better. For instance, in preparing for action research related to my innovation plan, I read several studies conducted on flipping a classroom. I noticed that many of the studies were small, and not conducted in low-income schools. My high school is a Title I school with more than 70% of the population on free and reduced lunch. Starting with the 21-22 school year, I’m running my action research in my classroom to see how interactive lessons, my amended version of a flipped classroom, will work with my scholars.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, my school district made quick changes to make technology available to more students. Students now have 1-1 Chromebooks, which will allow me to run the flipped classroom experiment. They also purchased Schoology for use in helping students to organize their learning in a digital world. I use Schoology daily. Prior to Schoology, I used Google Classroom. I liked Google Classroom because it was easy to navigate and straightforward. Schoology is still a little clunky because the integration with other PowerSchool tools isn’t seamless yet, but it’s a powerful tool that provides a location for learning organization and collaboration.
Within the Schoology learning management system, I also use EdPuzzle heavily. I love EdPuzzle because I can use my own videos or videos from anywhere online and add questions to help students check for understanding. It truly benefits a flipped classroom. In a standard flipped classroom, students watch the video, but don’t know how much they learned. I also have no way of knowing how much they understood from the video until I see them again. With EdPuzzle, I can monitor their progress through the video and check their understanding.
Other online tools I love to use are Desmos, an online graphing calculator with incredible programming potential for students, and Explore Learning Gizmos, with interactive tools to show students how concepts work. I also utilize Google tools like Slides, Docs, and Jamboard whenever I can. They embed directly into Schoology so that students can see them within the Schoology framework, and they allow me to make needed edits to Schoology posts quickly, instead of having to make changes in every class section.
We started school a week ago. I explained to students the first day how class will run and that they have control over when and where they watch the lesson. There have been a few hiccups this week because some students don’t have devices yet and schedules are still getting worked out, but overall, the experiment has been initially successful. I’ve had more students engaged in class and turning in assignments. They are receptive to feedback and are appreciative that I’ve given them the opportunity to work ahead of the class if they choose – this is weird and wonderful!!
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