Flipped PD

What am I thinking right now? There are so many resources out there for teachers. The hard part is finding the right ones that work for you. I being a math teacher have a hard time finding resources for the high school level. I want to make sure the resource I find is user friendly, something that not only I could benefit from but my students, I want to know how much it costs, how often I will use it, if it will engage my students, etc. My group creates a flipped presentation of two application resources that we all highly recommend each and every one of you who read our blogs check out and hopefully implement into your classroom.

"What technology can I use when teaching?"

Before you watch our screencasts or learn about these applications I want you to know that the flipped PD presentations will present:

• The Pedagogy/Why should Teachers use this?
• How to use it?

Both of the presentations go at a nice steady pace. Feel free to watch the tutorials more than once if you feel necessary or to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Both of these applications can be used for any subject. In our presentation, we focus these apps through the eyes of a math teacher. During the Quizlet presentation there will be a view breaks where you can repeat the previous section or take a quiz and answer a few questions to help give us feedback on your understanding. Please read about each before you watch! Enjoy!

EDUCREATIONS allows you to create and share amazing video lessons through a browser or iPad. My focus of my groups project was the pedagogy of Educreations, the “why” should teachers use it.  I want you all to watch the screencast so I don’t want to give too much away…haha. In a nutshell, I would say that Educreations turns your screen into a recordable whiteboard; it is a free application and very user friendly.  It really has a lot to offer!

 The thing that got me most excited about Educreations was you could finally get your chance at trying a flipped lesson. You could make your own video and have your students watch it that evening for homework, then the follow day in class they do the actual  'homework' but do it at school.  Students can stop, resume, rewind, and repeat the videos when necessary. They can go at their own pace. Furthermore, our group talked about how using Educreations you could have your students teach each other.  Sometimes the best way to learn something is to be able to teach it. This could also work as an incentive. If you feel a student in your first tri-mester class did an excellent job in a video explaining how to solve multi-step equations, you could use that video that the student made to show and teach his peers! How cool is that! Students would be working hard to get their videos shown in class.  You can have videos for students who are absent, videos on frequent/common problems; you can browse other teacher’s videos that may be beneficial to you, etc. Plus, you will always have a copy of it; it is saved on the application. I hope just hearing this you all want to sign up and get Educreations! Our screencast of Educreations walks you through the steps of the “how to” sign up and use.

QUIZLET is a great tool for students to study language, vocab…anything really! Students and teachers can create and share their own electronic flash cards or browse and find flashcards to help them study almost any topic. It’s a free and easy to use application. Quizlet is a simple way for students to study on their own through their own choice of technology whether it is their smartphone, computer, iPad, etc.  The nice thing about technology is it allows us to do lots of things in different locations. It is allowing us to take this online class. It is allowing you all to read my blog from wherever. Well, students don’t just need to study in their library anymore or in their bedroom. They can study wherever! What do they always have with them? Their phones! Students can use their phones to help them study for any particular class using Quizlet. They can browse and find flashcards that are already made, the teacher can create cards for them to download or students can just create their own. Using flashcards is an effective memory aid and helps people learn material quickly. The nice thing about having electronic flashcards is students won’t lose them, you can read them and you can share them/store them. Flashcards don’t just have to be a thing for the youngsters, it should continue on throughout one’s entire education. Learn more about the steps and “why” teachers should us this in the classroom by checking out our Flipped PD on Quizlet.