So Flippin' Excited!

I was nervous, well still am nervous. Monday night I couldn't sleep, Tuesday I felt like I had a caffeine drip in my veins, Flip Class was getting the best of me - I couldn't wait to show off my baby. Boy have I learned a few things in just two days. Here are my reflections!

1. This generation of kids, and I'll have you know I am NOT that far removed from them, while they have been around technology all their lives are NOT technologically intelligent by default. I realized that while it was safe to assume a few things, most things would have to be taught. Yes they know what YouTube is, yes they know what Google is, yes they can access our LMS. Have they ever really used any of these things (other than the LMS) for educational purposes, no. So to teach them how to use them along these lines was quite the task. In two days, I hope I have scratched the service.

2. Over the summer I lovingly referred to my new Civics class (the syllabus, the flipped model, the ideas, thoughts etc.) as my baby. So I thought it no big deal to do this in my class. The conversation went something like this.

• Ms. P: So this class is my baby, I have spent many hours nurturing it, and I love it. You don't have to love it back, but you certainly cannot call it ugly! And I'd love whatever feedback, positive and negative, you can give me.
• Student: YOU HAD A BABY, but you weren't fat in June?
• CLASS STARTS THE BIGGEST BELLY LAUGH EVER - INCLUDING MYSELF
• Ms. P: No, student, I did not have a baby over the summer. I was making a comparison between a parent raising a baby and me creating this class. Where I have created it and am now setting it free into the world to see how others will interact and react to it.
• Student: Oh, that does make more sense.

Let me tell you - if a rumor got out that I did have a baby (AND I DIDN'T!) there would be some interesting conversations between me and the powers that be!

3. Students are very willing to give feedback and are great at it all you have to do is ask. I'm curious as to why they haven't before. Perhaps it's because of the typical student teacher relationship and there is some sort of boundary, or if they just never thought to - but I intend to do it much more often this year!

4. Their first flipped assignment is due by tomorrow at 7am - and as of right now I have 40/68 responses - with 3 emails asking for help and those 3 submitted. So tomorrow we'll recap with what to do. I spent today going back over what we did yesterday in terms of homework expectations and how to do it. I pretended I was again a 15 year old doing this homework and had them guide me through it - so I took wrong turns (clicks) and became side tracked. To them it was amusing but got the point across. Again it goes back to this idea of asking for feedback - a student suggested that I have them walk me through the process to see if they could remember. Sometimes my students are so smart!

Overall, I'm excited to see what the rest of the week brings - how have your first weeks been going?

All that for this?

I know flipping isn't about the videos, but lately that has been what is on my mind. Yesterday my goal was to get a few scripts done and then play around with a screen casting to get it all figured out.

Boy were there a lot of logistics! First off, I am definitely a penny pincher, even though I'm not buying any of the tech myself, and neither is my school (Thank you Stanton Foundation!) I still want to use my money wisely - so if I could find a way to use what is existing on my computer and put the $75 somewhere else, like iPod touches for the classroom, speaker fees, and professional development. Yes, I know $75 wouldn't cover ALL of that!

I facebooked with a college friend who is a tech guru (I thought I knew a lot, geez I am out of the loop) and he said well QuickTime will screen capture and record your face at the same time. AWESOME! Don't have to buy Camtasia! Then I sat down to do it with a Keynote presentation. When you're in fullscreen the record your face goes away, wha wha - back to buying Camtasia.

Then I found they have a free trial - WOOT WOOT! So this morning I sat down and downloaded it. Purposes of Government - Take 1: Had my script (just words) and went to town, that is until the lawn boys started cutting the lawn outside my condo!

Purposes of Government - Take 2: Started back up from the beginning because I didn't know how to work the editing capabilities. Got through a few of my Keynote slides until I realized I had no idea when I wanted to click or advance slides. So I annotated my script.

Purposes of Government - Take 3: LET'S GO! I recorded about 3 minutes so I could see what was going on. I had my script to the right of the computer and it totally showed. So I spent about 45 minutes coming up with a contraption of old yearbooks (5) and a shoebox to tape my script to.

Purposes of Government - Take 4: Again went for 3 minutes to check things out, now I look like I have some sort of eye disorder where I'm constantly rolling my eyes. I'm going to have students thinking "Great this teacher is a loon!". So I cut my script into half sheets held them in front of my screen so I couldn't see a darn thing on it!

Purposes of Government - Take 5: FINALLY, it all fell into place! After the editing (I had to respeak a few slides) I had a project I was willing to upload to YouTube.

6 takes and editing took about an hour and a half - hopefully it goes quicker next time!