My Evolving Philosophy

Most people would thing that once you have taught for 12 years one would be set in their philosophy and knew exactly how they wanted things done in their class on a daily basis.  Two or three years ago, or maybe even the start of last year, I would have thought I was set.

Then the strangest thing happened, I joined twitter, becoming involved with other amazing educators and my old philosophy went poof.  After connecting with a GREAT PLN, my beliefs were challenged and pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I jumped into a new direction with both feet and had no idea if it would even work.  I started by incorporating technology in my class.  I used a variety of blended methods and took off.  I had what I would call the best year of my career.  My administrators even commented on the change and supported me in my new direction.

Next, I decided to use the flipped classroom model to give my students more opportunities to use their Spanish.  I have set up my Spanish 2 class and have took off running.  We are 1 week in our first unit.  Spanish 1 will join in once the preliminary chapter is complete.  The flipped class gives me so many chances to help students on specific issues the moment they happen.  I no longer need to spend large amounts of class time giving notes and lecturing.

As I started this journey in earnest this year, I again thought I was set.  The flipped class was it.  Then, I ran into a concept call standard based grades, thanks Garnet Hillman.  This pushed me out of yet another box I thought I set for myself.  I realized this even more today while looking at student work.

Some new questions came to me, "What do students benefit from receiving a zero?  Why should I let students settle for doing sub par work?  Why not let students make up work and give them not just partial, but FULL credit?  Isn't the goal of learning a foreign language, to communicate with others?"

So, I was forced to reassess my beliefs.  I am not going to let my students settle and do sub par work or just not do their work.  Students will redo all parts that are no up to standard.  Students who do not do their work, will come to my class during homeroom and work on the work they did not do.  Not doing the assignment or doing poorly and moving on, is no longer an option.  They will redo things until they are acquire the skills.

I no longer feel that I have to have a set philosophy.  My philosophy should be ever changing.  Once a teacher feels their's is set, then that is when stagnation sets in.  Teachers need other in their lives that will push them in their beliefs.

I have grown so much as an educator.  I am no longer satisfied.  I want to improve every day and find something new that will make me a better teacher and my class a better and more exciting place to be.

Here's to keeping philosophies evolving!

Getting the buy in

When someone starts something new, sometimes the hardest thing is to get others to jump on board with you.  That is what I am getting ready to embark on this week, especially in my level II.  I am jumping into the flipped classroom.  I want to use my class time for much more meaningful activities that get students using the language in everyday settings.

I pose this questions, what is going to make the students buy in to this new topic?  I could answer this by saying that they will be intrinsically motivated and just love Spanish enough to do this.  However, I know teenagers, and that is just not the case.  The one thing that will get them to buy in will be one thing and one thing only.......ME!

The students are not going to buy in unless I am committed and I am passionate about how this is going to work.  If I have the attitude like this is just something I hope works, the students will not jump on board.  They will think, "If he doesn't believe in this, why should we?"

They would be right.  My passion and belief in this concept will be key to this journey being a success.  I do know that it will be different for them to get use to and that it will push their comfort zone of setting in class having information fed to them.  That's the point to this.  I want them out of their comfort zone.  This is exactly what a foreign language is about.  Pushing students out of their bubble.

Getting my students to realize that they can communicate with me and the others in Spanish and can get their point across.  They will see a tremendous improvement in their abilities.

Just like the movie Ratatouille and chef Gusteau's famous saying "Anyone can cook,"  I believe anyone can learn a second language.  It just takes the right attitude and support!

I find my support from my wonderful PLN who gives advice and support.  It is a great thing to be able to reach out to others who are just as passionate as you are in the same areas.  It is something that you may not have available in the building you teach.

One final thought for now, I hope my students see me unsatisfied in the status quo.  I want them to realize that one should never be satisfied.  There is always something more worth reaching for!  GREATNESS!  It is always there and just a bit out of reach, and my passion will continue to push my students towards GREATNESS!

Breaking the Ice

I do not know of anything more important than the first day of school.  So much of what happens during the year comes is a direct result of whta happens in the classroom that first few days of school.  The most important thing to me is for my students to feel comfortable and safe in my classroom.  It is a place to have fun and learn all at the same time.

 Relationships are vital to the success of every student.  The old cliche says "That students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."   I couldn't agree more with this.  When one of my students kow I am invested in them, they work harder because they care about what I think about them.  They want to do better and not let me down.

In following the theme of +Dave Burgess 's book Teach Like a Pirate, I pirated +Garnet Hillman 's pipe cleaner activity to learn a little about my kiddos.  The activity had students take two pipe cleaners (at least) and draw something that represented them.  The student would then present it to the class and tell why it was important while giving their name.  This let me float around the room while they were working.

I couldn't be more proud of the work my students did.  My Spanish I and II students loved the activity and had a great time.  I could have started the year off bombarding them with vocabulary, homework, class expectations, or rapid fire Spanish.  I chose to focus on relationship building.  Breaking the ice with my students.

After the pipe cleaners, we got to play a little Sr. Adkins fact or fiction.  This is always a great way to see what the students think from just a few minute impression.  Tonight, students will fill out a personal inventory to let me know about them and I will pass out one I have filled out.  I want my students to know that I am human.  It is me working WITH them not me working at or against them.  Breking the ice and getting to know my students is what I valued today.  My class expectations and  supply list can wait.  Getting to know my students cannot and will not.

My goal is as my superintendent says is to BE AWESOME!

Here are some examples of the pipe cleners:

                                  Swimming

                             Script Ohio (I'll let the school up north's colors slide :))

                          I love you in sign language because the girl can use sign language

           Student said basketball hoop....I said toilet...what do you think?

               Cow (albeit one on a very strict diet)

             Fisherman 

         The best one by far!  Owl  She asked for more cleaners.  I kept this one intact

Thanks for reading!   #BEAWESOME!

Catching Students Attention Without Saying a Word

To steal a little bit of an idea from Garnett Hillman, there is nothing more exciting than getting your classroom ready to start the year.  Last year, my wife and I stopped by the school during the summer to check on my room and my mailbox when my wife asked, "How do kids learn in here?  It is so boring!"  Ouch!  That stung a bit because I thought I had done a decent job of decorating.  She then suggested we paint the room and redo it, with the approval of my principal.

After emailing my principal, we got the okay and set for to Walmart to look at paint swatches.  I picked one and she picked one and they looked great together.  The excitement was starting to set in.  I was curious how the room was going to turn out.  Well, here are some before pictures of my room:

Now, after painting my room, I can say that just the feel of the room can set the tone and get students attention.  ALL my students come in are drawn in by the feel of the world around them.  It is different world than all the other rooms they set foot in all day, and I LOVE THAT!

The room sets the tone before I get the chance to speak.  I want my students to realize that the room matches my personality.  I like things that are bright and eye catching.  I cannot wait for the room to match the ideas I have spinning in my head from reading Dave Burgess' Teach Like a Pirate.

This year is going to be an exciting journey that I cannot wait to take off and begin.  The new school year has so many promising things.  I cannot wait to flip my classes, incorporate TLAP in my class and get students involved in the decision making!  It is going to be a great year!  

To all my fellow teachers, I hope you all have a great start to the school year, and I cannot wait to read your blogs and twitter updates as the year progresses seeing what new ideas you have started!

Here are the after pics of my room:

Shaping the unknowns

How to start the year off is always a question I struggle with each year?  This year is no different.  I am jumping into flipping my class.  However, I am leaning towards starting the beginning of the year traditionally especially in Spanish 1, and staring the flipped version in chapter 1.

I have been running the set up through my mind almost all summer and I am trying to get things fine tuned and set the way I want them.  I am getting a lot support from my PLN and get wonderful new ideas from them as well.  I just found out that a teacher in other high school in my district will be flipping, so we are going to collaborate as the year goes.  This will be a great support.

I am excited about what this year can be with the new changes in my class.  It will be a learning experience and I want the students to know that I am trying this and it may or may not work, but I ultimately want the students to learn that not knowing if you are going to be successful is not a reason for not trying something new.  I want my students to realize that anything is possible and not be worried if the idea works.  This idea works multiple facets in Spanish and with my use of technology.  

The beginning of the school year has many unknowns.  This year will be no different.  One large unknown for me, but exciting and interesting, will be the addition of two new administrators.  My principal and assistant principal are both new this year.  This will be an exciting, and I cannot wait to share with them my plans for flipping and incorporating technology with some PBL and SBG.  Add to that four Spanish 1 classes and there will be plenty of unknowns.  

To me, unknowns are clean slates that we are able to create what we want to make them.  Everything I do will shape how these unknowns pan out.  Having an open mind and being willing to be flexible, will  allow these unknowns to be positive ones.  LIke all journeys in life, you start somewhere with a clean slate and the start of this school year no exception.  

Have a Great Year Everyone!

The Journey Continues

At the end of last school year, I did some dabbling into flipping my classes.  I really like the premise behind flipping and feel that it is a good fit for me and my Spanish classroom.  I want to focus more of my face to face (f2f) time on meaningful activities that build the students interpersonal, interpretive and presentational skills in reading, speaking. listening and writing.  With that said, I believe that by flipping I can take the grammar instruction out of the f2f time and use videos to present them.  This will allow me work with the students communication skills.

To help prepare myself for flipping, I watched Heather Witten's webinar via Sophia on Flipped for Fluency.     She gave some great examples and had some fantastic questions on how she went about flipping her class.  This webinar gave me a focused look on how I want to go about setting up my class.

My focus is set.  I am started with what I want the students to know by the end of the year.  I then am breaking down my grammar points to use at various points in the year.  I am grouping this based on themes so that the units are focused and I can tie those into cultural related topics.  I will be giving 2 check in assessments to see how students are progressing before students create a unit proficiency assessment.  This assessment will have a focus, but students will get to choose their own way to present their proficiency.

Along with flipping, I am wanting to try some PBL and as much tech use as possible.  I even think that students will be blogging in Spanish this year to improve their writing.  For speaking formative assessments, I am going to be using google voice for students to call and leave a message that will show their comprehension of the questions and their speaking abilities.

I am excited about this journey with flipping this year and cannot wait to get started.  I know that the students will need to change their thought process for my class, but once they see how effective taking control of their own learning will be they will buy into it!

I will keep you all updated on how the journey is going once I start getting units planned and the school year begins.

The process continues

After looking at various different ways to flip the classroom, I still am in the process of finding out what a flipped classroom means to me. I have ideas in my head. I want the students to work towards mastery, not just doing things by a time frame and moving on. If that was the case, what's the point of changing things up.

I have spent time looking into different activities that will meaningful and technologically driven. I have scoured Twitter and different groups getting nuggets of information. I am looking at tech groups, educator groups, foreign language groups, flipped class groups and so on. I was lucky enough to be pointed towards @SraWitten and @karacjacobs. Their blogs and advice have been greatly helpful.

I have watched webinars on flipping and have even received my "Flipped" Certificate from @sophia (www.sophia.org) I am in the process of adding to and making new tutorials for my class. I am convinced that flipping the class will be successful.

With every new concept I have introduced this year, I have had to prod my Spanish II's through it. When things do not go real smooth, they want to give up and quit and go back to the old ways of doing things. I keep pushing. When we started with Schoology, now it is adding BYOT to the classroom and taking tests/quizzes using technology. I am sure when I introduce Google Voice in the next week or so, that will be received with open arms. (I somehow doubt that)

I want to model for students that just because we don't know what how things will turn out or that if things are difficult, we can't just stop and forget it. I want them to know that I don't know if this will work, but I am doing it anyway and I am jumping in with both feet.

My Spanish II's just took their first set of notes in the flipped model on Thursday night. I cannot wait to see how this goes.

On an exciting note, I was asked to take part in the second cohort of my district's technology integration pilot. I am honored to be asked and am looking forward to finding things to use and do with my classes.

Well, I will let you know how things are progressing.

Where to being?

After teaching for 11 years, one usually know just how they want to do their job day in and day out. After getting an iPad to use in class, I am now questioning that mantra. My district, like most, is facing financial concerns, and as a result PD is not normally approved, so I took to the social media airways to get some ideas. I joined twitter (@sadkinsump) and have started blogging.

My school uses Schoology as its LMS. I fiddled with it in the summer, but thought nothing about it. At our school PD day, we had a short presentation on Schoology, and I realized how that could be beneficial in the Foreign Language classroom. I started my Spanish II's using Schoology for discussion posts, so they could improve their writing and could see how others were doing too.

I have increased my use of Schoology and now have all my students in Spanish I and II using it. I have also started posting notes from class, worksheets, vocabulary lists and links to quizlet. I realize the more that students have access to things at home and on their own time the more beneficial it is to them.

Sorry for digressing. After getting my iPad, I have been looking at different ways to enhance my class. I have began using the educreations app and love it. I like the idea of posting the notes with my voice, so students can hear and see what the notes are. This offers so much more than just copying the notes from a friend.

After starting this, I found the #edchat group on Twitter and learned about this idea of flipping the classroom. I read some blog links from Daniel Edwards (@syded06) and I have been sold on the idea of flipping the classroom.

The chemistry teacher and I have talked off and on for a week or so about flipping the classroom and what that means. I really believe in the flipped mastery model, but I am now in the area of how to go about doing it all. I have a few students who normally do not do their homework, so I am trying to figure out how that will play out if they do not listen to the notes and then be ready for the days activities. I also question how to handle students who say they have no access to the computer at home, even though, they already have told me they do.

I think the benefits of the flipped classroom fits the Foreign Language classroom really well. The goal of the class is for students to communicate in the Target Language not just do the grammar concepts really well. The flipped classroom allows students to spend less time on the grammar and more time working on the communicating.

I am on information overload right now. I see so many new ideas and want to run with them all. I know I need to choose only a few and do those well and then implement the others after I get up and going.

I am open to any and all suggestions as well as encouragement in this process.

I will keep you all posted on how things start off.