I reviewed one of my old posts from when I returned from ITEC- ITEC if you have not heard of it, is a wonderful technology conference that you should go to if you want to be filled with new ideas and possibly a little depressed at what is out there that you are not doing in your classroom. I am thankful to have made the realization of my life that in order to be a sane and productive person, it is best to take on just one or two goals at a time. In this scenario, you see the accomplishment and success of a focused goal, and you can move on happy. The best case of the other scenario is you have this forever long list of to-do's for goals and in spreading yourself out over the goals, it takes a really, really long time to see any success. The worst case of course is you get burned out and do not see any success. This reminds me of our fix-me-up house... so many projects, such a mess. WHY WOULD ANYONE GLUE CARPET TO BEAUTIFUL HARDWOOD FLOORS!!?
Anyway, the clear goal to implement the flipped classroom has been accomplished. Success is mine. Both my students and I have seen what it can do, and at the end of the year, we all agreed it had been well worth the transition. I have embedded some surveys that they took about the flipped classroom. The main benefit in the discussions we had is that the flipped classroom helped the students feel more college ready in that they practiced and developed the skills of self-motivation, resource use, and independent as well as collaborative thinking and problem-solving.
I still have things to do with the flipped classroom. I am still working on merging the flipped classroom with UbD. I have a goal of remaking 10 of my videos this summer in order to add more applications to the lessons, more in-depth, critical-thinking guided questions, and more visuals and media.
But, with success, I move on happy! What now? What can you expect to see this summer? Here are my three goals for the summer:
1.) I am currently working at Merrill Manufacturing for the "Extern Program." If you have not heard of this, this is another AWESOME experience that enables you to bring back a hands-on experience to your classroom. There is more information of the program at http://www.iowamathscience.org/educators/externships.I hope to be able to create two unit projects from this experience and publish them on this blog. I also have another blog at http://extern2012-goddard.blogspot.com/ that directly follows my progress at Merrill.
2.) I want to build an energy wind turbine for operating small electronics at my house. I will use this experience and design a unit out of it for my students. Maybe having them build their own wind turbines. If anyone has ideas of the math used in making the most efficient turbines, or just any tips or advice, I would love to get in touch.
3.) Remake 10 videos for my Calculus course.
That is it. Oh, and finish the construction projects on the house...
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