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Overall Reflection
The past few weeks have ben incredibly busy and invigorating. I have thoroughly enjoyed my studies on creating instructional videos, gaming/gamification, and flipped lesson design. My mind continues to spin with ideas of how I am going to implement all that I'm learning in my classroom. I am most excited about gamification. I spent time studying BreakoutEDU and was able to develop my first BreakoutEDU game. My students are not quite ready for the content in this game yet, but I look forward to watching my students attempt this breakout in a few weeks. Most of the puzzles will reinforce Math concepts, but will also address the social studies content that we are studying. What I love most about BreakoutEDU is the collaboration and communication that it promotes.
I enjoyed participating in the #cueiec twitter chat. It is an excellent way to make personal connections with other passionate educators. I'm excited that some of us will get a chance to meet in person at the CUE conference in Palm Springs.
CUE Community
There has been so much great sharing of information in the CUE Community the past few weeks. The question that I have been pondering is; What makes flipped learning successful? I have read several articles about Flipped learning and what it looks like in the classroom. Students need training and practice for flipped learning to be successful. They need to be self-motivated and self-disciplined. This is hard for the 9 and 10-year-olds that I teach. I think the majority of my kids can get there, and practicing these skills at a young age will help them as they continue through school, no matter what the teaching style is in their future classrooms.
I have found the following articles very helpful in understanding what flipped learning means and what it looks like in the classroom. I realize that the most important part of flipped learning is what the students are doing when they come back to the classroom. Creating Instructional videos is a waste of time if we do not also create higher-level thinking activities for students to participate in when they come back to class after watching a flipped lesson at home. This is not an easy task, but one that will provide enormous benefits for students and help them achieve more.
Some of my fellow cohort members shared the games they created, and the content may apply to my grade level. Allie shared a Westward Ho game, and Kristen shared a digital breakout reinforcing the study of fractions. I'm excited to see how I can remix their ideas for use in my classroom.
Project Status
We had our first project check-in last week, and I shared my idea of a blog with a focus on STEAM education. I'm having second thoughts about my blog's focus. I'm finding that there are many topics that I want to write about and share, including gaming, gamification, G Suite (specifically Google Geo Tools, which I feel are very underutilized) and art.
Mary gave me the great suggestion to add my students' voice to the blog and get feedback from them on how these projects and teaching practices have influenced their learning.
I also realize that many teachers attend conferences or PD sessions and participate in presentations on innovative teaching practices, then they leave saying, "Well that was great, but that won't work in my classroom or any real classroom." I want to show teachers that these practices do work in real classrooms with real students so that they are encouraged to implement new teaching practices and ideas.
I did add one post to my blog on how I set up a green screen in my classroom.
Elective Status
I haven't made too much progress in my differentiated instruction using technology course the past few weeks. The Innovative Pedagogies course has been taking up a lot of my time. I'm hoping to spend more time this next week finishing some of my assignments for my elective. I have new ideas for my differentiated instruction lesson plan assignment thanks to what I have learned in this flipped learning module.
What's Next?
I'm excited about the next steps in this certificate process. I look forward to exploring social media and learning about new technologies in the IRON CUE module. I am also excited about attending the CUE national conference in Palm Springs next month. It will be great to be in the same physical space as other innovative educators.
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