9- Flipping the classroom & more!

The flipped classroom is a term used to describe learning through educational vodcasts (video casts). The reason they chose the term flipped classroom is because it basically “flips” the way that students and teachers spend classroom time. Instead of coming to class and being taught the material through lectures and then assigning practice homework, teachers are assigning the vodcasts of the lectures for homework and then the next day they spend the class time doing practice problems. I can definitely see the benefit of the flipped classroom, but I think it’s important to maintain a balance because some kids simply don’t have the motivation to sit down and really pay attention to the vodcasts. I have found through my personal education experience that the best way to implement a balanced way of flipping the classroom is to have students read the portion of the textbook that will be covered the following day. That way you still teach it the next day but the lesson can be taught faster, allowing more time for practice. I found a webpage that discusses how to make a vodcast, ways to use vodcasts in the classroom, and provides a list of links to different educational videos. Check it out: web2foryou

An interesting web-based resource that I plan on using for professional development is Lynda.com. I first learned about Lynda when completing my ILP#1, and fell in love with the site. The website itself is so easy to navigate and right away I could find all of the online courses within my field of study, education. I chose to complete a course on classroom management and I found it very informative and interesting. I sat down for two hours to complete the course and I didn’t lose my attention once. Lynda also has a wide variety of topics and courses, and I feel that having the ability to keep up with the advancements in all parts of society in one place is priceless. I’m thankful that FSU provides students to access this website for free and I highly recommend everyone check it out: Lynda

I used a template for the PowerPoint Interaction assignment in order to save time, however I feel like I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I would have created it all myself without using a template. I still learned a lot about how games, like Jeopardy, are made. Throughout high school I have played numerous Jeopardy games for reviews and I always wondered how they were made, so it was neat getting to learn the mechanics behind it. Next time I feel like I could improve this assignment by creating my own game from a blank slate, without using a template. Everything that I learned in this lesson is very applicable to my future career because these interactive PowerPoint’s are a great tool to engage students and help them review material. I still have some formatting things that I need to finish but here is a screenshot of my PowerPoint Interaction: