I'm FLIPPING

Flipping you ask?  I am flipping my class in my next unit.  This means I will be delivering notes through video presentations.  Students will be responsible for watching assigned lessons and or videos prior to coming to class.

Now that I have more time in class I will be assigning project based learning activities.  Now, I'm not really sure what those activities are yet.

What I do know:
1. My unit is on Middle Ages Europe
2. My unit will be approximately 3 and half weeks
3. My students will need access to both the internet and some sort of electronic presentation program
4. I want a variety of different student outputs: formative and summative
5. I want my students to share their output: either in class or online
6. I will use Schoology to facilitate the delivery

What I do NOT know:
1. How exactly I'm going to deliver my lessons
2. What exactly will my students produce
3. How much time should I allow for class work

I have talked to my county blended learning coordinator, my school ITRT and consulted a ton (okay, that's a hyperbole) of websites.  My favorite website is bie.org.  It is full of very useful and well organized information.

I will keep you up to date on my flipping!

Justianian I BioPoem

Our first week back was a success!  However, we only had two full days, two two-hour delays and one closure due to the super freezing cold.

So, like all good teachers I cut and pasted my lesson plans and squeezed things into smaller time slots.  I originally planned this reinforcement activity as a solo project.  However, the short period on Friday forced me to work this into the fifteen minutes I had after the clicker quiz.

Here were the instructions I used:

I divided the class into six groups.  The first group worked with the adjectives and relationship.  Then next four groups identified accomplishments we had discussed.  I encouraged them to have two accomplishments incase their first one was taken by another group.  The last group worked on two obstacles.  I filled in the first, next to last and last lines.  After a few minutes I wrote the group's line on butcher paper.  

Two things about this assignment.  I loved it when a student in each class said, "Mrs. Virginia World History Teacher! Is this like a biography but a poem?!"  And I said, "Why yes Virginia World History Student...it is!!!"  I also like this because you could use this for any person or even inanimate objects.  When I was Virginia Civics Teacher I assigned this to my students but they were to write about the Articles of Confederation.

Here are some student creations:

First and Second Period

Fourth Period

Sixth Period 

Okay, hope you are settling into your new year nicely and I look forward to blogging some more.  Thanks for reading!

Happy Teaching!
C

It's the end of the world: a project

The first semester had two projects.  Both of them were thesis papers based on specific SOLs.  I am not sure the students enjoyed it but I think most honed their research and writing skills.  

Second semester will offer a new project.  I got the idea from another teacher, who I found online, that gave a similar assignment.  

So here it is: I will give the students a scenario that the world's population has dropped by 98% as a result of an influenza outbreak.   That means there are a little over 100 million people in the world and only 6.5 million people in the United States.  Currently, Virginia has a bit over 8 million people.  In the scenario, the influenza outbreak has been stabilized but the government, economy, and society have failed and need to be restructured.  The new government has put a search committee together to locate students of World History to help advise the new government on how to proceed.  What worked well in the past and what should our new government, economy, and society.  

I would like to offer a few options for the product the student is producing.  Obviously, they could  do a written report: like on you would turn into a boss for a proposal (not a research paper).  I am also thinking power point.  I would like to come up with a few more products.  I guess I'll keep my thinking cap on.

Happy Teaching!

C