I'm Flipping Out!

Yep that's right, it's August and I'm excited to be flipping my accounting classroom this year. I hope that all of the kids will: 1. Complete homework 2. Gain a greater understanding of accounting concepts 3. Enjoy the learning process. After listening to the research and ideas of fellow educators @dmoss and @i_teach_history, I was convinced that completing what used to be done at home, in school and doing what used to be done in school, at home, had many advantages.

I wasn't totally convinced right away, as the one question I kept asking myself was what if the student didn't do their homework. Well, I've decided that is totally up to the students. However, I do believe that most students would rather come to class with the lecture already watched and get to collaborate on problems with other students and myself, than sit in a corner and watch the lecture by themselves. At least this is the theory that I'm banking on.

By the students viewing the lecture at home (or wherever they happen to be with their mobile device), more time will be available in class for problem practice, SMART Board activities, and vocabulary review. One-on-one teacher time and collaborating with group members will happen daily. With this extra time and assistance, students can't go wrong....right?

Since flipping the classroom is taking the traditional classroom and switching everything around, students should enjoy this change up to learning. The lecture videos will be viewed outside of class and can be watched as many times as necessary. Collaborating with the group on activities in the classroom and on Twitter outside of the classroom, I would think, is more desirable than listening to a lecture in class and then completing problems at home.

Today I recorded my third and last video lecture for chapter 1, using Screencast-O-Matic. I shared that video to my Wikispaces site, where the students will view the videos. Also, a more detailed explanation relating to chapter 1 was shared from ShowMe to Wikispaces. We are getting closer to flipping out in Mrs. L's accounting room this year, it should be fun!

iBooks Author is to Dream For

Yesterday in class I introduced iBooks Author to my computer media class. It looks and feels much like Keynote, so the junior and senior students already felt like they knew the program. It was fun to se them jump right in with excitement in their eyes.

At 4:00 a.m. this morning I woke up from my dream about iBooks Author, talk about taking your work home with you. In my dream, students were creating, sharing, and learning from the newly created iBook on their iPad. I woke up from this dream smiling.

Computer media’s assignment is to collaboratively create a book of our vocabulary terms. The definition along with pictures, movies, and examples will all appear on the page dedicated to one of the five terms that is assigned to each student.

I can see this book helping the current students learn and being utilized in the future to assist the next wave of students master the terms for this class. My dream for the learners of iBooks Author is to create, share, learn and learn some more.

QR Codes....Better Late than Never

QR Codes, Better Late than Never

I was introduced to QR Codes months ago by @jdog90 and @mrbadura. It was information that I shoved aside because I didn’t think I had time to figure out how to read them, how to create them, let alone how to use them in the classroom. Big mistake.

For the record, it took me less than one minute to download the ShopSavvy QR Code reader on my iPad. It took me less than 10 seconds to read the QR Code on my phone sent from @barkupatree. Three minutes was how long it took me to download and create my own code at qrcode.kaywa.com. After attending #yorkdukes12 Professional Development Day, I took the list of resources shared by @lherr and within 10 minutes had several ideas for the classroom. So much for the time concern I had.

My first project was a QR Code projected on our own Centura Vision and printed on the basketball roster for our home games. We have used this code for one game and plan to continue it’s publication. The code contains a link to our district Facebook page, hopefully the crowd will friend us.

The next is a project in progress that @idreamhopelove is creating for her Partnership with Business Report for FBLA. She has created QR Codes to be placed on the business website that she created and more codes will be found on business brochures and flyers. “It’s a cool way to advertise using technology,” stated Andrea.

Nope, I didn’t jump at the chance to understand these codes when they were first brought to my attention. It is one of those mistakes that when I look back on it now, I just have to enjoy the fact that I learned about the QR Codes....better late than never. 

Look for Andrea with the code below.

Being SMART in the Classroom

Whew! What a week. It was jam packed full of ball games, meetings, and parent teacher conferences. With the parents that I met with at conferences this week, we discussed the normal list of topics: the student self evaluation form, L2J charts, some positives, and any concerns that we may have. What was different this year is that parents were asking me what a SMART Board was and how it helped students learn. This is where the conferences became fun for me.

I jumped up and practically ran to the board. I hooked up my computer and opened up some of the accounting notebooks that I had created this summer. Before I knew it, I had one father manipulating the accounting numbers and dragging them into debit and credit parts. The smile on his face made it evident that he was hooked!  I explained that one of my goals this year was to make my accounting class more interactive and engaging and I was using SMART Technologies to help me accomplish this.

One parent said, "What if we could have had this back when we were in accounting class!" We laughed together and dreamed for a bit. The students at Centura are truly fortunate to have a SMART Board available to them in every classroom. The teachers have the privilege of using this tool to help engage  students in his/her learning. And our parents should feel assured in knowing that their child gets to gain knowledge in a better way than we did.

Beautiful Centura

As I was traveling down Highway 2, heading for my second day of school, the sky caught my eye. Surrounded by clouds, dark sky, and patches of rain, was an area where the sun was shooting through the clouds; what looked to be right over Centura. I thought to myself, Beautiful Centura.

A quote from a former administrator popped into my head. He had told me that every morning, as he was winding through the hills on his way to work, once the school was in his sight he said to himself, "Beautiful Centura".

Centura is beautiful. Inside and out. As we are getting ready for kids to flood through our doors next week, I find myself thinking more about the inside beauty, particularly my classroom. In my business/technology instruction, I'm constantly working to integrate technology into my curriculum. Below are some of the additions I've made for the 2011-2012 school year.

One of my personal goals was to start blogging. You are reading my first blog, I used Blogger.com. It is also important for the students in my classes to read, think, and respond to certain topics, I have a class ready to begin blogging using kidblog.org.

Weebly.com is a site that one of my students already used this summer to create a website for a local business. This is an FBLA project that she got a jump start on. Weebly not only has standard options, but some free advanced options too. My careers class will find themselves createing electronic portfolios using this program as well.

Linkedin.com is an additional avenue to assist the high school students with networking and making job and career connections. This is a social network that the students can use to showcase themselve's professionally.

Information technology class will be creating an online portfolio of their classroom accomplishments using Voice Thread.com. This is an awesome site that allows collaboration between students, teachers, and hopefully, parents.

DoInk.com is an animation site. Students in entrepreneurship and careers classes will be utilizing Doink to create animated vocabulary definitions.

This summer I experimented with Zunal.com, a webquest maker. You can create one webquest without having to pay a fee, which I did. Then I explored many webquests pertaining to digital citizenship. I found several to utilize in my 7th grade keyboarding class.

And finally, to help with management of the many projects that the students in computer media class will have, I've created a class wiki using wikispaces.com. One of the many features that I'm excited about is the Google calendar that is now found on each project page of the wiki.

Chances are that many of you have already experimented with one or more of these websites. Please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are and how you have utilized the site(s) in the classroom.

I think it is evident that I'm excited and ready to begin the 2011-2012 school year at Beautiful Centura! Wishing you the same as you begin the school year.