Category Archives: Mastery Learning

Developing a Successful Flipped Classroom

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Flipped Classroom Resources

Flipping Sites
Upstate NY Flipped Forum (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/groups/667338956711381/
Flipped Learning Network: http://flippedclassroom.org
Tips for High Quality Screencasts: http://bit.ly/1ReECBN

Screencasting Software
Screencast-O-Matic (PC & Mac): http://screencast-o-matic.com
Camtasia (PC & Mac): http://techsmith.com
Academic Superstore: http://www.academicsuperstore.com
Adobe Presenter (PC & Mac): http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter.html
ScreenFlow 5 (Mac): http://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
Adobe Premiere Pro (PC & Mac): http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html
Final Cut Pro (Mac): http://finalcutpro.com
Microsoft Expression Encoder 4 (PC): http://bit.ly/1AHQ0vz
Apple Quicktime Player (Mac): part of OS X
ScreenChomp (iPad)
Coach’s Eye (iPad)
ExplainEverything (iPad)

Hosting Sites
iTunes U: https://www.apple.com/education/ipad/itunes-u/
ScreenCast (TechSmith): https://www.techsmith.com/screencastcom.html
Sophia: http://sophia.org
TeacherTube: http://www.teachertube.com
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com
WikiSpaces: http://www.wikispaces.com
Youtube: http://youtube.com

Web Services
EDpuzzle: https://edpuzzle.com
Zaption: http://zaption.com
eduCanon: http://www.educanon.com
Tackk: http://bit.ly/1GQ6qnM
TED Ed: http://ed.ted.com

STEM Flipped Class Content
Academic Earth: http://academicearth.org
APlusPhysics: http://aplusphysics.com
CosmoLearning: http://cosmolearning.org
Educator: http://educator.com
LearnersTV: http://www.learnerstv.com/index.php
Socratic: http://socratic.org
TED: http://ted.com
YouTube EDU: https://www.youtube.com/education?b=400
HMX Earth Science: http://hmxearthscience.com

Skills Based Grading Seminar

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On Tuesday evening I had the opportunity to attend a professional development seminar on Skills Based Grading at SUNY Geneseo as part of the NYS Master Teacher Program.  Below are some of my musings / quick notes as I participated in the seminar.  I very much enjoyed hearing about how others have utilized SBG and comparing to my program.

Goal for the session is for the presenters, George Reuter and Amy to provide a snippet of what Standards Based Grading is and how it can be implemented, coupled with a work session in which a structure is implemented with a SBG philosophy.

Use SBG as a communication tool — highlight strengths as well as opportunities for improvement.

SBG as a process.  Learn a new skill, practice that skill, test that skill, receive feedback, practice needed skills, etc.

Analogy — just like runners have multiple opportunities to practice and show their skill, so will students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.

Work on progressions toward mastery — set up rubric to support your end-goal.

Ways of determining scores — average all scores, decaying average, most recent, other?  (I keep the two most recent).

Presenter spends hours and hours grading assessments — I mentioned Remark OMR and opportunities to automate that work, specifically how I’ve significantly reduced my workload using SBG.  Presenter also spent many hours in parent presentations about the grading system.  I side-stepped that by creating a flipped classroom video explaining my grading system.

After a bit more discussion, we split into various groups to talk about various ramifications, issues, concerns, and successes using SBG.  Overall, a valuable evening!

Terrific Regents Physics Resource: 123Physics.com

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Yes, it’s been awhile since my last post.  We’ve had some family excitement in the recent past, including two difficult losses, but I’m thrilled to most recently have added a baby girl to our family (I’m heading to the hospital to bring mom and baby home today!)  All are well, and we’re so excited and blesses to have such a wonderful addition.

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I’ve been long overdue on this post, but wanted to share a great online resource with high school physics teachers.  Anthony Mangiacapre, author of the terrific St. Mary’s Physics Online site, has another winner on his hands.

123Physics is a site that includes more than 1300 multiple choice questions to assist students in preparing for the NY Regents Physics exam (as well as most any algebra-based physics course).  It includes link to the St. Mary’s online physics lessons, Tony’s terrific Youtube video channel, and even a collection of physics clipart.

Most attractive, though, is the set of online review questions.  Tony has set up the site to allow students to take a full Regents exam online (multiple choice questions), with selections from many recent exams (2000s).  Further, you can set up practice quizzes on the following topics:

  • Electricity
  • Energy
  • Mechanics
  • Modern Physics
  • Waves

Upon choosing a main topic, you can select a sub-topic to focus on.  For example, the waves topic is broken up into:

  • EM Waves
  • Index of Refraction
  • Reflection
  • Refraction
  • Sound
  • Wave Characteristics
  • Wave Phenomena

From there, you can choose which type of question to focus on, either general knowledge, reference table, or plug-in types.  This provides students a huge range of quizzes they can create to test their knowledge on any specific topic, or type of problem.  In my experience, students MUCH prefer doing work on the computer compared to hard copy paper — for some reason it just seems to be more fun and/or engaging, and the instant feedback provided allows students to fix their mistakes and work through any issues immediately.

Tony already has a tremendously valuable student resource in his St. Mary’s Physics Online resource, and with the addition and tie-in of 123Physics along with his Youtube videos, Tony has managed to share his terrific resources with not just his students, but with all interested students and educators.