Started Unit 5 (Gravity)

This weekend I finally started the next unit which is an introduction to gravity.

It took me a while to revamp my old notes because I decided to re-arrange some things as well. Digitalizing the notes took 2:50 time. (Plus I did about 3 hours yesterday updating and smoothing out Unit 3 for my students to use this week.)

Time spend = 6 hours

Completed UPGRADE of my account

Since my new, faster server is working well I have completed the process of moving over to the new server.

Today I contacted FatCow and cancelled my old account and paid my new account for two years.

www.colbysworld.net will be running for two years (up for renewal September of 2014) and it has cost me $400 (When you buy two years at once you are billed $16.99 per month instead of the $24.99 per month I would have been billed if I paid per month)

Cost: $400

Video Lesson added to YouTube

I added four mini-videos together to make a YouTube video....

Videos from Unit 3..... 3_04, 3_05, 3_06, and 3_07. These are from the very first lecture that I actually created... Force.

Also, I created a "jump" password to the Unit 3 lectures.... Now when a student gets about halfway through one lecture they will be given a password that, if they enter it at the beginning of the lecture, will allow them to jump halfway through the lecture. This way students will be able to complete HALF of a lecture in maybe 15 minutes, save the results, and then come back at a later time. This is crucial as it will allow students to come in AT LUNCH OFFICE HOURS to complete at least part of a lecture.

Time to make "jump" password work on Unit 3 lectures = 2.75 hrs

“Flipping the classroom” conference report

I attended a one-day conference on flipping the classroom the other day and was able to “pick up” a bunch of information. This has been the first time I was able to meet and hear directly from other teachers (a Physics and Chemistry teacher, no less) who have been working on flipping their classrooms.

Two big pieces of information I discovered was: (a) Jon Waggle (one of the presenters) highly recommends Camtasia software (so, I am not the only one that likes this particular software), and (b) there are LOTS of different ways to actually record a “lecture/lesson” to get it online.

HERE IS A LIST OF NOTES/LINKS/FINDINGS from the event:

(1) Edmodo is a great way to quickly set up a “classroom” focal point online from which students can log in, post comments, as well as the teacher being able to post links to online resources and his/her own online lectures/powerpoints/word documents.

 

(2) Different ways to record your lectures:

   (a) Debut - $30
   (b) Snagit - $30
   (c) Screencast-o-matic (free, sort of)
   (d) APPs for iPad and other devices:
                - Show Me
                - Screen Chomp
                - Educreation
                - Doceri (which can also control your MAC/PC remotely)

(3) “Inking” is a way of “writing” over all Microsoft programs. You have to play around with the “file options” and get the right button placed on the “ribbon” in order to access inking, but it is a very quick and easy (no cost) method of being able to handwrite notes on Powerpoint, Word, Excel, etc.

(4) Rendering Time – Even the teachers at the conference had computers that would take quite a bit of time to render their video lectures. I need to keep that in mind when I talk with other teachers. I am fortunate to have a computer that renders relatively quickly. (Rendering is when the computer is turning your work/file into the correct video format that you can upload to the internet.)  One example given was a 20 minute video on Camtasia that took something like 20-to-25 minutes to render. On my computer a 15 minute Camtasia video takes something like 5 minutes to render. One thing important to ensure quicker rendering times is to have a computer with at least 2 gigabytes of RAM (my computer currently has 4 Gigabytes.... I might upgrade to 8 Gigabytes some day)

(5) flipping the classroom is very SCALEABLE…. In other words, the teacher can include these technologies in varying degrees depending on their resources, time, and needs. The content doesn’t HAVE to be used “away from the classroom,” for example. ..A video lesson could be created that can be used IN THE CLASSROOM by a sub-set of students while the teacher works with ANOTHER group of students on something else. They are also scaleable in that you can put varying degrees of time and resources into the creation of a single online lecture.... For example: you can just record a lecture "live" while you do it in class, then just post a link to it. This is a great, quick way to provide a lesson for students to go back for review OR for students who were absent for your class. At the other end, you can put together a more production-heavy presentation complete with a full, flipped lesson plan... The students watch the online lecture BEFORE class and then the next day their is an accompanying lesson in class.

 

(6) SAMPLE LESSONS - These were FIRST TIME LESSONS created by teachers (High School and Junior High Science Teachers) WHILE they were at the conference. NOTE: all of these presentations were created in a room with OTHER teachers working on similar projects at the same time so you will hear background noise throughout.

(a) MolarSolutions Video - by Erin McKay

(b) Mole Example - by Stephan Unterholzner (made with "educreation" app on iPad)

(c) Got Cells - by Jeff Baker (made with screencast-o-matic)

(d) Forces - by <sorry... unknown>

(e) Cow Eye Dissection - by De Wood (made with screencast-o-matic)

(f) Igneous Rock - by Sarah Schreiber (made with "educreation" app on iPad)

(g) Read Between the Lines - by Kim Stewart (a powerpoint with "inking")

(h) Factoring Equations - by Debra Newburg (made with "educreation" app on iPAd)

(I) Forms of Energy - by Lori Ruegsegger (made with "educreations" app on iPad)

 

(7) Here is the "Flipping the Classroom" powerpoint from the main presentation of the day.

(8) Here is the opening video that was shown for the conference from the creator of Khan Academy.

I am going to my FIRST "Flipping" Conference

I am excited that I am going to be able to go to a one day conference about Flipping the classroom. This will be my first conference on this topic.  I'll report back after the conference...







Here is the write-up:

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Flipping Instruction: Freeing up time for NGSS Science and Engineering Practices

21st Century classrooms must utilize all forms of technology to meet students where they are at. Using "flipping" strategies are one way to increase engagement, differentiate instruction, and free up time to integrate science and engineering practices into the curriculum. This workshop will be held on September 11th and is open to all K-12 educators.

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Completed Lesson 1.3

Lesson 1.3 is 6 parts. It took a total of (nearly) 22 hours to complete. (I had to wait to complete the fifth mini-video because I could not get it done in time last week due to all of the work required to transfer my entire site over to a new server....)

Plus I put in 40 minutes to fix some bugs with lesson 1.2


Total time spent: 22.5 hrs.

I MOVED MY ENTIRE SITE TO A NEW SERVER

So, most of you probably won't have to deal with this.... but, since I am running my own video server... and since I have 35+ students downloading these videos simultaneously, during class time, there were issues with my previous server.

I was on what is called a "shared server"... which means that I share bandwidth with who-knows-how-many other web page clients. During peak internet hours there just was not enough bandwidth to handle the load.... My videos would freeze and that is not good in the format that I am using (students have to reload the entire lesson if a video freezes and fails to load.)

So I am going with the same company (www.fatcow.com) but am paying for a VPS server. Now I basically get 1/4th of a whole server to myself, with 1 TB (yes, 1 terabyte!) of bandwidth for www.colbysworld.net.

The downside: I have entered a whole new universe of webpage hosting. They have given me WAY too much control over the server and things have gotten way too complicated. Luckily they have GREAT customer support and they have guided me through the rough spots. After a couple days of FREAKING OUT and getting very lost and upset.... Everything is BACK ONLINE on the new server! Yes!

On Friday I took ONE CLASS into the computer lab (5th period) and the videos all downloaded fine. (That was not really peak internet hours though.)

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am going to take my other for classes into the computer lab during 1st through 4th period to see if my move over to the new server was worth it.

I will post a brief update RIGHT HERE after tomorrow. Let's see what happens... (keeping fingers crossed for now.)

UPDATE: The new server worked great! Not a single student (out of 130 students) had a frozen or locked up video or had to "refresh" and start the lesson over today, and this was 1st through 4th period during some peak Internet traffic hours.

Time to set up new server: (previous two hours logged in plus at least another 8 hours