Closer to the Flipped Classroom with Blackboard!

The Journey Began with BB9

Before I began this journey, I would be the first to say that BB9 stood for the Baffling Blackhole 9. By this I mean, you go in and never seem to find the exit. We began this venture last year, but began small. 

First, we decided what unit would lend itself for independent student navigation. The answer is most units would, but there are a few we can all agree are easier. Then, we mapped it out by simply adding our headings and subheadings in BB9. 

This is an example of our course structure in Blackboard.

Finally, we added content to each subheading. 

We added many types of content, from
 text to videos to links in Google Drive.

The fun part came this year when we learned about adaptive release. This component of BB9 allows us to release content slowly. Students must unlock content by viewing and checking off things they have done in Blackboard on their iPad. This make our lessons differentiated and truly more flipped.

Groups of students were now working at their own pace. They were able to re-watch videos when needed and we were available to work with those struggling. 

Publishing Their Work on the Green Screen

This particular unit we decided to publish using the App Veescope on a green screen. Students were excited and motivated by this to complete their projects. They were to create a commercial that persuaded other peers from different groups to migrate to their country. These videos were shared with students from another school last year, and last year's student videos served as exemplars this year.

Helpful Hints:

1. Have all apps on iPad ready for when students are ready:
   
                                  (Youtube Capture)                                    (Veescope)
2. Practice in front of the green screen
3. Use microphone and ipad stand if possible

I don't know what to do! What are we doing? There's an app for that!

How often do you see a student who is just kind of putzing around the room with seemingly no direction?  You ask them what they're doing and they say that they don't know what to do.  You just gave a GREAT mini-lesson, checked to make sure that they understood by having them repeat the steps and yet somehow between getting the assignment that they needed to do and their table they somehow forgot everything that you had just said.  That's not frustrating at all right?

There's an app for that!  A colleague of mine in fifth grade told me about how she uses Google Slides to give students their work for the day, links, etc. all in writing.  Well, 1st graders can't all read that well, so I decided that I was going to take her idea and modify it for first grade with pictures.  I literally call it our "What are we doing?" slides.  You can see what mine looks like here (it's all in Spanish).  When a kid is puttering around aimlessly or actually takes the initiative to ask me what we are supposed to be doing, I tell them to go right to our What are we doing slide for whatever time of day it is.  I change it every day as needed, but I still have a copy of my original slide show that I keep the original slides in so that I can always copy and paste the original slides back in to the current slide show at any time in case we have a strange week with a different schedule, etc.

I've put pictures of what they are supposed to do as much as I can to make it more universally-accessible.  To say that it has changed up how I do my day is an UNDERSTATEMENT.

What should we do in this center?  Boom! Check Google Slides.

What's our Seesaw login again?  Boom!  Check Google Slides.

The best part?  It lets me send kids links to work I want them to do really easily!  I have a Google Doc with a list of reading responses that I want them to do that they can pick from, and I just inserted the link into the Google Slide for my Responding to Reading slide.  I have students who were making bad decisions for their learning, so I have the link to a Google Form that I created that lets them reflect on their behavior and then I email their responses to their parents so that they can talk about it at home.  And I'm just scratching the surface!

What are some ways that you use Google Slides in your class?

The Power of a Badge

As all of us do from time to time, I have a particularly difficult class of students that REALLY wanted to learn to play recorders. I know! It is hard to believe! My challenge was how could I keep them interested once they realized a recorder was more than just a way to create more sound.

I decided to allow students to work through recorders at their own pace by using BB9. I spent time putting together learning modules that allowed them to pace themselves. I created tutorial videos. I found another educator had made some great videos that students could use to practice. I added songs to Explain Everything documents so it was easy to assess.....except some students weren't doing anything! We will call them the turtles!

Enter BADGES.

The Achievement feature in BB9 allows you to award students a badge based on a few triggers. You can select certain students, a task they must complete or even just something they need to view. I started by just creating one badge for students who completed the first 4 modules (which meant they knew how to play 3 notes). Once I showed the class that they existed, BAM! Look at my turtles go! 

All but one of my students immediately had something turned in and were working towards the goal. Although the Achievements portion of BB9 is a bit clunky with lots of options, it is worth a try. I am by no means an expert but I know I will be exploring more.

Differentiation & Bb9

This week at our Vertical PLC the focus was sentence stems and frames for students that need a little extra support responding to Language Workshop prompts.

Screenshot of the Groups feature in Blackboard

I immediately thought of the group function on Blackboard since our students already have Digital Thoughtful Logs. Setting up the groups in Blackboard was quick and easy!

After the item has been created, the adaptive release feature in Blackboard allows the assignment to only be visible to the selected group.  After a few trial and errors, we figured out how to assign the sentence frames to only the selected group.  The final step in the setup in Blackboard groups was moving the group from the left box to the right box, and that took us a few tries to figure out.
Thanks to my teaching partner, Ryan, for figuring out this final step.

 I love that this feature allows students to get extra support without the entire class knowing that they are getting something different.  In 5th grade, the last thing they want is to stand out for needing support!

Into the Lion's Den, Welcome to the District, Ms. Bauknecht

Howdy.


I'm Cassie Bauknecht. I teach science at South High School. This is my 2nd year with the district and 2.5th year as a teacher. I've taught Special Ed Chemistry, Environmental Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Medical Interventions. 

2 years ago in mid-August, I got hired with Waukesha School District. I upended myself from my Madison residency and moved to Waukesha in the blink of an eye to officially start my full-time career. I had 2 brand new classes along with a 3rd that I was familiar with. I was new to Ipads, new to Apple, and never had taught at a 1-to-1 school before. 



I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING. 


With the bustle of the new school year, I was tossed into the lion's den and told "good luck!" in all senses, technology included. It took me a few months before I even touched my own Ipad, knew what BB9 stood for, or climbed off of the ground, which felt like I was experiencing at least a 7 on the Richter scale daily anyway with all the newness of my life, onto the SAMR ladder.

In cliff notes, my tech journey has looked like this:



1. Stare nervously at my tech collecting dust, worrying about how to even start.
2. Join the Vanguard team because someone at some point in time told me to join some sort of professional group.
3. Go to Google Summit.
4. Stare nervously at all my notes from the Summit, worrying about how to even start.
5. START! Google Apps for Education was my clarity.

Since my actual inception into the tech world, I've become an advocate revolving around the philosophy that technology is an integral part of our current world and we need to learn how to use it for good, not evil. 

Leading me into today. I am 2 months into my Model Technology Classroom journey, 1 presentation at Waukesha One in the books, and while I still stare nervously at the idea of learning about the vast amount of tech out in the world today, I am excited to start advocating for tech use in the classroom!

Gaming in the Classroom and Pushing Further with Bb9

A big success that I had with technology integration in the classroom was with a game called Win the Whitehouse from iCivic.  After students had learned about the election process they had to apply their knowledge to try and win a presidential election.  They had to learn different components of how to campaign such as raising funds, giving speeches, and selecting TV and radio spots.  Students had to decide which states would be the most beneficial to make appearances in, and learned quickly how the Electoral College works.  My students were highly engaged in the game and the election process.  They not only played the game at school, but would go home and play it, for fun!  After attending a session at the One Conference, I heard another teacher also talk about the game and how she created BINGO cards for the game, with each square representing a different outcome they had to accomplish.  I'm very excited to try this idea next year.  

I am about to launch a new unit on Blackboard.  My students are well versed in Bb9 as a location to grab materials and content from as this is their second year using it.  I had my students last year as 4th graders, and again as 5th graders.  Last year I used Bb9 mostly at the Substitution level, with students going to Bb9 to grab a document to open in Notability.  This year I wanted to use more of the features available.  In science I have used Bb9 to link virtual investigations for students to get extra practice, or use when I have a substitute teacher.  I like the virtual investigations to reinforce concepts after the students have already completed the investigation hands-on, not replace them.  This week I will be using the adaptive release feature as students begin to learn about the Civil War.  To ensure that students are taking away the important concepts, to move on, students will have to answer a few questions about the content before moving onto to the next item.  I used the test feature to create the questions.  I like that students won't be able to move on with their  learning with misconceptions.  After all the students learn the general information about the Civil War, I will be using the group feature on Bb9 to assign multiple perspectives to different students.  I am hoping that the adaptive release feature goes smoothly on the student end.  

Delayed Launch...Instant Reward!

Where I left off last, I had made my first so-so attempt of a math unit on Blackboard, but I missed one crucial step: enrolling my students in the course.  In my defense, I only took the Blackboard 101 TDP course, and Wendy told me that enrolling students in a class was covered in the 102 class.  Anyways, Wendy helped me enroll my students in the class, and the next day I got the students going in Blackboard!

It was so awesome!  They were watching the videos I found IN SPANISH from Youtube (Dual Language teachers know that that is no small feat), and they were even starting to explore some of the activities.  

Was it perfect?  No, but the kids didn't mind.

Did everything work?  No, the kids couldn't figure out how to get 2 files to open (nor could I) and one activity didn't work because it required Flash.

Was my entire math unit all on Blackboard?  Definitely no, but it was a definitely a good start for using Blackboard as the Can Do part of my math as I am now using Must Do/Can Do.

Were the kids learning?  YES!  They were learning all about telling time and hearing it from a native Spanish speaker, which despite my fluency, is something that is HIGHLY important.

The best part about it?  The kids were all working independently, or in the case of my overly social group, interdependently.  I got to meet with 3 guided groups that day, and I even had time to show an advanced group a hack that involved app smashing to differentiate an activity to challenge themselves more.  (*I received no compensation from the ONE Conference Keynote Speaker for that reference)

It felt so great!  I went right back to work that night to try to fix some of the things that didn't work and tried to figure out more ways to build in more activities on Blackboard.