Some cool teaching moments. Thanks, iPad trial :).

I have already posted about it, but I just want to celebrate the awesomeness that is teaching with tablets. I know everyone's preaching it and I'm sure there is a bunch of you out there rolling your eyes at this 'latest trend', but having 1:1 iPads has transformed teaching and learning in our classroom.

My students are Minecraft crazy. I wouldn't have know that if we hadn't taken a gamble and put it on the kids' iPads. We haven't even gotten around to using Minecraft in class yet, but it has already provided the fodder for our best discussion in class this year. Yesterday morning in class, one of my students asked if he could present his passion project. 'It'll take like, 10 minutes, Miss Kemp', he said. 45 minutes later, the children were still going strong, discussing the ins and outs - the best materials for building various kinds of buildings, the best strategies for vanquishing baddies, etc, etc. How's that about learning?
Well.
Most of my students are not native English speakers, so this discussion gave them the opportunity to use subject specific technical vocabulary in an authentic context. The child who presented managed questions and guided the discussion without adult interference. Nobody needed prompting. The children practised appropriate etiquette for participating in a large discussion.
Thank you, iPads, and thank you, home learning.

Blended learning. It's really happening. At the beginning of the school day, we talk through the various projects/tasks that the children can work on. At the moment, there's an extended Maths PBL task, and a narrative writing task, as well as preparation for their Student Led Conferences next week. Incorporated into the mix are also shared and independent reading times, small group instruction (Maths and Language mini-lessons) with me and any other smaller tasks that come up. Keeping in mind the necessity of balancing screen time with other activities, the children manage these tasks on their own. The quality of the work the children are producing is high - they're engaged, they're interested and they have the control (most of the time). I feel like I am teaching much more effectively, because I'm not stuck out the front with my whiteboard markers - I'm sitting down with the kids, working with them side-by-side. For specific skills and content that have to be 'covered', I pull out small groups throughout the day and we talk through it in mini-lessons. So much more time-effective, so much more enjoyable and so much easier to do with iPads on hand.

Why I haven't flipped my Maths class.

I started last school year really excited to try flipping my Grade 4 class for Maths. I had done loads of research - read the articles, watched the videos and read plenty of flipped classroom blogs. I met with my school Principal and got his go-ahead. This was a big step for me - ours was the first class in the school to take homework online.

Then I met my class.

My class in 2012-2013 were an amazingly diverse bunch. We're talking something like 18 different nationalities, most of them fluent in 2 or 3 languages.

Concurrently, there was a lot of variation in students' confidence, knowledge and understanding in Maths. This ranged from kids who really needed to revise basic concepts to those who were racing ahead into middle school territory. I quickly realised that I didn't have one class for Maths, but several groups. Introducing a new concept via homework video could only work if that one concept was appropriate for every learner in the class. So I went back to the drawing board.

What really helped my planning was a quick pre-assessment every time we moved on to something new. These little pre-assessments turned out to be much more useful than the beginning of year number assessment I'd done. Each pre-assessment told me where each kid was right now, and allowed for fluidity in student groupings throughout the year.

So then what? In any Maths lesson, there might be a group working on an introductory or revision lesson with me, another one or two groups consolidating or revising independently and another working on extension activities. I was lucky to have an excellent support teacher working with me to help me 'get around' my groups a few lessons each week. At the end of the mini unit, a quick post-assessment told me where to go next.

You can take a look here at last year's homework website to see what I ended up putting together for Maths homework. Each week's homework incorporated a revision video, sites with games for skills revision, a Google form 'worksheet' and a Maths Challenge for extension. At the beginning of the year, activities were specific to the previous week's classwork. By the year's end, we were revising content from throughout the year. Those needing extension could try the problem on the 'Maths Challenge' page. It wasn't 100% perfect, but it worked pretty well.

I want to finish up by saying that I do believe that the flipped approach is a great step forward in teaching and learning. I can attest to the fact that children find the online format motivating and value being able to 'replay' their teacher's words. Feedback from parents at the end of last school year was also pretty positive overall. That said, I think a little evolution is necessary. In my class, introductory videos aimed at 'grade level' would have left some to flounder and others bored stiff. Differentiated groupings in class allowed plenty of scope for problem-solving and discussion as per the flipped approach, but scrapping the introductory video meant that those kids who weren't 'bang on' grade level didn't end up frustrated.