Presidential Knife Fights for Review

OK, so this assignment was a little outside of my comfort zone, but I tried it and the students loved it!  I got the idea from a blog post about "What if all of the Presidents were involved in a massive knife fight to the death?  Who would win and why?"  Geoff Micks went through and developed stories and reasons for all 44 Presidents about why they would or wouldn't win this arena-style Hunger Games death match (very entertaining to read).

So, taking this idea further, I showed the students the example and had them come up with their own examples using people from our second semester of study.  The ideas I have gotten back thus far are really creative!  Hide-and-seek, water balloon fight, Hunger Games, chess matches, basketball games, etc.

What does this have to do with academia?  Well, in Bloom's Taxonomy, SYNTHESIS is one of the higher-order levels of thinking.  This exercise has students use information they know to create a hypothetical situation involving abstract ideas and then EVALUATE it by backing it up with evidence.  So there you go: two of Bloom's higher levels in one review activity.  I've found most review activities to be either rote memorization or recall activities.

Your Students Can't Google w/o Being Taught

Have you ever watched a student do a web search?  It is pathetic!  They use Google like they use people: they ask it a question.  

Even though Google is smart enough to figure out what they mean, it is still the wrong way to search.  I don't know about you, but in Indiana, I don't believe there are any standards on how to do a web search.  So its just one of those things they will need to know how to do, but schools aren't teaching.

Maybe you do the same thing?  Did you know all of the tips and tricks below for executing a web search?  I sure didn't know every single thing, but now I use most of them and can find just about anything I am looking for!  Give 'er a try!  (sorry for the size.  I am not a Blogger expert by any means and I'm not sure how to make it larger, but if you download it, it is pretty large!)

(h/t to HackCollege.com for the infographic I have used in class for the past two years.  They have other great stuff as well!)

Speed Dating Review Exercise

No no, nothing fishy going on here!  I found an idea from Twitter and decided to try it out myself in the classroom.

I am always looking for new ways to review material before a test.  Lots of stuff gets old really fast with as many tests as we give.  Fortunately, this is a new activity I like and the students like it too.  It is fast-paced and requires 100% engagement for it to work, so students that usually don't contribute are forced to on a smaller scale.

It is more of a "speed-networking" exercise, which is becoming more and more popular in the business world as a way for clients to meet a lot of prospective businesses at once.

Here's how its done:

1. Beforehand, use a bracket-generating site like challonge.com and create a round-robin tournament for your students.
2. Go here and download the accompanying sheet for students to use.
3. Come up with enough terms/information for students to research (1 per student)
4. Assign each student one term.  Give them around 8-10 minutes to create a 30-second description.
• Make sure they focus on putting their term in context of what you are studying.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT just provide a definition.
5. Find a way to time each round.  I use online-stopwatch.com.  Set the timer for 1-minute rounds.
6. Project the bracket on a screen or find another way so each student can see the schedule.
7. Have students gather with their partner, and each of them have 30 seconds to "introduce themselves" to their "date".  I usually call out after 30 seconds so they know when to switch.
• Student A describes themselves while Student B writes lists them on their sheet.  When Student A finishes describing themselves, Student B will circle "yes" or "no", as in "Do you understand this material?"  Then, they flip after 30 seconds.
8. After the minute is over, repeat step 7 for the next rounds (however many you have).

It will get loud.  Students will be engaged.  It will be awesome. :-)

Other Video Hosting Sites Beyond YouTube and TeacherTube

Currently preparing to flip parts of my class next year, I was bamboozled by the amount of video sites there are out there!  Where does one start?  Which ones are best?  How do you choose?

I am currently falling in love with Knowmia.  They boast that they have over 13,000 videos.  Not only can you host your own lessons, but you can browse the lessons of other teachers.  

They also have a How-To Guide on making lessons.  Also, they have a great, FREE, iPad app (which I plan on playing around with A LOT this summer).  Plus, in addition to the video aspect of it, you can build interactive assessments and track students' progress in real-time.  

Also, Teaching Channel is becoming more and more interesting to me.  It seems to be like Knowmia with more of a social media aspect to it.  You can find certain teachers who teach certain subjects and "follow" them.  

Plus, they have great professional development videos on how to teach with video.  (Videos about videos...meta, anyone?)

TeacherTube never really pulled me in, and YouTube is blocked for students at my school.  But these two sites may just be what I (and you) have been looking for.

Great PSYC Videos for Review in Class

These psychology videos I stumbled across are fantastic!!  I am planning on using these as review videos before a quiz.  They are great for Introduction to Psychology classes, but they may be a little too easy for any AP PSYC classes.  We are discussing the history/approaches, so here is one about said topic:

There are plenty more of these videos at education-portal.com.  They have plenty of other subjects in the social sciences, math, physical science, etc.  I am going to be linking to these Psychology videos at my YouTube page for students to view.

Nice Flipped Resources

After doing some research over Christmas (excuse me...HOLIDAY break), I came across this really nice Flipped Classroom resource document.  Love love LOVE that it is in Google Docs as well. (h/t to Dan Spencer (@runfardvs) of Jackson (MI) County ISD for the link and the document.

Flipping Out Over the Flipped Classroom?

So I have been really weary of this entire "flipped classroom" ideology overtaking education right now.  There are multiple issues to get around before it can take shape.  BUT...all of the resources out there have really got me thinking that there may be something to this.  It is raising test scores, it allows teachers to individualize instruction, and students seem to enjoy it if it is done "correctly" (as in, not just replacing lecturing at school with lecturing at home).  Our principal is pushing it, our teacher of the year just received an award for implementing it...

...could there be something to this??

So in these next few months, I am going to be researching how to implement this strategy in a social studies setting (which is what I am doing currently).  I will share interesting resources that I find and document my journey as I find my way into a flipped classroom.  I already model the flipped method in some chapters in US History, but to do a full-fledged implementation may be a little tougher.  Any suggestions in the comments would be helpful.