10 Ways to Use Video to Boost Instructor Presence in an Online Environment

Okay, if you have been following my blog for the last month or so, you know that I have been participating in free professional development through a MOOC called Tinker, Make, & Learn, a course focused on developing a Makerspace.  Well, the course ended...but not the desire to continue to build our new space.  I promise I will be posting our latest make before the week's end!!! In the meantime, I thought I would share what I am learning now in a course called Humanizing Online Instruction: The #HumanMOOC.

Technically, it is a course for online instructors, but the information could apply to any classroom. Take this week for example...our topic: Establishing Instructor Presence.  In an online environment, learner isolation is one of the primary reasons students choose not to continue in a web-based program, but an instructor can help combat the isolation by humanizing the learning experience.  So, what does that mean?  The teacher can ensure that students know that course material has not just been launched out into who knows where by a professor in a galaxy far, far away, but that a real, live person is on the other end carefully planning and teaching.

One of the ways suggested to boost instructor presence is through the utilization of  video.  Video allows people to see and hear you and if students can see you and hear you, they feel as if they know you.  If they feel as if they know you, they are more likely to approach you.  Being more of a traditional K-12 girl (not online teacher anymore), I began to think about others besides just my students that I wanted to "get to know me"...the parents being at the top of my list!  I think often times parents want to support their kiddos, but they are not sure quite how to help.  The same types of videos that an instructor might create for students could be shared on the K-12 educator's parent portal...just a thought:)

So, video? Yes!  Think about the last email you received. Unless it is filled with emojis and exclamation marks, it is hard to read into it the verbal and non-verbal cues that one would normally recognize in a face-to-face interaction. Video is much more powerful than text alone.  Even asynchronous one way video begins to feel like a conversation when students and parents view this type of communication regularly.

How can you use video to boost instructor presence in the K-12 classroom???  Here are the top 10 ideas shared by Tracy Schaelen, online instructor for Southwestern College (I've linked to some of her videos so that you can see examples):

1)  Use video on your website as a greeting prior to the course beginning - think about the anxiety this could alleviate!  It is a great way to welcome new parents and students and for them to "see" you before arriving on the first day of school.
2) Conduct a course tour via video.  This is especially helpful at the beginning of the course so that students and parents can see how to navigate through the online environment associated with the class.  You can demonstrate how to access grades, see the syllabus, find class notes, and turn in digital assignments.
3) Use video to introduce a new unit of study.  Whether teaching online or in a traditional setting, peaking a student's interest is key. It could be like a movie trailer of sorts that gets students excited about what is to come.  It also provides an entry point for parents.  If parents see where you are going, they can get involved, read up on the topic with their child, share resources, pull images and videos, and help connect the dots for students.  Dialogue can changed from, "How was school today?" to "Tell me about ______.  Did you get to the ______  yet?"
4) Make announcements using video to personalize messages and allow viewers to see facial expressions and hear the instructor's tone of voice.
5) Use video to provide feedback on student work thus allowing you to make the same type of comments you would make normally, but with much more detail.  Ms. Schaelen suggested using props with numbers on them, so that a student can quickly find the markers before each comment. Feedback video should be kept unlisted to ensure privacy.
6) Create "how-to" videos. This particular video is for students and shows how to find and use video feedback.
7)  Make a video to introduce a research assignment, major project, or special event in the classroom.
8)  Use student created videos to demonstrate understanding, add to an electronic portfolio, peer tutor, or build resources for those needing extra support.
9)  Video a guest presenter.  As a high school teacher, I want my students to connect with college admissions counselors.  On several occasions, an invited counselor could visit only one of the 6 classes I taught; while I was happy that 25 students heard from the admissions counselor, I found myself wishing that ALL of the kids could benefit from the information. Video would be a perfect way to capture and share the guest's visit.
10) Use snippets of video from various locations throughout the course to allow students and parents to get to know you even better.  Consider sharing video from your latest 5K, your weekend excursion, or something you saw that you thought was interesting.

Why? "Showing" is powerful.  Videos help students and parents build a personal connection with the instructor and make content, announcements, and details accessible anytime and anyplace (everything I believe in!!!) So, I guess the question I need to ask next is "What will I video today?"

Top 10 Most Read Blog Posts and How to Know

This is officially my 100th post.  I knew it was coming all week...today on #MyFavFriday if I kept up with my commitment to write daily in July. For me, it is momentous (I am not a writer. I am a math teacher.) So, as I begin this post, I hear little trumpets and see paper streamers sailing down from the heavens.  I did it!  I did it!  I actually strung together enough words to form paragraphs to generate 100 posts.

I admit it:  I searched other blogs to see what one was supposed to write on this special occasion.  There was a lot of looking back and highlighting best posts.  When I reflected back on how it all began, I chuckled...my posts have changed, my style has changed, but my purpose has stayed the same: share good stuff about school - you know, ideas to positively impact teaching and learning.

My top 10 most read posts of all time are a reflection of my purpose.  So, in true 100th posts fashion, here they are:

1.   Ideas for Interactive Student Notebooks

 

2.  Bulletin Board Update (QR Codes on College Logos for Junior and  Senior Level Students)

3.  Entering Equations in Edmodo

4.   Splat! (Review Game)

 5.  Teacher Binder Printable

6.  Equipment Tracking with QR Codes

 7.  Creating a Time Capsule (For Students, By Students)

8.  QR Code Scavenger Hunt

9.  Top Take-aways from ISTE

10.  Scratch Off Cards

How do I know this you may be wondering, well honestly my little Blogger bar told me, but I am committed to getting better at understanding the blog-o-sphere for my next 100 posts.  No, really, I am.  Here's what I am doing...after accepting this month's #July2014Challenge, I decided to learn more about blogging (6 years after I started) and I found Renee Gorskreutz's podcast and blog.

She had so many tips including a recommended reading of @ProBlogger's book: 31 Days to a Better Blog (available in hard copy and digital).  After downloading and reading the entries for the first few days, I stumbled upon #MyFavFriday: Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is totally new to me (and I am certain that I still do not understand all that there is to know about it), but apparently it will help one's blogging by generating data for review (a math teacher's dream).  

Could this be a class project in the making???  Just maybe...but that will be a lot closer to post #125 :D

Link Student-Created Videos to Study Guide w/ QR Codes

I am so excited to share with you this week's #Made4Math post, because it is not something that I made at all...it is something created by StuDEnTs (I just helped facilitate)!!!  If you have read for any length of time, you know I love projects in which students create videos to explain the ins and outs of solving a specific problem.  We have created math projects filmed as a silent movie, stop motion animation, and just plain old screencasts.  In fact, there is not a week that goes by in which students are not required to utilize technology to demonstrate learning, because I truly believe...

you learn 95% of what you teach, even if you are teaching to an audience via video.  So, to prep for the college Trig final this year, I handed students a 20 question Study Guide and taped a sheet of paper with a table numbered 1-20 to the classroom door.

I invited them to sign up to demo one of the questions on the Study Guide...with a partner, of course (to hold their phone).  The students, now pros at explaining mathematical "how-to's" and "why's" eagerly volunteered to explain a problem (well, let's be real for a moment...these were seniors about to fly the coop so, I offered bonus points - something I rarely, if ever do - to everyone who actually spoke and demonstrated their mathematical prowess in the video).  It was amazing to see how quickly the students volunteered to explain how to work a problem of their choosing!

The students uploaded their videos to You Tube (something else they learned this year) and then shared the link via a Google Form.  I created a QR Code  of their link using QRStuff and took a screenshot of the code (it also let's you save the image if you want).

I inserted the image into the corresponding square of a clean copy of the original table numbered 1 - 20.

The QR Code Table was shared with each of the students and updated regularly until all of the student videos were added.  It has always been a dream of mine to be able to hand students a Study Guide and a sheet with links to relevant student-created videos to support their studies.  So, this was my year!!!  I really had students sitting in class wearing earphones and using a cell phone to scan QR codes to watch their friends explain math problems.  It still makes me smile in July!

Exit Tickets and CCSS Resources

Another two great finds this week: one to make and one to fill in the gaps as you transition to the Common Core State Standards.  While pouring over Pinterest this week (a perfect summer activity!!!) I came upon Shannon Reardon's idea for an exit ticket organizer in which students file their responses to two questions that she poses on the interactive whiteboard. If they know it, great! They can file their ticket in the "Got It!" folder. If not, students can choose to place their exit ticket in the "Kind Of", "Almost", or just plain "Nope". 

I love that it makes quick work of seeing who knew or thought that they knew the answers and let's you know where you need to start the next lesson!

When I stumbled upon this next jewel, I was actually smack dab in the middle of writing for my second job. As a curriculum writer, I experience quite a workout.  It requires me not only to read the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), but actually teach them through example problems and modelling and then write assessment items.  All I can say is  that sometimes interpreting the CCSS takes me as much time as actually writing for the lesson.  So, to say the least, I was overjoyed, ecstatic, thrilled beyond belief to find Saginaw Valley's K-12 Connection.  The university partnered with educators to pull together online resources that matched the CCSS.  This week, I used their online pacing guide for 7th grade which was full of relevant links to help fill in the blanks. Awesome resources for more than just math!!!

#Made4Math: Alien Invaders

I am so excited to get back in the swing of #Made4Math Mondays.  This makes 2 in a row for me!!!  It has been too long and ideas have been rattling around in my head for months.  This project is a spin off of Splat!, in which students use flyswatters to swat the correct answer to a factoring question.  In Alien Invaders, students will use laser pointers or flashlights to select correct answers!  Hopefully, the kids won't notice the similarities since one will be played in the Fall and the other in the Spring.  For Alien Invaders, I started out by creating my own creatures, so that I was not infringing on others' artwork (I'm never sure about appropriate use of  published stuff).

Being a middle aged woman, somewhat removed from little boys and aliens,

I looked to the internet for some inspiration.

The nicely shaded ones were created by true artists.

Mine were done using Promethean's ActivInspire and a bunch of shapes (feel free to improve them and then share with me:).  For this game, I will tape the aliens sporting answers to the ceiling, arm the students with death ray beams (laser pens or flashlights), prepare a stack of questions, flip the lights off and let the fun begin.

Alien Invaders

  I have created this version for trigonometry to reinforce the (x, y) coordinates of significant angles on the unit circle.  I have tutored kids from all over and noticed very few students have a good handle on being able to rattle off the sin 150 degrees or the cos 315 degrees (not that this is an important life skill, but it does prove particularly useful in trig class).  A few years ago,  I found the "Trig Hand", which I use instead of having students just memorize the entire circle.  It reinforces the importance of quadrants in determining the sign of trig ratios and reference angles.  I made Alien Invaders to practice evaluating the trigonometric ratio (without a calculator) using the trig hand, but this could be adapted to fit any question and answer scenario.

The students will be divided into four teams.  Two teams will compete against each other at one end of the room, while the other two teams are battling it out at the opposite end (so that everyone gets a turn quickly). With the lights off, I will call out a question like the sin 225 and students will use the laser pointer (flashlight) to identify the correct answer before their opponent.  

Like Splat!, I expect this to get ReALly noisy, ReALly quickly, but if they are yelling about math, I will be okay with that...and hopefully, so will the teachers in neighboring rooms.

Made 4 Math: Celebrating Black History Month

 Disclaimer: This post was actually drafted in February, but due to my pesky need to have everything 'just right', I didn't publish it because I couldn't find pics of the activity.  As the year draws to a close, I wanted to share it, because it was really fun and it is something I will continue this summer as I create Math Questions of the Month for the 2013-2014 school year.

 I am so excited to share this week's #Made4Math idea, because it motivated tons of random kids to do math problems for something other than a grade!!!  In fact, students were literally running down the hallways (sorry, Principal Dean:) to check their answers...okay, I promised the "first one with the correct answer" a candy bar, but all of the others were curious just to see if they worked the problems right.  Yay, score one for the Math Department!!!

     So, let me back up...every February our school celebrates Black History Month through a program filled with songs and praise dances. This year, the event organizers asked departments to furnish a Fact of the Day honoring an African-American who made significant contributions in each content area.  The facts were read during the morning announcements. Each department was responsible for only one day of the week and since we were out one week for Winter Break, each department had to furnish only 3 facts for the month.  The math department's day was Thursday.

     As the first Thursday rolled around, I knew I wanted our's to be different, interactive, and contain something about math.  I researched African-American mathematicians and stumbled upon Benjamin Banneker, who, besides studying engineering and astronomy, wrote math riddles in his personal journals.  Very cool and the inspiration for our 'math facts' announcements.  I wrote the announcements introducing Mr. Banneker and then included a math riddle at the end.  Here are a couple that we shared:
Announcement 1:  Benjamin Banneker, American scientist, author and mathematician, was a self taught inventor and engineer. After studying a neighbor's pocket watch, Benjamin Banneker constructed a working wooden clock that kept accurate time for 50 years.  Assuming there a 365 days in a year, how many minutes did Mr. Banneker's clock tick? Be the first to A-5 with the correct answer and win!

Announcement 2: Last week, we introduced Benjamin Banneker, a son of a former slave, who was born on a farm near Baltimore. From books loaned to him by a neighbor, Banneker taught himself surveying, astronomy, and mathematics. Later, he published several almanacs of his own containing astronomical observations.  He also kept a journal.  In his diaries, Banneker wrote mathematical puzzles, one of which we are featuring today.  So here is the math question of the week:  A farmer had $100 to spend on 100 animals.  If bulls cost $5, cows cost $1, and sheep cost a nickel, how many of each type of animal was the farmer able to purchase?  Be the first to A-5 with the correct answer and win!

I created table tents featuring the math riddles for each of the cafeteria tables in case someone missed the details during the morning announcement (I figured the students might as well do math while eating their fish sticks).  Finally, I created a candy bar wrapper which was wrapped around a giant candy bar and given as a prize.

Next year, Math Question of the Month...something to work on this summer:)

       The first person with the correct answer won the Banneker Bar and everyone else received coupons for a free hamburger at the local fast food restaurant near the school.  Truly, kids ran to my classroom to check-in with their answers.  If the answers were incorrect, it provided me with an opportunity to ask them to explain their mathematical thinking and help redirect them to the correct answer.  I loved seeing students that are not in my class this year and watching them get excited about solving problems.  So why should math facts make the announcements only in February?  Why not throw in a challenge question randomly through out the school year?  I promise, it's fun!!! 

Favorite Find Friday: Bloom's Taxonomy and Technology Guide

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I love to get my geek on as I explore cool tech tools for the classroom.  This week, I am (as we say here in the South) in hog heaven.  I am just pulling in from a road trip to New Orleans where I met with some of the top technology using educators in Louisiana at this year's LACUE conference.  The Classroom Cafe' Gals, Kathleen and I, presented on projects our students have completed using iPhone apps.  We shared project descriptions, rubrics, and student samples in our #AppyHour presentation.  It was so much fun!  We even made a theme song:)

     While at the conference, we had a chance to reconnect with old friends, see new products in the vendor area, and hear fantastic presenters like Lisa Dick and Dr. Tammy Seneca!  Both Lisa's and Tammy's presentations were tied to curriculum changes resulting from the implementation of Common Core.   I learned so much from each of them and I am eager to revisit their presentations again to catch anything I might have missed.  Lisa maintains a Wiki filled with professional development resources, effective teaching strategies, and ideas for technology integration into various content areas and Tammy has posted numerous resources on West Baton Rouge Schools' website including information on content trailers, geocaching, Google Lit Trips, and #MyFavFriday, Bloom's Technology Taxonomy.  I choose it as #MyFavFriday out of all of the things I saw and heard at the two-day conference, because I love the concrete ideas provided in the Technology Taxonomy and think it will be especially helpful for planning future classroom activities.

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Made 4 Math: Totally Awesome Prizes

This week's #Made4Math: Totally Awesome Prizes was made up on the spot...out of the blue...off the top of my head and it was oh, so much fun:)  One of my favorite ways to review for a test other than a Study Guide is to use dry erase boards.  Now, that doesn't mean I don't like to use student clickers or cell phones, but some days I just prefer the dry erase.  Too often, I tell the students that I am awarding make believe points with make believe prizes (lame, I know.)  This week, I thought it would be fun to award real points and have real prizes for the students to "buy" after the review.  But where to get the prizes for ALL of my students without spending tons?  This is where this week's #Made4Math came in...I simply asked the kids to bring in a "White Elephant" prize, something from their home, locker, or car that was cool, but that they didn't want anymore.
I had baskets with point values on them in which students could place their items.  Items were valued as the students wished with none of the prizes valued for more than the potential points available during the review session.  They brought in everything from a pink flamingo pen to a wooden nesting doll (which surprisingly someone wanted). I added in candy, items from local colleges, and hand sanitizer compliments from the school counselors.  We had plenty of items in each category and the students scouted out the prizes before class started.
Our tests typically have 25 questions that count 4 points each with partial credit awarded for work demonstrating a partly right answer.  I used tickets from Dollar Tree to represent the number of points their response might have been awarded had it been written on the test.  Red tickets represented full credit at 4 points, green tickets counted for 3 points, and yellow tickets were 2 points each.  I had questions (and answers) prepared for Review Day which i wrote on sticky notes and hung on the whiteboard and I placed strips of each of the colored tickets on the students' desks.  As the students showed their answers on the dry erase boards, they were awarded a point value.  The students pulled off the correct ticket from one of the strips on their desk.  The students pulled tickets with great integrity probably because they are juniors and seniors and the prizes were....well, let's just say the six pack of Reese's that cost a whopping $1 was considered a top win:)
     Several students stopped by the next day to tell me how much fun they had (working math problems) on the Review Day.  They weren't alone; I had fun, too.   We laughed alot on Review Day...at the prizes we brought and the prizes we picked...but with the laughter they relaxed about their second "College test" and they identified and corrected misconceptions.  The test grades were the proof...13 out of 20 made A's!!!

Favorite Find Friday: Black Light Math

I am so excited about this week's #MyFavFriday: Black Light Math!!!  Tuesday was the coolest day I have had in the classroom in a while.  Monday afternoon, my friends and I hosted a professional development session focused on Glowing Ideas for the Teaching and Learning. (Okay, the PD was really focused on activities for kinesthetic learners. We stumbled onto 'black light', because one of the activities used something like a Dance, Dance Revolution mat to practice or assess learning. Can you show off DDR without black lights and music thumping?  Umm...not and get the full effect.  So, as we were planning the PD, we thought it would be fun to share strategies using only things that would glow, but knowing the same strategies would be just as effective with the lights on. Really, it was a typical PD...just held in the dark:)
     Okay, back to #MyFavFriday...after the session with teachers, I sent a text to my students telling them that the room was still "decorated" from the PD event and asked, "Tomorrow: black light or white?"  It was unanimous, "Black Light!!!!"  With expectations running high, everyone arrived on time and ready to try whatever was planned.  Yay! for youthful exuberance. We have been graphing inequalilties and writing the solution sets in interval notation, so with black trash bags covering the windows and black lights placed strategically around the classroom, we dove into modelling the equations and their solutions with play-doh.  Guess what?  The bright colors  of play-doh glow (No, special play-doh or recipes needed.  Seriously, just use the 12 pack sold in the toy section)!!!  The kids, though not usually fans of graphing, never complained as we solved equation after equation until everyone caught on. 

Honestly, the pic doesn't do it justice.

   We wrote our solution sets using Sharpie fluorescent highlighters on regular copy paper.  It was amazing!  The highlighter really popped and the students were eager to share their answers whiteboard style.  (Note: In prepping for the PD session, we purchased several glow in the dark marker packs including Expo's Neon Dry Erase set and black plates on which we planned to have the participants write.  After trying all of the markers, we found that the fluorescent highlighters and plain white paper worked best.  The paper takes on an eery blue hue under black light.)
     After modelling and practicing, the students used their highlighters to complete Monday's #Made4Math, Walking Word Bank.  When the bell rang to end the 90 minute block, the kids' response was "Wow, this class passed so fast!" Black light math? Yes!!!  It was the first time I have tried this, but I highly recommend it!

Made 4 Math: Walking Word Bank

This week's #Made4Math project is the Walking Word Bank for Inequalities and Interval Notation; though itt may be a bit of a misnomer.  The the Walking Word Bank does not actually include words, but it does include walking!  My friend, Colleen, shared the idea with me this afternoon and I loved the idea of having the kids moving about the room and talking about math. So, I rushed home and was able to create this in a matter of minutes (literally, it is as quick as it takes to type the problems and answer sets). The up and out of the chair activity begins as the students are greeted by the instructor at the door and are tagged with either a problem or solution adhered to each of their backs.  

Each student is given a table with the names of those sporting the math "problems".  

Students copy the problems from classmates' tags and work to solve each equation.  The solution is recorded in the column next to the corresponding problem.  The students write the name of the classmate with the matching solution.  If a matching solution cannot be found, the students know to re-check their calculations. Super simple!  We try it tomorrow:)

Made 4 Math: QR Code Scavenger Hunt

Ok, you know I love my QR Codes.  I have used them for a little bit of everything, but this is my first QR Code Scavenger Hunt and I can't wait to see the students' reactions!  This #Made4Math activity was designed to get kids out of their chairs...way out!  We are going outside (which makes me a bit nervous) and we are using our BYOD cellphones in public (which makes me A LoT nervous).  Before the activity, I plan to send a quick email to my principals (2 campuses/2 principals) to let them know what we are doing and during the activity, each group of students will carry a hall pass (included in the project file) complete with a brief explanation of the task and necessary supplies (specifically, the cellphone!!!).

Planning the activity was quick and easy.  I started with 7 quadratic equations for solving ranging from pretty basic to completing the square with a leading coefficient other than "1".  I entered each problem into QRStuff to create the codes.

QRStuff was easy to use with the text elements (math problems).  I like the way the equations show up immediately on the students' phones when I select "embed text into code as is".

As always, I used Promethean's trusty ActivInspire to take screenshots of the QR codes and pasted the codes into a Publisher document for printing purposes.  I will tape the codes in various places on campus, though you could just as easily keep this hunt within the confines of the classroom. When students scan the code using a QR Reader like i-nigma and BeeTagg, they will immediately see this:

After working the problem, they will use the answer choice key to be directed to the next location. I made 6 variations of the key so that the groups will not be moving from location to location in a specific order.

If by chance a computational error occurs and the students end up at the wrong location, the code they find will advise them to check their work again.

A few codes were added that create a "twist" in the hunt (I am trying to re-connect with my inner sense of fun and adventure:).  One reads, "Oh no!  Into your plans, someone has thrown a wrench.  The real clue can be found beneath an outdoor bench."  (I think they will like it...)

Never one who likes to be confused on the "day of", I included the location on the codes so that I will know where to post them. We will try it this week and I'll let you know how it goes:)