Tech Star: Suzanne Maxwell, BES

Suzanne Maxwell
BES 4th Grade Math
Suzanne Maxwell has started turning learning on its head! After attending a two day workshop in San Antonio led by Jon Bergmann, one of the pioneers of the Flipped Classroom, Suzanne came back to BES ready to do things differently.  And her 4th grade math students are loving it! She's tried several different recording tools to make videos of herself as she teaches a lesson. In the beginning stage, Suzanne is doing what's sometimes referred to as "faux flipping," where students watch a video in class and then do the lesson together. She learned that this is a good way to transition into a true flipped classroom where students do the typical "lecture" part outside of school time so that more in-class time is devoted to practicing what they've learned. After she records a video, she puts it in to Edmodo for her students to watch. The nice thing about watching a video on their own is that students can start it and stop it and re-watch it as many times as they need to in order to understand the concepts. Suzanne says that many times her students' attention is more focused on the videos than it is during whole group instruction, and she is amazed by how well they retain the information after watching a video. Some of the tools Suzanne has used for recording include: Educreations, a document camera with recording software, SMART Recorder, Snagit, and Explain Everything. She also uses Google Slides as the foundation of some of her videos. She says her students are always asking her, "Mrs. Maxwell, when are you going to do another video?" You know you're doing something right in the classroom when your students ask for more! Thanks for making learning fun, Mrs. Maxwell, and congratulations for being this week's Tech Star!

Comments