college teaching
Thirteen Days to Creating a Successful Hybrid College Class, Day Three
Day Three
Let’s talk about forum discussions in a college hybrid speech communications class.
Today, the Christmas cookies hit the fan so to speak…..
Picture this:
It is a cold, grey December day. There’s chill in the air, the kind that nearly freezes you to the bone.
Typical mid western weather in December.
Oh joy.
It’s early–only 8:10 a.m. In comes my little flock who look half asleep. The students aren’t chatting with each other and certainly not with me. I ask how everyone’s evening went and no one answers.
No feedback to me that’s for sure.
(Pause) I have a theory about this–if I don’t speak to the teacher it is as if the class isn’t occurring. I can stay “checked out.”
Mwwaahhaaaa….they don’t know me, though.
I go through the day’s list of activities and I must say, it is a long one.
The first thing I mention is forums. One of the high school kids looks bewildered, but the girl beside him restates it for him. (I have no idea why she thinks she must restate what I say when I am standing right there and can do it for him myself, but hey she is 17 and doesn’t everyone know EVERYTHING when they are 17?)
Sorry, I digress…
I’ve never had the opportunity to use a forum with a class. I was hesitant at first, only because I didn’t understand how the students post and reply.
I now understanding why forums are crucial to a flipped class.
Checked forums off my list! Forums give you the feedback a teacher is seeking.
When I was a student, we spoke to our professors out of respect. My parents made it clear to me to respect my elders and even as an adult, I am aware of any adults who are older than I who should be treated with the utmost respect for their wisdom and age.
I wasn’t raised with a cell phone in my hand.
Telephone calls were kept to a minimum and calling long distance was an extravagance. My father was a doctor so we could afford those state-to-state telephone calls, but regardless I wrote letters.
We learned how to write a letter when we were in elementary school.
Is letter writing even taught any more?
No texting, either.
As we all know, the technological world has changed tremendously over the last fifty years.
In all defense of these students, the art of conversation isn’t something they are used to practicing. (We’ll practice conversing the last day of the semester. )
I can all ready see how a forum is a fantastic method of communication. For those of you unfamiliar with them, it is truly brilliant. The teacher poses an article, video clip and/or questions he wants the students to ponder. The student is required to make one post regarding the teacher’s post and replies to other students’ replies as well.
Ladies and gentlemen–we have conversation!!!
Forums are essential to a flipped class.
Contact me at dhcbaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net
Thirteen Days to Creating a Successful Hybrid College Class, Day Two
Day Two
Flipping a class isn’t easy.
Today, I spent about two and a half hours organizing everything for tomorrow–power point for chapters’ answers, college level speech example and outline of the speech, creating another power point with examples of notecards to coincide today’s speech and tweak a forum post. I graded the pre test and their homework from last night and entered all of this in the gradebook.
If you think that’s a lot of time for a one hour class, you don’t know teaching. It’s time consuming.
I’ve used video clips to explain certain concepts. I knew it was a great tool.
Enter Youtube.
I jumped on Youtube and spent only thirty minutes searching for clips of teachers teaching the next two chapters’ information–delivery and language. Just thirty minutes! In the grand scheme of things, that is a pittance compared to all the other time I spend.
I planned for the students to read two chapters from the textbook for Thursday (some thirty pages). I decided it would be better for them if they viewed video clips to attain some of the same information.
In addition, they must write half of the first draft of their informative speech due to me on Thursday, too. I will peruse all the speeches and give individual feedback to them.
Viewing the clips will save them time even though they’ll still have to answer the chapter questions.
Flipped learning–It’s all about independent learning, saving time, differentiated instruction and individual guidance from the teacher.
Today, I learned about using video clips and the true value of them for a teacher–saving time!
P.S. Since the writing of this post, I have become great friends with the Youtube site. It is invaluable to me. Plus, these high tech. students are accustomed to visual learning. I’ve shown clips to all my classes and they do a marvelous job of enriching my teaching. I’m sticking with them.
Thank goodness for Youtube.
Contact me at dhcbaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net
Thirteen Days to Creating a Successful Hybrid College Class Day One
Day One
A bit earlier this semester, I was asked to create an intensive hybrid speech class. It sounded fun to me. (I know not everyone would enjoy creating curriculum, but there you go…)
Gulp.
Since we are just sitting around here sort of waiting for Christmas festivities with our family (does everyone else feel that way?), I had the time to create it. So, although I say “gulp”, I am also metaphorically standing here like Wonder Woman. I. can. do. it.
Honestly, I had no idea what I got myself into, but that isn’t unusual for me. I’ve taught drama and speech classes for nearly forty years–I mean, how difficult can it be?
Hahahahahaha!
I looked around on the web and found several sites and Pinterest pins concerning the subject, so that persuaded me I could put the hybrid together.
However, if I’m going to learn from all of this, I need to analyze what I am doing right and wrong during these thirteen days when I teach one for the first time
.
First, I had to get the lingo straight. I was calling it an “a cross between an online and traditional class”. Duh. This is completely incorrect!
On line classes occur only on line. Hybrid classes use textbooks and can have one on one teaching time with students or time in a classroom. Hybrid’s use various modalities to teach–on line learning from various sources (websites, video clips, on line documents, etc. )Hybrid classes are usually only offered for lower level classes.
That’s the first thing I learned.
In thirteen days, I must teach an entire textbook’s worth of material.
No problem….(gulpIn theory this should work. Here’s why:
The students are reading, writing speeches, viewing a lot of information on line, answering forum posts, creating notecards, outlines, bibliographies, etc. and attending class with me for 70 minutes each of the thirteen days. During the interim for Christmas and New Year’s the students have assignments to do as well.
How intensive is this? Well, their first speech, an informative one, is due on Friday. Tomorrow, they are presenting a little self introduction for us.
Two speeches down, two to go.
I thought this would be difficult for the students to complete. A faculty member asked, “Once they saw all they had to do, did they run out the door?”
The answer is no. It didn’t seem to faze them.
These days, students are used to online assignments and many have taken hybrid classes in the past. Gone are the days of sitting in a lecture hall, or if not gone maybe there are a few less of them.
I am going to work just as hard as the students. And, I have to stay ahead of them!
For instance, thus far I have spent about three hours today just getting everything ready for tomorrow.
Today I created hand outs for: writing notecards, informative speech topics, and rubrics for an informative speech and forum discussion.
Prior to the first class, I probably spent about six hours planning the class. Why so long? Because I planned the entire intensive so the students would have every assignment and due date at their finger tips.
I figure that’s the least I can do for them.
Truthfully, that’s ok with me. I am more valuable and employable with everything I learn to do as far as higher education is concerned. I’m interested in teaching additional classes on line in the future.
It sounds like more and more people are taking to learning in this manner. I want to be one of the teachers who can provide the instruction for them.
For instance, I’d never had to make power point for a class because in the past, I taught drama classes. Most of the time my classes were hands-on, not lecture.
So, I can check off “creating a power point” from my list.
However, I am all ready seeing the value of on line learning. Because of the net the world is truly our oyster.
My favorite example of web gold is Ted Talks. They are a dream for a speech teacher. My first semester students, mostly high school kids, hadn’t been introduced to Tedtalks. They enjoyed them a lot and shared with me they had viewed others in. their. free. time. What?
Ironically, I first learned about Tedtalk on Facebook. Facebook, who knew?
A wonderful by-product of Tedtalks is they are tremendously interesting and thought provoking.
I use one on procrastination, ten tips to becoming a better conversationalist and several others. I’ve also used them for extra credit.
Today, I learned how to put a forum together thanks to my daughter.
She’s studying for her masters in education so she can teach drama. (Talk about the apple not falling far from the tree….) She filled me in on how her professors use forums as a way to enrich the lessons. I was interested in hearing what she thought were the positive and drawbacks from forums. She had no complaints.
We’ll see how this goes. Who knows what tomorrow holds?
The A-List Way to Becoming a Fabulous Teacher
New teachers wonder what are the secrets to becoming an A-List teacher.
Rubistar.com is a website where a teacher can create any kind
of rubric she may need. It has been great help to me over the years.
This year, I am teaching a Fundamentals of Speech class for
a community college. I realized I have several rubrics for speech presentations which might come in handy for some of you.
My students presented wedding toasts, graduation,
employee of the year (the award went to me!), anniversary celebration toasts,
and a host of other types.
I hope this helps you.
Check it out: Group Presentation Speech Rubric – Excel