Libby, Ramsey and myself and FlipCon!

I'm Tanya- the oldest sister, the art teacher- I want to start out by saying I'm not a writer!  Mom and middle sis are great writers- I love reading their blogs- they read my blogs for the pictures- because I blog about my art, photography, kids and students.

I am a teacher that doesn't like teaching the same thing over and over again- I'm glad I have variety throughout the day- I'm glad I have completely different classes 2nd semester- I like change- I like reinventing myself and my classes.  So flipping in a new invention for me!

I started flipping after going to South Hamilton (boss man's old school) and seeing it happen.  I just thought I made sense!  It worked!  I dove right in, because that's what the artist in me would do.  At that time we weren't one on one, but I had my own lab and taught digital camera and photoshop classes in, however I couldn't completely flip because students didn't have the programs on their home computer that we used in class- so my flipping was blended.  I made videos using screencast-o-matic- which was ok- when they worked (they had a weird glich when recording Photoshop). (I now use Camtasia- which I LOVE) I recorded videos and recorded videos- most I don't use anymore, they weren't the greatest.  After a quarter of flipping I polled my students- they didn't want to get rid of the videos- they loved them- but they still like me to give some whole class instruction in class, so I kept doing it.  I could help the ones that really need one on one and the ones who wanted to go out could.

Last spring we went to a 2 day workshop and met Ramsey Musallam (watch his Ted video here) who is a BIG deal in the "flipping" world. Than we got to see him again in June at FlipCon in Stillwater- FYI we really didn't know what a big deal that conference was until we got there!!!  We got to meet alot of the people we follow on twitter!

So now I am dipping into my traditional classes- not just me computer art classes.  I'm going to add more and more videos to schoology and my website-videos that envolve using my Elmo to record and my cameras-I want to make videos they want to watch- not just have to watch- I want them to want to use them- to help them GET it!!!  I don't want to stand up in front of my class and "preach".  I am going to do smaller break out sessions for kids who need the hands on demos- or who get ahead of the videos- or for those who want to go above and beyond the videos.

I'm excited for 2014- and not just because the Hawkeyes made it to a bowl game- because I get to do something I love and continue to learn myself, continue to grow as a teacher!