Category Archives: FlipGrid

Reconnecting With a Teacher From My Past

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As to be expected, AP Literature is heavily focused on literary analysis. And by the end of the first semester, I had a hunch my students needed a breather. So where do you think I turned for inspiration?

To the ENGLISH tab of my 1992-93 high school binder, of course. Yes, I’ve held onto that handy resource, and it has helped me more than once.

This time around, I pulled out a memorable exercise and adapted it for FlipGrid. Students had to list three favorite “sensory details” for each of the five senses, plus a sixth category, an “all around good feeling.” I shared from my own 28-year-old list in a video and presented them with the challenge.

Wow. So delightfully refreshing. It filled me with good feelings for my students and reminded me what it’s like to be 17 or 18. One student described “the sound of opening a new can of tennis balls” and another held up her hands with crooked fingers to show the “all-around good feeling” she experiences when someone grabs onto a chain link fence.

Resurrecting my old list, complete with comments and a sticker from my teacher, put me in a sentimental mood. I wanted to tell her how much she meant to me. I majored in English and became a teacher in part because of her. I don’t so much remember the lessons and lectures and insights about novels that I learned as I remember how I felt in her class. Mrs. Baron treated us with respect. She wanted to know who we were and what we thought. She delighted in her students and supported our becoming young adults by giving us the space to express ourselves and make mistakes. She made me feel interesting and valued. I recall lots of laughter and bonding with my classmates. Her classroom was a special space during a transformative time.

I don’t know why it took me so long to tell her all of this. Perhaps that’s just part of the loveliness of being a self-involved teenager and young adult. And then I didn’t become a teacher for the first 20 years after college.

But the time seemed right over Christmas break, and thanks to the internet I found her. We Zoomed this morning (yay for Zoom!). Anticipation had me emotional for a week. Gratitude, sentimentality, a sense of coming full circle: to be teaching AP Lit now (with three of the same texts on the syllabus) … well, it’s simply a blessing beyond words.

Christine Baron is just as I remembered her. Just as other-centering and gracious. Just as supportive, spirited, and wonderful. She is the type of teacher I want to be. And lucky me, she has offered to stay in touch.

Perhaps with regular contact, I will be able to do more than replicate her assignments. I hope to channel Mrs. Baron’s love and delight. To not lose sight of the preciousness of each of the young people who come into my care on their way to adulthood.

All-New Flipgrid, Seriously!

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I used Flipgrid for a few lessons back in the day. My students and I were not overly impressed. If you
are a long time S.F. Chronicle reader you will understand our rating. We were paying attention, but not really excited. It was a little man politely sitting in his chair reaction.

When I stumbled across a web page “introducing the all-new Flipgrid curiosity forced me to to take a look. I could not believe what I was reading. The individual student time limit was raised from the old 1.5 minutes to walloping 5 minutes. What student can speak for five minutes straight about an academic subject? If you find such a student, these five minute segments can be linked together seamlessly for as long as you might desire.

Students can also create their videos in iMovie or some other video program and import their files by simply dragging them onto their Flipgrid. Another amazing new feature.

The teacher can sort and link the student videos in any way she wants simply by dragging them up or down, or by creating a new grid for selected videos. This is beyond cool. I just divided my class into six teams. Each team researched an example of United States imperialism. Each student read a segment of the example with inserted images. I ordered these sequentially to make coherent (sort of coherent for this first attempt) videos that covered the whole subject. When we played them back, bada bing bada boom (this set had more bing than boom). It’s a work in progress, but with such potential.

There’s more! Flipgrid has a rubric for grading built in. No kidding. Here is a screenshot of a custom rubric. Students can also see the criteria for the top level of each category. How cool is that?

Notice that you can email individual feedback to each student.  No one will have any doubts about their grade, especially after they read the comments section. How cool can you get without being redundantly cool?

I have become a Flipgrid aficionado. The possibilities are so many. The all-new Flipgrid really is all new and had me jumping out of my chair. Give it a try. I bet you will like it as much as the little man.

FlipGrid – Take 1

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Last Monday, I used FlipGrid in class for the first
time.  I first heard of this app from the
English Department when they used it for the National Day on Writing.  As well, people in some of the ed chats I
follow on Twitter have recommended it as a way to engage students and to allow
them to have their voices heard.  So I
thought I would give it a try.
In my Algebra 1 with Math Lab class, we watched Carol Dweck’s
10-minute video “The Power of Believing You Can Improve” as a part of our
continuing discussion on growth mindsets. 
I asked the students to write down three take-aways as they
watched.  Then I gave them about 20
minutes to use FlipGrid to create a short video with their response.  I told them they could work with others, but
they had to stay on task.  OK, that didn’t
work.  While few of the videos were focused
and addressed the prompt, others were just down-right silly.  I realize now they needed more direction.
So I’m going to try it again this coming week as a review
tool for the Chapter 5 Test.  Here’s my
plan:  Students will work in pairs to show
and explain how to solve inequalities.  Each
pair will have four different questions to answer.  My hope is that by explaining how they
arrived at their solutions and by watching others do the same they will gain
confidence in their ability to solve these types of questions.  I also plan to review their videos before
making them visible to the class.
I’ll let you know how it turns out.  Stay tuned for my follow-up blog post “FlipGrid
– Take 2.”