techieMusings

As I am finalizing my presentation for the Building Learning Communities Conference next week, I am reminded of how “the flip” all started for me. I had always had a strong interest in integrating technology into the classroom (even before I started teaching), but it was the BLC conference in 2010 that truly sparked my enthusiasm and gave me the tools needed to be the innovative teacher that I am growing into today. After a week of inspiring sessions and more exciting ideas than I could have possibly imagined, I was a bit brain fried and eager to get home to process all of my notes.

Right before I left the conference, as I was grabbing my computer from the charging room, I bumped into Dave McCollom, Education Evangelist at TechSmith (cool title, right?). As soon as he introduced me to Camtasia Studio, I knew that he was presenting me with the solution I had been looking for.

  “Particularly in AP Calculus, anxiety runs high. A rushed lesson with not enough time to answer questions and get a truly lively discussion started is far from an ideal learning environment. With the pace of the AP syllabus, easing this anxiety is a difficult task. By eliminating class lectures, class time can be spent in an entirely different way. And this has been my goal.

Using Camtasia Studio, I have the ability to run a “backwards classroom.” ”

This was from a guest post that I wrote for “The Daily Riff” in December 2010, before the term “flipped classroom” was all the buzz, and when my students were calling it “backwards” learning.  Since then, my goals and process has evolved into so much more, but it really all started with that conference and running into Dave.

In the three years since, I have enjoyed repeated visits to BLC and had the chance to talk to the awesome team over at TechSmith many times and they continue to deliver tools that I am looking for. And so, having the chance to be a presenter at BLC this year is so super meaningful (and exciting!). I will be doing 3 sessions:

– Learning Should Feel Like Play. Reducing Student Anxiety Levels Through the Flipped Model.

– Making Video Instruction a Less Passive Experience.

– Do You Really Know Your Students? Flipping the Classroom to Increase Personalization.

Being a presenter, TechSmith has donated a copy of Camtasia Studio + Snagit. Since I already have these wonderful tools, I wanted to gift my copies to 2 passionate teachers. If you are interested, please leave a comment below letting me know: 1. a little bit about you and your goals; 2. which product you are interested in (Camtasia Studio (for PC) or Snagit (for both Mac and PC)); 3. how you plan to use the gift. I also would love if you would commit to 3 reflection posts throughout the year (maybe Nov, Feb, June) so that we can all grow and learn from your experiences. Please be sure to leave contact information (in the comment or you can email me directly).

My next blog post will be live from Boston – enjoying BLC13!! I will be keeping good notes for those of you not able to attend.