Flip Grid: 6 Fun Ideas to Engage Learners in Conversation with Teryl Magee
Episode 117 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast
From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis
Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter
Today Teryl Magee @teryl_magee gives us five ways to use Flipgrid. She shares essential tips on how to use Flipgrid. This fun video tool is a great way to engage students at the beginning of school. She also uses this for professional development for teachers when she’s preparing to meet them on-site.
Sponsored by Bloomz I’ve been using Bloomz for three years now and I love it. Go to http://ift.tt/2f0btkq to find out why Bloomz is the best parent-teacher communication system out there. I’ve included a comparison matrix with features to help you figure out what system is best for you.
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Below is a transcript modified for your reading pleasure. For information on the guests and items mentioned in this show, scroll down to the bottom of this post.
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Flip Grid: 6 Fun Ideas to Engage Learners in Conversation with Teryl Magee
[Recording starts 0:00:00]
What is Flipgrid?
VICKI: Happy Ed Tech Tool Tuesday. Today we’re talking with Teryl Magee @teryl_magee about Flipgrid. http://ift.tt/2ccHONG Teryl, what is Flipgrid?
TERYL: Vicki, Flipgrid is a newer tool. And a lot of people, a lot of teachers have found that they really enjoy. It’s really for student engagement and other ideas that you can use in the classroom where students are able to answer questions and engage in class conversations via video.
VICKI: How is this working? Are they recording videos of themselves? How does this work?
TERYL: Great question. So what happens is a teacher would put out what they call a grid, they can either do that via website or an app and they will create a grid that they can push out to their students via whatever LMS that the teacher is using. It could be Google Classroom, it could be Schoology, it could be Blackboard, it could also be Microsoft OneNote. And the teacher pushes out a code to the students or they push out that link to the students that they’re able to access and the students will actually respond via video through either their mobile device or through the video camera on their laptop or their tablet that they have.
Flipgrid Idea #1: Conversation about a Topic in Class
TERYL: So this could be done with a conversation based around a topic that they’re discussing in class or it could be something totally different…
Flipgrid Idea #2: Class Introductions
TERYL: maybe a beginning of the year activity which I know we’ll be coming up on where the students could do a quick introduction of themselves and introduce themselves to their classmates.
VICKI: Okay. So you end up with this grid of video. Now, can people just record as long as they want to or are they limited?
TERYL: I’m no positive on the limit on that, Vicki, so I would have to double check that answer for our teachers that are listening to this podcast. But if I’m remembering correctly, there is a limit that they can go ahead and post. With the free version, there’s a limit on how many students can post to a particular grid. I’m all about the free tools for the teachers that I work with and I know you like to share free tools as well. There is a paid version of Flipgrid as well that opens up some other ideas or some other features for teachers too.
[00:02:00]
VICKI: So give me some examples. You’ve already given the beginning of the school example where people introduce themselves. Are there some other cool examples for this tool?
Flipgrid Idea #3: Pose a question about a topic and pre-moderate if necessary
TERYL: Sure, Absolutely. So maybe I’m a social studies teacher, I’m teaching middle school, I’m teaching high school, it could even obviously do it down in Elementary School as well. And I want to open up or I want to know what students think about our particular topic. One thing I know teachers have connected on a lot is civil rights movement and that’s particular and that’s probably something that they would be interested in learning about today because that’s in the forefronts as well with our news and everything that’s going on.
So it would be, “What do you know about civil rights, what do you know about what happened, maybe, in the 1960s and what do you see about patterns and are there any connections to what’s going today?” And students, instead of writing an essay or maybe doing a turn-talk, can record their thoughts and their conversations that they want to have about that particular topic and push that out to the whole class.
Control Features: Moderation and Privacy
VICKI: Okay. So lots of teachers ask about moderation. Does this go up directly or can teachers pre-moderate before it posts to the grid?
TERYL: There is wonderful opportunity to moderate and I know that’s really important. So if you have a student that possibly might have something that you think could be detrimental to the conversation in class, you can go ahead and choose not to post that.
VICKI: Cool. So you do have control over it. But can anybody in the world see it or can you make it private for just your class?
TERYL: Great questions. So there’s opportunities for you to either open it up to other classrooms or to the world or you can make it private just for your class. So it depends upon what the teacher wants to do.
Common Mistakes in Flipgrid
VICKI: Have you seen any common mistakes that teachers make with Flipgrid?
TERYL: My suggestion would be when you’re starting just to go small at first, you just want to try maybe with your classroom and a trusted teacher that you may have in your building or maybe you’ve been connecting with teachers via Twitter and you have somebody that you really connect with and try it out with them.
[00:04:00]
But I haven’t seen a whole lot of common mistakes. It’s really fairly simple to use.
Flipgrid Idea #4: Handshakes for Global Collaboration
VICKI: I think that I would like to try it. We have a process called a handshake process, when we do global collaboration. And one of the hardest things to teach the kids is that the other kids are actually real people. I know that sounds odd, but when you communicate just by text or they don’t see the pictures or interact with the other kids it’s hard to make it real. But the trouble with connecting face-to-face is that we’re talking different time zones, we can’t always be in the same place at the same time or online at the same time.
So I’m intrigued with this opportunity because I think we really help the handshake, it’s kind of like a way to do asynchronous video for the handshake.
TERYL: Yeah. I think that’s a great idea, Vicki. And I totally understand that time zones. I know with the global collaboration is even more challenging but even going East Coast to West Coast here in the States, that becomes a challenge too of [getting those time zones to sync]. So I think that’s a fabulous opportunity. And I think even another step that can help with that is that the students can actually respond to other people’s entries.
So say I was the one to post a grid introducing myself and doing that handshake. You could then turn and go on to respond and say, “Teryl, it’s so nice to meet you. I see that you have a brother and you have two cats. Well, guess what, I do too.”
Flipgrid Idea #5: Using Flipgrid to Facilitate Connections in Professional Development for Teachers
VICKI: What’s a neat way to introduce this to teachers? Have you participated in a fun Flipgrid and you’re like this is a great way to learn about it?
TERYL: Yeah. So in professional development, when we doing some professional development it’s a great way to introduce yourself to the teachers, it’s kind of like that beginning of the year thing. So I’d done a lot of coaching, going back and forth to teachers throughout the year, so it’s been a great way to introduce myself to teachers and have them introduce themselves to me.
[00:06:00]
VICKI: Fun. So you’re actually just using this for [PD] with teachers too.
Flipgrid Idea #6: Use for Grade Level Conversations about Topics
TERYL: Absolutely. So it’s not just for something that you can use in the classroom. Take it out n use it for other teachers. So maybe you can have grade-level conversations that you want to talk about as a grade-level team or a department team, absolutely you can take it that next step.
VICKI: Teryl, I’m curious, how does it change the dynamic when you go into a school and you’ve used Flipgrid to kind of introduce yourself to the teachers and them to you?
TERYL: What’s really nice is when you’re meeting that person the very first time face-to-face it’s not like, “Hi, I’m Teryl, it’s so nice to meet you. This is what I’m going to be doing. What do you want to be coached on? What are your goal this year?” That process has already taken place and there’s something to be said about that face-to-face connection right where you start to solidify those things. But we’ve already gone through that which you might want to call the nitty-gritty or those little details that you want to take care beforehand. And they’ve seen your face so it’s like they know you, at least, a little bit before you even walk in the door.
VICKI: So you’re kind of shortcutting the introduction and taking yourself to familiarity, aren’t you?
TERYL: You got it. Absolutely.
How do you get started?
VICKI: How would you suggest teachers get started? You’ve already said start small. What do they do know that they’re ready to start.
TERYL: Yeah. So all they have to do is go online and sign up for an account. So it’s very, very simple to do. It takes maybe about 30 seconds. You go to Flipgrid.com or you can download the app and go ahead and sign up for an account. Make sure you click that free version to get started with Flipgrid. It would go through the steps right on that app or right online on how you need to create a grid, it will give you a code and they’re going to be ready to go.
VICKI: So much fun. So for Ed Tech Tool Tuesday, try out Flipgrid.
TERYL: Thanks, Vicki.
Thank you to this episode sponsor.
This episode is sponsored by Bloomz.com
Sponsored by Bloomz I’ve been using Bloomz for three years now and I love it. Go to http://ift.tt/2f0btkq to find out why Bloomz is the best parent-teacher communication system out there. I’ve included a comparison matrix with features to help you figure out what system is best for you.
[End of Audio 0:07:46]
[Transcription created by tranzify.com. Some additional editing has been done to add grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Every attempt has been made to correct spelling. For permissions, please email lisa@coolcatteacher.com]
Full Bio As Submitted
Teryl Magee
Teryl is an educator and consultant with over twenty years of experience as an educator, coach, and project manager. Teryl is currently consulting with schools across the United States, Canada and abroad.
As a workshop presenter, coach, and keynote speaker, Teryl has led professional development sessions internationally through conference workshops and consulting opportunities. She was also named one of NSBA’s 20 to Watch.
The post Flip Grid: 6 Fun Ideas to Engage Learners in Conversation with Teryl Magee appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!
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via Vicki Davis at coolcatteacher.com. Please also check out my show for busy teachers, Every Classroom Matters and my Free teaching tutorials on YouTube.
