Educreations and the Flipped Classroom

I guess that one of the newer trends in education has hit room 222. Well, in reality it hit here the day I started teaching at Hickory High, since giving students a reading assignment for homework and then asking them to work in groups toward a collaborative goal on the following day is in fact a flipped classroom. 

I'm lucky to be one of those educators who has an iPad for the classroom; notice that I said an ipad or ONE iPad.  I would say that this is not ideal, but it's a heck of a lot better than NO iPad, so I don't complain.  Upon receiving my iPad, I downloaded multiple free apps to help with organization, Web 2.0 tools, and even instruction; however, I've not exaclty figured out what each of them does, nor have I figured out how I want to integrate this device in my daily lessons.  Luckily, a math teacher friend of mine shared her Educreations that she created for her Algebra II students, and my wheels have been spinning ever since. 

Here is a little info about Educreations from their website:

"Educreations is a recordable interactive whiteboard that captures your voice and handwriting to produce amazing video lessons that you can share online. Students and colleagues can replay your lessons in any web browser, or from within our app on their iPads. Check out the "Showcase" on our homepage or the "Featured" tab in our iPad app to view some great lessons that other teachers have created with Educreations."

Rather than trying something brand new, I simply tried to modify a lesson that I already use with an English II class.  I was able to email myself a PowerPoint and take a picture of each slide using the screenshot function of the iPad.  From there I could upload each image from my photo role that I wanted.  Once I hit the record button, I was able to write on any slide and record my voice; therefore, my students were able to view an asynchronous lesson online.

Here is the first lesson that I created:


Here is the second lesson:



Next, I plan to create lessons that will explain how to diagram a sentence and how to annotate a poem or a short piece of text.

The great thing about Educreations is that I can use my iPad or even a PC to create a lesson, and it's all free!  Just go to the website, create a login, and get creating at Educreations.