Berkeley teachers and students are catching what is called #FlipgridFever on social media. In other words, Flipgrid usage in Berkeley schools is spreading! Flipgrid, a video discussion platform, is a fast and easy way for students to capture their ideas in short videos.
Tech Teacher Leaders (pictured here), teachers new to BUSD, & King faculty have recorded Flipgrid introductions.
Here’s how it works. The teacher logs into Flipgrid, sets up a grid for the berkeley.net and the students.berkeley.net domain. Then the teacher adds a prompt and gives students the code to access it.
Students log in with their email accounts and record their responses on the Chromebooks using the built-in webcam and microphone. Afterwards, students review their video, re-record, and post it when ready. Before the video is published on the website, students take a photo that they decorate with stickers. This picture is displayed as the video preview. Once that’s done, students can watch each other’s videos. And just like that students are engaged in the video creation process.
Since June when Flipgrid became entirely free for teachers and students to use, this tech tool has gained in popularity.
Cristine Tennant, 6th grade Humanities Teacher at King Middle School, launched Flipgrid in her classroom earlier this school year. After students filled and colored a heart outline with all the things close to their heart, students picked one of the topics and recorded a story about it. While preparing, the class discussed elements of effective storytelling. Later they took turns spreading out and recording in the hallway. Over the course of a couple of days, students captured a bunch of funny and heartwarming stories.
Check out Rauha’s video where she explains why cooking and baking is so important to her.
Listen to Mateo’s story about competing in a breakdance competition.
Notice how this exercise in speaking and listening also fosters community and connection.
Since then, Cristine’s students used Flipgrid again to analyze the inner strengths and weaknesses of a character they are studying. And other teachers will be incorporating this tool soon. For instance, students in Victoria Edwards’ 8th grade English classes at King will record their Inquiry By Design “Author Study” project. Rebecca Goodin, 5th grade teacher at Sylvia Mendez, has a Flipgrid ready for students to document their book recommendations to share with peers.
There are limitless possibilities for using Flipgrid to spark and capture student thinking.
Interested in learning more about Flipgrid? Check out this The Educator’s Guide to Flipgrid Version 3.0 or reach out to DigiTech.
– Mia Gittlen, K-8 Instructional Technology TSA