Flipping History Course

Welcome! As I've mentioned in posts below, I no longer update this site as my blog is now hosted at www.pennyuniversitypress.com/blog. However, I did want to make sure that I left the materials here for those that may be interested in flipping their classroom.

I receive a lot of emails asking for help and advice- please keep sending them! I love, love, love, connecting with other teachers. The best way to reach me is elizabeth@pennyuniversitypress.com.

If after exploring the materials here, you are still interested in flipping your classroom, but need a more concrete road map, I have created a self-paced course, "Flipped Classroom 101." This course is available at http://pennyuniversity.teachable.com/ or via my website www.pennyuniversitypress.com.

The cost is $10.00 which includes a PDF copy of my book, Flipping History. I have tried to keep the cost affordable to teachers, while offsetting some of the costs associated with maintaining my blog and website. I really tried to provide a lot of value for you, and lay out exactly how I started flipping my classroom, and some ideas of where to go once you get the basics down.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions! Happy Flipping!

-Liz

Admitting that videos don't work for all...

We just started a new term yesterday (our school works on quarterly terms rather than semesters) and a new nit (Ancient Rome). Since we were starting "fresh" so to speak it was a good opportunity for me to attack some of the problems and concerns that had come up in the flipped class. There are always going to be a few problems that occur but a major concern for me was those students who were not watching the lectures at home. There weren't many, but a small handful that I felt needed to be addressed.

I'll admit, I was angry with those student's. I felt like I was offering them such a "better" alternative to traditional homework. "How could they not want to watch a video?" I thought, "Don't they know I could be giving worksheets and busy work? I'm trying to do something for them!" Then I took a step back...wasn't the whole point of this to do what is best for the students? If they aren't watching the videos, they aren't getting the main content. There must be a way to fix this. 

As much as I dislike the textbook that has been assigned to my class (I don't even use it with the kids, I have 100 of them sitting on a shelf) and as much as I dislike assigning worksheets and bookwork (I feel students don't really read they just look up answers) I knew this could be a short-term solution. I found chapters in the book that corresponded for the most part to the video lectures and set up a reading schedule. I also found guided reading worksheets that go along with these chapters. In lieu of the notes that most students take while watching the videos, my "book" students would take these guided notes while reading, and take paper-based quizzes in class each week.

I had trouble squelching the voice, "But I want them to watch the videos, I don't want to use the book, this is a "flip" the whole point is to watch the videos." Its not, "flipping" really has nothing to do with videos, the concept of flipping is a shift in how we conceptualize the use of class time as application rather than delivery of content- and it looks different for every class. As much as I wish these students would watch the video lectures (there's so much I can do with showing images of the places were studying and telling human interest stories that the textbook doesn't cover) they aren't, and that is the fact of the matter at the moment. Getting content from the book is better than no content at all. Additionally I have to remind myself to do what's best for them, and maybe the videos just don't work for everyone. Do I think the videos are more informative and far more interesting than the textbook? Absolutely. However I'm willing to admit that for some students the flip is just to radical, and some old fashioned reading and worksheets might rectify the problem.

They will still be learning the main content outside the classroom and collaborating on projects in class, I am hoping that of the eight students I am assigning the book too, a few will decide that they would rather watch the lectures online. I told them that if they decide to go back to the lectures, if they complete two weeks in a row and on time, that they may return to the computer based rather than the book. 

At first I felt like going back to the book was admitting defeat, but I now realize its the opposite, its continuing to differentiate and adjust the delivery of content so that every student has the same access to the curriculum. It has even got me thinking about creating different "levels" of videos next year. Essentially different students taking different "course levels" so to speak right in the same room. Oh the ever lengthening things I want to do this summer!

I said this was a short-term solution because I used the book and the worksheets that came with it. Next year if I were to create an alternative reading plan for some students, I would probably create my own guided notes, and perhaps look into different texts (or maybe have them read an historical novel!?! :) ) and create something a little more inline with the videos.

Has anyone else come up with solutions for students not watching the videos? What has worked for you? What hasn't? I'd love to hear what some others have done!

Greek Festival

Today was our Greek festival, students displayed the projects they've been working on and brought in food, music, clothes, and games from Ancient Greece. It was a huge success and we had a lot of parents show up. I had a few parents come up and tell me how much they loved the flip. That was really great to hear, it was also great to see the students so proud of the work. That being said it was definitely a long, chaotic afternoon. I've posted a few pictures below from the festival, as well as a picture of the fantastic columns that the students made for the entrance.

A Culmination of Creativity

This has been an odd week for my students. In Massachusetts we have "April Vacation" which starts next week, and we completed our unit on Ancient Greece last Friday, thus I'm in the weird gray area between units. Rather than start Ancient Rome before vacation, I have elected instead to extend our normal one day "culture day" to a whole week.

Culture Day takes place after we finish a civilization, students bring in food, music, fashion, games, and other things from that area of the world both in ancient and modern times. Prior to the flip this was the only time my students got to work in groups and do in class projects. Now we do that on a daily basis. Since each student has 7 projects from the past unit (yes that means I am currently sitting in a pile of 700 student created posters, models, dioramas and maps) I thought it would be nice of their parents could actually have a chance to come in and view their work.

My vice principal was kind enough to let us use the library tomorrow afternoon, so we are having a full "Greek Festival." The kids have been building columns, making signs, togas, laurel wreaths, and generally planning some pretty cool stuff. Their projects will be set up like a science fair, with each student getting table space. I am going to project videos of in class plays that some of the students performed in one corner (the students are setting up a "Greek Theatre", and the "legacy of Greece" powerpoint the students did in another. Two of my students even created a "QR Code" scavenger hunt that will go throughout the fair.

I am excited to have parents come in and see all the hard work the students have done. Furthermore I am hoping it will be a good chance for other teachers to come and see what cool stuff we were able to accomplish when we didn't have to spend class time listening to lectures. Finally the students are excited and enthusiastic, I'm hoping parents and colleagues can see how beneficial this has been for them.

Below is a sample of the "legacy" slides the students put together. Keep in mind it is very "rough" I basically gave them the microphone and let them coordinate their own Screencast. It is simple, each student making a one sentence statement on what they thought Greece's legacy was. Keep in mind this video was done in my inclusion class, so there are students of many levels and abilities...again its rough...but it is theirs.


I'm excited to see how our "festival" goes tomorrow, I will be taking pictures and posting them here.

Inquiring minds want to know..Did it work? Data Data Data

Forewarning: This is a long post! I finally have some numbers to crunch!

So in all of the craziness and excitement of flipping the big unanswered question of the term was...did it work? Now there are different definitions of "work." From my point of view my students were excited, engaged and busy the entire time they were in my room. They were also learning content at home rather than doing "busy work." So yes if you ask me if my flip was a success thus far I would give a resounding, "Yes"! Of course because of the way our school systems are set up all of that is fine but parents and principals really want to know, what do the grades look like? I have to admit this part had me nervous. Since I was using a mastery based grading system, I had a sense of where students were at, but I couldn't make any definitive answer since many were working right up to the end of the term. I also, if you remember from previous posts, had gotten frustrated with a few classes and wondered if they were all simply going to fail for lack of effort.

Welp, today was the day, grades were do and crunch the numbers I did... and I was pleasantly surprised! All of my classes saw at least a 50% improvement, one even saw an 88% an improvement. Each class also saw a percentage of grades drop, but these were around 15% in most classes, and as low as 5% in one. I'm not thrilled with that number but it is to be expected, and an area for improvement. Between 10 and 20% of students stayed the same in each class as well. Overall for all of my students I saw a 65% improvement, a 15% drop, and 19% stayed the same (these are rounded figures, the actual data is off by a margin of 2% due to pass/fails and other grading situations).

So where does that leave me? Very happy, yes it is not a whopping 90% of students seeing improvement, but it is an excellent start, and data only goes so far, where I was most pleased was the growth of some of my lowest scoring students, who I knew with a different class set up would thrive. For example:

3 students raised their D to a C
5 students raised their D to a B
2 students raised their D to an A

Even more exciting:

2 students raised their F to a C
1 student raised their F to a B
1 student raised their F to an A!!!!!

Though many care more about the overall data, I can't help but look at those success stories. Two of them in particular were students who I knew had the potential to be great but were falling through the cracks of a traditional system. I saw them turn it around, very enthusiastic to do projects, and ultimately getting the content at home as well.

I am pleased as well not just that grades have gone up, but they have gone up with "mastery." In other words, students grades reflect the work they put in, and the content they understood, not some kind of points game. Interestingly enough I still gave out the same number of "failing" grades this term as I did last term, however it was a different set of students. Students who had previously squeaked by because of "bonus points" and the way things were weighted suddenly found out that if they did not put the time and effort in, they weren't going to pass. This is just a small sample of the very first data to come out of this experiment, but I am pleased. I think this is a great starting point to move forward from and I hope to see even more improvement in the coming term!

I hope this post does not make me come across as someone who is grade conscience or even really cares about grades (because to be honest I feel there are so many more ways a student can demonstrate their knowledge), but inquiring minds (parents, administration, and others) do seem to use these as bench marks for success. Has anyone else seen a drastic improvement in grades? Was it a "honey moon phase" where grades reverted back? Does anyone else hate grading students??


Happy Flipping! =)

Visitor Information

Before I start my post today I needed to share this quote that I came across in a position paper on technology in the classroom:

"Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install 

locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All these measures are helpful, but 

by far the most important thing one can do for one's children is to teach them to 

swim." –Dick Thornburgh and Herbert S. Lin

I feel like this quote speaks directly to those educators who are too afraid to bring technology into the classroom for fear of "the great unknown" of the internet and what trouble students should get into. Rather than avoid technology, we should be teaching students appropriate use of technology, and correcting them when they make a mistake, as they inevitably will...is this not our job as educators? We would not refuse to teach children to read in the event that someday they may come upon some salacious material...internet literacy should be no different, it is not even the way the world is going, it is the way the world has gone. We are doing them a huge diservice not just to their future, but to their present by avoiding instruction in an area that is vital to their everyday lives, but I digress...

Ok rant over, so I've been getting a lot of visitors lately to my room in various capacities. I had my standard observation with my principal, my supervisor for my mentor program was making yearly classroom visits, and the Department of Ed had been doing random visits for a compliance review in our school. 

Given the confusion that a flipped class can present (wait..what does she do all day)? I decided to come up with a visitor packet to give a summary of my class and what its all about. I put them by the door, and included a feed back form. I've copy and pasted it below in case anyone was interested in doing something similar. 

Visitors Info Packet

Hello! Welcome to 7^th Grade Ancient History. I put this packet together so that you would know what was going on in my class. At first glance it may look like I am not teaching….and that’s because I’m not! You see I have “flipped” my classroom. Students now listen to lectures at home and do “homework” or projects in our case, in class. If you are curious or confused, please continue reading.

What is  a “flipped” class?

Traditional classrooms see students receiving instruction in class (usually listening to a lecture of some sort) and then doing an “application” activity for homework (ie: worksheet, project, etc). In the flipped class we reverse that.

What do they do at home? They have no homework??

 Well that’s not entirely true, students don’t have homework in the traditional sense. Rather than worksheets and projects at home, they watch 2-3 lectures per week for homework. During the lecture they will fill out the corresponding pages in their “Interactive Notebook.” The IN is a series of fill-in notes and section review checks. Finally they take a quiz after each lecture. Students that traditionally have trouble keeping up in class or with notes can pause, rewind, and re-watch a lecture as many times as they need. So even though they don’t have traditional homework, they are actually doing a lot of work at home, but they are doing it at their own pace and are responsible to get work done by a certain date.

What do they do in class? You don’t teach??

No I suppose that is true, I am no longer “teaching” in the sense that I am standing at the front of the room delivering content. However I am still educating students all through class. Each week students are assigned a project that digs deeper into the content of one of the lectures. Students are given projects based on interest and ability. They spend Monday-Friday in class researching, developing, planning and executing everything from posters to models, reports to brochures, even sometimes performing in a play. While they do not have “group” projects they do sit in groups and are encouraged to bounce ideas off each other and assist each other in the process. In other words they are collaborating and learning from each other, but ultimately responsible for their own grade. My role is to circulate the class, giving one on one time where needed, pointing students in the right direction for materials, and clarifying facts and information. Sometimes I even get to have a whole conversation with a student on a topic they’re really interested in, its fantastic! I am no longer the “sage on the stage” but rather the “guide on the side” its taken me a while to get used to it, but I feel I’m doing more “teaching” now than I ever did before…it just looks a lot different!

How are students graded? YOU DON’T HAVE TESTS???

The biggest question I get. Again, not entirely true, there are tests they’re just a different style. I like to think of them as “assessments” rather than “tests.” Students are graded based on the number of units they master.

4 units= A

3 units = B

2 units = C

1 unit = D

Mastery of Units counts for 60% of their overall grade. Grade breakdown as follows:

Mastery of Unit = 60%

Notebook and Discussion Threads = 10%

Weekly Projects = 20%

CE Quizzes/BW = 10%

Remember those quizzes they take after each lecture at home? They have to get an 80% or better on all of those within a unit to sit for a mastery test. They can take the test in class, after school, or even online. In fact most students prefer it online.

Doesn’t that cause cheating? Can’t they use their notes?

Yes they can use their notes! I want them to use their notes!! History as a discipline is not about memorizing facts and dates but rather synthesizing information and using it to create coherent arguments about the past. For their “assessments” students are asked to identify and define a number of people, places and dates from the unit explaining their importance. They choose a number off a larger list that they feel they can write about best. Finally they must write an essay that pulls all the information together and requires them to use all their information to create a solid thesis statement and back it up with facts and details. So they can’t really cheat since each test is different and I absolutely want them to use their notes, there is no sense in having all this information if they don’t know what any of it means in the “big picture.”

Why did I do this? Was it hard to revamp your entire class structure?

Good question, yes it was, but I feel it was necessary. Under the traditional class set up I wasn’t reaching all my students. Most weren’t doing homework, many were not taking anything seriously, and worse yet most didn’t care. I think I did a good job with special ed and 504 accommodations, but it doesn’t mean they were “engaged” the whole time. I also felt that the really advanced kids in my class were bored. I was sort of getting through to the “middle of the pack” but even they were bored at times listening to be drone on about dead people, and you know what… I was bored too. I needed a way to ensure that my students were going to be engaged the entire time they were sitting in my classroom. I figured it was worth a try…and I have no plans to go back. Sure there are still students who won’t do work at home, but at least they are engaged the entire time they are in my room. Furthermore those students who do care have the option to retake tests, no more “bad days” resulting in ruined averages. My advanced kids? I can challenge them more with projects requiring more in depth thinking? My students that need extra attention? I have the time to do it now. In short this is by no means a perfect system, but I feel it has done good things for my students, and is a great starting point on my evolution as a teacher.

Cool! Where I can I get more info on this flipping thing?

There are many teachers across the country “flipping” their classrooms. I have a PLN (personally learning network) where I communicate with many of them via blog and twitter, there is also the first published research coming out this summer on “flipping.”

Check out my blog for links to other educators doing the same thing:

www.flippinghistory.blogspot.com

Ramblings from inside the Flip

We had a delayed opening today due to snow. Only in New England would this be happening March 1st! Normally delayed openings bring a lot of stress. Since I teach five sections of the same subject I try to keep all my classes in one place. Delayed openings and early dismissals always pose a problem. It means that since I only see half my classes, those classes end up a whole day ahead of the others. Since I did not want the classes too far off one another, these days in all honestly used to be "throw away days." I would do something related to the content we were covering, but not something that would make any one class ahead of the others. Usually an episode of something on the history channel, or a fun facts worksheet of sorts. I hated that the day felt like a waste.

I'm excited because since I've flipped the delay doesn't change anything, the kids will come in as usual and continue working on their projects. I'm excited because since everyone works at their own pace, I don't have to worry about anyone being "off." My only concern is the classes I don't see today having time to finish, but all their projects seemed to be coming along fine yesterday.

This week brought its own set of challenges. The physical space of my classroom continues to be an issue, its a small room and having kids bustling around, grabbing books and sharing supplies has led to organized chaos. Next week I'm going to try to have a more organized set up, dividing the room into more defined areas (ie: Research, construction, study, lecture catch up). I also need to figure out some better storage solutions for their projects.

Observations this week:
Cons: Many students are still not listening to the lectures. I'm not sure if there is a disconnect between how that will impact their grade or not, I'm hoping to rectify that for the coming weeks. This tends to be the same group of students that didn't do homework before. I would say that there are not as many students blowing off lectures as there were blowing off homework, but its still a number I'm not comfortable with. Also, there are still a few (very few) students who are not utilizing class time efficiently.

Pros: I let students pick where they sit, this week less people sat with friends, and more students sat with people working on similar projects. I also noticed far less "Ms. Miller!!" questions and more questions directed at their peers, students really started to help each other out.

How do those flipping classes highlight the importance of mastering the content? Does this realization come with maturity? Or is it something that students have to learn the hard way (ie: not finish the units to get the A)?

Day 3

Overall things have been going great, a lot of kids went home and watched the videos so far, hopefully the majority finish their lecture assignments by Friday. The projects have also been coming along, today we saw the turning point from research to putting things together.

There were a few hiccups, I still have two students who have produced nothing this week. I'm hoping after our chat today that they turn it around for the last two days of the week. Since it is February vacation here next week the projects are going to be due tomorrow since we are having an all day movie day Friday with the other teachers on the team. Most students seem to be in good shape to get things done.

I've posted a few pictures below to showcase some of the in class projects:

I'm actually happy we have February vacation next week as it will give me a chance to assess this first week and make adjustments.

I will update tomorrow with how the finished projects work out.

Day 1

Well today was the day, we flipped. I was incredibly nervous about how the kids would be when they came in the room, if they would remember their supplies and so on.

I was pleasantly surprised. A few kids forgot of course, but they used today for research. I divided my desks into pods of 4 and in addition to the desks to work at created a "research corner" where my reference books were, a "reading corner" with mythology books and chapter books and finally I created a "quiet corner" for students to go and sit and quietly work when the group was distracting them. I also allowed them to chose their own seats.

So the question is, how did Day 1 go? Well I like to start with the cons, I don't know why it makes me feel better about the positives I guess, so here goes:

Cons: Some students did forget materials and while that was ok today, tomorrow it may be a problem. A few students took advantage of the time negatively and used it as an excuse to walk around the room and get into trouble. A few students could not get started without a lot of input from me. I emphasize a "few" on all of these items, perhaps 2-3 out of 90 students.

Pros: I saw many many students working together and staying on task, helping each other out with the research. I saw one girl who rarely does anything in my class take advantage of the quiet corner and go and sit and do work...that was probably my most thrilling moment of the day. Finally I felt like I really got to walk around and get to know their learning styles a bit more, and really help them come up with ideas for their projects. I saw them getting enthusiastic, and asking questions, and actually CARING. I haven't seen this  in a long long time from my students.

Overall I was incredibly happy with today, I know its a honey moon phase and their are still kinks to be worked out, but for at least today I'm exhausted but incredibly happy with how things went.

On a side note, a colleague of mine introduced me to the concept of making QR codes for the kids, I'm playing around with it and there's definitely potential for some really cool things. Has anyone else used QR with their students, I'm interested to hear of others projects.

Woah there..slow down!

I've been working hard the last few days to organize and write out instructions for each project students will complete during the course of the unit (1 per week). I have decided to make an "Informational Binder" for my classroom. The binder will be divided into the following:

Tab 1: Research on Flipped Classrooms
Tab 2: Overview and Grading
Tab 3: Project descriptions and Rubrics
Tab 4: Copy of Interactive Notebook
Tab 5: Paper copies of Quizzes and Tests
Tab 6: Additional info

My primary motive in creating the binder was to keep visitors to my classroom informed of what we're doing, but also to make my communication with the SPED teachers in my room easier. I teach on a team, and our team currently has two SPED inclusion programs, additionally we have some ELL students. I wanted a central source of information where teachers and paraprofessional's in my room could access all of the information whenever they need it.

Three additional thoughts occurred to me about "flipping" my class:

1. It will make better use of my "co-taught" classes. As mentioned I have two SPED programs on my team. In an idealistic world these classes are co-taught between the SPED teacher and myself, with additional classes having a paraprofessional assisting. Due to the current structure of the traditional classroom this almost never happens, yet it has always been a hope of mine. I think this set up will make co-teaching a natural and daily occurrence since neither of us will be the "central source" of information. Rather all students can access either of us during the course of class. I think it will make better use of the strengths and knowledge that the SPED teachers bring to my room, and allow them to share that with my regular ed students in addition to their own.

2. This is lofty and far too forward thinking since I don't even know if this whole "flipping" concept will even work, but I think flipping would allow me to present different "courses" within the same room. Its not something I will do this year, but maybe in the future if it works. For example, if a student takes a US history class in college (and some high schools) their class is presented using the teacher's "lens." In other words some teachers may present the Revolutionary War from an economic point of view, or from a women's history point of view, or a military history point of view. Since the content in a flipped classroom is being delivered via screen cast to students, in theory you could record the material using these different lenses and essentially allow students to chose which "course" they want to take, following the video lectures for that course. The possibilities of individualizing learning with this model are fantastic, I'm excited to explore them.

3. Although for this Unit all students will be listening to the same video lectures, in the future (again if this whole thing works) I think I will make various "levels" of videos and allow students to follow that lecture path, even further differentiating for them.

I think the one thing I need to remind myself of here is that this may not work. I am wary of becoming so consumed with this project that I push it to succeed when maybe it won't. What can I say? I'm excited. I do need to remind myself once in a while though to slow down, lest I get too ahead of myself. I wonder if it is better to do a "full flip" as I am or if others have had more success just doing "partial flips"? I'm definitely curious to see how it will go.

I found this great picture at usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com (thanks for the inspiration)! I think it really sums up the flipped class:

As a final thought, I just realized that if each student does 1 project per week for 7 weeks I'm going to have roughly 700 projects in my room...good thing I have a big closet I guess!

Plan Phase 1

Over the last two days I've really tried to figure out the answers to the questions in my last post. To say I've been consumed by this project would be an understatement. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about my classroom. I genuinely feel that if this experiment doesn't renew my students interest in their education, it definitely has renewed mine.

I decided that before I went through any past lectures to record, or even created in Interactive Notebook, I should set up my grading scale, and the basic structure..in other words realistically figure out how it would work.

After going through all of the notes and deciding which information was important I finally came up with the following plan:

Flipped Class Set Up

“Flipped” Class Unit Overview and Materials:

Greece is a 20 lecture Unit broken down into 4 sections.

Students will watch watch 2-3 lectures per week for homework. During the lecture they will fill out the corresponding pages in their “Interactive Notebook.” Finally they will take a quiz after each lecture.

When they have completed the quizzes for each lecture at 80% or better they may sit for the exam. An 80% or better will be considered “Mastery.” Students may retake the exam as many times as they wish, however only twice may be during school hours (once during class, once during SSR).

Students will be graded based on the number of units they master.

4 units= A

3 units = B

2 units = C

1 unit = D

Mastery of Units counts for 60% of their overall grade. Grade breakdown as follows:

Mastery of Unit = 60%

Notebook and Discussion Threads = 10%

Weekly Projects = 20%

CE Quizzes/BW = 10%

Week	Lectures to Master	In Class Project Options
1	Intro Geography Minoans	Texture Map Legend of Terrain Places of Interest Model of a Ship Poster on Palace of Knossos
2	Mycenaeans Dark Ages Trojan War	Perform the Odysee Read Illiad (Create Soundtrack) Journal Entries Trojan War Poster Compare Disney’s Herculese (Paper)
3	City States Athens Sparta	Class Deabate (All) Design a Greek Home Poster on Weaponry Persuasive Letter
4	Persian Wars Delian League Decline of City States	Research Boston Marathaon Poster on Trireme 300- Legend vs Movie Create a Shield Delian L vs League of Nations
5	Religion Olympics Theatre	Facebook Project (All) Mythology History of Olympics Mount Olympus Masks Perform Midas and Golden Touch
6	Philosophy Science	Medical Practices 2 Astronomers Weight Change Socrates Great Teachers/Academy
7	Phillip of Macedonia Alexander the Great End of Empire	Bucephalus report History of Alexandria Battle of Gaugamela Investigate PW
8	Wrap Up	Legacy of Greece Unit Project

How weekly Projects work:

Students will submit which project they want to do by Thursday of the prior week. Friday they will receive their placement for the week (weekend to get materials).

Monday they receive assignments and any in-class materials. Students will be seated with other students working on similar projects or at a similar place.

There may be multi-week projects offered for students quickly mastering the material.

Interactive Notebook:

To be filled in along with lectures.

Spot Checked each Friday

Checked in Full when student completes Section

Hashing out Realities

I have to start off by saying that I think I was up until about 5am. Every time I fell asleep I would think of another idea and need to get up to write it down. I haven't been excited about my classroom in this way in a long time...maybe flipping will renew my energy as well as the kids?

After posting yesterday I decided that if this project was going to succeed I would need to gain the support of my administration. Since I would be changing my entire class structure, I knew that parents would probably wonder about the entire structure of a class changing. I also knew that it may appear as though I'm not "teaching" to someone just walking by my class. I decided to fill my Vice Principal in on my "flip."

I was pleasantly surprised at the response. He was extremely supportive even with the understanding that this experiment could ultimately fail. He also helped me think through some of my concerns and alleviated some of them. I am tentatively setting a start date for my Unit on Ancient Greece (the first "flipped" unit) for February 1st giving me approximately two weeks to prep my materials. Too much stuff, not enough time? Probably...but if I'm going to be up until 5am because I'm too excited about this to sleep- I may as well give it the ol'college try.

Some crazy 5am ideas:

Instead of having the kids simply take "2 column notes" (our district standard) I would create an "Interactive Notebook" for students to use as they work their way through the lecture. I found this site to be very inspirational. I would like to find more "how to's" from the teacher end.

At the end of each section (my unit on Greece has 4 sections) there would be a day where students would have the option to come in and sit at a table of their choice
-Table 1: I want the notes re-clarified to me in person.
Table 2: I understand the notes but I'd like to read for content.
Table 3: I'd like to demonstrate mastery through writing.
Table 4: I'd like to demonstrate mastery through drawing.

I'm not sure how I would work the tables quite yet.

I also am toying with the idea of having independent and group projects for students to work through for each section and designating certain days group days and certain days independent work days. Will there be enough time for both? I'd like to assign actual novels to some students...is that too ambitious? Will they resent the extra work?

This week I am working on the creation of the Interactive Notebook as I think this will guide my lectures and answer some of those questions.

Has anyone ever combined interactive notebooks and flipping?

The story of how I flipped...

As stated above I'm a 7th grade history teacher. I teach just north of Boston and have a geeky obsession with technology. I'm always looking for ways to shift my classroom and have it be more student centered. One night I had been toying with how to go "paperless" in the classroom. While I was searching, I kept finding links to blogs on "flipping." Aside from real estate I had never heard the term used before and became curious. This was a Friday night.

Cut to Sunday, and I had poured through every webpage, scholarly article and blog I could find about the subject. I became infatuated, my hunger for a student centered classroom was finally being satiated. Flipping! What is it you ask? Well its simple really (in theory...not sure about practice yet). Flipping involves taking the traditional model of teaching (lecturing to kids and then having them go home to complete an assignment that applies that concept) and reversing it. Students would watch lectures and home, and do the application part in class. Over the next few weeks I gathered every piece of related literature that I could find.

Much of the current research and information on the subject focuses on its use in the maths and sciences...could it work for me in history? Well by Sunday night I was convinced and started the process of flipping my class. No waiting until next year, this was going to happen now.

Of course once I stepped back I realized that it couldn't be such an immediate process and so here I am laying the foundation work. I already have my kids complete their homework online via Schoology.com so I don't think having them listen to lectures is a huge stretch. Some questions that have been running through my head...

1. What kind of software should I use..What will work best for me? Should I video tape myself lecturing, or lecture over my current PowerPoints with only voice? What will convert between my Mac at home and my PC at school? What if I look or sound like a total dork?

2. How will kids react to switching halfway through the year? I'm going to ease them in, one or two lectures this unit before fully flipping the next...is that enough prep?

3. How will parents react? Will they think I'm just being lazy...I'm not! I just want more individualized attention time for your students.

4. How will administration react? I am constantly being told that our principal wants to shift away from lecture based classes...but how will it look when I'm walking around my class instead of standing in front of it? Will it seem like I'm lazy having student driven projects?

5. What if the technology doesn't work? I have found many great websites that simply don't work on our servers...what if this turns out to not work either?

6. Finally my biggest concern...What if the kids don't like it? What if they don't listen to the lectures? What if they lose interest? What if I fail to teach them anything? What will I do with all the class time I have now?

These are big concerns I have that I'm planning to address. As I said I already assign online homework so the issues of computer ownership of students has already been resolved for the most part. I am hoping to gain the administration's support on this as I move forward. Its either going to work or it won't right?



Time will tell....