As you continue down this road of forming your own Flipped Classroom take a detour for a moment and become flipped certified through Sophia.org. They have a flipped class certificate that will help you to understand the basics of flipping and things you should be considering. The best part is that its free! Also take some time to become familiar with their site and even search it for tutorials on how to make your own tutorial, playlists, embed Google forms, quizzes, etc. Sophia is a great place to host your videos once you are ready to start making those available to your students. I strongly suggest you take some times this week to learn as much as you can from Sophia.org.
As you begin to develop your flipped classroom you need to think about how you and your students will communicate. This is especially important when it comes to students letting you know about technology issues that may arise at home or out of class time and reminding students of out of class responsibilities. There are two free services I have found invaluable; Google Voice and Remind 101.
Google Voice I have used Google Voice with great success in both my flipped and traditional classrooms. Once you sign up Google Voice give you a phone number that students may use to text or call you without having to give out your actual cell phone number. It's a free service. You can download an app for your phone here. I require that my students notify me if they ever have a technology issue when I have assigned a video to be watched out of class. Remind 101 Since I have started using the Remind 101 app available through iTunes and Schoology I have increased student viewing of videos from around 50% to around 90+%! Once you create your class name in Remind 101 it generates a pdf instruction sheet that directs students and/or parents to text or email a specific to a phone number or email address. Once they register they are automatically added to your class roster. You do NOT have collect phone numbers or email addresses. All of the responsibility is put on students. I typically have students get out their cell phones and register on the first day of class. When you want to send a mass text/email all you do is choose the class you would like to send the message to, type your message (140 character limit), and either send it immediately or schedule for it to be sent at a later date/time. It's that easy! I typically will schedule a reminder to go out at 3:30pm and 6:00pm on the day a video is due to be watched by students. I've read a lot of discussion lately about flipping being so much more than videos at home and assignments in class. And I'm not saying that I disagree. However, I hope that we don't discount the tremendous effect just that simple change in our classroom can have in creating the opportunity to help our students take responsibility for their own learning.
This is my first full year flipping. I spent the first trimester working out all the technical bugs and figuring out who I now was as an educator in a flipped classroom. At the beginning of the second trimester I made the mistake of trying to change too much, pulled back, and have finally settled into a routine with which my students and I are both comfortable. Although I have not yet assembled the problem-based learning/mastery/asynchronous classroom I keep working toward, I can take notice of the monumental changes that have taken place by simply moving lecture to video at home and having students practice in class. I work with my students everyday. I have the opportunity to sit beside them, guide their learning, and answer their questions. And they are asking LOTS of questions. I have never before had a classroom where students took the initiative to make sure that they understand like they do now. When my students are checking an assignment it isn't about just seeing how many they got wrong but about learning from their mistakes! And today when an absent student emailed me saying he had received my text reminding them to watch their video tonight and asked if he should print off the notes and watch it I realized that they are taking responsibility for their learning. We are no where close to where I dream of being but where we are right now is an incredible place. And I've only moved lecture to video at home and practice to the classroom. Simple change, big impact! You've created your website and joined Twitter. Now its time to start creating some "content" for your Flipped Classroom. As a math teacher that flips, one of the ways I hold students accountable for watching the videos is to have them take notes while they watch. Taking an idea from Cyrstal Kirch whose WSQ technique helped me get started I create Guided Notes for my students. Think of them as part fill-in-the-blank, example problems, and practice problems all rolled into one. Here's an example from the Linear Unit in my Algebra 1 class.
I create the notes in Word making sure to define necessary vocabulary, include important formulas, and provide examples to work out for students as well as practice problems for them to try. I use a lot of tables and hide the borders to create the formatting. I have the luxury of having ActivInspire sotware (used with Promethean boards) which I can use to take snapshots of anything on my computer screen. We also have our textbook online so if there is ever a diagram or graph that I want to include in students' notes (and later in the video) then I can snapshot it into the Word document. You can also do this using a program similar to Snagit from TechSmith. Once I have the Guided Notes complete I snapshot them into a flipchart to be the basis for my videos. You can begin laying the groundwork for flipping your classroom by creating Guided Notes for your current classroom. These can be great aides for your traditionally run classroom and they will also be the foundation for your videos when you begin flipping. After completing my first conference presentation on the Flipped Classroom I realize that many of those who attended are looking for a step-by-step process to flip their classrooms. In retrospect, I could have done a lot more to give them that kind of information. Although my process may not be the same as what others have done, or will do, to flip their classrooms it might be a good starting point for those who are interested. I will attempt each week to lay down suggestions for making one small step toward flipping. Some of these you will be able to begin using in your traditional classroom as well. I hope you find this information helpful.
Build Your Website One of the first things you will need to decide is where you will be housing your videos, etc. for your online classroom. I prefer Weebly. It's free, easy to use, and does not require an access code as does Edmodo or Schoology. You can also begin using your website to share information to students and parents in your traditional classroom before you've even begun to flip. Take some time this week to sign up for Weebly and get your online classroom started. If you'd like to see an example you can visit my personal online classroom at www.mrslight.weebly.com. Get connected with other educators interested in and actually doing Flipped Classroom by joining Twitter here. Every Monday at 8pm EST there is a flip class chat. Just follow the hashtag #flipclass. At first you will find yourself just trying to follow the fast paced nature of the chat. That's totally fine at first. But I encourage to join in the conversation after you get a feel for how the chats run. You can ask questions and get more information on how to flip your class. |
Check out the GETTING STARTED category to find out how to start flipping one step at a time.
AuthorI am a high school math teacher in Michigan flipping for my students. I'm talking technology and getting messy with methodology. I am also a wife and mother of five! Archives
June 2013
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