Math+-+Unson,+Andrea

What are the pros and cons of flipping instruction as you see them? I see pros as: the students could watch the video as many times as they need to get the concept. They could watch it once if they are quick or they could watch it multiple times if they are a little slow. They could take notes on the video. This might help them with taking notes in college. Cons: The students can't ask the video a question. If they get lost in the beginning of the video they don't have any way to figure things out. If they don't have internet access they won't be able to watch the videos.

(How) does a FlipClass better address student needs than does a traditional class?

You must be able to tell this story believably to a variety of people who will challenge. You must be ready to explain your pedagogy, with sources, often and eloquently. What evidence will you need to collect to satisfy your critics? Right now I am a critic. I think it works for some students but not all students. I hear quite a bit about it in tutorial. Some students like it and some do not. I surveyed my IB Calculus class and overall they did not like it. I need to chat with math teachers that have done it and see what makes it work and what doesn't. I need to see how they convinced their students that it would be a good way to learn math.

Who are your stakeholders? What are their common concerns? My stakeholders are my students who will be in Intermediate Algebra (Jrs. and Srs.) and my students in Geometry (9th-11th), the parents of these students and me, as their teacher. Their common concerns will be: what if I don't have a computer or internet access ? What if I'm involved in sports, how can I do the hw when I'm on a bus? I could do it if it was a worksheet. How much extra time is this going to take me?


 * 1) During week 1, you identified your stakeholders and their common concerns. Reflect on last week's work: add or amend as needed now that you know more. If I do the flipped class I need to be able to convince my students that it is the best thing for all of them. Some of the new things that I can share with them is, "You know how you tune me out because you already understood the concept the first time I taught it? Well, you will be able to work on questions that are more at your level. You won't have to wait for me to finish 3 examples before getting down to your work." Also I read that if a student can show you that they have mastered the content they wouldn't have to spend time doing the entire assignment because it would be just busy work for them. I like that. And on the other hand, if a student watched the video and still didn't get it they could watch again and try to write questions down on where they got confused and come to class with them. I could spend more time one on one with them and and not feel like I need to rush.
 * 2) How does a flipped class better address their concerns than a traditional class? Bergmann and Sams give 15 reasons on why you should flip your classroom in Chapter 3. You may want to focus on 2 or 3 that best address what you believe will work best with your student population. Of course you can add a different reason not mentioned in the book. Flipping speaks the language of todays students. This year I tried something different. I allowed students to listen to their music during class. I didn't tell them right out that I would allow it, I just didn't make them put it away. As I walked around the classroom I could see students working on the math and listening at the same time. If I needed to ask them a question they would take out their ear bud and listen and respond. I found this amazing because as a student I would shut my bedroom door and do my homework in silence and I felt that was the only way kids could really learn. Flipping helps students of all abilities excel. I like the idea that a special ed teacher could watch my video and teach the student in the same way. In fact, they could watch the video with the student when this concept was being introduced and show the student how to watch, pause, write questions down and be prepared for class the following day. I also liked how they said students could fast forward through the video if they got the concept right away. I know some of my students wish they could fast forward through my lessons. I would have to as a student. Flipping allows teachers to know their students better. I always try to have my students realize that I'd like to know them and not just their math ability. I really enjoy tutorial and I am the math teacher that has it after school everyday except for Tuesdays. I can almost picture my classroom being like it is in tutorial. I bop around to the different students and see what they need. Some students work together to help each other out and just check with me once in a while to make sure they are doing things correctly. I love ending my day with this "supervision" and I would absolutely love my job even more if all of my students were as engaged as the students that work with me after school.
 * 3) What might be some challenges you will encounter? How do you plan to address them? If you can identify a challenge but not a solution (yet) post the challenge and seek help from the group. Feel free to use the "Crowd Source" (CS) page. I'm still concerned that every student won't be able to view the video lessons. And another concern is how do I take my lesson that I'm used to teaching and condense it down. I already feel like I have "dumbed down" some of my lessons from year to year. Do you just give them one or maybe two examples and expect that they can do all the others? Or in class the next day is that where they get the rest of the lesson? I wouldn't want to repeat the examples that were on the video or why would a kid watch it in the first place?

= Writing a plan to gain stakeholder buy-in =

Choose 4 of the questions listed below to answer this week on your page; choose 4 to seek further support from your colleagues.

Begin writing a plan to gain stakeholder buy-­in for flipped instruction that includes the following:

1. What is flipped instruction in your own words? A flipped classroom is when the students are getting the direct instruction/lecture from a video and then using the classtime to do what used to be their homework. The students can then ask questions one-on-one to the teacher on the topics they really don't understand. They can work on their own if they are understanding the topic or perhaps help another student who needs help with whatever they themselves have mastered. 2. How does flipped instruction address your stakeholders key concerns? The flipped classroom has to show the students that it is more helpful than the traditional style of learning. It has to show them in the end that it is not more time on their part. The classroom time has to be beneficial for them and their questions have to get answered. 3. Why is flipped instruction beneficial for 21st century learners? It is beneficial for the learners because they can use their technology to view the direct instruction and if they need to review it is there for them. They can pause it and take notes or if they have a question they can write it down so in class the next time they can ask the teacher. 4. How does it build upon our previous understanding of best practices, CCSS, IB curriculum? If the students can get the direct instruction/lesson from a video then when they are working on problems by themselves, during classtime, and they get stuck and want to just give up the teacher or maybe another student will be there to incourage them and help them to move through the question successfully. The CCSS have the students working on more complicated questions that use prior learning. Now the students can get a little more guidance as they try to work through these types of questions. 5. What aspects of your instruction will you concentrate on flipping first? The first aspect I will be working on is my review for the final exam in Geometry. 6. Why is this aspect of your instruction well suited to a flipped model? I do this throughout the year and the students will be able to view a regents question being solved and then they can solve one of the same type. If they already know how to solve the question, then they don't need to watch the video. 7. What data will you be collecting on which to assess effectiveness of your flip? I'm not sure about this one. 8. By which methods will you be collecting this data? Survey, but I'm not sure.

For my flipped classroom it is a bit different. I am not flipping a unit or a lesson. I am providing examples of Regents questions for Geometry that the students can go back and view if they get stuck and have forgotten how to do the problem. If they come to class and the questions that I have assigned are not completed then they will not get full credit. If they watch the videos and still have questions they can write the questions from the video on their homework and I will know that they watched the video. Their "buy in" to watching the videos would be getting a homework grade of complete if I was just checking for effort, or getting a grade that was mastery or above if it was graded by correctness. The support materials are old Geometry Regents exams. We call it our "Green books" but they would be working on these questions throughout the year, not just at the end.



Final Project: I have made 38 videos of the questions from the Jan 2013 Geometry Regents Exam. The link is below:

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media type="file" key="GeoReg1-13,