My Flipped Classroom, part 1

It’s been about three weeks since the start of school and I am loving every aspect of my flipped classrooms.  Today, especially, was a great day.  The students came in to class having read their book, watched the videos, and taken notes on their own.  They immediately got into their small groups and worked on critical thinking questions and problems on the current topics.  I had a whole 45 minutes to walk around the room and check in with each of the six groups at least twice (usually three times).  I had no lesson plan, no PowerPoint, no checklist of things to get to.  It felt great!! I was able to meet each student where they where at with the material and guide them along on their way to deeper understanding.  At points, I would address the whole class on an important point and give relevant examples or put drawings on the board.  Before this year, I had only read about “teaching naked” – in fact, this article on teaching naked was one of the catalysts for my switch to the flipped model.  Here is another great article on what the flipped classroom is by two of the creators of the model, Jon Bergmann and Jerry Overmeyer.

I have learned some very revealing information about my students through this increase in one-on-one time with them.  First, I was extremely surprised to see that my freshmen Honors Biology students seemed to roll with the critical thinking exercises much better than my senior Advanced Biology students!  When I passed out the questions in AP that asked them to make connections between topics and apply their knowledge, they immediately flipped through their textbook and looked up exasperated when they could not find the exact answer in the book.  Perhaps this is because the seniors have had 3 years of teachers who operated this way (I’ll admit, I taught some of them two years ago).  They were incapable (at first) of actually THINKING on their own.  On the other hand, I set the expectations very high on day one with my freshmen, so they don’t know much else.  Second, the students who I thought would “get” a certain topic right away actually struggled, but I would not have known this if I wasn’t walking around constantly asking questions and giving formative feedback.  For example, in a simple biochemistry review in AP Bio, the students had to figure how many times acidic a solution of pH 4 was compared to a solution of pH 9.  One group of very smart girls had written down 600x and moved on to the next few questions!  I was then able to ask some questions and guide them to the right understanding of the pH scale.

The flipped model takes me out of the role of “disseminator of information” and into the role of guide and mentor.  Some call this authentic learning – where the student is creating their knowledge from interactions with others, hands-on inquiry, and applying knowledge to new situations.  I am only beginning to learn about authentic learning, but I think I am on the right track.  Below are some tweets from last night’s #edchat on Twitter that really resonated with me regarding my view on my new role in the classroom.  I am so glad that many other teachers are thinking towards the future, too.  Come back for future updates on my flip!

@jonbergmann :Teachers need to be the chief learners in the class NOT the chief disseminators of knowledge #Edchat

@isteconnects: IMO good teachers teach students how to learn for themselves using all tools available. That's the paradigm shift I'd like to see #edchat

@tomwhitby: I think we are slowly moving from a cotent expert model to a expert moderator model. Giving a fish vs learning how to fish. #Edchat

@NeagSchool New via@atugend: The Role of Mistakes in the Classroom http://t.co/9rQpqSB #edchat #k12 #education -kids learn through mistakes.@NeagSchool

@jonbergmann @Aaron_Eyler I see the paradigm happening as I train tchrs about #flipclass all over the world. #Edchat

@wmchamberlain @tomwhitby To me it isn't about the method as much as it is about the whole process: learner, content, delivery method, facilitator #edchat