The Flipped Classroom
I have thoroughly enjoyed flipping my Honors Biology classes and am now teaching my student teacher the reasoning behind the flip. She has totally embraced the student-centered classroom where they construct their knowledge and the teacher is a guide on their journey. She is even making her own videos! I am also so happy that some graduate students have emailed me about reading my blog for their Education classes. It inspires me that future teachers also see the value in the flipped model and I want to help in any way that I can.
Technology
I am an active member of my school's technology committee where we are looking to go 1:1 (each student has a device) in the next two years. I am trying very hard to secure funding (we are a private school) for a pilot program of Google Chromebooks in my classroom for next year. Any advice on grants is greatly appreciated!! We also have a technology roundtable next week hosted by DyKnow where several area schools will brainstorm ideas surrounding going 1:1. I will certainly report back what I gained from this discussion.
AP Biology
A huge chunk of my time recently has been spent wrapping my mind around the new AP Biology curriculum that begins next school year. As I have written about before, I tried to flip my AP Bio class this year but the amount of content and the pace made it nearly impossible. I still use constructivist thought and inquiry to inspire my lessons, but I would not consider it a "flip". I am hopeful that I will at least get to a 50/50 or more flip with AP Bio next year. It helps that I am getting (for the first time) my students that I taught Honors Biology to last year - I know they should have the prerequisite knowledge!
YouTube
Some of you may have noticed that I had to remove all of my videos from my YouTube channel, EaglesBiology. Last week, several teachers, including myself, received notices from Pearson that we were violating copyright laws by posting their images in our videos. I am appealing this decision as we speak and I hope to get the videos back up soon! Flippers beware - don't use textbook images :)
