Catch-22 Of The Flip?

I just had the most interesting phone conversation with a parent.  First, let me say that a professional goal of mine this year is to call at least one parent a day.  On average, I have accomplished this goal and have been very happy with the results.  Today, I actually spoke with 8 parents – crazy, I know.

I was calling to let this particular parent know that her daughter can come in tomorrow morning to re-take a quiz that she did not do very well on.  I then asked how she thought “Suzie” was handling the material of AP Bio.  We both agree that she is understanding most of the material but is struggling with how to study on her own since so much of AP Bio is left for the student to undertake on their own (the book is 56 chapters long). 

Suzie reads the entire chapter, watches the videos, and takes great notes – just like I have asked every student to do this year in my flipped model so that during class we can do activities, labs, and critical thinking problems.  Then her mom said that as a parent, she is concerned that her daughter is at a disadvantage because in class I will spend all of my time catching up to speed those students who did not read or watch the videos (she did say this in the nicest and most concerned way).  I told her I appreciated her saying that (I actually said she had “balls” for saying that to me!!! We both laughed and she said she liked me for it – whew!). 

Anyway, I said that might be a valid concern for other teachers, but that I have already called the parents of the handful of students who are not keeping up with their end of the bargain.  I reiterated in no uncertain terms to those parents that their students must keep up or they will fall behind because I cannot take class time to cater to them.  Students must help themselves and do the homework before I can help.  Now, if a student has done the homework and is still struggling, then I absolutely will take class time to help them.  At that point, they at least know enough to know what they DON’T understand about a concept.

This is the catch-22 of the flipped model – what if students don’t watch the video and read the book?  What if they don’t come to class prepared?  This is a much bigger can of worms, I believe, that is related to students taking responsibility for their learning.  In my profile on this blog and on Twitter, I state that my interest is “in putting the learning back into the students’ hands”.  For so long, students have been spoon fed exactly what they need to know for standardized tests and asked to memorize it, only to forget it a week later (I know because this is how I got A’s in high school a decade ago).

But now, we as mentor/teachers are asking much more of them and I believe that this can only be a good thing.  College is not spoon fed to them and life certainly is not spoon fed to them.  They need to know how to study and learn material and then apply that knowledge to new and different situations.

On Terie Englebrecht's (aka @mrsebiology) blog, "Crazy Teaching",  she writes

“Students need to learn that the only person that has power over their own learning is them, not us.  We teachers can influence it, guide it, tear it down, or build it up....but it is not ours.  Learning belongs to students.  As teachers, we need to find powerful ways of giving students power over their own learning.”

Very well said!! 

As I spoke to parents today, the common theme was that their student was struggling with HOW to master the material.  My response was that I will give them an array of resources to use and they must decipher for themselves which resources help them the most.  If they are exposed to concepts from all different angles, I believe they will better retain the material.  For example, they watch the video on enzymes, do an enzyme catalysis lab with me in class, and also read the sections on enzymes in their book.

I apologize for the long post today, but I wanted to end with the most interesting comment made by “Suzie’s” mom.  She said she was worried for my sake because parents might start complaining about me to the principal when their students’ grades drop from not doing the homework and coming to class prepared.  She supports my methods and agrees that students need to take control of their learning, but fears that other parents might not see things the same way.  I had never thought about this before – should I really be worried?  I sincerely hope not, but I will keep you posted.