Why I Flip

With the new school year around the corner, my district completed our staff inservice and meetings for 2013-2014. To my surprise, I was approached by several of my colleagues to explain why I chose to Flip my Math Class, and how it works. I was encouraged that they wanted to learn more, and even perhaps try some of the techniques in their class.  That led me to thinking about this blog post and sharing with all WHY I FLIP!

My flipped experience started as a means to meet ALL of my students at their level of academic readiness. I felt my drill and kill method of instruction just wasn't reaching enough of my students and I needed something different. Thus, you will see many different groups in my class, as well as much noise and discussion. I frequently assess where students are in their learning of the content, and require some to go through guided instruction and practice with me. Likewise, I can push excelling learners to try enrichment activities that require critical thinking and problem solving skills. As I noted to my colleagues, the greatest benefit of my flipped classroom has been the ability to push students where they didn't think they could go and differentiate my instruction for their learning.

As many educators do over summer, I found myself reflecting on how I could make the learning experience even greater in my classroom. What changes could I make that benefit all students and push them to want to excel even farther? In collaboration with my colleague at the 7th Grade level, whom is also flipping his classroom, we decided on the following practices that would enhance student learning in our class.

The first change we made is to include Google Write-Up problems for each chapter. In trying to help our students prepare for the Smarter Balanced Assessment, we knew we needed a format that would encourage students to construct a response and explanation to a given problem. By using a Google Form, students are going to be required to construct their response and submit for a grade.  Not only do we help them develop the skills necessary for the SBAC, but also teach them technology skills that we hadn't in the past.

The second change we made was to include a technology project for each chapter. They will vary by chapter, but be based around creating a review for the chapter material learned.  Students can using anything from Prezi, Piccollage, Evernote, Wordle, Tagxedo, and the list goes on.  We are trying to expose our students to a wide variety of Web 2.0 programs, all the while helping them review.

The third change we made centers around our districts use of the NWEA MAP testing series.  We base many of our school goals around student achievement and closing the gap on these tests, but have never really done anything to help students in these areas. We decided that as students have flex time, they should practice skills in their weakest area of MAP testing. Through various websites and our textbook resources, we will be able to provide students with countless opportunities to improve their testing scores.

The last change we made allows students to show us their practice problems in a variety of venues.  In our attempt to transition to a paperless classroom, we wanted to show students many different ways to complete practice problems and turn them in for credit. Students can use Educreations, Piccollage, Evernote, Google Docs, and more to show how they worked on their practice sets.

As the school year starts, we are very excited to provide many learning opportunities for our students.  We are eager to see what results occur because of our changes.  Likewise, we are always open for suggestions, ideas, and comments, so please feel free to share.  Best of luck to you on the start of your new school year.

"MISTAKES ARE PROOF THAT YOU ARE TRYING!"