"The coach on the side, not the sage on the stage."
Flipped learning is like...
I first tried flipped learning 4 years ago with my year 4 class during maths for the second half of the year. After reading about it during the winter break, I thought it had a potential to develop student ownership and possibly a great way to save time (Ah- joke on me!). It sounded pretty straightforward: expose the students to direct teaching via a video then trouble shoot and develop mastery together. I developed a page with an embedded Google doc in our class blog for each maths group with their pre-workshop video (I used already available videos) and off we went.
I set it as homework and that was a disaster. None of my 8-year-olds students was remotely interested in watching maths videos at home the night before. Fair enough, so I made it part of their independent work rotation. I also made them buddy up and develop questions to bring to the workshop. After a few weeks, we all got the hang of it and most of the students became used to the new system. The system became so well honed I used to get the kids to pick what they wanted to learn about for the following week. I noticed how empowered they felt and the many opportunities flipped learning offered to help them improve their self-regulation and engagement in designing their learning.
At this time I encountered #Fail 1: My less confident maths students didn't like it. Back in those days, I didn't use the maths growth mindset learning I use now, nor did I make my own videos. On reflection, I should have created something more specific for them, scaffolded them more in the process when we started and created a more growth mindset environment so they could believe in their ability to persist through the challenge.
But I was working in a vacuum as I wasn't in contact with anyone else doing this who I could bounce ideas off and troubleshoot. I hadn't discovered Twitter yet (gasp). Yet it seemed to be working for our class and the growth in learning was more than evident so I kept going.
The following year I taught a year 4/5 BYOD class. I started using Explain Everything to create some of my videos, and I also began to use different tools outside of videos like articles for literacy, or more open maths problems. That year was when I saw how the use of tech could enrich flipped learning beyond just 'watching a video.' Still, no one else at my school seemed excited about this learning method which made me think that perhaps it was one of those educational flights of fancy that crash and burn soon enough. But I valued its ability to grow student ownership and the laser focus of the direct teaching. It made time count and gave even more value to questioning and discussions.
That year I also played around with offering concepts to explore as pre-workshop tasks that we could go deeper with later on. For example, I gave the challenge to make a polygon with plasticine and toothpicks (students had 2D pictures of polygons to go by). We then gathered and had discussions on area, perimeter and angles (where the angles accurate? why not? what would we expect to see if they were? how could we check? etc). They had a concrete example outside of the old paper net shape and hands-on fun as well. I have to say that just watching direct teaching videos are not always enough for me. I prefer students to learn through concrete experiences as much as possible.
By then I could see how flipped learning fit nicely into an inquiring classroom, where it's not just about finding the answer but finding a worthy problem first, and where students are expected to be question-askers not just problem solvers. I so enjoyed the extra time for discussion and inquiry instead of direct teaching. It also made me more succinct when I did use direct teaching.
Last year I went to a junior class for the first time as an experienced teacher, and since I was pretty new to that age group with a very low-tech class I didn't flip content regularly though I did foray into other ways to become the 'coach on the side.' (This link is an example of gamefying learning with juniors). I used flipped learning for staff PD and a language extension class so it was not a complete drought. I also found Twitter and, well, flipped learning heaven really.
This year we will have a 1:2 ratio of devices and I am itching to find ways to flip learning with younger ones. I'm co-teaching and although my partner in crime might not see it yet, she is a flip teaching natural.
I have to say that the exponential growth of the Flipped Learning community is so exciting, including having a local twitter chat @NZFlippedLearn . Encountering people like Joel Speranza, Dr Harves and Jon Bergmann and the Flipped Learning Global Initiative is beyond inspiring. More ideas, yes, please.
I found this slide show by an incredible flipped learning teacher. Honestly, PE teachers just have a way of innovating that makes me, well, kinda envious I don't work with any nearby so I can 'borrow' all their cool ideas. Yay for Twitter.
I did find getting the students used to it was half the battle. Flipped learning is more than the videos it's the personalisation of learning while still allowing collaboration in the classroom focusing on incorporating knowledge and applying it. I remember when I was the crazy teacher at school with the wacky ideas. Great to see your development as an educator looking forward to growing together as part of a involved gruoo of educators and sharing ideas. Well done.
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