Welcome Back!!

I will be posting our weekly work for each class on this site. Some of you get summaries from Google Classroom but those are after the fact. You can always log into your child's Google Classroom account to see what they see. These pages won't have all the documents for the students. Those will stay in their Google classroom pages.

What is a Flipped Classroom?

The Flipped classroom takes the traditional approach to teaching and assigning work and switches the location of each. Instructional videos from the teacher are created and assigned as homework. The traditional homework exercises are done in the classroom setting.

Why use the Flipped Classroom Approach?

I have used this approach for several years and have found many benefits to it.

• It streamlines instruction. With a variety of things that take place in a classroom what may take me 30 minutes in the classroom can be trimmed to a 10 minute video presentation.

• Students can view the video at their own pace. They can stop it and replay as needed. This gives them individual control. I have also had parents view them and were able to help their student without have to go back to a textbook and try to learn it all over again on their own.

• Homework is greatly reduced for students. Watching and taking notes on a video should take a lot less time than an assignment of 10-15 problems.

• This greatly increases my one-on-one interaction with my students. Instead of the class being consumed by whole group instruction I am moving around the room helping individual students. At times when there is a common problem students are having I can do a mini lesson for the whole group as well.

• This puts the students with the teacher when they are working on their independent practice. The traditional plan sends students home with homework where many times parents are not equipped to help(at least with some of the higher level math).

• In a climate with students joining us virtually, as well as the alway present concern that we could be sent back home for a time period, this method works well. Even if there was another shutdown of some kind we could continue as normal.

What are concerns with the flipped classroom?

No system is perfect for everyone but I have found the positives outweigh the negatives of the Flipped Classroom.

• Students that don't do homework and don't watch the videos are missing out on instruction and not just independent practice. I do require students to take notes on the videos. I check those in class the next day. If students have some technology problems home they can watch the video in class with earbuds but then they have less time to practice and do the applications we are doing in class.

• Some students miss the live instruction in class from a teacher. I do make my own videos so it is me doing the instruction. If I find an amazing video on a topic I may use it but I believe I am the one teaching your child so most content comes from me.

• Students need to be ready to get to work during the class period. Some students tend to come into a room and want the teacher to do the work for them. This is their time to get busy and work. There will be a variety of activities in the classroom. The goal is for them to do the work. There was a speaker I heard once that said it seems backwards that at the end of the day the teachers are more tired than the students. It is because we tend to do more of the work that the students should be doing.

• I will say, prepping videos, making them, editing them, and posting them takes a significant amount of time. It is actually much easier for me to just teach a lesson live but I chose this method because I feel it benefits my kids.

Good video for taking notes in math class or other classes.