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I had all these great plans back in August about implementing aspects of the Flipped Classroom with my grade 12 (enriched) biology students. Yeah - and reality hit. I did a few things - but not as effectively as I wished. I've got enough experience to know that this shouldn't discourage me or stop me, but I do have some questions...and would appreciate any help you can provide. -1- Is it essential to have a webpage/website (as the teacher) to run this from? If not essential, is it something that makes the whole process work better? -2- Is a wiki (such as with pbworks) with various permissions, just as effective a place to keep the resources? -3- How often should "flipping" occur when first starting? one lesson/unit? 10%? 50%? -4- To ensure that students complete the preparatory work for the class (e.g. the lecture and resources prior to the class) do people find it necessary to a) give quizzes at the beginning of the class? b) verify preparation in other ways? c) just go with the flow -i- and if you do this, how do you deal with the students who don't really "get" what's happening because they're not prepared? I'm planning this again for my grade 12 Bio class - and want to use it to incorporate more lab activities and case studies in the actual class. Thanks!

I have heard of teacher flipping classrooms, and it sounds like a great idea. I would also be interested in more information on the "how to" and "troubleshooting" potential problems. Such as, how do you insure that students are getting the home work completed, so that they are prepared for class? And how do you move forward if they haven't prepared?

Hi Meg and Sue,
We have a couple of discussion threads going on flipping classrooms that you might find useful to go through. They are packed with some excellent websites and information about flipping. One is 'Flipping- then what?'
The other is 'The Flipped Classroom'.
I think you will find some great resources in both threads. Enjoy!
Carolyn

Knewton, offers this background on flipped classrooms http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/ You can also find them on facebook http://www.facebook.com/Knewton Here is a piece about the use of vodcasting in the flipped classroom

Hi again, Meg,
In response to your third question: 'How often should 'flipping' occur when first starting? one lesson/unit? 10%? 50%?'
I think this might help you.
In the flipping..then what? link I provided earlier,access to Mrs. Matthews' fifth grade classroom is provided. You can see how she adds lessons as she goes along. So you could start with one...then add and revise as you get more experience and expertise. Previewing how she has her flipped classroom set up might be very helpful.
Carolyn

Siemens has some information on flipping your classroom. I recently attended a free webinar through them. You might want to check their page out for more information.
Seimens STEM Page...

Last year I flipped my pre-AP physics class, mainly by posting powerpoints and requiring reading and notetaking from the text as homework. I asked students to create their own Cornell notes or outlines as they watched the powerpoints, read the text, and worked the sample problems. When students arrived to class after such an assignment, I would give a 5 to 10 item quiz that would have knowledge based questions and problems that were virtually identical to the sample problems. I found that this was critical in holding the students accountable for doing the work before they came to class. Since we did the problems and labs together in small groups, there was a lot of collaboration and peer tutoring going on, with an emphasis on the process of problem solving. The emphasis was not on getting the "right" answer because I almost never graded for the "right" answer - I usually gave them the answers so they could check themselves. I'm not saying it was easy, especially since the students had to really learn how to take careful notes and there was a lot of complaining that I wasn't "teaching" the class because they were so used to the sage on the stage approach instead of the small group or individual coaching I was doing. However, if you can survive the initial shock of the students and get parents and admins on board, it is the absolutely the most valuable experience you can give you students.

I am thinking about starting slowly, first off I would put supplemental stuff on the web site that could help those having difficulty but I would still let my in class be able to stand alone for awhile, meaning that if students were unable to get to website, they would still be able to pass class with some studying. After students got used to the web assist then I would start flipping more.

Here are lots of resources for your Flipped Classroom - Khan Academy is but one of many sites to utilize! http://flippedoutlearning.weebly.com/

Hi Meg,
What an interesting discussion! You asked about wikis; you could build your lessons on a wiki pretty easily (I like wikispaces). Have you thought about using Quizlet or some other application to assign quizzes students can take for self-assessment?

I found this site which includes some basics of how to flip your classroom (how to do the tech piece). YOu might find Tech Smith helpful.

There is a great discussion group at The Vodcasting Ning You can posts questions there and get help from other teachers who are flipping.

Marci I have been watching clips from both the Khan Academy and BightStorm and am finding errors in both. Be sure to careful vet any that you choose to use. On a more philosophical side, direct explicit instruction in problem solving strategies is insufficient for developing critical thinking or moving from concrete to formal operational thinking (the same think - whichever language you choose). You might be interested in reading this critique http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/tag/khan-academy/ Pam

Hi Meg, I partially flipped my AP Environmental Science classroom this school year. The students complained about the lack of "teaching", similar to what Elizabeth (above) mentioned, during the first semester. We used Edmodo as our main learning management system (LMS), but I am considering migrating to the CourseSites (by Blackboard) page in the next school year. I really enjoyed the fact that the students were participating in class during the day, rather than passively taking notes, sleeping through lectures, and getting by with just reading the textbook. However, we are ALL learning this process together. I am definitely not perfect in the technique, and it looks very different to the passerby eye. I look forward to flipping my math classes next year as well, and I think that this prepares our students for college much more than the basic lecture and homework traditional set up.

I have been working towards using more PBIL units in my classes, so "flipping" my classroom would be a great way to get the students some of the content knowledge they need as background to do the project work. My ongoing concern is that not enough of my students have access to the internet at home to be able to do this. I may need to schedule in some time still during the week where while some students are working through material on the computers in our lab I meet with others to assess project status. Is anyone else doing this type of approach? *I'll read back through the posts and see if I missed anything too! :-)

Cris, We also face the same problems- we have no computer lab and about 50% of our students have no access to the Internet. I would love any suggstions

We do not, and I doubt will ever have monies for technology. I live in Indiana where education has taken an extremely hard hit due to a recently past governor who has absolutely no respect for education. I have applied for grants and been blessed with small ones fo get Vernier probes and a large screen projector :-) I will definitely check outt he website you suggested! Thank you!

Arlene, http://learningcenter.nsta.org/search.aspx?action=browse&tex...=3&author= is a great resource! I also found some NSF grants that might also be a possibility :-) Shannon

I attended several of the San Antonio sessions on Flipped Classrooms. They were busting out the door. To date most of the work in flipped classrooms seems to have happened in K-12. I was delighted to find this article on the use of flipped classrooms at Michigan State University http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/flipping-the-way-college-students-learn/

I also went to some of those sessions! I was lucky to get there early enough for just one and actually got a seat. One of the presenters suggessted the use of resource teachers as an ally in the flipped classroom. She suggested that these teachers are often not comfortable helping students with science. If the videos, powerpoints, etc. were available to them, it might make both of our jobs a bit easier.

Ed Net is holding a webinar on flipped classroom Mnday April 29th lipped Learning occurs when direct instruction is moved from the group learning space to the individual learning space. But what happens once you’ve flipped your class-- then what? In our community’s next webinar, Flipped Learning Network’s Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams will show you how to implement a flipped-mastery classroom that marries modern technology with inquiry- or problem-based learning to make a sustainable, reproducible, and manageable environment for student-centered learning. Discover how to have your students take ownership of their own learning with the transfer of foundational knowledge outside of class time. Find out how to personalize each class and increase time spent with each student. Jonathan and Aaron will show you how to use flipped-master learning so you can provide appropriately-paced, differentiated instruction for every student. Join them on April 29th for this second webinar in our three-part Flipped Learning Primer series to learn more about how to reach all of your students in every class every day with Flipped Learning. http://www.instantpresenter.com/AccountManager/RegEv.aspx?PIID=EB57D780844B You may also want to join the flipped classroom community here http://www.edweb.net/flipped

I've attended the first two EdWeb Flipped Learning Primer webinars with Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams and they were excellent. I would recommend them to anyone considering going this route. I am planning a flipped-mastery learning format for my physics classes next year that will be coupled with in-class problem-solving and project-based learning. My interest in flipping is that it will free up precious class time for active learning activities and allows me to work with individual students while moving direct instruction to the individual space (either at home or at school).

This link is to a New Jersey School Boards Association article written by a fifth grade math teacher, but it lays out very clearly how the teacher implemented the flipped concept and what changes he observed after devoting the time to creating online mini-lessons for his students to watch before class: Flipped Article.

If you have SMART Notebook installed on your computer, you have a simple yet effective tool for creating your own instructional videos. Posting them on YouTube is quick and easy for all students--you may even find students from around the world watching your videos!