What is a flipped classroom?
A flipped classroom is simply that - flipped. Students come to school, participate in a lesson and go home and do homework. Simply put, a flipped classroom, students complete the lessons at home, and come and do their homework at school. Students view lectures and complete lessons on their own digitally and then come in and spend their class time practicing skills, getting support from the teacher. Research is pouring in about it but the outlook for a well-done flipped classroom is highly promising. Teachers spend their time working with students, addressing needs, and less time talking, teaching, and lecturing. Students more time practicing, asking questions, discussing, and less time being lectured at.
A well done flipped classroom is not easy and takes a long time to set up. The best thing to do for a teacher looking to start out is take it one subject or area at a time. Think about a subject that you could easily facilitate digitally. Begin compiling resources and we'll take it from there!
As I'm currently in an elementary classroom - some of this may refer to elementary students but is directly applicable to any grade level or type of student you'll be working with.
Getting Buy-In and Getting Started
Getting a buy-in from your school may be tricky for several reasons:
1. It's new - change is scary!
2. Stuff costs money - technology is expensive stuff that needs maintained.
3. It seems counter-intuitive. How can I evaluate your teaching if I don't see you "teaching"??
4. Kids can't teach themselves! Teachers are gonna be replaced by robots! RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
All of these concerns are understandable and poorly stated. Research for flipped classroom shows students have tremendous success. There's tons of grants and resources out there for schools and teachers to get their hands on technology. You don't need a case of Macbooks or 10,000 iPads (though it'd be really nice). Encourage your principal to look into inexpensive, quality technology such as Chromebooks from Google or iPad Minis from Apple. Many districts already have technology available and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) programs that are already in place and good to go.
Once your school is on-board, host a meeting at the start of the year for the parents of your students and show them what FC is and how it works. Explain that it's a very exciting and new way to get kids engaged in their education. Have a flipped lesson for PARENTS that serves as an orientation on how to work the technology and participate in a flipped classroom. This way, parents can support their students appropriately and provide you with feedback throughout the school year. For parents who object directly to the whole notion, that's the kind of thing you want to work with an administrator or PTA organization on. Parents may object for specific reasons (but it is hard to argue with success and results and a classroom that kids love to be a part of).
Platform
Choosing your platform is EVERYTHING. Your digital platform is like your classroom in the building. It needs to suit your needs, be user friendly for your kids, user friendly for YOU, be accessible anytime, and allow you to streamline everything as much as possible, while keeping with your school's privacy and internet use policies all at once. Chances are your school uses a platform already so check to see what theirs is and get some solid training on how it works. Here's a few for you to check out that are pretty widely used.
(Richard Byrne gives a good run-down of digital platforms on his blog, Free Tech 4 Teachers)
The biggest ones are Moodle and Blackboard currently, and can be adapted to meet school privacy and security needs. My current district uses Blackboard (abbreviated Bb) and it's a solid base to start from. I've used Moodle in the past and that is similar to Bb but has a more user friendly layout. My current grad school uses Blackboard Collaborate and it's probably the best platform I've used as an entirely synchronous online class (students attend a digital lecture hosted by a real teacher). It's best captured and formatted the real classroom environment and collaboration in a digital format that's easier.
My personal choices? You know it...
Google Classroom is Google's version of Blackboard and Moodle. It's free to any teacher or school with a Google Apps for Education account (having just a regular Google account won't cut it). The students LOVE it, it's user friendly, has an incredible interface, and it's methods for sending, grading, editing, and receiving assignments is streamlined to the point where things that used to require intense computer skills and immense time are done instantly with a simple click. For courses where feedback on assignments is crucial and needs to be streamlined - Google Classroom is the way to go for anyone who is a first time user of a digital learning platform. It's simple and there's little that it can't do to meet your needs.
Google Sites is one that I recommend for the experienced Googler and web editor. I throw it out there as an option to create a fully customized and incredible Flipped Classroom page. But again, even though it's simple as a web-editor, I recommend it for an experienced Google Sites builder or someone with specific needs that the others can't meet who also has time to learn it.
Don't pick the first one that promises to make all your wildest dreams come true. Research, practice, try demos, ask other teachers who use the platforms. View it as a teacher AND a student. If it is easy for you and a nightmare for them, it's no use to you. You can't explain to a kid how to use it if you can't use it yourself, or know what their version of it looks like, so do your homework (pun intended).
Getting Students Online
I don't need to tell you the dangers of the internet that are out there. You buy one book on Amazon and before you know it, someone is using your credit card to rent scuba gear in Tahiti, and you're mad mainly because they're the ones in Tahiti. The dangers for kids are even greater. The internet is the way of our world now, so teaching them how to use it and engage it responsibly is key to the start of any flipped classroom. Just like you'd set ground rules and expectations in your classroom, your flipped classroom is no exception. Digital Citizenship is a great way to get started. Common Sense Media has some great Digital Citizenship lessons.
Create a contract for using the flipped classroom appropriately. Addressing things such as appropriate comments and teaching how to give appropriate feedback is crucial for kids. Providing appropriate feedback is a helpful life skill, not just a flipped classroom and is bound to be a good skill for them to have. It's also a time to address cyber bullying and how anything you put on the internet stays there forever (I just found my MySpace page from 2005, didn't know they were still around? Miss you, Tom.) Develop a contract of specific rules and guidelines, as well as consequences for inappropriate use. My students know I have full and complete access to their assignments, comments, posts, and everything they do is logged and includes their name and time they wrote it.
Lesson Planning and Creation
Something that doesn't dawn on you until you start is that a flipped classroom requires double the preparation. You need to create a digital lecture and resources for students to use online and a lesson that they'll participate in with you at school. Now that lesson is going to much different from the traditional lesson, but still a lesson that needs planned nonetheless. Start compiling what you have and find an easy place to store it all digitally. Google Drive, Evernote or Dropbox is great for this, as having access to it digitally can make life and finding files easier for you. If you use Google Classroom, it'll automatically save things you use with your students and their assignments to your Google Drive. So find a program or digital storage method that functions well with your classroom platform.
If you're looking to store resources, activities, worksheets, and fun things you find online or have in paper form, www.livebinders.com is a free resource that suits that need very well (and provides some satisfaction to members of the stubborn binder generation). It includes everything but broken rings that tear your papers and fingers.
If you're looking to store resources, activities, worksheets, and fun things you find online or have in paper form, www.livebinders.com is a free resource that suits that need very well (and provides some satisfaction to members of the stubborn binder generation). It includes everything but broken rings that tear your papers and fingers.
Create a lesson plan template and include some new areas in it. A Flipped Classroom isn't just simply "Whatever I was gonna say in class, I put on a PowerPoint and slap that bad boy online and have the kids watch it". Kids have to be able to not read, access, and UNDERSTAND your information. Kids need digital differentiation, just like they do in the classroom. So here's what that means:
Provide different forms of lectures:
- PowerPoint
- Videos of you modeling problem solving strategies and skills
- Prezi's
- Digital Handouts
- Web Quests
- YouTube Videos (www.safeshare.tv eliminates YouTube ads and TeacherTube.com are safer YouTube alternatives)
- Discovery Education
- Learn 360
- Google App (Docs, Drawings, Sheets)
- Google Forms as Quiz
- HapYak.com for Video Quizzes
- eduCanon.com
- Send students home with hands-on materials that go with a digital lesson
- Reading and reflecting on eBooks with sites such as MyOn Books.
Don't think you need to reinvent the wheel. There's tons of video lessons, lectures, and content already made out there, just waiting to be utilized.
Provide different forms of assessment:
Students don't just watch a lecture and write a paper. Instead, they can...
- Create a video of themselves solving problems
- Create a PowToon explaining content learned
- Create a PowerPoint of content
- Create a Prezi
- Create a digital drawing
- Create a comic online that illustrates understanding
- Write a Google Doc reflection
- Complete a Google Form quiz
- Students play a game that reinforces a concept. (Check out Mr. Nussbaum's games and admit that we're simply not worthy.)
- Google Chrome Webstore apps and games that teach new ideas and concepts.
Varying lesson assessments shows students how to use these digital tools and then you can really get students to branch out in their creativity in various assignments. Create lessons on how to use different tools and MODEL a lesson using some of these tools. Taking a simple video of you talking and putting the same information into a PowToon is such a simple thing that takes your students' engagement to a whole new level. The list goes on from here, but there are endless possibilities.
Always check with your school or county technology folks before using new programs, apps, websites, and games with students just to make sure these various things are approved and you're permitted to use them (gotta keep them lawyers happy!)
Pro-tip: Keep your flipped lessons to 10-15 minutes MAX. Don't jam them full of content. Identify one key skill to focus on and allow students time to master it before moving on. Sitting through a 3 hour digital lecture at home on a computer is just as ineffective as it is sitting through it in real life. Keep it quick, sweet, engaging, and to the point.
Sample Flipped Classroom Lesson Template
This lesson template helps you see the duality that you need to plan an effective Flipped Classroom. You're getting double the time with your students, so you need to utilize that time effectively. Spending your classroom time troubleshooting is not time well spent.
Apps and Resources
There are tons of apps and resources out there. Picking the one that suits your needs may just take a little bit of time, research, investigation, and if you're like me, getting sucked into highly addicting educational games and forgetting what you were doing in the first place (the best part).
Naturally the Apple Appstore is always a first stop for quality apps and educational resources.
Google Chrome Webstore is a good place to start for free apps and resources to enhance your flipped classroom. Some other things you want to consider investing either your time or money in to help you out:
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| DailyGenius.com |
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| OnlineUniversities.Com |
- eBooks (which are now EVERYWHERE).
- Digital Textbooks - publishers are now making digital textbooks that are cheaper, easier to navigate for kids, and can easily include accommodations to meet the needs of exceptional learners.
- Google Chrome Extensions - essentially mini-apps that are integrated into a browser. Tons of extensions that provide support for students in terms of browsing the internet and making online resources more accessible.
- To your left and right are some awesome Pins on building up your app library for Mobile Learning and building your Google Toolkit
Now if you're thinking about organizational apps - look into some of Google's more productivity-based apps. Google Calendar allows for you to share a class calendar with students and they can easily be embedded into a classroom website.
If you want to go ALL OUT digital, there's a few digital organizers and resources out there that are definitely worth a gander in terms of other flipped classroom logistics.
Lesson planning:
Assessments:
quizlet.com (flash cards app)
Students benefit from video-game style assessments. Many levels and points of access, varying degrees of difficulty, and students of many ability levels can be SUCCESSFUL!
Classroom Management
Naturally, all of these things are great. But if your kids can't use them independently and successfully in order to learn, it's not going to get you very far. Develop some routines for your students in terms of how your flipped classroom will operate. Just like kids need to be taught appropriate routines and behaviors for classroom performance, flipped classrooms are the same way.
Things to teach your students when it comes to flipped classroom success from Day 1:
- Care and maintenance of technology equipment
- Proper storage, retrieval, and use of technology equipment
- When, where and how students can use tech equipment
- Troubleshooting technology problems
- How to ask and get answers to questions about an assignment
- Appropriate and inappropriate comments and interactions
- What to do when they encounter something that may be inappropriate
- Getting support on assignments (parents helping vs. parents doing it for me)
As part of your Flipped Classroom sites, create a page devoted to these things alone. Students who are having trouble with this may need to complete an additional assignment as a reinforcing of classroom policies, or forfeit their privileges of using the tech equipment.
Implement student feedback on their participation and use of the Flipped Classroom model as part of their grades, not just academic grades. Students earn points for participation, effective and appropriate use, and following procedures and expectations for equipment (and whatever else you feel is important in your classroom). Something like www.classdojo.com might be useful for implementing a positive behavior program for kids that is digital.
Tips and Tricks
1. Number your assignments. Give assignments a code that is included in the file name and on the actual assignment itself to make them easier to find.
2. Teach students a file naming protocol for when they save or submit assignments. Or else you're going to get twelve files that all have "MaThBeLiEbEr2014A+++", or worse, ten thousand assignments all saved as "assignment". Here's a simple protocol that'll keep your drive clean and your brain happy.
Assignment Number, Assignment Name - Last Name, First Name
#03: Introduction to Google Classroom - Smith, John
3. Save your resources and lessons by subject and unit. It'll make them easier to find from year to year. Occasionally back up your files to a hard drive or a cloud. A crashed teacher laptop could mean a year's worth of flipped classroom materials gone, as well as your happiness.
4. Teach kids how to maintain and care for the equipment. Don't spend your time organizing computers, cleaning keyboards, and doing things that kids can learn and manage on their own. Teaching them how to do these things on their own is a helpful skill when they need to organize, clean and maintain their own equipment in later years.
5. Include fun and creative opportunities for kids to showcase their own digital skills. Creating projects where students get to showcase their creativity and technological skills.
FAQ's
Where do I start?
This is naturally a huge undertaking. Start small - an assignment, a project, a part of your instruction, and then go to a full subject before you're ready to create a fully flipped classroom. There's tons of books out there on how to create an effective flipped classroom. Start by talking with your administrators, school technology specialists, and the immense resources online.
What about kids who do not have computer/internet access at home?
This is challenge to the flipped classroom model. There's a few avenues to go here so that students can get the full flipped classroom experience.
- Make the first part of your subject period time for completing the digital lesson to be ready for the class. Implement a time for students do this during the school day so students can use school technology.
- Check into creating a technology check-out program so students can take home a laptop or tablet to use.
What if I only have a few classroom computers or tablets?
One-to-one digital devices is definitely a luxury that is growing but certainly not everywhere. Develop some routines and include computers in one of your station to structure time and use.
What about students with exceptionalities and students who are English language learners?
Your flipped classroom instruction is differentiated just like your regular classroom instruction is. Make your lectures accessible to all students. There are hundreds of apps and extensions that can be applied for free to accommodate students with disabilities (screen readers, magnifiers). Digital lessons can be reviewed, repeated, and completed at a student's own pace. Create lessons that include visuals, vocabulary development, audio, and visual resources.
Have fun and flip that classroom!
Check out other posts on digital resources for ideas and assistance.
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