FLIP YOUR CLASSROOM, FLIP YOUR CULTURE

Flip your classroom, flip your culture

6/4/2020

Before we talk about how to to create a flipped classroom, let's start with why. Dream with me for a moment - what would you do if one of your classes or subject areas was extended by 15 minutes every day?

Spend 15 more minutes conferring with students and working with small groups?
Finally do all the cool, beneficial practices from books and journals?
Just not fall behind and feel rushed all the time?

Now, think with me for a moment - what would make the biggest improvement to the culture in your classroom?

Having more time to confer with students and do small group intervention?
Finally doing all the cool, beneficial practices from books and journals?
Not having class feel rushed and behind all the time?

I can't help but notice that, for me, lack of time and a lackluster classroom culture seem to go hand in hand. When time is too short - and it always is - individual and small group work time, next-level teaching practices, and a comfortable pace pay the price in my own teaching practice. Second only to establishing strong relationships, use of time is the next biggest factor in how a class "feels." As I'm sure you do, I want my class to feel comfortable and productive not just for students, but for me as well.

So the question then becomes, how do we make more time?

"Why can't we just slow down, get more help, and do more cool stuff!?!?"

In 2016-2017, not only was I unhappy with my classroom culture myself, but I was getting the usual frustrating scrutiny from my administrators who, as administrators tend to think, thought everything should be able to be done in a matter of minutes.

I had a bad culture. I had great relationships with students, and it wasn't enough. I provided great instruction, and it wasn't enough. Our class was frantic, rushed, and uncomfortable.

I needed more time and I needed a better culture, and the two went hand in hand.

Flipped instruction isn't a new idea, but I'm hoping that flipping instruction for the sake of a better classroom culture is. I'm not necessarily promoting a flipped classroom because it teaches better, I'm suggesting it because it feels better to be a part of one. In my bad-culture classroom of 2016-2017, flipping seemed like a possible solution to my problem.

It worked. The simple act of recording part of my lessons every day transformed my bad-culture, always-cutting-the-important-stuff classroom into this:

That's my why. The "why" of flipping instruction is much more important than the "how." So knowing my "why," I want to ask you two questions again to help you formulate yours. Consider them carefully!

What would you do with 15 more minutes of time in your subject or class each day?
What would make the single biggest improvement to your classroom culture?

How I Flip - Instructional part

I flip math instruction, and I stick to the tried-and-true Gradual Release lesson format in math. If you're not familiar with it, here's how it works:

I love this lesson format not only for its simplicity and effectiveness, but also because it works great for a flipped classroom. Since the first three steps are mostly teacher-centered to begin with, when I flip a gradual release lesson it looks like this:

How I Flip - Technology Part

Recording a lesson is surprisingly low-tech. Though this isn't the only way to do it, I always create what are called screencasts, which basically means that my recordings are recordings of what happens on my computer screen along with my voice. I'm not filming myself, I'm recording my computer screen and my voice. I use https://screencast-o-matic.com/, which is a very simple (and free!) way to create this with just the click of a start button.

Depending on what I need to show, there are two possible ways I create a screencast. Most commonly, if the students need to see what I would draw on a whiteboard, I use the software that comes with my interactive board (in my case, Promethean, though any would suffice). I pull up the whiteboard software, type out the examples, and then talk through them. They come out looking like a Khan Academy video, except it is my voice and a gradual release organized lesson. Here's an example:

If you don't have an interactive board (or don't like using it), fear not! Sometimes I also create flipped videos just using paper and a recording of my hand writing on it! I also do this when I use manipulatives. I personally do this with with a document camera, then having https://screencast-o-matic.com/ record what my document camera sees. However, this could also be done simply by just setting up a cell phone to record what you write and do. Those type of videos come out looking like this:

How I Flip - The "What IF?" Part

In 2017, when I decided to try the flipped math class, I almost backed out at the last minute. I felt like it would help with my time and culture problems, but I was afraid of the "what if" questions, and I nearly gave up before I started.

When I share about the benefits of flipping, people want to jump right to the "what if" questions. I get it. I hope that if you're still reading this far into it, you're convinced that the benefits of flipping are worth it. The why is more important than the how, and the how is more important than the "what ifs," but the "what ifs" still matter. I'll answer the most common ones for you now.

What if the kids don't do it?

In my class, if your flip wasn't completed at home, you either:

complete it during morning work
complete it at lunch
complete it instead of the activating activity right when you get to class

Starting at the beginning of class is the last resort, but still not really a big deal. The kids start the workshop portion of class late, but really they just end up getting the amount of time they would have if NOT for flipping!

After two incomplete flip homeworks, I call home and reinforce the importance to parents. That usually fixes the problem. I do treat individual cases differently. Sometimes kids forget. Sometimes they get busy. If some days they have to do it at school, so be it. The point of flipping is more time, not accountability. For chronic cases, consequences may have to be involved.

If students haven't completed the flipped part of their lesson by the start of class, they do it on a class device instead of the activating activity. They'll start the workshop part of class later than the others, but that's really about it.

What if the kids don't really pay attention to it?

The real answer to this question is "what happens if the kids don't really pay attention to your live-taught lesson?" The situation isn't really different. What I do personally is, when I collect the "you do alone" example from the lesson for every student, I re-teach the lesson to any student who didn’t master the concept to start workshop time. Whatever the reason - inattention, over their head, or any other - for students who don't get it, I re-teach. The other kids get started on their workshop activities. That's what I did before flipping, too, so there was no change in practice when I started the new practice.

What if you have a substitute?

This is one of the great benefits of flipping! If I'm not at school, math class carries on completely normally. Since lessons are recorded anyways, they still get done on days I'm not at school, and I leave the "you do together" and "you do alone" for the substitute. Now, I never lose time when I'm not in class (at least in math). The kids do everything - including the new lesson - that they would have done if I were there.

"Having a sub didn't get me out of ANYTHING!"

What if it all goes terribly wrong and all my kids fail and I lose my job!?

It won't, they won't, and you won't. Been there, thought that. I almost bailed on it for the same reason. From a teaching standpoint, it isn't really all that different. Good teaching is good teaching. Some kids will get it, some won't each day. Some kids will do their homework, some won't each day. Some kids will pay attention, some won't each day. Nothing is really going to be any worse than what you're doing now.

How do you train the kids to do it right?

This is a biggie.

Week 1 - I teach all the math lessons as normal, pointing out very carefully what is happening at every stage of the lesson format and setting expectations ("during 'I do,' put your pencil down and just listen and concentrate...)
Week 2 - I play recorded lesson on my projector in the classroom instead of teaching live. I still pause frequently and set expectations
Week 3 - we go to the computer lab and the kids do flipped lessons where I can watch and continue reinforcing expectations
Week 4 - We go live! This is the first week the kids do these at home
Week 8 - Some kids start to slack off and I have to reinforce everything with students and parents.

Setting up the flipping procedure is time intensive for the first month of school. The kids have to know your expectation at every step of the gradual release. I take the first three weeks of school to set and reinforce those expectations

What do the kids and parents think of it?

Parents love it. It is homework that doesn't cause fights, plus involved parents can learn the Common Core math methods alongside their student when needed. I expected a lot of pushback from parents when I launched this in 2017, and assumed I'd be accused of not "really" teaching. I haven't had a single complaint. After two years with some kids, I have parents literally tell me that it is like losing a member of the family when they don't hear my voice while they're making dinner every night.

For kids, the reaction is mixed. For some, it is just homework and homework always sucks. Many, on the other hand, love the chance to learn on their own time and on a device. One student even told me that recording my math lessons was "the smartest thing he'd ever had a teacher do." They can pause, rewind, and change the volume during instruction - all big upgrades from live lessons.

Did it improve your test scores?

Yes, my test scores have improved since doing this. Flipping made me plan out my lessons VERY carefully, and allowed me time for the big-thinking type of activities I never used to have time for. Whether it was just the flipping or all the things flipping allows, I have definitely seen an improvement in students' performance.

How much time does it take?

The first year I flipped, I spent about an hour a day setting up, recording, and posting videos for two different math classes. In the two years since, I have spent only a small amount of time re-doing videos I don't like or making new ones to fill in some holes.

Why don't you just use Khan Academy videos?

I love Khan Academy, and that's even where I got the inspiration to flip. My lessons look just like theirs on the screen. There are two big differences why I don't use theirs, however:

They don't follow the gradual release format, or really any other instructional format. They're great information, but not carefully enough crafted lessons for me.
I want it to be my voice. I want the kids and parents to know that it is ME who is teaching, and that I didn't just find something on the internet and mail it in. I think it makes them take it more seriously.

"The guy on these recordings is so much better than our real teacher, don't you think?"

What if... something else?

I always tell teachers that when something goes wrong, you'll know what to do. Things go wrong at school every hour of every day, and we figure out what to do! Don't let the "what ifs" hold you back. If I sold you on the why, you'll figure out the how.

Happy flipping!

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