"Flipping" the Math Classroom

[Eric Biederbeck]

I'm moving my blog post to a forum to allow for easier discussion

 

So a couple months ago, I was having a conversation on twitter with another teacher discussing homework and how I had kids not doing it, doing it all wrong, etc.  She suggested I watch a video link she sent me from youtube on "flipping the classroom."  Here's the video link- check it out The Flipped Classroom.

 

Anyhow, it just made so much sense to me.  So I decided to go ahead and "flip" my classroom.  I was just finishing up my unit on fractions, so it made sense to start with my unit on decimals.

 

In the past, I had started many classes with what I call a note book item.  This was essentially an explanation of how to do some math skill plus some practice problems on the skill that I would do.  Then I typically have students work on an activity (maybe something involving a number line for instance) or play a game to reinforce the skill.  Finally, I'd have kids take home a sheet of practice work that I had created.  Overall, I wasn't unhappy with this way of doing things but I always questioned how the practice work was going.  Sure it worked nicely for some kids but others never did it and would have to stay in for lunch or after school with me.  Others would come in and tell me they had no idea what they were doing or worse would do it all wrong and then I would have to "unteach" what the practice had taught them!

 

Now with my "flipping" of the classroom, I make a video of myself doing the note book item and have students go home and watch the video (and fill out the note book item while watching it- nothing more than copying down what I'm doing).Our district has a district Smart note book license and I have a Smart Board in my room so I use Smart note book and the Smart recorder. This works well for me as everything I need to make the video is in one place.   Here is an example Converting Repeating Decimals.   Then the next day when students come in, they do a version of what I used to send home as homework.  While they are doing these practice problems, I'll wander around and chat with kids, getting a sense of their understanding.  I can then do some more work with kids who didn't get it and those that did move on to the game or activity that I had planned for class. 

 

So far, its been working great.  The kids enjoy it as they can watch and listen to me in their own time.  This means they can rewind me if need be so that they can go over something that just didn't make sense.  I think many of them like this because unlike in class where they feel awkward asking questions, the rewinding and watching again doesn't make them stick out in front of their peers.  Many also like the fact that its a "video" for homework.  It just seems cool to them plus to many who are more visual than auditory learners it helps them retain the information.

 

All that being said, there are some problems that I'm having.  For one thing I still have a couple kids (4) who are still not doing any homework.  What do I do with the kids who don't watch the video?  I can keep them after but then what do they do in class that day?  This is something I'm struggling with.  Another thing I struggle with is how best to share the videos.  Our district has Google Apps and so I upload the videos and then share with the kids.  The problem is that I'm already at 15% of my file space and I'm not even done the decimal unit!  I don't want to delete them because I think the kids may want to access them later.  I can see possible benefits in putting them on youtube as kids could access them via their ipods, etc too.  Of course then kids have to take extra steps (other than just going to google docs) to get to the videos.

 

I'd love to generate some discussion on here.  What are people's thoughts on this?  What issues do people have?  Do people have ideas or thoughts about my potential problems?  Let's get a good talk going!

[Mary Henton]

Thanks for moving the discussion. Looks like we're keeping it going on your blog page! So....anyone interested in the conversation, please go to Eric's blog entry, "Flipping the Classroom: What I'm Doing."

[Ron]

You've got me curious Eric...I've read about flipping classes before, but thought it to be more of a high school & college practice.  I'm glad you are putting this out here for us middle school folks to think about.  I'd like to try flipping my algebra classes, but I think I'd be more challenged to do the same in my pre-algebra classes.   The biggest issue for me is student access to the internet...it would only take one student to make this an impossible adventure.  As far as the videos go, could you make them iTune accessible?  I don't know if that would make it easier than YouTube, but it would put it into an easy format for downloading to student handheld tech (smartphones, iPods, etc.).  Are you able to get an exception to your storage limit?  A few years ago I had students create teaching videos and was granted unfettered access to the school's server....that allowed me to store the videos on the server while creating the necessary links to share the videos.

 

As far as students that do not watch the videos...is it possible to have them watch them during advisory or before school?  Could you give them a homework buddy that would summarize the content of the videos at the beginning of each class?

A couple of nuts & bolts questions...how long are the videos you create?  Is there post-production on your part (of the videos)? Is this a five-day a week practice?

 

Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Ron

[Mary Henton]

Hi, Ron,

I can't answer for Eric, but I have a few answers from what little I'm learning about flipping the classroom:

• Videos tend to run around 10 minutes (plus or minus).
• Re: student access to internet. Wonder if you could burn clips to DVDs as a supplement.
• Some folks post "all over" - YouTube, Teacher Tube, on the school server. I don't know about iTunes. I would think that would be possible...

Also....Eric started this discussion in a blog entry here on MSP2. On this page is additional conversation and some links posted by Jonathan Bergmann, who, along with Aaron Sams, has been "flipping" in his classroom for several years.

Ron said:

You've got me curious Eric...I've read about flipping classes before, but thought it to be more of a high school & college practice.  I'm glad you are putting this out here for us middle school folks to think about.  I'd like to try flipping my algebra classes, but I think I'd be more challenged to do the same in my pre-algebra classes.   The biggest issue for me is student access to the internet...it would only take one student to make this an impossible adventure.  As far as the videos go, could you make them iTune accessible?  I don't know if that would make it easier than YouTube, but it would put it into an easy format for downloading to student handheld tech (smartphones, iPods, etc.).  Are you able to get an exception to your storage limit?  A few years ago I had students create teaching videos and was granted unfettered access to the school's server....that allowed me to store the videos on the server while creating the necessary links to share the videos.

 

As far as students that do not watch the videos...is it possible to have them watch them during advisory or before school?  Could you give them a homework buddy that would summarize the content of the videos at the beginning of each class?

A couple of nuts & bolts questions...how long are the videos you create?  Is there post-production on your part (of the videos)? Is this a five-day a week practice?

 

Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Ron

[Mary Henton]

One of the newest TED Talks is Salman Khan talking about how he began the video clips that have turned into "flipping the classroom." Talk is not only entertaining and enlightening (true of any TED talk, eh?), but also explains how implementation in a middle school classroom has affected teaching and learning.

[Kim Lightle]

Mary - I just listened to this TED video - really enjoyed it. I'm going to try this method with the next class I teach at least for parts that make sense. Thanks for sharing. Kim

Mary Henton said:

One of the newest TED Talks is Salman Khan talking about how he began the video clips that have turned into "flipping the classroom." Talk is not only entertaining and enlightening (true of any TED talk, eh?), but also explains how implementation in a middle school classroom has affected teaching and learning.

[Toni Wayne]

Thanks so much for your post, Eric. I shared it on my blog http://mrswaynesblog.wordpress.com/ and am hoping to get others to see the value. Unfortunately, in our county we are not able to have students take the iPods or laptops home, so we aren't truly Flipping the Classroom. We watch the videos in class to get caught up when a student misses a day, or simply needs to be reminded of how to complete a math concept. You have really inspired me with using the videos, and my students enjoy them too!

[Eric Biederbeck]

Hi Toni,

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm wondering if you could make DVD or CD-Rom copies of videos you made and then have the kids bring those home and watch them so you could be more truly "flipping".  I'm thinking of trying that next year for the few students I have who don't have computer or internet access at home.

 

I've put a bunch of my videos on this site if you (or others) want to check them out:

http://msmathwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/38504897/Twitter-Teacher-Instr...

[Toni Wayne]

That is a wonderful idea to put the videos on disk. I have also put some links to movies on our classroom website. Unfortunately, many of the students in our county live in homes without computer or internet availability. (We have nearly 60% free lunch at our school). They could take the disk to the library if needed, so that may help. Thanks for the suggestion, and for sharing your videos. I'll let you know when I post mine, too.

[Kim Lightle]

Hi Eric - I just came across this NING that is focused on "flipping" - http://vodcasting.ning.com/.

[Mary Henton]

Hi, Toni,

Just connected to your blog. Thanks. Discovered that you're doing work at RU! I lived in Radford for about 6 years and did some PD work with the Faculty Development office there. But, the reason for this post...would love to hear more about what you're doing with iPods and iPads. Also...the GAMeSlab at RU...

Toni Wayne said:

Thanks so much for your post, Eric. I shared it on my blog http://mrswaynesblog.wordpress.com/ and am hoping to get others to see the value. Unfortunately, in our county we are not able to have students take the iPods or laptops home, so we aren't truly Flipping the Classroom. We watch the videos in class to get caught up when a student misses a day, or simply needs to be reminded of how to complete a math concept. You have really inspired me with using the videos, and my students enjoy them too!

[Kim Lightle]

Just came across an article on Flipping the Classroom - http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/12/22/teachers-turn-learning-upside...

[Mary Henton]

My Diigo updates provided me with two sites related to flipping the classroom:

• FIZZ "lectures" through the Friday Institute for Education at NC State
• Flipped Classroom Network (a Ning site)

One of the things I like about Lodge McCammon's FIZZ lectures is that he offers practical information for anyone wondering how to handle the mechanics of video-taping and uploading files.