Flipped

In case you didn't guess, that's me in my future classroom!

In this drawing I am teaching my students 3 digit addition, notice my snazzy pointer.

This scene plays out in countless classrooms worldwide on a daily basis.    Traditional teaching: teacher lectures/demonstrates a skill, students do a couple of problems and then practice the skill through homework.  The problem with this method?  Al gets home and doesn't remember what Mrs Smith said about three digit addition. Al gets confused and increasingly frustrated.  Maybe his parents help fill in the gaps.  Maybe he gets his homework done.  Maybe he doesn't.  When class starts the next day Al is already behind.

Flipping the classroom goes something like this: students listen to the lecture at home (whether a pod cast, screen cast, or an outside source like Khan Academy) then during the actual classroom time students work on the application, 3 digit addition for example.  The flip gives the students the opportunity to pause, skip, or repeat the lecture as many times as needed.  The flip also gives the teacher time to work with students during the application process.

The field of Education is always looking for the next panacea to: raise student test scores, drive student achievement, and revolutionize teaching standards.  Honestly, education has more bandwagons to jump from than a traveling Wild west show!

As a parent there are endless nights of trying to figure out what a teacher wants/needs for a homework assignment.  NEWS FLASH----- 3rd graders don't remember lectures on 3 digit addition very well.  To complicate matters math vocabulary changes.  You guessed it, I learned borrowing, my child learned unpacking.  Borrowing and unpacking accomplish the same goal but the process is different.  The flip, in this case, would have helped me help my child.

Enough gushing about the flip.  Just like anything and everything in education, the flip, is a boon for some and thorn for others.  We teachers (preservice and practicing) like to think that all students access technology, all students have a competent caring adult at home, all students are motivated,------- all students.  All students deserve first rate teaching.  A first rate teacher finds what works for his/her students.  Maybe that's the flip, maybe tradition, maybe a hybrid, and maybe something completely different.

Personally,  my teaching philosophy calls for much hands on application time in the classroom.  I don't believe in homework, beyond a reading log, in primary grades.  Will I institute the flip?  If it fits the needs of my students.