Summer break has only been here for two weeks and I've been thinking non-stop about what I want to do in my classroom next year! One of the things that I have heard of other educators doing is "flipping" their classrooms.
Flipping a classroom is when the teacher presents a lesson for the students to watch in video form outside of class time (this would be their "homework" each night) and then spends class time working with the students on the information covered in the video lesson. Some teachers are using videos from Khan Academy, Teacher Tube, and You Tube, while some people are creating their own videos. Watching a video of the lesson would allow the students to watch, rewatch, or fast forward in the privacy of their own home. They could work through the lesson at their own pace and even search for similar videos online if they wanted a different point of view on the topic.
I am going to provide the students in my 8th grade and high school algebra classes with choices of projects to complete based around the topic we are covering in class. This way, they could work on practice problems related to the video lessons during class time (by themselves, with other students, or with me) and when they finish, they can work on their on-going project.
One of the main things that holds me back on this idea is the fact that not everyone has equal access to technology to watch the lessons in the evenings. I have come up with a few solutions, but they're not going to work with every student because of timing issues. The students could come into my room and watch the lessons before school starts (assuming their bus arrives early enough), they could stay after school (assuming they can find a ride home from our very rural school), or they could watch the video during their homeroom - 17 minute study hall- (assuming they don't have any meetings to attend and they get a pass before hand to be able to leave their class room).
Has anyone tried flipping their classroom? Do you have success stories and/or lessons learned that you would like to share? Does anyone have ideas to promote equity in a rural, low-income, farming community? Any and all feedback would be appreciated!
