My school has two sections of 5th grade, and I have the pleasure of teaching math to both sections. Since this is my first attempt at a flipped classroom, I would like to gather some data to show to parents who may be skeptical of the idea. Therefore, for our first unit of study I plan on using the flipped model for my class and the traditional model for the other 5th grade class.
Friday marked my first attempt with my students. My first section of math I used all my best teaching skills while giving direct instruction. Side note: I want this experiment to be a fair measurement of what works, so I absolutely will not compromise those students chances for success by giving poor direct instruction just so my flipped class will have a better showing. The lesson went quite smoothly & the kids picked up on the content pretty well. I'll be checking their homework on Monday to see if they were able to apply what they learned.
With my second section of math I showed the video I had posted on our classroom edmodo site. We watched the video together (which, by the way, is very uncomfortable to do when you are sitting there listening to yourself). I showed them how I expected them to take notes in their journal, etc. Then I assigned the next lesson's video as homework over the weekend.
I am a pretty organized and efficient person, but I had yet to video tape the 2nd lesson (due to a number of technology issues that arose), but I told the students not to worry, it would be posted by 5:00 Friday evening. By 5:00, when I posted the video, I had over 5 students already on our edmodo site waiting for me to post the video. I realize that this is something totally new, and that the excitement might wear off soon, but it was quite encouraging to me. What was even more encouraging was that a few students posted a question about the video, and other students answered it...not me! How awesome is that!
I look forward to Monday & seeing how many students were able to complete the homework, and how many didn't. There are a few potential issues that I can already see coming up...What happens if the student doesn't have internet access? What happens if a student doesn't watch the video? Will parents support this? These are all valid issues that I hope to address with this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment