Flipped Classroom – Flip 7
This is my seventh year implementing the Flipped Classroom model, and I don’t know why, but I feel more excited than usual about this new year.
Maybe it’s because I’ve moved to a new classroom. For the past several years, I’ve been in a hallway with my fellow IB teachers, but now I’ve moved back to the math hallway. I will definitely miss my IB colleagues, but I think it will be good for me to be around more people who can talk math with me. Also, it will be a chance for them to learn more about what we actually do in IB Math classes.
Maybe I’m excited because I just came back from presenting at my second conference this year. Earlier this year I presented on “The Flipped Classroom” and “The First Five Days” at the Common Ground conference in Ocean City, Maryland, and was well-received. Last week, I presented on the same topics, plus “Making Assessments Cheat-Proof,” at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teachers (CAMT) in Houston, Texas, and the response was amazing! The first session was three-quarters full and the other two were completely full! After the conference, I received multiple emails asking me to share my resources (which I gladly did).
Or maybe I’m excited because, while keeping all of my IB Math classes, I’ve gone from teaching Algebra 1 to teaching AP Calculus BC this year. It’s been a while since I’ve taught Calculus, but there are a lot of the same concepts in my IB Math courses. There are just a few lessons that I need to brush up on, and then I’ll be fine.
As far as flipping goes, I will still do that in my IB classes, because that continues to be successful. I think I will use this year to make my classes more asynchronous and mastery-based, but I know I will have to teach the students how to manage their independence. I still start the year keeping everybody on the same lesson on the same day, and then as the year progresses, assign firm deadlines but give more freedom as to how they get there.
I don’t feel comfortable flipping Calculus yet, especially since it’s my first year. But I will use this year to see which IB videos and activities I can directly transfer to the Calculus classes. Then next summer I can craft the necessary playlists for those classes.
Again, I don’t know why I’m excited. I think it’s because I get to work with more of those precious seniors than usual. Yes, I look forward to teaching them mathematics. But more importantly, I hope I can gradually build their sense of integrity and character, and give them a sense of assurance that life after high school will be okay.
Posted on July 30, 2018, in Flipped Classroom. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
blue shirt khaki pants 
I am excited to have found your blog! I will be teaching IB SL Math this year for the first time, and I am interested in setting up my classroom as a flipped, mastery based classroom. The IB program at my school is still growing, so the class size is still pretty small. Since it will be my first time teaching the course, I am not sure if I will completely flip the class, but I will incorporate the model for a few of the first units and evaluate from there if it makes sense to forge ahead this year or not. I also teach Algebra and Geometry, so I am working towards using the flipped, mastery model with all of the classes I teach. Are there any favorite tools you use or best words of advice you have for someone just embarking on this journey? I look forward to following your journey this year!
I’ve tried a few things along the way, but my favorites are: Keynote for presentations to run during the video, Camtasia for recording the video, YouTube for posting, Google Forms for a “check for understanding”, and Google Sites/iTunes U to compile everything online. Here is the website that my colleague and I have spent several years putting together: go.coppellisd.com/ibmath I’m happy to help in any way I can, so let me know what you need!
Thank you for sharing the website link. What an awesome resource for the IB students in your program! Do you give your mastery checks as traditional paper/pencil tests or have you successfully moved them to digital versions as well? When using Google Forms for checks for understanding, do you include problems that require students to show work? I know typing math in some Google Apps is not the friendliest/easiest.
I’m glad you like the website! To answer your question, mastery checks are Google Forms that they complete at home after watching the video. They are just to make sure they watched the video, so they are either true/false or multiple choice. You’re right – typing equations in Google Forms is next to impossible unless you include it as a picture, which may or may not be visible to them when they open the Google Form. That’s why I don’t make them work on actual problems until they show up to class the next day, when we can work on some examples together first, to see what they remember, and then I let them work independently.