As part of my stress detox, I’ve begun dabbling a little more in #ds106 creative work. I did this right as the GIFfest started on the ds106 hub, so I decided to jump in.

So behold, my very first animated GIF:

This is a repost of an article I wrote for Brett Clark’s 12 Days of Dreaming series.

f you have kids, know people with kids, or work with kids, you know that they will face some painful days as they grow. First comes teething, which I’ve heard is a nightmare. Then, the awkward pubic years when bones are stretching faster than the brain’s balance centers can keep up. Years pass, our joints begin to ache when the weather changes, and we can’t heal up from injuries as fast or as completely as we used to.

The business of growing is difficult.

But, through all the pain, we learn a valuable lesson: pain and growth have to come together to be meaningful.

I don’t know many cyclists that learned to ride a bike the first time their parent let go of the seat. A scraped knee from falling off of a bike helps us learn that balancing is much easier when we’re moving forward. As we move through the pain of growth, we come to expect better things when it’s over.

Schools are a prime example of pain and growth. Students, you have stories about working through very difficult classes. Teachers, what about the student that tested you every day of class? Administrators, you can tell us about the first year teachers that have come through your building.

Pain is an indicator of growth.

Education is in a painful place right now. Schools and governments are polarized against one another over education. We are being blamed for many social problems, and there isn’t much trust in the state or federal leadership. Teachers are fearful for their jobs and the role testing will (or won’t) play in how we are evaluated.

Within the frustrations and the stress, though, we have an opportunity to implement better schools.

It is our responsibility to model growth to our students. Brainstorm with your colleagues on how to implement changes. Work with student advisory groups to solve problems. Encourage someone more frequently than you complain about a particular circumstance.

The attitude shift begins with recognizing that if there is no pain, there is no growth..

Don’t be soured by painful situations. Recognize the opportunity for growth and focus on the goal rather than the immediate. There is no silver bullet for any single problem. But, we can turn a lot of silver BB’s into a comprehensive solution.

Let us know in the comments what growing pains you’re having and what you’ve learned as you’ve worked through them.

Today, I came to the realization that I’m approaching burnout, and that I need to do something to stay healthy for the break and the second semester.

I’ve also learned this year that I need a creative outlet to stay healthy, which is problem numero uno. I haven’t taken time to truly be creative since the summer. So, I’m turning my needs around to help push the creativity of my students. (I don’t think this is unethical, but if you do, please let me know in the comments).

I have a split elective class: one half is working on web design, and the other is working on photo editing. Both groups are doing a similar assignment, pulled from the Digital Storytelling: 106 archives. The web design side is hijacking the HTML of a website to tell a different story. The photo editing kids will be redesigning an existing website’s logo using GIMP. I will be doing both projects along with the kids so we can continue to learn together.

The final deadline is January 12, but I’ll begin posting finished assignments as they begin to roll in from the students. I’m hoping that as I dive into working with students, I’ll begin to feel a little more relaxed and less burnt out. If you have other ideas on how to beat burnout, I’d love to hear them in the comments.

Featured image photo credit: Skley via photopin cc

My wife showed me this video the other night. If you haven’t seen it, consider taking thirty seconds to watch it. I’ll wait.

At the time, I was entertained. The ending really surprised me, and the video itself was engaging. But, as soon as it was over, I wasn’t thinking about buying a refrigerator or dishwasher any more than I had been before the clip.

How often are our classrooms like this? For me, I’m constantly asking myself whether or not a particular tool or activity is a gimmick (edutainment, if you will) or if it really has substance. There’s a very fine line between the two, and I’ve definitely been duped in the past.

To determine if its going to make a long-lasting impact, I have to be able to connect it to the unit-at-large. How will the tool or activity come full circle from the initial hook? I think Dan Meyer does this better than anyone I know with his Three Act Math website. He begins with a short video or image that prompts a question from the students. Teachers then work to scaffold through the questions to help students build meaning. I’m amazed at not only how thorough his work is, but also that he shares it for free. (For proof that these aren’t gimmicks, check out Dan’s post from December 12.)

In science, I need to make the move to labs before instruction. Terie Englebrecht wrote a short post earlier this week about how she’s moved to labs before instruction. Students move through the unit having been exposed to the “real” part of the content. I stink at this, and as I work on bring labs to the front of the cycle, I need to really make sure to build a program that feeds back on itself.

If you have ideas or suggestions on how to accomplish this, I’d love to hear about them.

` <http://www.flickr.com/photos/13524378@N03/2397881577>`__I’m going to take a hiatus from Twitter.

I love sharing learning with my network. Lately, Twitter has become somewhat of a frustration for me. Being involved is great, but I think it also narrows my vision and I begin to focus on fitting a particular mold or norm based on what my network is doing at the time rather than trusting my own decision making and direction.

In all honesty, some of this has to do with a lot of the discussion surrounding Flipped Learning. With so many ideas, arguments, and questions flying around, I feel like I need to take some time and personally reassess what I do daily in my room. I need a working definition, and to do that, I need time to myself.

I will still be writing email and possibly a blog post, so you can still get in touch with me. But as for Twitter, we’ll talk later.

Photo credit: mfilej on FlickrCC

I want to preface this post by saying that in my perfect world, we wouldn’t grade at all. But currently, that isn’t my reality. I will continue to do the best I can with the rules and requirements placed on me.

We have progress reports coming up this week and as I was sitting and staring at my spreadsheet, I began to think about grading again. Let’s get deep.

One thing I love about my teaching is that I’m committed to Standards Based Grading as part of my Flipped Learning implementation. It communicates ideas and progress much more clearly than traditional grading practices do.

Essentially, there are two kinds of students in my class: those with an A and those with an F. Now, without getting too political about grades, I want to say that I really like the way my book plays out. Here’s why.

First, I don’t have to rationalize all of those middle areas. SBG eliminates point-grubbing because you’re marked on your ability to demonstrate your understanding in any way you choose. It is a binary system (for me, at least)…you know it, or you don’t. Therefore, any student who can demonstrate their understanding of a concept automatically is marked with a 100%.

Second, as the teacher, I do not feel like I have the right to assign a letter that describes a student’s learning other than a simple yes or no. I want my students to be able to explain the nuances of their learning, not hear it from me. This happens with reflection and discussion as we go through the problem-solving and application process in class.

Third, it simplifies my life. I’d rather not focus on grades at all. When I’m constantly hunting for points for students (“Why did I get an 18 instead of a 19?”), I cannot focus on supporting their learning. The student is also not focusing on learning. Grading with a binary system helps keep the conversation on skills and demonstration, not completion for points.

Finally, the conversation about grades changes with parents. We don’t discuss which assignments their child can turn in to improve their grade. We can focus on what learning strategies might work best for their son or daughter. School becomes a place where teachers are supporting learning rather than just somewhere to go and work for the day.

How do your grades communicate learning to parents? I’d love to hear more examples in the comments.

I don’t mean the “point” of learning in why we need to learn. I mean the actual cognitive place we must find in order to learn.

This year has been the hardest year of school I’ve ever had. I fight battles every single day with students over the simple act of thinking. I have had some begin to see the value, but 90% are still pushing back on nearly everything we do. If you were to come to my room, I think the most common phrases you would hear are “Bro…” and “I don’t know.”

Will Chamberlain had some thoughts a few weeks ago about the “I don’t know” response. It is resignation. It is a student openly stating that they are not going to put in the effort to think about a question or problem. And it is totally acceptable in our schools. Rather than abolishing “I don’t know,” teachers and schools traditionally respond by giving the answer.

I think the point of learning is when students feel challenged and supported at the same time. This balance comes from every teacher, administrator, and student in the building working toward the same goal. The point of learning is the hardest part of school because it is in an educational “sweet spot” where everything is working together the way it is meant to.

When you’re trying to reach that point, these are a few things to consider:

1. Does your space communicate the physical aspect of learning? Is your space open, flexible, and inviting? Or is it static, “cookie cutter,” and bland? If we can adapt our space (I know we all have limitations) to accentuate learning rather than compliance, you’ll begin moving in the right direction.
2. Do you meet the needs of your students? As teachers, we have an eye for what our students are proficient and deficient in…we use formative assessments to judge progress and make changes if necessary. What we can’t do, though, is read our student’s minds. Ask them questions. Have them reflect on their learning. Make learning a discussion rather than an announcement.
3. Do you work alone, or are you connected? The most important piece of working in a school is being connected with your peers. Find someone to work with as much as possible. Eat lunch together, plan together, form goals together. The accountability and the support will help you do your job better. At the same time, consider forming a digital PLN through Twitter, Ning networks, or even your professional organization (NSTA, NMCT, etc). No two points look the same. What is yours like? Feel free to share how you overcome some of the hurdles in the comments.

photo credit: ogimogi via photopin cc

Schools and children are dictated by the bell schedule. Classes are 57 minutes, except for math and English, which are 87 minutes, because they’re tested at the end of the year. You have three minutes to get to your next class, where you then wash, rinse and repeat.

Unless we can break the cycles that drive our schools and really model the real world, we cannot have meaningful reform. Ask any professional. Their days do not come in neat chunks of time. Our students are not taught these skills and that hinders many as they head into a world that expects some basic life management out of them.

“21st Century Learning” is becoming synonymous with “[tech tool] in Kids Hands,” which is way off the mark. Yes, they need to be trained on technology, but we can’t stop there.

To me, a true 21st Century School would have flexible schedules, much like college. Teachers would have blocks of time for class and blocks of time for office hours. Students would be free to come and go as they needed, scheduling extra appointments on their own. Attendance would be tracked, and they would need to meet a minimum number of class hours each day or week.

In Indiana, we’re required to have six hours of learning a day. Learning, though, is often limited to classes. Any teacher worth their salt knows learning is much bigger than that. A true 21st Century School will have internship opportunities in place where students can focus on what they want to do, or take a range of opportunities to help narrow their ideas down. We cannot measure learning by seat time alone because usually, the greatest learning happens when we’re not in a seat.

We’ve lost sight of the value of flexibility. We can’t be flexible with schedules because student’s aren’t responsible enough to take them seriously. But, we can’t teach flexibility because there isn’t time in the mandated schedule. It’s a horrible Catch-22 that is holding American schools from making serious improvements. I say its time we begin to let go a little bit and really put our words into action.

photo credit: ASurroca via photopin cc

This Halloween, I did a demonstration in chemistry that’s usually called “*`Genie in a Bottle <http://youtu.be/u7nrQ6dNsXM>`__*.” This year, I decided to tell a short parable along with the demo. I’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments.

This may be the longest stretch I’ve gone without writing anything on the blog. My last post was on September 26th, and for various reasons, I haven’t been able to add any new content. Now, because I know there are throngs of people waiting with bated breath to see what happens next, this is more of a digest of the past month in an effort to clear my head of the many things that have been floating around.

Homes – My wife and I are trying to buy a house. If you’ve gone through the mortgage process, then I’m guessing I don’t need to say much more. In between trying to explain why I don’t have a credit history and talking about interest rates, I barely have enough brain power to think about what it actually means to buy a house.

Flipped Learning – I have officially joined the board of the Flipped Learning Network, the not-for-profit organization that organizes and manages different events surrounding flipped learning. I’m enjoying it a lot, but it is a big addition to my already busy schedule at school. On that note, however, I’m beginning a bigger social media presence for the FLN. Follow us on Twitter for periodic updates and announcements surrounding flipped learning.

School – For whatever reason, this school year has seemed more busy that every other year, including my first year. Perhaps it is everything else I’m involved in, but I’m working harder in school than I ever have in the past. I’m still trying to use a simple standards-based grading system with my students, and we’re continuing to work together to iron out problems. I’m also in the midst of transitioning my web design class to a computer applications class in which students can choose different foci or tracks to pursue. Rather than focusing on web design, they’ll be able to work on photography or photo editing, video and film, music composition, or web design. I’ve been curating content and I’m nearly ready to begin organizing into a syllabus and path for them to follow.

Hopefully I’ll get back to writing again someday. Thanks for continuing to read and interact with me on Twitter. You’re all a fantastic help, and my learning wouldn’t be nearly as rich without you.

Every day, I carry a small black journal around to jot down thoughts, changes, and quick reminders to myself. It’s something kids find intriguing for some reason, possibly because I let them read it if they want to. They’re surprised to see how often I think about school and how much I write down about the things they’re working on.

What I haven’t done, though, is carry long-term thoughts around with me from year to year. I have day to day observations and reflections, but those are very quick snapshots of isolated instances, classes, and students. I head into new school years with the past year fresh in my mind. Students working well in a self-paced environment, collaboration is normal, and they are cooperative learners. At the end of the year. I need to start a book of reminders to check at the beginning of each year. I’m going to title it:

I had a really rough start to the week. I really began to notice the “self-pace = no pace” mindset taking hold in some of my students. It was taking some students 20 minutes or more to even get their materials out, despite constant reminders and checks. I really wanted to switch gears and go back to teaching with worksheets, grades, and no choice. It would have ended my headache, at least for the day, but I would have been compromising my philosophy of teaching and learning.

George Phillip is a middle school flipped history teacher in the area and he invited me out to dinner last night to talk flipped learning.

We talked open an honestly about what struggles we were having. How do we motivate students? How do we really manage the transfer of responsibility back to the kids? How do we keep them accountable for their tasks and for the learning itself?

We agreed on three things, which led me to these three questions for learning:

1. What tasks have you completed recently? – Learning takes a variety of activities and practice opportunities, especially when the learning is abstract, like chemistry. I don’t require that my students do worksheet A or B, but I do expect them to complete something to practice the skill or concept. This is very low-level accountability for the kids.
2. What have you learned recently? – Reflection is critical to learning. I wrote earlier about using Google Forms to reflect, and I’m going to keep those, but I think I need to go deeper. This question links back to my performance objectives (or standards) for each chapter. Students need to be able to articulate their learning in this portion. We’re moving into higher order reflection with this question.
3. What are you planning on doing next? – If I don’t have a plan for the day, it’s not going to go well. I want my students to think the same way about their learning. What does this particular objective lead into? How are you going to practice it? When do you need to finish? These are all questions that I used to dictate, but they’re also questions that we need to ask students if we want them thinking critically all the time. After George and I had been talking for an hour and a half or so, a complete stranger walked up to us and said,

Excuse me, I’m not trying to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help but overhear what you were talking about. I just want to tell you that I really appreciate how seriously you take teaching. We need to have more dedicated teachers in schools and I wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you put in.

If you’re in a similar place today or this week, I hope you can take encouragement from this. We’re doing important work, and we can’t afford to forget what’s at stake.

Ramsey Musallam has great ideas about using Google Forms to assess a student’s understanding of a video after they watched it. I immediately began using his forms as a model to assess whether or not my students grasped the concept. It worked great, and I got a lot of valuable data in the process.

Last year, I did the same thing, but with a slightly different twist: I asked students to rate their comfort with a particular concept on a 1-4 scale. Then, they had to explain why they felt that way and what they could show me to prove their level of understanding. I did this for a couple reasons. One, I could target students that felt uncomfortable or shaky without calling them out in the front of class. Two, it totally changed the grading discussion in class.

Rather than assigning grades, I began discussing grades with my students. They would come with their assessment, and then I would have a very specific discussion with them about why they felt the way they did. More often than not, if they were able to explain their reasoning, show some evidence, and give a plan for improvement or extension, their assessment went right into the grade book. They didn’t feel like I was being unfair, and they knew the expectations for meaningful assessment would be their own.

First, I created a simple Google form. If you’re doing this for the first time, be sure to include a space for their last name and class hour for sorting purposes. I forgot class hour once, and it was a bear to work through.

Second, keep your ranking system on an even (2,4,6 etc) scale. In odd scales, kids tend to rank themselves in the middle. Sometimes this is because they don’t want to grade themselves too high or too hard. I don’t feel like I got 100% honest assessments that way. An even scale forces them to choose on the higher or lower end.

Third, the form doesn’t do everything. You need to be sure to talk with your students as often as you can…at least three times a week. Otherwise, they’ll begin taking advantage of the system because they figure you won’t be checking too often. It’ll save yourself some trouble.

Fourth, encourage them to set improvement plans and then reassess for a higher grade when they feel ready. It’s up to you if you want to wait for a quiz or other check, but I encourage them to reevaluate their learning frequently.

This year, I’m going to try and include the blogging process more. I might add a box for them to paste a longer, weekly reflection of their learning on their blogs.

The most important thing is to promote reflection in learning at every stage. Kids are trained from year one in school that learning happens in discrete little chunks that begin with something fun and end with a test. We need to work hard to change that mindset, and one way to do that is through promoting a regular self-evaluation like this one. It isn’t perfect, but it has worked well for me in the past and I’m hoping that you can take something away from this as well.

If you have another way to check student learning through reflection, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

I’ve been thinking a lot about tools and space lately. What digital tools work well in my class? What analog tools are necessary for chemistry? What teaching tools work the best to communicate concepts to my kids? All of these questions led to: “What tools are essential for learning?”

Ira Socol and I have had some interesting discussions in the past regarding technology. I remember one of our first discussions was over what “technology” is. I focused on the digital alone. Ira came with the belief that everything we use, tables and chairs, pens, notebooks, are all a form of technology. Truth be told, I left that discussion feeling frustrated and a little irked that he focused so much on the “boring” stuff of schools. To me, the difference between a pen and pencil as tools made zero difference.

As I teach longer, I continually add tools to my arsenal. I’ll learn or develop new functions of spaces in the room. I’ll re-purpose my walls or my spare pencil box. We’ll use blogs rather than writing on paper. Or, other days, we’ll pull some paper out and write with pencils. The line between digital tools and analog tools is blurring every day. Which ones are essential? Which ones simply make the learning process more streamlined?

I have some thoughts:

1. No single tool is essential – I can teach with or without a whiteboard. I can make adjustments on the fly if need be. No internet? No problem…let’s sit in groups and discuss why water is neutral. The day we begin to rely on a single tool in teaching is the day we close our minds to improvement.
2. The space is more critical than the tools – I’m not saying all of our classrooms need to look like Will Chamberlain’s. (On a side note, you should really check his class out. It’s awesome.) But, our spaces need to encourage learning. Varied seating arrangements are a big plus. If your desks can move, then move them around. Don’t let them get stuck to the floor from immobility. Encourage kids, even high schoolers, to fill the walls with art and their own work. Give them room to fail with dignity and learn with support.
3. Supportive environments are more critical than space – While the space is important, I definitely recognize that some spaces are not flexible at all. Instead, build an environment that celebrates breakthroughs in learning. Emotional and physical safety are extremely important, but I think we forget about cognitive safety. So many kids are afraid to take guesses because they’ve been trained to be right. all. the. time. It’s unrealistic and any teacher worth their salt knows that. Foster a cognitively safe environment so students can see the value in being wrong once in a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely have some favorite tools that really make teaching easier and more fun. Changing class up with digital and/or analog integration is a responsibility, not a gimmick. Don’t get too bogged down, though, by relying too much on your bag of supplies.

I’d love to hear about what you use in your teaching in the comments.

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photo credit: Double–M via photo pin cc

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Monday, September 10th is the 25th weekly #flipclass chat. After beginning back in March, we have had a great team of moderators form and had increased participation on a weekly basis.

One thing we discovered this summer was that live discussions using Goole+ Hangouts On-Air were a great way to bring in experts in flipping from all over the world to discuss best practice and give tips on how flipping works for them. Stories are one of the best tools for learning, and we want to continue to embrace your stories.

For this broadcast, we’re going to highlight classroom norms that work well for us. The beginning of the school year is a time where we get to know kids and learn about our class cultures, but it is also a time to build good habits and set community expectations. When you change the way you think about teaching and learning, that process can become very difficult. We’re hoping to give a broad view of teachers who want to share what norms work for them. At the same time, we’re all looking to learn some new tools from others.

While we can’t all spend time together in the hangout, the audience will have an active role in the discussion. After brief introductions, I will serve as the voice of Twitter to the panel to encourage some Q&A and continued discussion.

photo credit: kino-eye via photo pin cc

School is getting started again for just about everyone and as flipped learning becomes more and more popular, we’re all looking to make connections to continue our growth.

The first way is to join in on our #flipclass chat Monday nights at 8PM EDT. We have a wonderful team of moderators (many who are included below) that help host the chat each week. Topics are chosen by a poll that is tweeted out Sunday nights and Monday mornings. We’ve gone strong since beginning in March this year, and we’re looking forward to expanding as a new school year begins.

If you’re looking for content-specific folks, this is a list of some amazing flipped educators I’ve created just off the top of my head. If there is someone I missed, please add them in the comments.

English

Cheryl Morris and Andrew Thomasson are a dynamic duo who co-teach their English classes. With Cheryl in the Bay Area and Andrew across the country in North Carolina, they use Google+ Hangouts to create content and flip their classes from 2,500 miles away. You can read about their story or take a look at their materials on their collaborative website or YouTube.

Troy Cockrum is a middle school ELA teacher in Indianapolis. You may recognize his voice from the Flipped Learning Podcast that’s a part of the EdReach network. Check out his blog and YouTube channel for a look at his videos.

Math

Stacey Roshan is a high school math teacher in Potomac, Maryland. Her flipped class focuses on reducing student anxiety through flexible testing and student created content.. Stacey’s content is on her class website and on Screencast.com.

Graham Johnson is a secondary math teacher in Kelowna, British Columbia. He and a colleague hosted the first-ever flipped learning conference in Canada in June 2012. Graham writes on his blog about flipped learning and also shares his content on his class website.

Crystal Kirch teaches freshman algebra and math analysis in California. She developed a Watch-Summary-Question (WSQ, pronounced “whisk”) cycle with her videos that has taken off in flipped learning circles. She writes very frequently on her blog and posts her content to YouTube or on her dedicated Algebra I and Math Analysis class websites.

Science

Marc Seigel teaches chemistry at a public school in New Jersey. He was an early adopter of flipped learning tools and presented at the 2012 Flipped Learning Conference in Chicago, IL. Marc focuses on inquiry and PBL strategies to get his students to engage with chemistry. He writes about his successes and failures in teaching on his blog.

Carolyn Durley is a colleague of Graham’s, teaching biology in Kelowna, British Columbia. She co-hosted the 2012 Canadian Flipped Learning Conference and is a first-hand account of how teaching practice can change after many years in the field. Carolyn’s energy and writing are infectious as she engages with people in discussions about flipped learning.

Social Studies

Karl Lindgren-Streicher teaches world history in the San Francisco bay area. He has grabbed the inquiry learning approach used by many science classes and applied it to the history classroom. Karl shares his methods on his blog if you’re interested in learning with him.

Primary Grades

Delia Bush is an elementary teacher living just outside Grand Rapids, MI. She learned about flipped learning in 2011 and it has taken off with her students. Delia encourages digital tools with her students and is constantly sharing their learning on Twitter and through her blog. You can see examples of her video content on her YouTube Channel.

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This list is by no means comprehensive. Feel free to add names in the comments. Also, if you enjoy reading this blog, please take a minute to subscribe to email updates in the right-hand sidebar.

Where I am to Where I’m Going

By the time you read this post, I will have already began my school year, crossing my fingers, and praying that what I put into motion will pay off in dividends down the road. This year is a lot of firsts for me. This year I will be pressing play on class, 6th Grade Science Applications, 1st year for 1:1 MacBooks, and I am dipping my toes into the flipped model. I caught the bug in a training on Macs when conversing with the trainer we had from Colorado (Aaron Sams’ and Bergmann’s home state). He teaches physics through this model using 1:1 iPads and I was intrigued by his enthusiasm, the tech applications, and by my own skepticism. I read further and went all in on the flipped method.

Moving from Smath

I worked in a co-taught science and math integrated class (6th grade SMATH). Most of class students would work in center rotations with a 20 minute small group lesson within each class period. One teacher would facilitate while the other would teach small groups for the day. It was a great constructivist model where students were lead through inquiry-based activities to construct their own understandings. There were some holes, however. Since these were going in a rotation basis, the direct instruction would be disjointed from the centers from which they experimented and worked with the content. They may have hit a center on density on day 2 of the rotation, but not receive direct instruction from the teacher on the content until day 10. Second was that students were assessed through observation or quizzes at the end of the unit. Students would receive small checks in the lessons, but students were not as accountable in center work. These led to some content missing its full potential and left students that weren’t able to transfer learning to practice in a bind. With now only myself at the helm, I wanted to keep what was good, but eliminate these known gaps in the model.

Flipping to Meet Knowledge and Application

What I have learned in my many nights of researching the model through blogs, PLN’s Twitter feeds, and other PD outlets this summer is that flipped model teaching is as diverse as it is direct. Though in its simplicity flipping claims to “implement instruction in class and practice at school,“ how many ways do teachers deliver content at school? There’s the acronyms of PBL, IBL, the 5 E’s, LFS strategies, as well the myriad of other philosophies that we use to impact our student. This leads me to believe that even though the majority of flipped learning PD is on how to screencast, this does not have to be the case. It is in this that I have implemented my pedagogy on the model. Here are some thoughts on how I plan to implement the flipped learning model (not mastery yet…) in the classroom.

1. Align Content, Pedagogy, and Technology – Do not be a slave to the video, because its not about the video. In fact, your instruction doesn’t even need to be as a video. Make the content the driver of what tool to use. You may just need the students to research a concept, or follow a powerpoint, or read two conflicting viewpoints to contrast. I plan to use videos where prudent, and where it suits the content best.
2. Class time for Lab time – Students will gain instruction at home, and use that knowledge to dig deeper into the content at school. I already have several projects and labs in the works for the beginning of the school year.
3. Symbiotic instruction with meaningful assessment – To close the disjoint of instruction that SMATH presented, I plan to have many small assessments that will guide my instruction. Students will take notes and summarize their learning after the video using google forms and ask questions for the homework. I can use this to clear misconceptions in class, provide clarity if needed, and use the questions to guide further investigation.

I think if I keep these thoughts in the front of my mind while in the thick of things, I can create a flipped classroom that’s me, that’s meaningful, and produces lasting results. Any thoughts, questions, and comments on my plan are greatly appreciated. If you are looking to see my progress in the class, I will be posting updates, thoughts, and other tid-bits often on my blog, What Swords SED.

Mitchell Swords

6th Grade Science

If you had walked into our rooms the first week of school, you would have seen chaos. Complete and utter chaos. Students lining up to take their picture on our laptops for a class directory. Students wandering around campus, taking pictures that define the way they view school. Students watching a video on their smartphone while writing responses in a Google Form. Students gathering around the extra classroom computer, entering their questions for Blank White Page. Students doing their chemistry homework, because they had finished a week’s worth of English in two days…but their chemistry homework was due next period.

You would have seen thirty separate learners, on thirty separate trajectories, but all pointing towards one learning goal.

Yes, our flipped classroom is chaotic. And yet it is a concerted chaos – one that is managed and structured and organiszed without any of those things taking precedence over the learning. Even though students are working on different tasks, they aren’t working in isolation. They form small groups, un-managed and independent, share resources, trade devices, and answer each other’s questions.

You could be forgiven for mistaking our classroom for independent study. And though the flipped classroom model we use allows for independent learning, there is a larger force at work, holding all the individuals together, unifying them, forging between them something that is stronger and more enduring than our classroom walls, or even the learning that happens within them.

And that force is the alchemy that neither of us, nor our students, truly understand: when a group of learners enter into a flipped classroom together, the individuals are transformed into a community in which the learning is self-paced, managed by the premise that you can work ahead, but you cannot get behind.

This alchemy can’t be achieved through independent study or group work. It must be created, intentionally, through a process of modelling collaboration and learning, and creating the environment where those two things can flourish. It must be created by teachers who are open to showing their own mess, making mistakes openly, and working in collaborative relationships to clean up the mess and find better ways through failure.

Being the “sage on the stage” isn’t going to do it. Neither can taking ideas from the other amazing teachers who have flipped their classes. There is no shortcut, no magic bullet, no I-Do, We-Do, You-Do that will turn a class based on group work into a class based on collaboration.

It is only after we experience for ourselves the transformation that is possible through collaboration that we can help foster that kind of collaborative relationship between our students. The kind of collaboration that changes both partners; one that gives you both a way out from under the isolation by which too many teachers (and teenagers for that matter) are crushed.

It is within that kind of collaborative partnership that alchemy can happen. And that alchemy cannot help but change our practice, and through that, the experience of our students. And while it happens around and through us, we can’t manage it, we can’t manufacture it, and we can’t maintain it.

The way we experience alchemy in our flipped classrooms, the one that takes disparate individuals and forges them into one community, is through collaboration – with each other, with our students, and by helping our students collaborate with one another.

But the essential question is: How do we get there? What has the transformational power to move individuals into community, into collaboration, and into friendship?

And the answer is not what we expected. We thought that by working together, dividing the load, being nice to each other, etc. we were collaborating.

Until we realised that collaboration lies not in what we do, but rather in who we are.

Three months ago, we were two individual teachers, trying our best to manage our careers and make up for our failings. We met by chance – both of us tagged on a tweet about making flipped English videos. So initially, we approached this partnership as group work. Each person would contribute half the ideas, do half the work, and take half the credit.

But we realised quickly that each of us doing half didn’t add up to enough. We were trying to turn relationship into a transaction, where we traded our own individual roles and responsibilities for what the other person had. We were approaching this like the group work we had assigned our students for years.

And it wasn’t good enough.

It had to radically change. We had to radically change.

We had to invest time and energy not only in the work, but also the friendship, because the work may have started the friendship, but the friendship is far more valuable.

We had to stop seeing ideas and products as coming from two people, and instead see them as a natural outpouring of our collaboration, and belonging to both of us and neither of us.

We had to stop trying to coerce the other person to walk down the path we were on, and navigate a new one, together.

We had to experience alchemy.

That we, as two separate individuals used to teaching in isolation, developed into a collaborative partnership that fundamentally changed who we are as teachers, but also as human beings.

That we would come to see that collaboration is not what we do, but who we are. That we can do this alone, but it’s never as good as what happens when we work together.

That we had to be transformed, and through our transformation, our classroom was also transformed.

For those reasons, after knowing each other for about five weeks, we decided to team-teach. Even though we both are at new schools. Even though we live 2,500 miles apart. Even though neither of us knows how to do this.

And like any alchemy, if you tried to break it down into a step-by-step process, you would lose the essence of what makes it work.

You would lose the alchemy that comes from two people, sharing the mess of their lives and careers, and helping each other build a collaborative community around the mindset and pillars of the flipped class. We don’t know how the alchemy was created, but we know that it’s worth fighting for. It stops the isolation from winning.

And perhaps what is more transformational about this alchemy is how it shows our students that who we are is more important than what we do. That what we learn is more important than the grade we receive. That collaboration will change the way we teach and the way we learn.

Now, can you be a good teacher without being collaborative? Sure.

But you cannot become a great flipped class teacher without collaboration. Collaboration is essential for flipped class teachers, because there is no way to do this alone.

The entire premise of the flipped classroom was built on the collaboration between two innovative teachers working together to figure out a better way to reach their students.

It took two people, working together, taking a risk on something untested, something that probably seemed crazy to everyone else.

At the core of the collaborative whirlwind is two friends, teaching, learning, collaborating.

And now, we are caught up in that same whirlwind. It’s exciting. It’s terrifying. It involves trusting that collaboration can be simple, but it’s not easy.

It takes commitment, it takes friendship, and it takes experiencing, but not accepting, failure.

It takes creating four versions of a blog post or a video to get the one we feel communicates what we wanted it to communicate.

It takes being willing to throw out the to-do list to attend to the needs of the other person, because the friendship is more important than the work, and in fact, friendship and collaboration must be inextricably linked.

It takes risking failure, but risking it together. Understanding that while there is magic in alchemy, for the process to take place at all you need to throw out a lot of rubbish first.

It takes a constant process of adapting and changing and growing.

And at all times, it takes commitment. Commitment to each other, commitment to the work, especially when the magic is nowhere in sight and there lies only an endless series of tasks ahead.

And finally, commitment to The Narrative upon which all else is built:

This – with all the mess and all the chaos and all the hard work – is better when we walk through it together. That all those things are what makes the alchemy possible. That it’s not just about what we believe or what we produce; it’s about how we live, how we teach, and who we are.

And therein is the most magical, powerful, transformational thing: We are Not Done Yet.

Both Andrew Thomasson and Cheryl Morris teach English at the high school level. Andrew is a 10th grade teacher at Forestview High School near Charlotte, North Carolina, and blogs at www.concertedchaos.com (on Twitter – @thomasson_engl). Cheryl teaches 11th and 12th grade at Redwood High School in Marin, California, and blogs at www.morrisflipsenglish.com (on Twitter – @guster4lovers). They operate a website for their students at www.tmiclass.com and can be reached through their joint email at tmi@tmiclass.com. More information on how they are team-teaching from across the country can be found at their blogs and www.tmiclass.com, and their instructional writing/reading videos are on YouTube.

Note: there are many things that we agree on, but one point of disagreement is spelling. Cheryl spells things the British way. Andrew spells things the right (i.e. American) way. So we collaborate and use a hybrid of the two, ergo, the odd spellings.

This week, I will start my 20th year in the classroom, and for the first time, I really don’t know what I’m going to do. I should probably explain.

For the first eighteen years of my career, I was a good teacher. My lessons were planned, my curriculum was covered, my grades were recorded, my students were happy and successful. Everything was good, some might even say great. Late in my 18th year, I discovered the flipped classroom. I tried it out toward the end of that year and loved it.

So I dove into it last year. All of my classes were flipped. Students enjoyed the change. I enjoyed the opportunity to interact with each student every day and really help them with their learning. But, one aspect of my classroom hadn’t changed: the learning was still happening according to my schedule. I planned out the unit, decided which videos were to be watched each day, what problems were to be completed and when the test was to be taken. Everything needed to be on a schedule so we could all cover the necessary material before the end of the semester ( or quarter or next vacation). Sure, I now had some flexibility for students to spend a little more time on one topic as long as they were ready when I was ready to give the test.

Which brings me to this year and my original statement. For the first time, I really don’t know what I’m going to do. You see, I’ve decided to take the next step and create a flexible learning environment based on mastery that allows asynchronous progress. I’m giving up the control of the pace and plan to allow students to demonstrate their learning when they are ready and in a variety of ways. In my 9th grade math class, I’ve identified the major concepts from our guaranteed viable curriculum and the common core. I have videos made (from last year’s work) for all the content. I’ve decided to use Crystal Kirch’s WSQ form to help students process their thinking. I have a variety of practice opportunities and projects that have worked well in the past

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But, I want the students to actually learn the math and make connections among the topics rather than just doing the math because it’s what’s next on my calendar. I want them to work at their own pace and continue working until they can demonstrate their understanding of the concepts. I want my students to demonstrate their understanding in ways that make sense to them (which might include tests).

I want them to create websites that contain applications of the various math topics from the curriculum ( an idea from Ryan Curtis at flipcon12). I want them to find math problems that are “worth solving” by looking at photos of real objects (an idea based on the work of Dan Myers). I’ve started a collection of photos, but want my students to take pictures to add to the collection.

And so, I have a lot of ideas (some old and some new), but I’m not sure how it’s going to go. Will I be able to manage a group of students working at varied paces in the same room? Will students be able to take the ultimate responsibility for their learning? How will I keep them involved with their websites throughout the semester? Will we find math worth learning in the photos? Will I be able to give tests over a larger window and maintain test security and integrity? And what about grades? How do I reconcile grades if two students are both working at their best level, but one happens to “get it” faster?

I have many more questions and right now, my answer to most of them is “I don’t know” and I think I’m okay with that. I know that I will have to teach my students to take responsibility and coach them throughout the semester. I know that some students will take to this mastery approach more readily than others. I know that this next step in my teaching will help me to ensure that my students are learning and understanding the math concepts. I know that I will have to listen to my students and adjust. I know that I will be learning as I go along. But, I know that it’s the right thing to do. And that makes my uncertainty okay.

John Tague teaches students math in Fairfax, Vermont. He coaches his school’s Scholars Bowl team and advises the Design TASC team.You can follow him on twitter (@jtague252) and read his blog ” Left Handed Educator” at http://lefthandededucator.blogspot.com/

The photo was taken at Fort Pulaski in Savannah, Georgia. It represents a solid foundation leading to the unknown.

Note: This is a guest post that will be the first in a series. All posts follow the theme of “Changes in class because of summer learning.” Hopefully, these varying perspectives will continue to spark discussion and growth among readers.

Inquiry-Based History Class

If you listen to too many of the jargony phrases in education, your head might explode. Or you’ll design a tic tac toe board with educational jargon in preparation for a big conference (LINK 1). Either way… But despite (or maybe because) talk about education can become buzzword-y, it is always a good idea to know what people in your field are buzzing about.

I saw (thanks Twitter) a lot of discussion about inquiry-based learning this summer. In some ways, it was fascinating reading about these classes, particularly science classes. To have students do experiments to learn scientific phenomena (as opposed to learning about these phenomena out of a book and then experimenting to prove that they are true) is a darn cool way to teach, and intuitively it seems very ‘sticky’: kids seem more likely to remember what they have deduced from their experiments.

In other ways, reading about inquiry has been incredibly frustrating. As a history teacher, I don’t have tangible objects to manipulate to determine the laws of nature. This makes the type of inquiry that goes on in science classrooms difficult in history classes. Still, there has to be a way to teach an inquiry-based history class, right? I think there is. In the conversation around what history teachers should be doing in their classroom, flipped or not, it seems like there is a way – a necessity, I’d argue – to base history classes around inquiry.

In short, I believe historical inquiry means having our students do the work of historians in class. Students receive (or find, depending on the teacher’s preference and/or students’ abilities) multiple primary and secondary sources about an era or event and figure out why and how things happened in the past. By doing this, students analyze the past by creating meaning, not being handed facts. With historical inquiry, students synthesize disparate interpretations of events to create their own unique understanding of the past. They are also given opportunities to connect events that happened in the past and in a particular place to what is happening now around the world.

Focusing on historical inquiry pulls to the fore the content skills students learn through history class, skills that are absolutely essential for any functional member of a democracy. (For example, how to find bias, analyze meaning behind and within a source, or make meaning from conflicting accounts of the same event to name a few.) By doing this, historical inquiry also pushes the knowledge of historical content a bit to the backburner. Students still need context (the basic facts around a historical event) to do the work of historians but how they use these facts becomes far more important than if they remember when World War I started.

So what is historical inquiry? What does it look like in a classroom? I’ll be writing about that more on my blog – I’d love your thoughts and feedback on it. A great place to start, though, and a source on which I base much of my thought on historical inquiry, is this book (LINK 2) by Sam Wineburg.

Karl Lindgren-Streicher teaches world history in the Bay Area. He can be found on Twitter at @kls4711 and blogs at http://historywithls.blogspot.com/.