I began with 1 class. I was very upfront with this class. I told them I wanted honest feedback as we went through this process. The first class was very enthusiastic and really liked the idea about "just watching videos" for homework. However, it was just so much more than that. With the 1st class I was able to spend more time talking with students 1 to 1. This class needed that extra time and attention. There was a very high population of IEP and 504 students in this class. With the extra time, I was able to spend the time reviewing with this class, which they needed. At the end of this pilot semester, the majority of the students really appreciated this technique and learned. They were able to explain to me the process better than other classes.
From what I know now about screen casting, I started this process very old school. Or as old school as you can be with an iPad 2. I recorded my lectures by setting up my iPad somewhere in my house and using the $5 app of iMovie started to record myself. Sometimes my cats would make appearances in my videos, but I teach middle schoolers and many of them grabbed on to that to make connections with me. One student told me he was mad at me when I made a video at school. So, I continued to make the videos at home and post them unlisted to YouTube. I would then put the link to the video on my wikispace and create and print a QR Code for my classroom for students to scan with their iPod Touches. I have found that the more ways that you can give them to watch the video, the better. I also quickly learned the more time you give them to watch the video, the higher the watch rate is.
The one question that I was faced with and this process was in motion was: What do I do with the kids who didn't watch the video? The idea of accountability was one that stressed me out. I had no ideas. I felted tapped out. I had been doing all of this to create these videos for these kids and they didn't even watch them?? And then I realized that I'm back to the age old teacher question - How do you make kids do their homework? I realized for middle schoolers some of them needed a reason to do this. A reason to get started. Since the videos were their homework, then they should receive a grade for doing their homework. A couple of times I made quick senteo (clicker) quizzes where students could use notes to answer the questions, but I realized that I'm back to passive classtime. So, for each video, I created a short google doc form with two questions related to key points in the video that I wanted them to understand. In the last two minutes of the video I would put up a tinyurl that had the link to the google form. For the students to complete the google form, I gave them full points. If they didn't, I gave them a zero. This way, I also could see before the students came to class, who was understanding the main concepts! It was great!
These are my main thoughts from my pilot experience of the flipped classroom. I will soon be posting reflections about my trials with the mastery flipped classroom experience and my thoughts for moving forward.
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