It's Flippin' Crazy!

As usual, technology class has me thinking about things I had not ever considered. The good news is that nothing about this week's class made me fear that our very existence as human beings is being threatened by technology. I watched Ex Machina last weekend, so that didn't make me any less paranoid about the direction we are headed...that's all I'm saying. Fortunately, for all of us humans, including our students, the Flipped classroom is a nonthreatening concept that I think we can further investigate. 

One of my best friends in the world is a math teacher who teaches in Texas. Although I had heard of Flipped teaching before, she is the first person I have known to actually implement it in her classroom and feel as though it was a successful endeavor. She believes that it gives her more time in class to work one on one with students. Much like Mr. Hazelwood described, she feels that Flipped instruction makes her time in the classroom more meaningful. And before Mr. Hazelwood's visit to our classroom, I had never really considered how Flipped instruction might work in my classroom. I really just viewed it as something math teachers could do to maximize their instruction, but outside of math, it seemed pretty pointless to me.

So Mr. Hazelwood and Mr. Erich have forced me to look at my instruction and my willingness to try new things. How can I implement Flipped instruction into the English classes I teach? How would my students benefit? What problems do I see in trying this? 

On Friday, I took some time to talk to my partner in crime, Brian hunter, about trying out a Flipped lesson together that we could use for our entire AP Language program. I think that if Brian and I created a few short Pro-Tip AP Language exam videos, we could give our students more help in prepping for the exam. I envision creating a few top ten tips videos to prep for each essay and the multiple choice section of the exam. We could ask the students to watch the videos the night before we practice in class, and then students could also watch them to review the night before the exam...if they feel they need to do so. Therefore, instead of spending time reviewing our writing tips, the students can spend the class period writing and sharing their work with their classmates. Much like math, it would give us class time to have some meaningful time to practice and discuss our work. Our students will benefit from having more time to write and discuss in class as well as having a permanent lesson they can keep accessing as they prepare for their exam. 

The problems I see with Flipped instruction would be more targeted to the socio-economical issues. Not every student has technology at home. Not every student has internet access, and, sadly, not every student has 20 minutes to watch a video. My AP kids, generally speaking, have the time and money and the luxury of watching a math or English instruction video at night, but when I think about my on-level kids, and some of my AP kids, I have to think about the kids who work until close every night, or the kids who help raise their younger siblings while their single mom works the night shift, or the kids who have two jobs so they can afford to go on the band trip, or the kids who live in their cars. Poverty is a real thing. Neglect is a real thing. And as a teacher, I believe that if you are instructing your students in a way that is going to further alienate the already disenfranchised and isolated kids who need our help the most, then, well, what is the point? Unless we insure that every kid has the technology and access to a Flipped lesson, then we have to be careful. Really careful! Flipped instruction sounds really cool, but we have to make sure we aren't leaving any of our students behind in our quest to try something new. 

I think that Flipped instruction has some real benefits, and I am pledging to try something Flipped this year in my own classroom. But I'm also going to be careful in implementation and make sure that I am meeting the needs of ALL of my students.