Thing Twenty: Blended or Flipped Classrooms
This Thing was all about Blended and Flipped classrooms. This is a newer concept, where technology and work at home is involved in student learning. Students watch videos the teacher creates, use technology, and create online assignments for students to work on at home. Then when they come to the classroom, teachers do work that is typically considered "homework" and allow students to ask questions, discuss what they worked on at home, expand and review their learning.
Trying Out The Flipped Classroom
The first thing I needed to do was learn more about flipped and blended classrooms. The 21 Things website provided many great resources, which you can find by clicking on this link, this link, and this link. I learned a lot about how flipped classrooms might work, but I also still have many questions about equality and equity in terms of resources. This might be great for some students, but I think others may struggle. I especially think that flipped classrooms in impoverished communities would find it very difficult to do flipped classrooms. The second thing to do was to create an assignment. I think that flipped classrooms, when they work, are best for mathematics classes. For this reason, I decided to use my geometry dictionary. I would instruct students to begin looking through the online illustrated dictionary, and then would prompt them to watch the videos I made for help. Students would write down their thoughts and reflections as they worked through the lesson, and then complete a short practice worksheet. When they came to school the next day, we would work on expanding their knowledge of the formulas and vocabulary through review games, time to try the manipulatives in the videos themselves, and group work time. An example of one of the videos I would use is below. Admittedly, I had a difficult time thinking of how I would use flipped classrooms, as I think this would be very difficult to do with the grade levels and communities I wish to serve.