Member Reviews

Many C-A Teacher Center members attend workshops with financial aid from the Center (applications are on the funding materials page). Below are some reviews that may assist you if you are considering the same or a similar workshop.

Flip Your Classroom with Aaron Sams @ Buffalo State College (Aug 12-13, 2014)

Presented by the Far West Teacher Center Network

Pam Dominsky (Portville Central School, biology teacher)

The Flip Your Classroom workshop I attended provided both a persuasive argument for the philosophy of flipping, and a wide variety of tech tools for facilitating the flip.

The rationale behind flipped instruction is that under the traditional model, students receive direct instruction in class, usually as a lecture, and later practice or apply what they have learned at home in an assignment.  The problem is that the rote part of the cycle is done at school, and the more difficult learning task is done independently. Some students become frustrated when they attempt an assignment, and some don’t even make the attempt.

In the flipped model, students receive information at home in the form of a video, reading assignment, or other format.  In class the next day, they practice, apply, organize, or in another way work with the information they have attained.  This is a higher order learning task, but the teacher is present to provide guidance if needed.

The flipped model has proven to be very effective in improving student performance, increasing student and parent satisfaction, and shifting the emphasis from a teacher-centered to a student-centered environment.  The presenters emphasized that flipped instruction could be enhanced with technology, but the core of the flipped class model is to start with good teaching practices, and move lower-level tasks to homework, freeing time to work with students in class on higher-level learning tasks.

The variety of tech tools introduced was compared to a drink from a fire hose, and I’d agree with that comparison.  The presenters demonstrated the use of many tools and apps, and encouraged participants to learn the tools to create materials for students, as well as to teach students to create products.  One example that I’m using this fall is to invite students to collaborate on a Google Docs presentation in which each student creates a slide to introduce themselves to the class.  I’m also using Google Forms to get information about my college biology students’ goals and other time commitments.

Such a long list of tools were explored: Prezi, Popplet, Socrative, Kahoot, Flubaroo, Schoolology, Class Dojo, Google Classroom,  Knowmia, Educreations, Tube Chop, Zaption, Bitly, TED ED, that it will take time to sort out which will be most useful.  Fortunately, the presenters also provided websites to learn and discuss with other teachers: flippedclassroom.org and flippedlearning.org.

This was a valuable workshop because it reflects an important shift in instructional models that can be implemented immediately with small changes in some lessons, but has the potential to change everything I do.  I’m excited to see how my first flipped lessons work.