FlipCon13

FlipCon13

#itwasamazing

Through a grant of money from Michigan Virtual High School, I was able to attend the National Flipped Class Conference in Stillwater, Minnesota.  In a word, it was invigorating!

Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams (the fathers of the flipped class) started off the conference  by explaining the evolution of their idea of the flipped class.  It was exciting to see that my evolution throughout the year, matched much of how they evolved throughout the years.  It was clear that they are still evolving and wanted us to help lead that evolution.  They laid out the four pillars of the flipped class, which I think should be repeated for those new to flipping or want to try!

• Flexible Environment: homework is the lower level of Bloom's, in-class work focuses on analyzing, evaluating, etc.
• Learning Culture:Transfer ownership to kids.
• Intentional Content: How can kids interact with you on the  video?
• Professional Educator: find a collaborator!

After the keynote, I attended breakout sessions. I could go into detail about what I learned, but then this could turn into a book!  What I liked the most was how collaborative most sessions were.  It was not a simple sit and listen.  The presenters not only encouraged questions, but asked participants to share what worked or did not work.  I felt as though I was in a community of learners.  There was no person or group that felt that they were the only ones with the knowledge of a perfect flipped class.  You know why?  There is not such thing as a perfect flipped class!!!!!  The flipped class has always been a grassroots movement and seems to be continuing that way!

I picked up many resources, but more importantly, many co-flippers!  I met 5-6 other AP government teachers from across the country who want to collaborate next year!

We were shown this video on how to start a movement.  
I felt like the "lone nut" in this video at the start of last school year, but I thank Becky Carter, Betsy Foster, Teresa Johnson, Kristy Acker, Todd Kleinow, Ryan Sisco, and Tina Vansyckle for being my first followers! 

Here are a few of the resources I plan to use in my classroom this year

• TedEd videos
• Flubaroo to assess within google forms
• Cycles of learning (Explore-Flip-Apply). A new perspective on flipping!
• The Flipped Learning Journal (my goal is to write an article for this!)
• Camtasia (all participants received a free license to this!)

Stillwater is really pretty!  It is right on the St. Croix river and right across the river  from Wisconsin!


 

20% time in the classroom

20% Time: You are a genius, the world expects your contributions!

I am considered by many to be a little bit of a control freak (or a lot of bit of a control freak).  This year, the flipped classroom was my first step away from that "control-freakness."  Though the AP scores have not been released yet to show data on how much the flipped class improved instruction in my classroom, I know for a fact students were taking more control of their own learning.  After the AP test, there are about 4 weeks of school left without much content to cover.  I took a large step outside of my "control" comfort zone and implemented a 20% project or Blank White Sheet project with my kids.

If you have not heard of 20% projects, you are in for a treat!  In 20% classrooms, students are given about 20% of the time to work on anything they want.  This could be one day a week or a block of time every other day or a chunk of time at the end of the year. Students are given time to brainstorm something they want to know more about or something they want to do better.  Depending on the level of students you are working with, you might need to give more or less guidance.  

I started my 20% unit by sharing the rationale behind Google's 20% time.  Google gives their employees 20% of the time to work on any projects they want.  Gmail was actually a 20% brainchild! I asked them to consider something they thought could be made better or simply something they wanted to learn more about.  We brainstormed in small groups and shared out, which led to many a-ha's.

As the instructor, my job was simply to provide resources for students as they decided on what their project would be.  I also spent time helping students brainstorm what they wanted to do and pushing them beyond simple projects that they could do without much effort or risk.  I emphasized that it was ok to FAIL!

Here are a few case studies of what my students decided to do

• Build an app that would help with our freshmen mentoring program.
• Create a blog showing how to make healthy cookies.  Her first batch was a flop, but we shared this with the class as a learning experience for the next batch.
• learning Welsh
• Preparation for the ACT
• Blog of poetry

Want more resources?  Joy Kirr (who I follow on Twitter @Joykirr) collects 20% resources and posts them to this live binder site.