The flipped government class...15 weeks in

This fall, our district handed out over 1000 iPads to students in grades 7-12 to keep for the year.  It was quite a massive undertaking before school started with both positive and negative feedback.  I was happy to be part of the roll out team, and knew that rather than fit this technology into what I already do, I needed to use it to improve my teaching.

This summer, I read a lot about the flipped class.  I joined a Monday Night Twitterchat via #flipclass (8-9pm) and have learned more in the first 15 weeks of this adventure than I did all throughout my undergrad teaching program!  I have learned from research, from others mistakes, from my own mistakes, and from my students! 

Here's a quick update as to where I am and how I have flipped my AP US Government course.  I plan to continue with weekly updates as possible! (it is my New Years Resolution :)

Two years ago, I created a standards based course by using  the College Board's AP Government outline to write standards for each unit.  Students are given these standards at the start of each unit and all assessments (formative and summative) are broken down by standard.  In fact, students are allowed to re-take tests and only have to re-take those standards that they did poorly on!  This was the (somewhat) easy part as my entire district was undergoing this transition.

This past summer, I decided I wanted to try and flip my class.  So, I started by using Showme and Educreations to develop short videos on each standard.  I find that educreations is the more user friendly of the two!  Anyway, each video is 10-15 minutes long (most are close to 10) and is based on the standard.  Students watch these videos at night, complete the textbook reading, and complete a study guide.  These videos are then all housed on edmodo, which all students have access to.  For students without wifi at home, they use the app called Roadshow where they can download the video at school and watch it at home!

The videos were the easy part-I just used my notes from my lectures from year's past.  The hard part was filling the time in class.  Here are some successful activities my students have done during class, that we would have never had time for before!

• simulations from the online textbook.
• Analysis of current events from the perspective of our textbook reading (Health Care Bill, Election, Fiscal Cliff)
• Analysis of multiple choice questions on formative and summative assessments.
• Mock Congress

Here are problems that I faced and solutions (If I have come up with one yet!)

• students not keeping up on videos each night (checking in with each student daily to see notes)
• quickly assessing student understanding of the video content at the start of each block (tried daily quizzes-took too much time, am now going to require each student to post one question about the video each night)
• students rushing through in-class activities and not really wanting to critically think and take the necessary time to develop appropriate solutions (this has faded over time).

I plan to attend the #flipclass conference in Michigan on January 19th to learn even more from people far more experienced than me.   click here for information!