Final Flipping Thoughts

After two terms of Flipped Lessons as part of the SIG, here are my final thoughts...

What motivated you to try the flipped approach? Having used a teaching blog for the best part of two years, I wondered if it was time to try putting it to use with flipped classes

How will/has 'Flipping the Classroom' impacted student learning? The students have become more independent. They have learnt to try something without my help. When facilitating in the classroom, students tend to rely on me - when they are learning at home they are not afraid to try to work something out themselves. An example of this: Rather than setting the task of 'learning how to code' in lesson and me facilitating, I set them off on decoded.co. The students had to work their way through the 16 steps to coding on their own and then report back to me next lesson. Some completed the task, most only got to Step 9 of 16 but more importantly all attempted the steps.

Flipped Resource

What has been the student reaction/feedback? The students have mostly found the work enjoyable - although some have said that the task has taken them an hour to complete, whereas the 'usual' homework would only take around 20-30 minutes! 

Examples of Students' Flipped Work

How will/has 'Flipping the Classroom' impacted your teaching? It has made me think about the resources I use within lessons - and encouraged me to set tasks which I would normally set within lesson outside of the lesson instead. It has also encouraged the students to complete their 'Prep Work' at home - as this determines which colour they start from in the next lesson.

What are your thoughts on this strategy for the future of education? This strategy - although often time consuming for both teachers and students - will enable students to learn how to be more independent. It will also enable teachers to differentiate further within lessons rather than set homework which can sometimes simply add to a students' workload rather than develop their knowledge of a topic.

Anything else you would like to share, include as your final evaluative thoughts? I will continue to use these Flipped Lessons but now I will extend it from year 8 to all year groups.

Visit to Riders Junior School - 6th June

I spent the day at Riders Junior School to see Russell setting up the new kit - the kids had lots of fun and I got to see how it works!

Need to know:

• Equipment/software specs on AndertonTiger.com
• Trainer: @RussellPrue
• Example shows: SoundCloud.com/RussellPrue

What they have:

• Live ‘around the world’ within 2 weeks with training!
• Training took around 2 hours
• Space - enough to set up three microphones - see photographs (right) for the ‘guest studio’ set up! The other side of the desk is for guests who are not part of the editing. Q: Do we need more room? Russell can come and set up in the Recording Studio and see what the room looks like.
• Riders Junior have the full kit with monitors (one with touch screen)

What it can do:

• Add a variety of jingles to the show
• Play purchased music through a memory stick
• Mix/edit using Audacity etc
• Broadcast the show live through school speakers and across the internet
• Use Skype to communicate to others through the show

Tips for the trial ‘live’ show on Monday 23rd June:

• If you forget what you are talking about then use an ‘emergency fill’!! “I’m sorry but we’ve lost ... So I am going to update you on the weather instead!” - improvise.
• Language - think about the language you are using - who are you talking to? Think about how you are structuring your next sentence - is it an informal conversation? A serious interview?
• Only stop a jingle if you can get away with it!
• A list of banned words on the wall? “Like” / “Err” / “Good”

Other:

• @ianaddison brought the HUB to Riders Junior School and it would be great to work with them in the future!
• Sound technician at Park Community School - Nathan Ethengton nathan2411@hotmail.co.uk 07976577989 - who is assisting with the radio set up at Riders and would be happy to come to our school and share his advice

Our next steps:

• Our students will be trialing a mini-broadcast on Monday 23rd June and the show will be shown through WildernRadio.co.uk - so check it out!
• I think that this is the kit to buy - the year long training combined with some excellent kit means that students can be trained and live in 2 weeks!