#flipclass = Flipped Classroom Resources on Twitter

Strayer, J. (2011). The Flipped Classroom. Knewton. Retrieved from https://www.knewton.com/infographics/flipped-classroom/

When I looked up the #flipclass hashtag in Twitter, I found a never ending list of ideas, resources, and passionate teachers implementing a flipped learning experience in their classrooms! It was hard to stop clicking, reading, and getting inspired! That is sort of the way Twitter is like (similar to Facebook), so a bit of self-control needs to be exercised to maintain a balanced life.

Using Diigo, I bookmarked all the resources I found most useful for defining, showcasing, and defending a flipped classroom learning experience. Below are those bookmarks, which I organized within Diigo's Outliner tool. You can also view my Flipped Classroom bookmarks within Diigo here.

Flipped Classroom Bookmarks

• Flipping the Elementary Classroom – Flipped Learning Simplified
  Flipping expert Jon Bergmann lists some tips for first-time flippers
  • Five Reasons Why Elementary Teachers Should Flip Math First – Flipped Learning Simplified
    Why Math is a great subject to flip
• What Is This Flipping Method? - FLIPPING AWESOME TEACHING
  Helpful look 'inside' a flipped learning classroom
  • So ... let's talk about the in-class flip - FLIPPING AWESOME TEACHING
    Expresses disagreement with using in-class flipped videos Explains his intentions for using flipped learning.
• Flipping Your Class is Not About The Video - Lindsay Stephenson
  Purpose of Flipping a Class What it is and isn't Flipped Learning Definition & Outcomes
• Mark Janke - Flipping My Classroom Experiment
  How flipping his Geometry class improved student learning
  • Flipped Classroom - MarkGeekTeach
    Mark Janke's Flipped Classroom Playlist (tips for successfully implementing a flipped or blended learning environment)
• 54 Flipped Classroom Tools For Teachers And Students -
  • I used #46, Doceri, to flip my 5th-8th grade math lessons

I stumbled across the flipped clasroom idea a few years ago, and was very intrigued by it. But I didn't know how or if I should implement it in my 5th-8th multi-grade classroom in a small private school. First of all, most of the community didn't exactly like the idea of adding 'homework' to a student's workload. As their teacher, I agreed with them because some students already had the normal math work they didn't complete at school, as well as the monthly book reports I assigned. Plus, after 6.5 hours of learning and 'working' at school, I like the idea of parents being able to spend quality time with their kids doing non-school activities.

Then I got an iPad for my classroom and discovered that I could screencast my math teaching lessons. So, using an app called Doceri, I screencasted most of my math lessons for all 4 levels of math I taught. What's different about my process is that I recorded the videos with my students as they sat at the group table with me. I didn't do this because I thought it was better than the more common method of a teacher recording their video lessons alone, but because it was a convenient way to archive all my lessons that I was going to be teaching anyways. The only difference from the past was that instead of writing the math steps on whiteboards or papers and throwing them away, I was documenting all the lessons. Plus, the iPad (with Doceri), has some very helpful backgrounds, like graphs, to help produce neat, organized lessons. I also required my students to write in their math journals the same thing that I wrote/drew on the iPad.

Here is one of those lessons that I screencasted with my 5th graders from a Saxon Intermediate 5 math book. The topic was "Fractions and Mixed Numbers on a Number Line."

Several benefits came from screencasting my math lessons, which I made accessible to students and their parents.

• Sick/absent students could watch my math lesson, work on their math at home, and not get behind. 
• Parents could watch my teaching video to better understand and help their child with math homework or studying for a test.
• Students could review past lessons by watching the video and reviewing their notes they took in their math journals. 
• Substitute teachers could simply play my teaching videos for my students during math class (especially if they were uncomfortable with teaching the concepts).

During the following year when I had all the videos already created, some students enjoyed the freedom to watch lessons ahead of time, so that when they came to the math table to be taught, they already had an idea of the concept.

As a 4th grade teacher in a new school, I'm not sure if or how I will use any elements of the flipped classroom, but will definitely keep it in mind!