So I've Decided to Flip My Class

I have had a problem that all of the teachers I have met have: I know that the best way to teach is to provide each student with differentiated, one-on-one instruction, but I don't know how to accomplish that with the amount of time I have in each class period.  If you also consider the number of standards I have to "cover" in a year and the number of students who need various types of remediation, there is no way to make the typical classroom setting work for everyone.  I was beginning to feel bewildered by the task I had been set.

I am, according to my husband, an irrational optimist.  I just couldn't believe that there was no way to consistently reach all kids at their own levels.  After all, my husband would frequently tell me about his favorite teacher, the one who inspired him to become a teacher (well, a professor of medieval history, but we won't speak about that).  This wonder teacher taught at a one-room school in Michigan.  Just like I used to watch on Little House on the Prairie, his teacher taught K-8 in one classroom.  Talk about needing to differentiate!  She couldn't teach the same things to a Kindergartner as she did to an Eighth Grader, and often there was only one student per grade.  (My husband was in a densely occupied grade, which meant he was one of three students in that grade.)  So, here's the picture: there were 13 students in 9 grades at this school.  Yet, she was acknowledged to be the best teacher in the county, producing students who could out-perform all of the other students.  She was teaching each student at his or her individual level.  She had the answer to my problem, but what was she doing differently?

I decided to analyze my husband's teacher's teaching methods.  She did many of the things teachers do now: small group instruction, individual practice, peer support, and student conferencing.  She wouldn't have used these terms, but she did these every day.  The one thing she didn't do was lecture.  She never needed to make time for lecture, because she accomplished her purposes, and exceeded educational standards, every day without it.  Lectures were unnecessary.  I filed this information away for future reference.

During the second half of last school year, when the teachers at my school were up to their eyeballs in special events, we were encouraged to try flipping our classrooms.  I was intrigued, but the administrator who explained flipping did not explain it well enough to implement it, much less understand it.  (It is interesting to note that he did not present it in a flipped atmosphere, either, which would have helped me understand it better.)  Teachers heard a lecture about methodology and software, were put into teams, were instructed to flip a lesson, and  were told to report the results.  We were told that this would work some kind of educational magic.  The few teachers who participated (remember all those special events?) reported that the students and parents were greatly confused by the process and the teacher's planning for that lesson was also increased.  There was no magic.  In fact, it was more of a burden for all involved.  Still, I remained mildly interested in flipping lessons, so I filed this information away for future reference, as well.

One day, while shopping at one of my local bookstores (I love bookstores!!!), I came across the book Flipped Learning, by Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams.  In spite of my previous encounter with flipping a lesson, I couldn't help myself.  I picked up the book and started thumbing through it.  There was a chapter in there that was all about flipping an English classroom.  I skimmed that chapter a little more thoroughly than I had been, and I was convinced that I needed to buy the book.  So, in my typical fashion, I bought the book, took it home, and put in in a stack of books on my dining room table, where it promptly got buried.  I didn't look at it again for about a month.

Finally, a few days ago, I started reading the books in the stack.  I read Flipped Learning and realized that I had found my solution to the problem of reaching every student, the 21st-century version of the one-room school.  Removing the lectures from class time would enable me to work with every student every day.  It will eventually lead to a classroom that is differentiated to meet the needs of each student, no matter what their needs.  My choice was clear: I have decided to flip my classes and begin the journey toward flipped learning.