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A White Blank Page

6/21/2012

21 Comments

 
I just had my first "first day of school" idea.

Now, it's slightly stolen from Aaron Sams and Jon Bergmann, but what isn't in my classroom these days?  In their excellent plenary session at the recent Flipped Conference in Chicago (henceforth FlipCon12) they ended with this:

A blank slide.

The point?  In the flipped model, no one has the answers.  It's about making our classrooms student-centred and inquiry driven.  It's about using technology to do what we couldn't do before - get customised content to our students, no matter where they are.  It's about collaboration - regardless of boundaries...California, Canada, Australia, South Africa, rural, urban, suburban, rich, poor, middle-class, whatever, wherever, whenever.  It's about engaging our students' curiosity, or reigniting what curiosity traditional education has beaten out of them.

Think for a minute what it's like to be a teenager entering high school in today's educational climate.  Right now, the students about to be freshmen were in first grade when I started my career.  So that means that their ENTIRE LIFE has been in the wake of high-stakes testing, NCLB "accountability," textbooks, pacing guides, direct instruction, double-math/double-english/no science or history, rote learning.  Little kids ask more questions than even the most patient parent can answer.  Yet ask a high schooler to come up with a question, and most of them will write "idk" (I don't know, for those who don't codeswitch into teenager).  

What I learned in credential school (and spent most of my career propagating) was that there was an ideal lesson structure, and that needed to start and end with assessment.  The structure, although not inherently evil, is rigid: diagnose, direct instruction, guided practice, independent practice, assessment, reteach, reassess.  That's it.  Rarely does that include any inquiry, projects, creativity, or most importantly, release of responsibility for content.  It is a highly teacher-centred model.  And you know what?  I'm pretty freaking good at it.  I can get my students to comprehend something and show that knowledge on a test.  

But that is no longer good enough.  For my students, or for me.

When I started flipping in January, I had no idea that my model would change so much.  I am firmly in the "classroom community" camp of classroom management.  I build relationships with my students, show interest in them as people, and try to teach them to get along with me and other students.  But when it came to the work, I used highly structured lessons and activities, with opportunity for student interaction, but on my terms.  There were few group or partner activities of substance.  I talked.  A lot.  Like, to the point that I regularly lose my voice several times during the year...but I keep talking anyway, because class doesn't work without me in the middle of it.

So the flip started as a way of getting some of my lectures on video, and using class time to practice those skills - etymology, grammar, writing, etc.  - albiet still in a very structured, teacher-centred way.  

But then two things happened simultaneously: I got invited to be on a Twitter advisory panel for KQED's Do Now curriculum, and I found Edmodo.  So between encouragement from Edmodo teachers who are on Twitter (like @Mr_Driscoll and @CrystalKirch) and the impending advisory panel, I figured that I needed to get more involved in my Twitter account.  To be honest, I was in the "I don't get this Twitter thing, and I'm pretty sure it's stupid...who wants to know what I ate for breakfast or where I am currently waiting in line?!?!" camp, and swore that I'd never get on Twitter...until our AWESOME district Ed Tech coordinator, Jessica Lucio (@jessietechie) showed us some educational uses of Twitter.  So I created an account, and didn't use it at all for about six weeks.

But so many people were talking about the #flipclass chat on Monday nights that I decided it was time to figure Twitter out.

That was when I realised that I was doing it all wrong.  One of the first #flipclass chats was about how to make our students more accountable for learning. I started to realise that even though I was technically "flipped" I hadn't done the most important thing: flipping the responsibility for learning happening from me to my students.

So I stopped talking so much.  I stopped answering their questions immediately, and even stopped presenting myself as having the answers to everything (as hard as I find that!).  I started to try and engage their natural curiosity that had been beaten out of them for so many years of "traditional" education.

I only got one quarter to flip my students.  But it was enough for most.  Now the real challenge became apparent: if I started when they walked in my classroom for the first time, how long would it take to "de-program" them?

So I ran an experiment on curiosity. I asked my June School students to write a question each day as part of their exit ticket.  For the first week, I got a few questions about assignments or grades (How do I do x assignment?  What does y mean? What can I do to raise my grade?), a few random questions (Do you teach 11th grade? How does flex time work? How old are you?  When is summer school over?), and a few genuinely interesting questions that were about the content of the course, amoung them:

--Why did Hitler hate the Jews?
--Were women treated differently during the Holocaust?
--Why did Otto Frank survive, when no one else from the Secret Annexe did?
--Why do we need to know how to research information?
--How can I make my writing more showing and less telling?

Those questions make me excited to be their teacher.  The first three became options for their research inquiry (which is part of their final assignments/exams for the term).  Even though the work is sequential, I had a few students ask to skip forward so they could start that one right away.  How cool is that?!

*****

Okay, when I started writing this it was to share my idea for the first day of school at my new high school.

I'm going to give them a blank piece of paper.


Okay, hear me out.  I am not going to give them my syllabus.  I'm not going to talk too much.  I'm going to ask them to fill the page - one side with information about themselves.  Whatever they think is relevant and important for me to know.  The other side I'm asking them to fill with questions.  It doesn't matter what questions they come up with - any question on any topic.  They can work with someone else - hell, they can steal someone else's question if they want.  The only rule is that they genuinely have to be interested in finding the answer.

******

Now, of course I'm not going 100% constructivist and refusing to give them any information.  I'll have to do the whole dog-and-pony show explaining the flip, both to students and parents.  And I'll have rules, obviously.  But if my entire philosophy is about student-centred education and the flipped model, can I really spend the first few days lecturing at them and telling them about me?

I'd like to hear from some of you about how you start the year in an inquiry/PBL/student-centred/flipped class.  Any brilliant ideas?  I'm sure my idea isn't revolutionary, and it may not even be a good idea.  Feel free to tell me that.

Parts of this post were also inspired by the brilliant Shelley Wright, and the equally brilliant Mumford and Sons (from whom I stole the title of this post).  Thanks to both for their inspiration.

ETA:

David Fouch (@davidfouch) on Twitter gave me an idea!  What if a ton of us using #flipclass had out students do this, and we compiled them?  We could Wordle them, have students make videos, blog...and then interact with other classes!  Interested?  Find me on Twitter or comment here!

I also see the irony in using a mostly-paperless classroom using a piece of paper on the first day. -__-
21 Comments
Delia Bush link
6/21/2012 12:00:14 pm

I may have to steal this from you...it could be very powerful at getting to know the kids right off the bat.

Reply
Kate Baker link
6/22/2012 06:15:26 am

HI Cheryl!
I love the irony of the blank page! & of course I LOVE the concept!
I may steal this as well. :-) We absolutely need to be sharing ideas. I have plenty that I can let you steal as well!

So I'm trying twitter again. I had an account about 3 years ago and never used it. I, too, didn't get it. so, I'm back on twitter and I'm certainly looking for educational stuff. I'm pretty sure twitter is blocked for students in school, but I can use it for scouring the web for resources. I also want to check out the flipclass chat thingy. How do I find it? Here's my twitter handle: kakersbakers2

Later Gator!

Reply
Abena link
6/22/2012 12:23:39 pm

A great idea for the start of the year. Do you have any other resources in introducing the flip to learners? Did you make vids or provide any other self-access resources for them to understand the process? I have started flipping, albeit piecemeal, but still some learners want that constant teacher monitoring. I have no behaviour issues but I want them to understand the philosophy behing inquiry-based learning and I'm not sure they 'get it'.

Reply
Karen Bailey
6/28/2012 05:14:49 am

I love this idea. I think it would be really fun to give them a blank sheet of paper at the end of the course and ask them the same exact questions! Then return their originals to them from the beginning of the course and they can compare/contrast how they have grown. How Cool!

Reply
Jeff Bird
6/29/2012 07:29:50 am

I am new to this idea of Flipping the Class. Is this something I could do with 4th and 5th grade students in Social Studies?




Reply
Amie
7/11/2012 02:17:56 pm

Ummm....I'm stealing this :)

Reply
Amie
7/13/2012 07:51:25 am

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I start my year with social contracts. Students in groups of 4-5, have 4 questions
1. How do you want to be treated in this class by me?
2. How do you want to be treated in this class by your peers?
3. How do you think I want to be treated by you?
4. How will we handle conflict in this class?
Each group brainstorms answers to these questions. I have a large poster board taped to the board. A student volunteer scribes for the class. When we've discussed our brainstormed ideas and put them on the poster board and EVERYONE has agreed to them. We all sign the poster board. They stay up all year. This usually takes me two days. I got this idea from by colleague, Kelly Moreaux :)

Reply
Amie Trahan
7/13/2012 07:51:38 am

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I start my year with social contracts. Students in groups of 4-5, have 4 questions
1. How do you want to be treated in this class by me?
2. How do you want to be treated in this class by your peers?
3. How do you think I want to be treated by you?
4. How will we handle conflict in this class?
Each group brainstorms answers to these questions. I have a large poster board taped to the board. A student volunteer scribes for the class. When we've discussed our brainstormed ideas and put them on the poster board and EVERYONE has agreed to them. We all sign the poster board. They stay up all year. This usually takes me two days. I got this idea from by colleague, Kelly Moreaux :)

Reply
Amie Trahan
7/13/2012 07:52:30 am

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I start my year with social contracts. Students in groups of 4-5, have 4 questions
1. How do you want to be treated in this class by me?
2. How do you want to be treated in this class by your peers?
3. How do you think I want to be treated by you?
4. How will we handle conflict in this class?
Each group brainstorms answers to these questions. I have a large poster board taped to the board. A student volunteer scribes for the class. When we've discussed our brainstormed ideas and put them on the poster board and EVERYONE has agreed to them. We all sign the poster board. They stay up all year. This usually takes me two days. I got this idea from by colleague, Kelly Moreaux :)

Reply
Amie Trahan
7/13/2012 07:52:56 am

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but I start my year with social contracts. Students in groups of 4-5, have 4 questions
1. How do you want to be treated in this class by me?
2. How do you want to be treated in this class by your peers?
3. How do you think I want to be treated by you?
4. How will we handle conflict in this class?
Each group brainstorms answers to these questions.

Reply
Tamara
8/24/2012 10:22:05 pm

I LOVE this idea and am SO stealing it. SO GLAD to have found this EXCELLENT yet SIMPLE idea. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the technology, we forget the purpose of it...doing something simple to start off the year has so much poignancy. I'm curious, do you then post the questions somewhere that sudents can revisit through out the year? You mentioned something about collaborating with other students to "answer" the questions. I'd like to know more about this.

As for the activity I do with my class. I do the Marshmallow Challenge (http://marshmallowchallenge.com/TED_Talk.html). I think it's very fitting way to describe what my classroom will look like throughout the year. I want to get them thinking critically and understanding that working together will provide better writing. We follow up that activity with a writing assignment in which I ask...How is the Marshmallow Activity Like the Writing Process? We go through the entire writing process using this activity as a comparison....I can refer back to the challenge throughout the year. Students enjoy it because they wonder how spaghetti and marshmallows have anything to do with English. My students are deaf, so they really find English challenging, if I can make it more concrete for them, they enjoy it much more. I flipped a few "lessons" last year, but would like to flip the classroom this year. It's going to be a lot of work, but I think the rewards will be magnificent.

I'm going to have to revisit TWITTER as well, I had the same reservations and have not touched my account in over a year...would love to see exactly how you use twitter in the classroom.

Reply
Christie De Leon
12/13/2012 02:23:06 am

Reply
Katie link
3/25/2013 04:08:02 am

You could call it "White Blank Google Doc" ;) Dave and I are talking about this now..

Reply
Dan Winters link
6/5/2013 10:35:34 am

What a great idea. I'm opening my first staff meeting at a brand new K-6 school in San Diego and I'm going to incorporate some of your thinking as I engage my new staff.... flipping the responsibility of their learning onto the teachers.

Reply
Amie Trahan link
6/7/2013 06:48:58 am

First of all, I am sorry about the multiple postings of my previous response #glitchyipad. Second, reading this one year after flipping is SO MUCH MORE RELATABLE THAN THIS TIME LAST YEAR!!! You said exactly what I was thinking all year long. Why can't we have clones of ourselves to contain specific info to remember when we need it...aaaaa!!!

Reply
Jacob link
7/31/2013 06:07:40 am

I am totally using this idea after one of the #INeLearn presentations from a #e3tech Conference in Warsaw, IN! One addition I am making, though, is having students include their dreams on the front along with their information. Our district is really championing inspiring and equipping students to achieve their dreams and I thought that would be a great twist on the White Blank Page idea!

Reply
brandiblaze link
9/7/2013 01:06:29 pm

I created a weebly blog after seeing how simple it looked.

Reply
bola tangkas link
2/6/2014 09:19:38 am

I have been interested in this topic for quite some time. I have been researching it for a couple of hours and found your post to be very interesting.Thanks for sharing

Reply
ibcbet link
2/6/2014 09:20:33 am

This info is very good for me.This site is awesome. My spouse and i constantly come across a new challenge & diverse in this articl

Reply
Nezha
7/10/2015 08:28:31 am

Great website. Thanks for sharing your awesome tips. I am diving into flipped classroom next year and starting a blog for my students. Reading your posts made me feel more confident about this approach. You make it look so easy. I like the big picture of the class centered around the students needs and "bringing the classroom to life again". Thanks you so much.

Reply
Janelle
1/13/2018 12:33:01 pm

Thanks so much for sharing this idea. I am SO stealing it for my Society and Culture class. Also, thanks so much for your generosity in Flipping 2.0 - the provision of the bit.ly codes makes such a wonderful difference. Much appreciated!

Reply



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    A completely incomplete record of three years spent flipping my high school English classes with my cross-country collaborative partner, Andrew Thomasson. But after a decade in high school, I made the switch to a new gig: flipping English and History for 6th graders in Tiburon, CA.

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