Today I had a lot to accomplish in a very short space of time. Because of the shift to mastery and the end of the year totally sneaking up on me, I have had to rush the first draft of the essay.

I gave them a choice:
1. A short story on the topic of resilience

2. A reflective/narrative essay in the style of NPR's This I Believe essays that narrates an incident from their life that was negative, then reflects on what belief is shown through that experience

The results were pretty equal - half of my students chose each. Their short story concepts ranged from a pregnant teen to Mexican Nazis who perpetrate an Aztec genocide. The This I Believe essays had incidents as mundane as an F on a report card to deaths, divorce, and parental alcoholism.

And an amazing thing happened in class -not just in one, but in both periods: I stopped having to manage them. Every time I heard talking, they were bouncing ideas off each other, asking how to spell a word, or proof-reading for each other. Suddenly, my classroom truly flipped. They were taking responsibility for themselves AND helping each other.  I was so impressed that I took a few videos of them working:

That's pretty much how it was the whole time. 

What is equally exciting is that I checked my email and Twitter at 10 PM that night, and saw that about 15 kids had already sent me drafts or tweeted a question. About an essay. At home. On their own. And when my support kids came in this morning, ALL of them had worked on it at home.  These are kids who have never willingly done an essay in their lives. 

When you work at a school like mine, where homework is the realm of AP and leadership students, that is a pretty significant victory.

Oh, and I'm down to just a small handful who haven't passed the Night test yet (around 90% have passed). Every single student who reviewed with me passed it immediately after our review.

This could be the first year in which I don't give a single F in any class for the semester. Just typing that freaks me out a little - and if you saw where they started, you'd understand why I'm so freaking proud of them.

I really feel like this has been the most successful year by far. My only regret is that I started so late. If I had flipped from day one, I bet all my students would have passed the CAHSEE.

There's a pretty good chance that I'll be moving to history next year so it may change the content a bit, but flipping is in my classroom to stay fo'sho (as my kids say). I mean, how can you argue with these results:
-100% engagement
-clear evidence of mastery of the content
-no students failing
-enthusiasm and enjoyment in class
-higher test scores
-students happy to be there, doing work rather than socialising

I know I can't argue against that.

*****

To help my student teacher, I filmed myself reviewing Night with my 5th period class.  We didn't cover everything, and I know I made some mistakes on facts/details (that's what happens when you try to do it without notes!).  There are videos for each chapter.

In the last video, we shot it a day later so it's just me and my friend Omar.  He took the most amazing notes during our review.  And he's failing every single class.  Except mine.  I am so freaking proud of him for working so hard in my class and for recognising his own need to change his behaviour.  I believe that if he were in a fully flipped high school, he would be an A/B student.  He is one of the main reasons I know I'll never go back to the traditional model ever again.

For the last year and a half, we've used the Blank White Page project for students to have 20% time to work on something they really love and are interested in learning.

When I heard about Genius Hour, I saw a difference from BWP/20% time.  I may have this wrong, but it seems to me that Genius Hour is a single class period spent creating something within the context given by the teacher.

Andrew and I are generally anti-test, but we did want there to be some kind of summative assessment from this semester, so we thought that Genius Hour could help us make that more awesome.  We asked students to create something that represented what they had learned: skills, content, concepts, or even something they had learned about themselves as a result of being in this course.  They could use anything I provided: lots of art supplies, puppet-making equipment, green-screens, video camera, iPads, laptops, and even puppets.  Or they could bring in their own materials.

They had a 45 minute period, less the time it took to get started and to share at the end.  Not an ideal amount of time (since the actual time spent on creating was about 35 minutes) but it was a good introduction to Genius Hour.  I asked them all to take about five minutes to plan and explain their plan to someone (or solicit collaborators) so that they didn't just throw themselves into a poorly-thought-out project.  

What I saw was that they took the time seriously and for the most part, committed to a topic and project pretty quickly.  Many of them got better ideas while they talked to one another, and some teamed up.  Then they started working.

Here's what didn't happen:

• No one asked, "How will this be graded?" 
• No one complained about the task
• No one said "I didn't learn anything"
• No one couldn't figure out something concrete to do
• No one refused to work
• No one was afraid to try something, even if it might fail

I did have one student turn in his work and say, "I know it's not good enough. Do you think it's good enough?"  

I asked, "What were the instructions?"

"To make something to show what I've learned."

"Did you do that?"

"Yes."

"Then do you think it's good enough?"

"Yes."

"Awesome."

This is a kid who wanders around the room when he's bored, and struggles to stay on task.  But when he started his work time, he went into a corner of the room, turned up his music, and worked straight through for 35 minutes.  I have never seen him that focused and attentive to anything.

That's what I noticed over and over - they have learned to trust me and our class community enough to dare greatly and take risks.  I had a student use plastic knives for an hourglass.  I had a student make beautiful little drawn figures and use more of those knives to make them into little puppets.  I had lots of students make videos - one about stopping bullies, several about what real education means and how creativity plays a part, and even an auto-tuned song (made on my iPad with the Songify app) used as a background for a puppet music video.  There are tons of art projects, and a few pop-up books.  There is a clay sculpture of a student sitting in a cage, and next to it is written, "Welcome to Hell" with hell crossed out and "School" written above it.

As we near the end of the trimester (tomorrow, actually) and start planning for what comes next, I hope to add more of these days into the curriculum.  Yes, it was a day we could have used for the other work and projects we have going on.  Yes, it was messy (literally and figuratively) and chaotic.  

But telling students that you value their creativity so much that you are giving them an entire class period to be creative does more than just demonstrate what they can produce.  It builds community and gives students the message that their ideas and talents and selves are accepted, no matter what.

Genius Hour was definitely worth the time.  And we - my students, Andrew and I - can't wait until the next one.

There is one thing I've seen with my flipped class that is so impressive EVERY visitor comments on it: my students are all engaged all the time.

Now, I always have had decent classroom management and my lessons are generally engaging, and when they aren't, my personality and persona carry me through. But in a flipped classroom, I find that my students don't need me to motivate them to shut up and sit still. Some need help staying on task and finding their own motivation to do their work, but there is high engagement.

There are lots of reasons for this, but let me give you two reasons that I think they've stopped fighting and learned to love the flip:

1. They are using technology in a way that reminds them of their own personal technology habits and it subverts their need to text, tweet, Facebook, etc. They are learning using in their primary mode of communication and it gives them the freedom and confidence to take risks. It's a little like being at home with their phone learning about their friends dinners or bathroom tendencies on Twitter...but they're learning about English instead.

2. They can listen to music while working. People of my generation don't all have the ability to work while listening to headphones (or slapping, as my kids say). But my kids barely function WITHOUT their music. When I give instructions they can't wear them. But concentration goes up when I don't fight their need for music.

I am going to try to convince you that you should allow and utilise personal electronics in your classroom, not because it's easier, but because it helps them learn and it gives them the access to the tools they already have to teach themselves.

Here are some ways to use personal electronics in your classroom:

--> backchannels for live discussion during a novel or movie. A twitter environment makes no comment or question too insignificant

--> socrative, group texting services, or SMS for quick-checks for understanding, exit tickets, and warm-ups

--> using music to keep them focused on solitary tasks. With headphones in, they will stay on task more easily than without

--> taking video of lectures, discussions or instructions on their own devices during class so they can review it whenever

--> using camera phones to capture notes, info on boards, or to create a response to a topic in pictures

--> to keep track of assignments with a calendar (ideally synched with yours)

--> enhance learning by finding information or videos that relate to the class work and show them to classmates

--> to connect with students across periods, classes, subjects, schools, and even countries. My kids are using Edmodo and Twitter to write and share stories with an Australian class.

If you have more that I missed, let me know!


Anyone, but particularly an educator, who believes that you can ignore the culture our students are engaged in and helping to create is a fool. You can't fight this. But you can choose to accept it and learn from and with your students.

You will be amazed at the changes that happen in your room.

This post is not just any post.  I took some rough video of my classes in action.  When I say rough, I mean rough.  It's me walking around with my cell phone camera filming what class ACTUALLY looks like when students are all working on different tasks. 

This self-pacing is pretty new to my kids.  I've taught for 8 years where most of the time, all my students are doing the same thing with me all at the same time.  That's how this year started.

But I wanted you to see what it REALLY looks like, warts and all.  I'm not saying it was a good class period or that it's exemplary of the flipped model.  It is what it is.  And I wanted that to be out there and say that I'm NOT perfect, and probably not even GOOD a lot of the time, but I believe that self-reflection is the KEY to every successful educators.  I need others speaking into my classroom and my instruction so that I can get better.  So if you have advice for me, or think I could improve somehow, I'd REALLY like to know.

I filmed most of the period, so here are the videos, in order.  I didn't edit anything.  The only thing I did was stop periodically so that the files were small enough to upload to YouTube.  Sorry about the shakiness and weird angle (I cut off heads a lot of the time).  Again, it is what it is.

***

To really understand these videos in context, you need to know what I wanted to accomplish in this class.  The objectives for this class period were different, based on where they started:

For kids absent for the mastery Night test:
1. To take the test, then go on to the next priority/activity so they can catch up

For kids who didn't achieve mastery on the test they took the previous day:
1. To have them identify the holes in their recall of Night
2. To review the chapters/skills on which they didn't show mastery
3. For students who REALLY struggled on the test, I wanted them to get a bigger picture review using Sparknotes.  This will be controversial with other English teachers, I'm sure.  However, here's my thinking:  I know they all read the book, because we did it together.  They will not be able to re-read the entire book, and that's not the best use of their time anyway.  As an English major, I used Sparknotes for review before class (I rarely ever failed to do the reading, and even if I did, Sparknotes wasn't enough to save me in a discussion class).  I also want them to know where to go for help when they need a quick review.

For the kids who DID show mastery:
1. Students will brainstorm SOAPS elements to start their own fictional story on the theme of resilience.

The overall objective was, as usual:
1. Students will take responsibility for their own learning by completing tasks to best move them towards mastery of the content, with my help as needed.

***

I started filming after going over the instructions with them for what needed to be accomplished during the period (this was a 45 minute period on a late-start/common-planning-time day). 

Here is the Edmodo note I posted with instructions:

When the video starts, we've just gone over those instructions.  It starts about 90 seconds into the period.  You'll see me clarifying instructions, circulating amoung students, fixing technical problems, grading quizzes, and helping students prioritise how to begin their review for their mastery test.

Sorry that the video is messed up in the next one.  I didn't notice it was upside down until about 10 seconds before I stopped recording it.  But there's only about 10 seconds between the next two clips.

Here is the end of class.  For added fun, a kid tries to start a fight in the classroom across the way at about 7:00.  Sorry for the swearing.

That's it.  I'm a little nervous putting it out there like that.  It's raw, and it's real and it's reflective of a normal day in class.  So, yeah.

***

If you're curious about the assignments, here are the review and Short Story Task 1.


Reviewing for the Night Mastery Test

Here is the breakdown of questions.  Erase any question numbers that you got RIGHT.  That will leave you with a clear idea of what you need to review:

Questions by Chapter:

Chapter 1:    1          2          3          5          6

Chapter 2:    4          7

Chapter 3:    8          9          10       11

Chapter 4:    12       13       14       15       16       17       18       19       20

Chapter 5:    21       23

Chapter 6-7:            22       24       25

Chapter 8-9:            26       27       28

For any chapter that you got less than 70% on, you should complete the following activity.  Use the chapters or Sparknotes to complete it.

Chapter ____:_______________________________________________

Important Events:

Questions:

How can you connect events, people, or ideas in this chapter to what occurred historically?  In other words, how does the historical fiction relate to an event or phase in the actual time of the Holocaust?

 
Questions by Skill:

Literary Devices:     7          16       19       25      28       29

Irony:             22       23

Theme:          5          10       15       24       27

If you need a review, there is a video about the literary devices you can watch on your phone (it’s at www.showme.com/cherylmorris).  If you need to work on a specific skill (metaphor, personification, simile, irony, theme, symbolism, etc.) ask me and I’ll give you an assignment.

What I need to review before taking the test again on Friday:

How I am planning to do that:


***


And here's the short story task:

The Resilience Project

You are to write a 750-1000 word short story that explores the concept ‘resilience’. To help you plan, draft and publish a story that is engaging and shows your development as a writer, this task features FOUR separate parts.

TASK 1:  The plan

In your plan you need to show that you have thought about what you will write about in your story and how you will use language and structure to create an engaging story. To help you plan your story, answer the following questions. You may want to type up your answers into a word document or as an edmodo note. 

1.     What is the purpose of your story?

·        to entertain/inform/educate/enlighten/confront/move

2.     Who is your audience?

·        young adults/children/adults/educated/outsiders

3.     What do you want to say about resilience?

4.     Who will be your characters? (protagonist and antagonist)

5.     Where will your story be set?

·        country/city/culture/time period

6.     What style of genre will your story be?

·        realism/Science Fiction/Gothic/comedy/action/fantasy/romance

7.     How will it begin? How will it end?

8.     What crisis or obstacle must be overcome?

9.     What research do you need to do to help create a believable story?

·        Research: settings/genre/characters/ concept ‘resilience’.

10.     What skills do you need to master to create an effective and engaging story?

·        narrative structure/dialogue/figurative language/building tension

DUE DATE: Task 1 must be submitted to your teacher via edmodo or on paper by FRIDAY.


***

Well folks, that's it.  Please tell me what you think!  I hope it is a little more real to you now that you can see what it's really like in my classroom.

So on Edmodo, I had a lot of questions about my post yesterday.  And there were a few comments on here, but for some reason, Weebly isn't letting me reply to them on my app (it says "comments are forbidden") or on my work computer (I click on "Reply" and it does nothing).  Sigh.  So I'll address them here.

About the Caught'yas:
At the beginning of the year, I hadn't flipped.  I used her procedure exactly (walk around the room checking, going over it together, grading it based on them making the changes, collecting the notebooks weekly or bi-weekly, etc.).

When I started flipping the DOLs, my kids were pretty much ready to catch all the errors on their own.  They weren't making a ton of mistakes.  So I made it a little more complicated, and added etymology words from our school's curriculum.

I don't add it as a note (I learned that they would just copy the first person who responded!).  I add it as an assignment.  They copy the text, then press "Turn In" and paste it into the reply box.  Then they make the changes.  The main difference is that there isn't the ability to hold an indent, so the kids put an asterisk for every new paragraph or just use block formatting (two spaces between paragraph with no indent)...I've taught them both and they are free to choose.

Instead of trying to explain in words, I thought I'd use some screenshots of the process from start to finish.  So here it is!

I start by posting the assignment on Edmodo:

Then, I have them work on it for a few minutes while I take attendance.

When they've had a little time, I random call to take corrections (sometimes it's like, "Aaron, give me ALL the capitals" and sometimes it's "JB, give me one tricky correction" - I try to keep it varied!).

Here's what it looks like when we go over it together in class (this is tomorrow's DOL...sorry it's not the one in the other photos...can't seem to find that file right now):

I often give them one or two "challenge" corrections that we don't go over together.  For DOL 95, it was changing "that" to "who" and combining the last two sentences.  I gave them a general idea of what to do (change one word in this sentence and combine the last two sentences), but had them make corrections and submit the assignment.

Here's what I see when I go to grade (notice that some kids, like Josaphat, were absent, so it doesn't say "Turned In" for them):

Then, I start grading it.  If I can, I like to do it during class so they can make any needed revisions right away.  If not in class, I have them revise the next day.

Here's what grading looks like.  Sometimes I grade for total mastery, where they get half credit if they make ANY errors.  Sometimes, I choose an error that I'm checking for (whatever I focused on) and if they have corrected it, they get full credit (even if they made other small errors...).  If they haven't corrected it, they get partial credit and have to revise.

Here are three students' responses, with different score points (from low to high):

Leon got 5/10 and will have to revise because he didn't do either of the changes he needed to make.  I left him the comment so he can revise.  This is a student who rushes through everything, and really hasn't learned to take full responsibility for himself yet.

Jose got one of the changes, so he gets and 8/10.  He doesn't have to revise unless he wants 100%.  It's clear he tried, but he's an English Language Learner, and sometimes struggles with grammar.

Aaron made both changes, and even though his sentence combination isn't ideal, he gets 10/10.  I did post a comment for him praising his effort because he clearly tried.

Today, they'll go back and copy their previous submission, then resubmit the assignment to be re-graded. 

I think I got all the questions about how the DOL works.  If you have more, post 'em here and I'll try to answer them ASAP!

The next post(s) will be about flipping a novel unit, testing procedures, and mastery grading.

One of the primary things I took away from this week's #flipclass chat was that I needed to be more explicit about how my classroom looks so that other English flippers can both learn/steal from me AND so I can get feedback to make it better!

To start class, we do one of the following:
1. A DOL from The Chortling Bard - Caught'ya! Grammar With a Giggle for High School.  In my 10th grade class, we're using the storyline of Twelfth Night.  In my 10th grade support class, we're using Much Ado About Nothing.  It breaks up the story into daily sentence corrections with etymology and vocabulary development built in.  I post it as an assignment on Edmodo, then they get three minutes to correct it on their own.  I random call or take volunteers to correct it, then they turn it in.  To grade it, I choose one/two focus points and if they got those right, they get credit.  If not, they get reduced credit.

2. A review of what we did in a previous lesson.  Today, I posted a timeline activity students completed in class or at home yesterday and they went through and reviewed the work of their peers.  It helped them all review the book we're reading (Night, by Elie Wiesel) and gave me a good indication of who had mastered the material and who hadn't.

After that activity, I usually assign the main work for the day or have them continue where they left off the previous day.  I am moving from a VERY traditional method of assigning points and grading to a mastery approach, so this is a work in progress. 

I'll use today as an example.  There were two tasks that they were working on:

For students who were ready, they had their first attempt at the Reading Comprehension Mastery Test for Night.  There were 29 multiple choice and 2 short answer questions, of which most were questions developed by my collaborative grade-level team and are used by all the 10th grade teachers.  I added a few more to make sure that I could show mastery in each area.  If they passed, they obtained mastery and moved on to the next activity. 

The students who were not ready, either reviewed some of our previous assignments, or started the short story they are writing in conjunction with Davidson High School in Australia.  The story is about resilience, and they have a pre-writing task to complete.  Some did it on computer, some did it on paper (there are so many non-functional computers that we're short about 3 of a full class set in my largest section).

Tomorrow, the students will either take the test or work on their short story.  They will be writing it on computer, and submitting it on Edmodo.  Then we'll be swapping with the Davidson students, and they will be doing some peer-editing and reviewing with us.

At the end of class, I'll often have a final task that they complete to show me what they've accomplished or learned.  If we're using TodaysMeet, I'll ask it there and they'll answer it there.  If not, it will be on Edmodo, posted as a note.
___________


Now, when we're reading the novel or watching a movie, class is a little different.  For both occasions, I create a room through TodaysMeet (TM) and they all sign in.  Then they post questions, comments, reflections, etc. live as we read or watch.  I will also ask them questions and have them respond in the thread.

For essay preparation, I have them find quotes that match a theme and post it to a specific TM room dedicated to that theme.  Same with finding literary devices.  Those were the two focus themes for this unit.

____________

Now about the mastery grading.  I'm still working this out, so if I get something wrong, let me know.

There are certain skills for each unit that they need to master.  For this one: identifying and explaining significance of literary devices, finding evidence to fit a theme, understanding historical context/importance of Night/Holocaust, writing an interpretive essay, writing a short story that shows a particular theme (resilience), and writing an essay that uses a properly developed thesis, supporting evidence, compelling commentary, and correct conventions of grammar/spelling/etc. 

For each skill, there is an assessment task and several formative assignments.  They complete a diagnostic assessment, which tells me what they need to learn.   Then they complete activities that help them develop their skills.  Then they take the mastery test, and if they don't achieve mastery, they go back and review, then try again.

I'll write in my next post an example of what that actually looks like for a single strand.

Hope that's helpful for some of you!

A few thoughts about the AMAZING #flipclass chat last night:

1. Best topic of the three chats I've done.  The opening topic was "What classroom projects/assignments are you doing with #flipclass?"  There was a lot of talk about the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, which I'm still pondering.

Another question asked what changed most in my classroom...

2. The thing that has changed the most in my classroom has been the grading and feedback students get.  They sometimes get work graded in the same period it's turned in.  Instead of collecting DOL notebooks (and carting 120 home every other weekend....ugh), I can grade them through Edmodo in SECONDS.

3. Another change is that I've relaxed my rules about using non-academic English.  It's still encouraged, but when we're using backchannels, I don't push them to make it published quality.  The emphasis is on quality of response, NOT conventions of English.

4. Yet another change in terms of grading, is the issue of mastery vs. standard points.  Even today, when I told students that they needed to show mastery to pass the unit, they asked, "But how many points is this worth?"  I explained mastery again, and they seemed to get it, but it's slow going.  They are used to getting points based on effort (which I did to encourage my students, most of whom struggle academically and have not been successful in previous English classes) and now they don't.  It's a slow process.

5. I found a few more English flippers.  That's exciting!  I could be wrong, but it really feels like there are fewer than 15 of us flipping HS English in the US.  I would love to be proved wrong, and find a ton of flippers who just aren't active on Edmodo or Twitter.  If you aren't connected with me on one of those two places (@guster4lovers on Twitter, edmodo profile at edmodo.com/morrisflipsenglish) please get connected - I'd love to meet you.

6. The English flippers are planning to do some summer collaboration, particularly on videos.  More info when we figure it out! :-)

During the KQED Do Now Advisory Board meeting, I brought up Flipping, casually.  It's such a part of my world now, that I just assume that everyone knows about it.  But I soon became a Flipping Evangelist. 

This weekend, several teachers emailed our group asking for more information and I sent an email, detailing how I figured out this whole Flipping thing.  I thought I'd post part of that email here because I haven't seen a list out there that gives specific starting steps (forgive me if there is and I just haven't seen it!) for someone in the humanities who is considering flipping.

Here are the first steps I took, and that I would encourage you to take:

1. Get involved with #flipclass chat - it happens Mondays at 5 PM.  Just follow #flipclass...as a warning, it is CRAZY - sometimes about 30 messages in a minute, so it works better if you're on an iPad or computer.  But I've done it on my iPhone and it's possible, especially if you're just watching on the first one.  All of the chats are archived, so if you follow @bennettscience (he created and manages #flipclass chats) you'll find them.  At least find me on Twitter (@guster4lovers) and I'll help you get plugged into my flipping network.

2. Get on Edmodo or Moodle.  They're both free platforms that your students can get onto to have discussions, take quizzes, and have a secure network in which to interact.  I use Edmodo, and have gotten a TON from the group FlipShare (code: 0ywjwj - that's a zero).  There are some great teachers on there, and there's a lot of cross-over with the Twitter group.

3. Figure out a way to make screen-casts or videos and start experimenting RIGHT NOW.  If you have an iPad, I would recommend ShowMe - it's a free app that lets you use the iPad as a virtual whiteboard. (and if you don't have an iPad, GET ONE!  They have so many applications for education!) You can see the videos I've made at my showme profile: www.showme.com/cherylmorris.  There are some great pay-for-use softwares, amoung them Camtasia is the one rated the highest.  My district has SMARTrecorder installed on all the computers already, so you might check with your IT department about what software people are already using.

4. Start a blog.  Seriously.  There are only a few of us flipping in the humanities, and we really need more voices out there, even if you're only figuring it out as you go.  Mine is www.morrisflipsenglish.com, and a friend of mine runs http://www.flipped-history.com/.  There are literally only about a dozen people flipping HS history/English that I know about, so we're pioneers, people.  We may have to lead the way, rather than following others, but the flipped revolution is about to start.  In a year, everyone will know about flipping.  Seriously, it's going to be HUGE.

5. You should get on http://flippedlearning.org/ and attend the virtual FlipCon12 if you can (the virtual conference is $97 and you can attend all the sessions virtually...all the seats are sold out).  The guys who run both are the ones who created the flipped model in 2007 and are the experts in the industry.  Their book is out next month and will be a big help as you consider how flipping fits in your classroom.

6. Come see what I do (this only works for people in the Bay Area, obviously).  Until you see it, it's hard to understand it.  If you know people in your district or school who are trying it, go see them, even if they teach a different subject.  If you can't come before school gets out, I'm teaching June School and I'll be running English 9, 10, 11, and 12 simultaneously in a flipped mastery model.  Wow.  Just writing that makes me nervous...it's still in planning stages, but it'll be a chance for me to try out a bunch of ideas and see what works. 

Our mantra in the flipping movement right now is, "it's not all about the video" - you can flip without making videos at all.  You can also flip without making your students watch videos at home - a lot of teachers give students the option of watching in class if they don't have the technology at home....they just use stations and that's one station.  The point of flipping is re-imagining how class time is used; instead of delivering information, you are guiding students in developing their skills and practicing with the knowledge they've gained.

I hope that's helpful.  I started wading in gradually in January, but I jumped in fully about three months ago, and I would never go back.  I think you'll find that most of us who have flipped say that.

It's a great time to be a teacher right now.  Especially a teacher who is into technology.

I feel like I say this a lot, but if you are a teacher flipping in the humanities, LET ME KNOW!  I feel like the blind leading the blind at times, and I'd love to see what you do and steal..

I've been thinking a lot about moving towards a system of mastery, rather than just a typical flipped model.  What I keep seeing is that some students are falling behind and aren't mastering one skill by the time we're ready to move on.  For some of them, it's missing the instruction (be it on the video or the reading we do in class) because of absences.  For some, it's simply lack of effort/desire to work.  For some, they are genuinely so low-skilled that they struggle no matter what the task is.  Regardless of the reason, letting any student fail is unacceptable to me on an ethical level.  I know that some kids actively try to fail, but I don't want to have to question whether I did enough to help.

With that thought in mind (since those students are my target audience for this), I am teaching a credit recovery summer school that will be entirely built on a flipped mastery model.  I will have students from all four grades (9th-12th) in the same room for five hours a day.  We can't use any of the books that are normally taught in the regular year, so we're confined to things we can get digitally for free (did you know that there are lots of Kindle editions of classic books that you can download for free?!) or books that are no longer taught (Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird are two, so that's cool).

I've asked my department for help deciding what skills need to be mastered to get a student ready to enter the next grade up, so that should help.  But it seems a little overwhelming right now to come up with tasks in reading, writing, conventions, and speaking for four grade levels in a mastery-based model.  I asked for 10 hours of planning time, and it looks like I'm going to need that and then some.

Have any of you done something like this?  Helpful tips/comments?  Bueller?

So last night was the first meeting of the Twitter Advisory Board through the local PBS affiliate, KQED.  My good friend Brian Williams (@MrWilliamsSLz), a history teacher at SLz was also invited to participate so we travelled in together.

On the way, we participated in the #flipclass chat, although it was more watching than tweeting since we were walking/BARTing/driving most of the time.  The chat was interesting, although slower than last week.  The focus was on literacy across content areas, and it was really neat to see all the non-English teachers talk about how much reading/writing they do in their subject areas.  If the only reading/writing they are doing is in the English classroom, they will not be proficient in all the skills demanded by colleges or in their future careers.

Someone tweeted a link to a great blog post about not teaching the five paragraph essay anymore in light of the Common Core Standards and their focus on higher level thinking skills.  I have taught the FPE for years, as it's something that all students are able to do and gives them an entry point to learning to write a good essay.  However, I also treat it like training wheels - teenagers would look ridiculous riding a bike with training wheels, whereas a small child would kill themselves without them.  Writing is no different: you need training wheels until you don't.  9th graders usually do, but 10th graders can be pushed to kick off the training wheels and take steps toward higher level writing.

Back to the KQED Do Now Advisory Board.  We were encouraged to use their Do Now curriculum, which focuses on current events.  Students respond to a question (this week's question is: Are LOLcats and internet memes art?) using Twitter and then see other students' responses.

We had a few spare minutes in class yesterday (Wednesday, May 16), so I had two classes try it out.  We discovered a few things:
1. The students who had Twitter loved the Do Now.
2. Not all students have Twitter. Furthermore,
3. Some students HATE Twitter.  Most of their hate was ignorance (and I was there too, only a few months ago) so was easy to dispel, but I didn't expect so many to hate it.
4. The mobile Twitter site works at school despite our firewall (yay!).

Despite that, my students were split down the middle (incidentially, I say they are ABSOLUTELY art!) between thinking that they were art and thinking that they were just stupid.  It's really hard to have a substantive comment in 140 characters, especially when it has to include @kqededspace and #kqeddonow.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with the next one, after all the kids are on Twitter and have done it once before.