Today was legitimately one of the most exciting, and probably important, days of my career.  

Today was the day that Andrew Thomasson and I made our first attempt at collaborative video.  Now I do a lot of ShowMe videos, but having my face and my entire screen in the video is not quite as comfortable for me.  I mean, ShowMe (ironically) lets me hide.  Screencasting a Google+ Hangout is new territory.

We have been sending tweets and emails and texts back and forth hammering out details and plans, but it was time to take the plunge and get it going.

Our tweets right after the screencast sums it up pretty well:

Here's what I learned about screencasting and editing in Camtasia for Mac based on this experience:

1. Having a plan is a good idea.  We outlined the entire video ahead of time, but allowed for spontaneous dialogue and direction.  It wasn't as polished as it could be (and will be as we get better at this).

2. The teacher/student dynamic (Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams made use of this in their collaborative videos) works pretty well.  I think it's the best way of showing the process, rather than just lecturing.

3. Camtasia really is awesome.  It took me a while to figure out how to do everything I wanted, but I'm relatively happy with the editing.  It was pretty easy to get it up and running, and even though I had to pretty much learn everything as I went along, the 12 minute video took me about 90 minutes to complete.

4. Working with someone else makes the video so much more powerful.  I can't possibly overstate this.  Making a ShowMe video is great.  But having TWO teachers combining wisdom and practice to teach a lesson?  That's just phenomenal.

5. Having someone else preview the video helps catch errors.  I had a spelling mistake, an unfortunate Google auto-correct moment, some misaligned camera angles, and a few spots of dead air.  With those tweaks, it was much better.  And I wouldn't have caught them or made them if someone else hadn't been involved.

6. Every Flipped teacher should try a collaborative video at some point if they can.  It pushes you to be better than you are alone.  And that's what teaching is all about.

Okay, enough about me.  Here's the video.

We're recording Part 2 tonight.  Stay tuned for that one.

After having such a productive conversation with Andrew Thomasson (@thomasson_engl) yesterday, I was on a #flipclass idea binge.  So as I was driving home from Marin, I was thinking about what my first week of school would look like.

And I made the logical conclusion that the first week of school should be flipped.  

I know...duh, right?

But it's important to consider what that looks like.  Normally, I would give out a syllabus and spend at least a couple of days teaching them how to succeed in my class.  But I kept asking myself the Flipped Class Question: What is the best use of my class time?

So as I was thinking about that, I realised that there is NO better way to give them the typical "syllabus" information than in short videos.  Each night there could be a small portion of some major skill or piece of information they'll need. 

Here's are the videos I'm planning to do (your needs may vary):
1. Signing up for Edmodo and format of Cornell Notes*
2. Rules and Procedures (food, electronics, hats, that kind of thing)
3. Introduction to Flipped Learning 
4. Technology they'll use (GoogleDocs, Today's Meet, Socrative, Edmodo, etc.)
5. Patterning** system

*The really metacognitive part here is that the first video will teach Cornell Notes style, and then they'll have to re-watch the video and take Cornell Notes about the video (super meta, right?) and submit them on Edmodo.

For each of the videos, there will be a specific task, like the Cornell Notes, that will help my students learn what I expect - all without me having to lecture them once face-to-face.  Then the first thing we'll do in class is have them ask the questions they generated during their viewing of the video.

**patterning is a system that I will discuss on this blog at some point, but it's too much for this section.

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The other thing I needed to figure out was what it would look like to do an inquiry unit (roughly an explore-flip-apply unit) for this information.  That's when I had the second Great Idea.  

The inquiry (explore) question is: What is it like to be a student in Ms. Morris' class?  What will help you succeed in Ms. Morris' class?

I will have them answer those questions (just outside my classroom, so they can't hear each other) in a short video interview on the first day, while the rest of the class is doing White Blank Page.  What they say will be interesting, because it will be based on whatever evidence they've managed to glean about me from being in my classroom.  That tells me something about their critical thinking, and will help guide me as I create the research unit videos.  It also gives me an opportunity to talk about first impressions, and the psychology around the way we use language - verbal and body language - to help guide our impressions about the world around us.

At the end of class, they'll turn in their White Blank Page assignment.  The next day, I'll show them how I can glean evidence about them from their work.  They will use those skills to gather evidence about me based on what I've put up in my classroom and what they can learn by asking good questions.  I'll probably do a little with personality/ learning and brain-based learning.  I know there isn't a ton of science behind MBTI, but ever since I had several students email me or come find me after graduation to tell me that was the most useful thing they did in my class, I decided to keep doing it.  I'll cover that at some point if people are interested in seeing it.

The eventual result (apply) will be them writing an "essay" that will answer the inquiry question and help me understand them.  That will also help me diagnose what writing skills need to be covered.  

It's only June, so I'm sure as the summer goes on, I'll have more ideas.  I'd also like to hear your thoughts!

I'm not sure I understood the full benefits of collaboration before I began flipping.  I mean, I knew that it was good to have smart people around you...but I didn't realise that those people didn't have to be in close physical proximity.  In fact, opening up the walls of my classroom to the entire interwebs has given me an almost unlimited supply of smart, like-minded, innovative teachers.  

One of those people is Andrew Thomasson (@thomasson_engl).  He and I met through Twitter, while following #flipcon12 and #flipclass.  There are so few of us English flippers that we get really, REALLY excited to find another person crazy enough to plow head-long into the unknown.  After dozens of messages back and forth, we decided to just have a real conversation over FaceTime.

It started with the idea of creating some skill-based videos together.  We're both flipping primarily 11th-12th grade, with high achieving students.  And then we came onto the idea that changed everything:  working together, we could create a series of videos that follow the writing process from idea to publishing, and shows a complete essay as it's being created.  We'll work with a teacher/student dynamic, and flip roles periodically.

He came up with this filter to spiral out our skills (because you obviously can't cover everything in one video):
--What should a serious essay include?
--What should a competent essay include?
--What should an awesome essay include?

For the first video, we'll cover the research process/essay.  More info to come (when we figure it all out).

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This is only one of the projects that I'm going to collaborating on with other teachers over the summer.  I don't know why I never thought to expand my classroom walls previous to this.  Okay, that's not true.  I do know why.  But it's not relevant to the classroom.

Another part of my summer collaboration is to interact with the Edmodo group for English Language Arts teachers who are flipping or planning to flip.  There are now over 80 people in the group!  It's amazing how much the idea of flipping has spread.  I'm excited by the opportunity to work with such talented, visionary people who work so hard to make the classroom the best possible environment for learning.  It's an exciting time to be a teacher!

If you're interested, below the fold is the document I put together using the Common Core Standards connected to each part of the writing process.  I hid it beneath the fold so that you don't have to scroll forever to get to the end of it. 

Yesterday, I posted this blog entry on Explore-Flip-Apply, and got this comment from Audra Brackbill:

Thank you for posting some concrete ideas for inquiry-based learning. I've just recently become obsessed with the flipped classroom. I read an article...which led to an article...which led to blogs and videos and all kinds of good stuff. I'm pretty familiar with the theory behind the model but it's so hard to wrap my head around what it looks like in real life, especially with the limited L.A. flip examples out there. Your blog has been so helpful in getting ideas for this upcoming school year. I'm excited to starting planning projects and units. Any advice for how to turn the typical classroom read/discuss/do some graphic organizers/test...into meaningful inquiry questions? I feel like all the questions I've been using for "essential questions" are unsuitable for inquiry. How did you make that shift?

Instead of just posting a response there, I decided to make this into a new post.  So here you go, Audra.  :-)

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Inquiry has been on my brain constantly...seriously, when Ramsay challenged ELA teachers to figure out how to do inquiry in a meaningful way, I felt personally responsible for making it happen.  I'm a little obsessive about teaching too...my life since January has been about the flipped classroom.  I honestly didn't realise that very few teachers were doing it in English until recently.  I just thought it fit for me, and worked for my kids.

My advice would be to make your brain think in two tracks: 1) skill-based and 2) thematic.  Those can run simultaneously (i.e. in the same unit) or you could just do one of them.  Both have themes and both have skills, but it's a helpful lens to add when you separate them out. 

If the skill for the unit is analysing how genre shapes a narrative and the content is House on Mango Street, then here are a few essential questions:

1. How much of HOMS is fictional?  How does genre shape the text? (skill)
2. What does it mean to be home?  How is the idea of belonging/not belonging shown? (theme)

Now, both of them have skill and both have theme.  #2 is a better inquiry question because there's no right answer.  #1 is still okay though, because it can be applied directly to the text, and can have lots of possible answers. 

Fundamentally, I think both can work for EFA:

EFA for #1:
E: research Cisneros and come up with a rough narrative of her life (bonus: biography writing!)
F: video on different genres and features of those genres
A: using the knowledge they gained from explore phase and terminology from flip phase, compare/contrast the novel to Cisneros' biography and write that up into a formal essay

EFA for #2:
E: Have students write about their own community/home/school or wherever they feel they "belong."  Write a personal narrative/descriptive essay on their idea of home/belonging
F: Model finding examples to fit a theme, or revising a narrative essay, or features of a good narrative essay (that could go hand-in-hand with #1)
A: read the book and find Cisneros' definition of home, and either compare it to their own, or do a project that analyses/reflects on her ideas about belonging/not belonging within cultural/linguistic/religious lines.

If I combined them into one, it would look like this:
E: Have students research Cisneros' life.  Read several chapters from HOMS that have thoughts on home and what Esperanza thinks about her home. 
F: video on features of different genres, video on compare/contrast essay, video on narrative technique from HOMS
A: Compare her thoughts on home to their own experience of home and complete a project/essay/presentation about that.  Compare Esperanza to Sandra Cisneros and talk about how the genre of fiction changes how Cisneros presents her own life experiences

I hope that helps Audra, as well as anyone else confused about how to build an EFA unit.  I'd be happy to do requests if anyone has a skill/text in mind...that may make it easier to conceptualise! :-)

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting on my blog.  I really appreciate the feedback, and I feel much more prepared for next year already!

This entry will grow as students complete their final projects.  Here are two projects on how to understand new words you encounter when you read.  I didn't check the powerpoint before she presented, so there are some errors.  But overall, I'm proud of what she did. 

So I've been thinking a lot about Ramsay Musallam's Explore-Flip-Apply model, since listening to him being interviewed for the Flipped Learning Network's podcast, by fellow English-Flipper Mr. Troy Cockrum. Ramsay said that if English teachers could figure out an authentic inquiry model, flipping would get much easier, especially the E-F-A model he uses.

Here's the basic premise of Explore Flip Apply:
Explore - in this phase, you present students with a problem or question and they work to find the answer.  It could be a lab, it could be research, it could be a reading, it could be a video...but it has to lead students to construct knowledge and start building a schema for the topic.  Ideally, students would understand many of the concepts without the teacher giving them any information.

Generally, it starts with a guided question, like "What qualities create good non-fiction writing?"   An example activity for that question would be to have students compare samples of good writing and determine the qualities of good writing based on those samples.  

Flip - this phase can be just the flipped part in the traditional flip: record a video of your direct instruction and have students view it at home (or in class if that's more appropriate).  It can also be a spot/targeted remediation made that night, or it can be a pre-made video, or it can be an impeccably edited screencast.  In this phase, the focus is on the skills/standards/information students will need to fully understand the concept and fill the gaps in their constructed knowledge.

Apply - in this, final phase, students use the knowledge they have constructed along with the knowledge the teacher has delivered via video to work on a real-world problem.  In chemistry, this could be a similar lab as the explore lab, only with enough difference that students can compare and contrast, analyse more fully, or create a new situation to demonstrate their knowledge.  In the writing example above, you could have students write something that demonstrates all the traits of good writing, and then evaluate themselves or peers based on a rubric you develop (or even better, one that the students develop).  After this phase, you can assess and then reteach as necessary.

Ramsay Musallam also teaches AP, and sometimes adds a "train" phase before the apply phase where students get practice for AP-style questions.

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So that's the basic premise.  Right now, the EFA model makes sense in math and science, where there are ideas you can explore and concepts you can test that have lab/real-life applications.  English is a little harder.  However...

I think I may have cracked it, at least with one example. Using a skill-based inquiry question just ends up being lame a lot of the time (How can I write a good claim paragraph? is a skill-based question, and it's not REAL inquiry - there is a more-or-less "right" answer).  The best inquiry questions, or really, the only valid inquiry questions are the ones for which there is no one answer.  The really, really good ones are the ones for which everyone in class (teacher included) is interested in finding the answer.

So we need to base it on a theme or style issue that is evident in the chosen text (for reading standards) or essay skills/genres/qualities (for writing standards). 

Right now, I'm reading Rena's Promise with my kids, and we've already seen Anne Frank. So I was thinking about using that to build a framework for Explore Flip Apply. 

Here's what I came up with:

EXPLORE - What qualities do resilient people have? Can you make someone more resilient? How?

Either a text or video will work for this. I used Rena's Promise, and I had students read the first part of it (had I decided to use this for the explore phase before I started the unit, I would have given them a shorter portion of it - maybe even a short 2-3 page section). I also had them watch "Hero at 30,000 Feet" - a Derren Brown special, where he takes an "average" guy and teaches him to become more heroic and resilient.

I then had them come up with a definition for resilience, based on what the guy in the Derren Brown special experienced; I also had them look at what it takes to develop resilience in him. I had them do something similar with Rena's Promise and with Anne Frank - they found examples of when Rena/Anne (or others) showed resilience.

FLIP - This is where the skill applications come in. You could use almost any skill here, so long as it would give students the ability to complete the Apply task.

I would have separate videos, one for each skill:
--How to find and analyse a theme in a text
--Choosing the best evidence for a theme 
--Writing a claim paragraph using that evidence

APPLY - Here's where content (Explore) and skills (Flip) come together.  Students will take the skills of finding themes, using evidence, and writing it up into a claim paragraph to complete an essay that answers the essential questions and analyses the resiliency of Rena and Anne Frank.

Now, if students struggle in the apply phase, I can just respond to that directly by making a video to help in that specific area.  Today, students were having trouble doing an inquiry assignment where they tested out vocabulary strategies on a difficult text, so I just took my iPad and made a video modelling it.  I then had the kids who needed it watch it immediately.  It was SOOO much better than doing it 15 times over.  

So really, in English, Explore Flip Apply is a way of blending content and skill, with the content driving the inquiry, and the skill driving the flip phase.  I know that Ramsay adds in a Train phase after Flip to do some test question prep.  With writing and revision, that would make sense.  Grammar would also fit there - specific, targeted instruction in a particular skill that will be assessed on the final essay would be super useful.

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I felt the need to separate this out clearly using a barrier of asterisks because I know Ramsay isn't a fan of the mastery model.  But since I am using it (more or less) I thought I should add this.

The way I understand mastery in an English context is this:
Where a student starts makes ALL the difference. If a student starts at 4th grade standard, then my expectations are different than for a student who starts at grade level.  Improvement is more important than skill compared to an objective benchmark.  And you can easily show improvement on a 6 point rubric. 

Especially with writing, mastery makes more sense if you think about rubrics - if a 5/6 is proficient, then they just revise and revise until they get to proficiency. That's usually only a matter of one good, substantive revision after the first draft is finished. If they can't get to proficiency due to low-skill/below grade level starting point, then I adjust what mastery looks like to them. But with appropriate scaffolding along the way, and the intense differentiation afforded by the flipped model, that usually isn't an issue.

Now, I've been asked about gradebook for mastery, both here and on Edmodo, so I'll add this note: I would make one assignment in the gradebook for the first draft, and another for the final draft.  The first draft is always just credit/no credit because it's formative, not summative.  And grading the first draft sends the message that they are done with the essay, and no further action is required.  

If they choose to revise their final draft, then every new draft they turn in just raises their score in the entry for the final draft (I don't mind regrading things dozens of times - I tell them that if they'll take the time to write it, I'll make the time to read it.  Usually no student does more than two final drafts, so I haven't had to deal with that much).  

Making the final draft the only graded one pushes towards mastery because it requires students to always be thinking in terms of revision and forward progress.  I actually have a revision policy that means students can re-do any assignment (in a timely manner - within the unit, usually) for a higher grade, as long as they try their best on the original AND the revision.  Kids love that rule, and I've seen a culture of revision develop in my class that I think is really unique and special.

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So I still haven't figured everything out for this model, but I'd like to know what you all think.  And if you have better ideas or a way you use Explore Flip Apply in your classroom, let me know!

For people who want to flip science or math, there are a wealth of resources available.  While there's no "How-To" binder, you can pretty much pick up another teacher's videos and keep on using the same materials you've been using for years.  

But in English, other than Troy Cockrum and Kate Petty, there aren't many people flipping AND writing about it.  I think it is partially a problem of definition; there aren't many people who can define what English flipping looks like.  So here's my attempt:

Flipping English is about two things: 
1) helping students take responsibility for their own learning by understanding them and their unique skills, abilities, and needs, and 


2) leveraging technology to build a student-centred learning environment that meaningfully engages the cultural context in which our students live.

There are many educators with great intentions who approach flipping English in the same way that math and science teachers flip.  They choose grammar, vocabulary or concrete writing skills because those fit best in the "traditional flip" method.  

That's where I started too, because it didn't make sense to me otherwise.  

As I've continued with flipping, I found that the traditional flip didn't help me all that much.  Yes, it made sub days easier (when I had several conference days in a row, having a video that the sub could show, sure made my life easier) and it was great for test prep before the California High School Exit Exam. 

But the traditional flip didn't fundamentally change my students.  They thought the videos were cool, but they weren't taking any more responsibility for their own learning than they did before I flipped.  They also weren't using much technology in class either.  

So I decided I had to change something.  

I found two carts of netbooks that weren't being used much and put them in my room.  I signed up for Edmodo, and had my students do the same.  I recorded myself using ShowMe, reading the entire novel we were studying, and started using Today's Meet to have live discussions while I played the video in class.  I encouraged and rewarded student curiosity in those discussions, and something amazing happened: 

I actually flipped my class.

And here's the thing:  There is no one who can tell you how to flip your class.  You can get ideas from other people (and you should!), but flipped learning is first and foremost about understanding your students, and meeting their needs.  Therefore, by definition, the teacher has to make their class centred, focused, obsessed, with helping the students in the room in the best way possible.  That's why flipped teaching will never make the teacher obsolete.  The flipped classroom doesn't work without the teacher managing the learning opportunities, and helping students manage their own learning.


*****

I'm lucky to have had lots of support from my administration, my colleagues, and my PLN on Twitter and Edmodo; but most meaningfully, I learned how to fail fast.  When something didn't work, I tried something else.  When that didn't work, I tried something else.

I also was able to use June School to try out a lot of different ideas, like flipped self-paced mastery.  Now, mastery can't look the same as it does in math or science either.  Even standards-based grading in English is much more difficult.  I mean, how do you measure mastery on analysis or word choice?  

Despite that, I do believe in self-pacing and in trying to assess mastery.  I have already seen how it can help students move from where they ARE to where they need to be.  We may not be able to fully quantify mastery, but we can measure how close students have come to the standard we expect (or better yet, whether they can go beyond what we expect).

Part of my summer work is to figure out what mastery in the major English skills looks like, and how to assess it.  I also want to revise some of my videos to make them more like my recent ones (see the bottom of the post for the latest two, about which I'm much happier than my early attempts!).  The most revolutionary thing I figured out in my video production is that I need to include something for students to do/answer/write/think about in the actual video.  I then have them bring their answers (and, hopefully, questions) back to me as evidence of completion.

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For those of you who need something more concrete, here are some of my ideas for flipping English, beyond the grammar video (though I will start with grammar because that's where most people start):

Grammar
--use DOLs - ideally engaging sentence corrections.  There is very little research around using grammar independently of writing.  Using worksheets where students underline participial phrases and identify the direct object are not best practices and don't transfer to students' writing.  But there is data (both in research and in my own practice) that sentence correction and targeted instruction will transfer and solidify with students.
--give students targeted remediation based on whatever they missed on the DOLs.  I use my own videos, as well as online grammar games and exercises (like Grammar Ninja and Chomp Chomp) to give them practice - even though it's "worksheet"-y, just the fact that it feels like a game gives it more value to my students.  
--after I've assigned specific skills for them a while, I ask students to choose what THEY think they need to work on.  They post a screenshot of their end score as evidence of completion.
--use the same process for issues you see in students' writing.  If they miss apostrophes in their essay, assign them some practice based on that.
--after they have shown mastery on the practice, hold them accountable for it in ALL of their writing.  I've done "greenlining" before, where I will literally draw a green line under a mistake they shouldn't be making and stop reading.  I won't continue until they fix it and resubmit it.
--have students take expert samples of writing and compare them in style and mechanics.  Then come up with some ideas for how it shows the marks of expert writing and students can apply those lessons to their own writing.  We all know that reading more is powerful, so reading excellent examples can only help.
--have students make presentations/videos of themselves explaining a grammar concept.

Writing
--make videos about specific skills, like Showing, Not Telling.  Then give students lots of ways to practice with it.
--make videos of the instructions for a writing task and have them watch it at home and come up with questions, then use class time to have them write and edit/revise.
--have students make videos editing/revising their own writing, or use voice-thread for them to make comments for each other.  
--use Notability to annotate student work and help them revise/give comments
--use the writer's workshop model (Troy Cockrum is the flipped guru on this one - look him up for more info)
--leverage the power of Twitter and Facebook when students are finishing writing outside of the class.  Although I believe in letting students compose in class, often students just wanted more time than we had available.  So I had them tweet questions to me, and helped them immediately when they got stuck
--connect with other classes, either in your school, your community, or outside of the country.  Have students interact with each other and critique the writing of other students.  Have them publish blogs together, or compile a digital anthology.  The possibilities are endless!

Reading
Note: This is where I have fewest answers.  I'd love to hear from people who have good ideas in this area, because it's the hardest one to figure out.  What I DO NOT see as flipped instruction is when teachers have students read at home and discuss in class.  That's just traditional teaching.  It can be good, but I really don't see it as flipping.

--make a video where you annotate one page of the reading to look for a particular element (like foreshadowing).  Then either have them read or (better yet) have them listen to YOU read on video for a few more pages.  Then have students find more examples on their own in that last section and bring them to class.
--use videos of yourself reading in class while simultaneously having live discussions on Edmodo, Today's Meet, or Cover It Live.  Focus on asking/answering questions and having students google for definitions, historical information, etc.
--model reading skills on video and have students apply that in their own section of reading.
--do a video with another English or History teacher where you discuss a text or big idea.  You can use the teacher/student dynamic that Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams often adopt, or just have a roundtable-style discussion (note: if this interests you, contact me.  It's in the works with a collection of ELA/SS teachers through Twitter)
--have students blog about their reading and/or respond to other blogs
--preview the reading on video, either historically, with vocabulary/major concepts, or thematically.  It can help build excitement for class and allow students to make connections with the text.
--have students make their own videos or voice threads of their thoughts on the reading, and then respond to other students' videos/VTs.
--have students rewrite scenes as Twitter/Facebook dialogues, either by themselves or with a partner
--use videos that thematically connect with the reading, and engage the students using live response (Twitter, Today's Meet, etc.)


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So even though there is no How-To binder, there are TONS of options for how to flip English.  

The way you know you've flipped is:
--your students are excited about learning, and their curiosity drives the learning, and possibly even the content
--you use technology when/where appropriate to do direct instruction
--you change how you structure class time so that students can work with the expert (the teacher) in the room
--you help students see real-world connections between what you're doing in class and what they're doing outside of class, and what they will need for their future
--you find that you know your students better because of the increased amount of meaningful contact you have with each student

I'm sure there are more, but that's my list.  It is only my opinion, so take it for what it's worth. :-)


So where and how do you start?

Here are some questions that have helped me think through what flipped English is in my classroom:
1. What skills do your students need?  (ideally, base this on the common core)
2. How can you tell that they've mastered those skills?
3. What tools do they need from you?  
4. What should they be figuring out on their own?  What are they capable of figuring out on their own RIGHT NOW?  How can you encourage independence in students?
5. Which skills can be taught via video?  Which ones can't/shouldn't be taught on video?
6. What classroom activities can help reinforce the skills you can teach on video?
7. How can you bring inquiry and project-based-learning into your class?
8. What technology is available to you, and what is available to your students? 
9. What technology is comfortable to you, and what is comfortable to your students?  How will you bridge that gap?
10. How much time do you spend talking to the whole class?  How can you reduce that?  How can you increase the time spent talking to your students individually?
11. How can I build a culture where revision is not encouraged, but accepted?  How can I shift students' focus away from points/grades and towards pursuing learning?

When you honestly answer those questions, you can come to an understanding of how YOU can flip English.  

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Okay.  So that's it for now.  I hope to hear more ideas from all of you, because this is nowhere near an exhaustive list.  As we move towards an understanding of the role English plays in the Flipped Classroom movement, I know the definition I offer will shift and change, just like the technology we utilise in class.  


As promised earlier in the post, here are my most recent ShowMe videos.  I'm not saying they are perfect, but they are MUCH better than what I was producing early on.

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. -__-

This week was the half-way point for June School.  After 2:10 today, there are only four days left.  And a lot of my students have earned enough minutes to finish a few days/hours early.  That's worked out really well, and students seemed to really feel a sense of ownership when they could choose when to do their time.  They really wanted me to come in at 6:30 every day, and there were always a few who wanted to stay until 3:30 (usually different kids...the most time any student completed in one day was a little over 9 hours...with no breaks.  Crazy).  Because of early starts and the intensity of #flipcon I'm struggling a little bit with tiredness, and residual sadness at leaving a job I love and in which I have invested so much.

Part of the craziness of FlipCon12 was that I spent one day teaching and doing virtual attendance.  Here's what it looked like:

Twitter+Flipcon Streaming+Posting the DOL=epic #multitasking.  Notice that my RSS reading (I always read my Google Reader feed with my kids each day) was an AskMetafilter (my other internet obsession) forum question about using a skin graft as a wedding ring (i.e. each person has skin taken from the ring finger and grafted onto their spouse's ring finger).  Never a dull moment in my RSS feed.

Here I'm also monitoring their Edmodo assignments.

Leo thought it was funny to post that he was bored.  He wouldn't have been if he had been watching Aaron Sams and Jon Bergmann's plenary session. 

And here you can see that the kids are still turning in work, even while I was at FlipCon.

Last one:

I BROKE THE TWITTERZ! :-)

I'll post my thoughts on Bergmann/Sams' Plenary and the sessions I attended later.

****

Anyway, we're at the point in the Skills assignments that they are planning or working on their finals. 

Here is what I gave them for their finals:

Vocab/Speaking Final: Research this question and prepare a presentation to teach your chosen strategy to other students: "What strategies can you use to help you understand the meaning of words you don't know?"

Research Skills/Essay Final: Research one of the questions we developed together (about the Holocaust) and write up what you found into a research essay.

Show Not Tell/Creative Writing/Grammar Final: (recycled from Resilience Project) Write an original short story with the theme of resilience.  Must use show-not-tell language and proper grammar/conventions.

Theme/Reading Final: Read a section of Rena's Promise, write an objective summary, and find evidence of a theme.  Write a one paragraph objective summary, then write a claim paragraph defending your choice of theme with evidence from the text.

Grammar Final: Get a DOL perfect.

Those are all the major skills in my summer school class, so I feel pretty good about the amount and quality of work they are producing.  And giving them a week to work on the finals (or for some of them, two days...since they've banked so many minutes so far) feels about right. 

Other than the research essay, I've been pretty flexible with how they can show me mastery (i.e. what the final product is).  I'll post some of the results when they finish.

Looking forward to the weekend, but more than that, I'm looking forward to having a Google+ hangout with fellow English-flipper Troy Cockrum (Twitter: @tcockrum) tomorrow morning.  He's so much farther down the garden path than I am that I'm excited to see what I can learn from him.

Even though I couldn't attend physically, I spent the day "at" FlipCon through Twitter and the streaming video of the live event.  What an amazing event - and so weird to see people I "know" on Twitter presenting live and asking/answering my questions submitted through Twitter.  Very surreal.

But the conference!

I "attended" the keynote after a few technical hiccups.  It was delivered by my Twitter "friend" Brian Bennett (@bennettscience) and was an overview of what flipped learning should be.  It's exciting to watch someone so young but also so knowledgable and passionate about what he does.  It's hard not to love the flip with Brian explaining it.  

I spent the day with two teachers from my site who are flipped newbies.  They knew that flipped meant making videos of lectures, but that's pretty much it.  

However, as we watched Brian's keynote, we realised that "flipped classrooms" aren't really new.  I mean, the technology component is new.  But my colleague's perception is that flipped class is constructivist and collaborative methodology from a decade ago, only with technology to make it "sexy."  I explained that it was also engaging students where they live - social media and technology - and it engages with the common core to a much greater degree than the traditional classroom.  Her response was basically that it's what "every teacher from a decade ago identifies as good teaching."  

That may be true, but it's a paradigm that is unheard of for teachers like me, who came into the profession in the wake of NCLB and direct instruction and whole-class engagement strategies, but a de-emphasis on group work, project based learning and inquiry.  I mean, none of those things featured heavily in my teacher training.  I finished in 2006, and started teaching in 2004, so it's not like I'm brand new to the profession.  But the constructivist/collaborative pedagogical approach is one that not many teachers my age/experience level have dealt with much, or at all.

Here's the thing: we all know that education is cyclical.  But the difference now is that we're not just throwing out what is accepted (data driven whole-class instruction) and replacing it with something that went out in the last change (project based collaborative constructivist pedagogy).  We're taking the best of both those worlds and creating something new using technology in a way that is entirely innovative and forward-thinking.  

It may be naive of me, but I really believe that the flipped class is here to stay.  Here's the primary difference between flipped classrooms and every other movement in education in the last four decades: flipped classrooms will evolve as the technology and students change.  Hell, even the "creators" of the movement acknowledge that there is no "one right model" of a flipped classroom.  Instead, there are tons of different models; that is because when the focus is STUDENTS and what they need to learn, it HAS to be adjusted to the students in the room.  

There is no flipped classroom methodology that is one-size-fits-all because BY DEFINITION we are student-driven.

So we can't help but adapt and change rapidly.  My class changes often, based on the needs of the students in the room.  That's what flipped classrooms are all about.  So I will stand by my prediction: Flipped classrooms are here to stay, or at least until we figure out how to make them EVEN BETTER and they evolve again into something else that's even more awesome.

I won't go into huge detail about the other sessions I attended, except to say that I'm in awe of all three presenters and their wisdom and experience.

I attended Troy Cockrum's (@tcockrum) Writing Workshop session, although my colleagues and I got so excited by some ideas we were collaborating on that I didn't get to pay 100% attention to everything he said.  Looking forward to seeing it archived so I can give him my undivided attention, which he more than deserved for his innovative use of flipped classroom strategies in ELA.

After that was Andy Schwen's (@mrschwen) amazing Google Apps presentation.  This guy has built a course management system that does mastery and standards-based grading through Google Docs.  It is a thing of great beauty and I know as I dig deeper into it, I will only be more in awe of his tech prowess.  It blows my mind.  And makes me super excited about using Google Apps more fully in my classes next year.

Finally, I watched what was supposed to be Laurie Aaronson's presentation on low-SES schools and how to use flipped methodology in that context (which is my current context).  But as it turned out, Brian Bennett had to pinch-hit for her at the last minute, and so he walked through a lot of his tips, tricks and technology to help better manage the flipped class.  Hands down, that was the most useful session I watched.  

Here are some of the ideas I Tweeted about:
1. Using a Tic-Tac-To menu for activities arranged by level on Bloom's Taxonomy.  It is just amazing.
2. Using English audio and another language subtitles (or vice versa) on videos for ELLs, doing translation through Google translate.  Again, great idea.
3. He said two things that really resonated with me.  Roughly quoted:
"don't underestimate the compassion your students have for one another" (context: sharing technology with students who don't have access)
"I didn't become a teacher because I wanted to be comfortable" (context: the ever-changing flipped methodology and classroom needs)

I am so, so inspired and excited beyond belief to start again in the fall.

And tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to teach my June School class while watching some of the sessions, or at least keeping up on Twitter.  The kids are working on projects and don't need me much at this point, so it should be mostly do-able for the keynote (which starts earlier than they show up) and one session, which falls during lunch.  The others will probably be a little more difficult.  That's the downside about flipped classrooms - you are rarely at your desk. :-)  This is the only time that's a downside, to be fair.

So yeah, thanks to everyone who organised #FlipCon12 and who interacted with me on Twitter during the event.  Special thanks to Brian Bennett for being awesome, but also for being my conduit for asking questions in the live sessions.  You are an inspiration to know (even if it's only virtually), my friend.

******

Sidebar: if you care about my personal life (in the context of teaching), you can read what happened alongside the the #FlipCon12 viewing here.  

All this was going on amidst a very dramatic day in terms of my professional career.  I've been at my current school three years (but over four calendar years) and they've brought me back on a temporary contract each year sometime in the summer.  Well this year, they offered me a temp contract much earlier than usual -  last week actually - complete with a schedule they literally built just for me (if I was building the master schedule, I couldn't have made a more perfect schedule...seriously).  

Before I knew that I had a job at SLz, I had started interviewing at Redwood High School in Marin.  So long story short, Redwood did my background check yesterday (which I found out about because my principal called me at 7:45 on Monday morning to ask me what my plans were...awkward) and then called me with a job offer this afternoon.  

The decision to leave SLzHS is tough - it's my home.  I love my kids, I love the staff, I love the school.  It's an amazing place.  

But.  As my former administrators said (I texted them for Professional Crisis Advice), I'm always investing in SLzUSD, but Redwood wants to invest in ME. They're offering a probationary contract on tenure track.  And the salary and benefits are ridiculously good.  Like really, really good.  So yeah.  

Sidebar over.  Sorry for those of you who don't care about where I teach. :-)