Flipped Learning & Resources

This is a huge topic, however, I wanted to share some of the topics that Mr. Mulvihill shared during his presentation today during QIT Staff Development Day.

What is flipped learning?  

Click here for a great article from The Dailey Riff.   To summarize here are some key points about what Flipped Learning is.

The Flipped Classroom IS:

• A means to INCREASE interaction and personalized contact time between students and teachers.
• An environment where students take responsibility for their own learning. 
• A classroom where the teacher is not the "sage on the stage", but the "guide on the side".
• A blending of direct instruction with constructivist learning.
• A classroom where students who are absent due to illness or extra-curricular activities such as athletics or field-trips, don't get left behind.
• A class where content is permanently archived  for review or remediation.
• A class where all students are engaged in their learning.
• A place where all students can get a personalized education.

Sounds like a great deal, right?   Here's how Mr. Mulvihill does it.

To see Mr. Mulvihill's Blog, Flipped 5th Math, click here.  

First of all, to record himself teaching, Mr. Mulvihill uses a free site called Screenr.   Screenr is a great free resource that lets you record whatever you are doing on your computer screen, or in Mr. Mulvihill's case, his SMARTBoard (since he's using his SMARTBoard computer).  He was able to set up a Screenr account very easy by signing in though his Google Account, which is a option on the first page by clicking on the blue G.  Check out how easy using Screenr is below.

After he records a video on Screenr, he then copies the embed code, that then he pasts on his blog.

Mr. Mulvihill worked with me to set up a blog where he posts his flipped lessons using Blogger.  Blogger is a Google product that you can access through the black Google toolbar on the top of your email screen under more.   A blog is very similar to a website, however, instead of updating a page, you are just posting to posts to your blog.  It also allows you to easily (without thinking about it) archive all of your lessons for you and your students to access anytime, anywhere.   On a blog you can share or embed pictures, videos, etc. very easily with an embed code (like the one he uses from Screenr). 

After Mr. Mulvihill has is content ready to be posted, he then creates a "Check for Understanding" using Google Forms, which is found in Google Drive.  After he creates his Google Form, he gets the embed code and cuts and pastes in into his blog.  That way, his students can see the video that he has created, and assess if they understand the video that they just watched.  Mr. Mulvihill then looks at the data in the morning to see how well his class understood the material from the night before.  He is then able to create groups based on what his students need in terms of reinforcing the lesson that is being taught.  He is more readily available to meet all students needs and student can also work cooperatively to understand and work on learning a concept, very similar to guided reading groups.  

Do you think this is something you would like to try?  I'd be happy to walk you through the steps as many times as you want and see if this is something that could work for you and your students.   Please let me know if you are open to trying this - I'm more than happy to help!

I'm so proud of Mr. Mulvihill and all of his hard work with flipped learning.   Keep up the awesome work, Mr. Mulvihill!