Which methodology is right for you?

This is a question that is asked by any teacher who is looking to improve upon their craft. So once I started doing my research on the "Flipped Classroom", I found lots of resources. Most of them pointed me to the work of Aaron Sams and Jonathan Berrgman, the co-creators of the "Flipped Classroom".  They started by making screen-captures of their lessons for students who were absent or gone off to sporting events. They called this the Flipping 101, where a teacher makes a screen recording of their lecture and has students watch this at home. In return, the students would come into class and then do what would have normally been homework in class. What is nice a bout this model is that the teacher is able to help students where they need to be helped. The biggest problem I see with this model (and yes, I did this at first too), is that it is still practicing bad pedagogy. The teacher is still lecturing to students. While the student can start and stop you at home, you are still lecturing to them. The students still take tests and quizzes until they reach "mastery" (70%). As with any new methodology, they have changed the class evenmore. If you are interested in finding out what they have done, check out their book Flip Your Classroom, Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day or do what I did, research it online!

I needed something a bit more dynamic though. It just so happened that the day or two before I went to a workshop on Reversing Instruction, I found a great blog run by an AP Chemistry teacher out of the Bay Area in California by the name of Ramsey Musallam (@ramusallam). His blog is located at www.cyclesoflearning.com. He has TONS of useful information on how to make screen-recordings, methodology, quick tips, and pedagogical theory he has dervived through his Doctorite studies. Using information from other educators in the past, Ramsey came up with Explore - Flip - Apply. In essence, Ramsey gives his students a video clip of a movie or a reaction of chemicals, or some other experiment that relates to what his students will be studying. Noticed I said, what they will be studying. He then has the students reconstruct the experiment from what they know. If the students struggle along the way, then Ramsey will create a video for them, explaining what students are struggling with. He does not pre-make videos. Instead they are tools used to help with misunderstandings. If no video is needed, then none are made. The learning continues. This pedagogy is in contrast to Flipped Mastery. 

As I said before I also went to a workshop run by a group my school belongs to. There was Jeff Utecht (@jutecht) and his one day workshop was on Reversing Instruction. I really took to what Jeff was teaching us. Students need to become producers of content instead of consumers. Jeff's version of the "Flipped Classroom" does not use videos. Instead, students are given essential questions to a topic they are going to cover in class. One group of  students research information to help answer those questions and write blog posts with what they have found.  The other group of students are then asked to read the blog posts and come to class ready to discuss the topic, based on what their classmates have provided for them. The class then holds a Fish Bowl. If you are not familiar with what a Fish Bowl is, a group of students are in a circle surrounded by a group on the outside.  The group on the inside has a discussion about those esstential questions, while the group on the outside uses a backchannel to ask additional questions and post summerizations of what they heard from the other group. Here is the link to Jeff's blog post: http://www.thethinkingstick.com/flipping-history/.  

All in all, you should see, that their is no one way to "Flip" a classroom. 

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