Head Over Heels

There is a bad word amongst many of the faculty on campus.  That word is flipped.  And, I've decided to add it to my vocabulary.  I'm going to slowly start to "flip" my classroom, or at least, one class.

For those that do not know what a flipped classroom is, you may want to look here.

Many students and teachers on campus are tired of hearing about the flipped classroom and sigh dramatically or roll their eyes any time it's mentioned.  I, myself, once made the joke that we could turn our staff meetings into a drinking game every time the terms flipped or flipping were mentioned.  It seems to be be all and end all for the administrators. But, after attending a three day long conference on education and technology, I've been a bit inspired.

I definitely believe that we need to use the tools that students have at their fingertips.  And, I mean this literally.  Their phones are a powerful tool that be used for the greater good and not the dark side in the classroom.  Many students also have iPads, Chromebooks, and other technology that can be harnessed to make them learned, and (gasp) make them want to learn.

I've already started some flipping in one of my classes, an honors class.  The students do the reading at home and we begin the activity in class with their peers and their teacher (me) to assist them.

Now, I'm going to do this slowly, very slowly, because I'm already overwhelmed with all I have to do and how far behind I am with things that need to be graded.  I'm going to do as Catlin Tucker suggests and acquire one tool at a time. 

I tried a little BYOD with my honors students today, and signed them on to my WiFi, but I'm now concerned that they will try and sign on when they shouldn't.  This will definitely be a learning process for me, but hopefully it will improve student engagement.