Flipping the classroom

After two weeks of flipping the classroom with my fourth graders, I can see the benefits of such a concept. I was motivated to give it a try after attending the CUE conference in the middle of March. 

The idea is that the students watch instruction on a new concept at home, and then spend class time doing activities related to that concept. The teacher helps with what would have been homework pages, in class. In theory there's more time for work completion and hands on activities in class, if the teacher no longer is spending time lecturing.

I found and felt that I DID have more time to work directly with students in small groups and individually. Students could use pattern block manipulatives, as needed, when discoving fractional parts of those blocks.

The concern I have, so far, is that some students watch the instructional videos better than others at home. The active learners, did very well with the flip of the classroom. The students who had my videos on at home as background sound, with little effort to watch and understand, struggled in some ways.  One boy even admitted he watches less than a minute of the video and then turns it off, since I'm monitoring who logs on (on Edmodo) but can't see the duration of login time.

As I've said to my students, I can do a song and dance to teach them, but if they don't meet me half way by actively trying to learn,  there's not a whole lot I can do more than my 100%.  

So we had some talks about motivation to learn. Overall, the consensus was very positive by the students (and parents) about the flipped classroom. There was improvement during the two weeks in attention to watching the videos. I learned to require a short written example of what was taught each night, to show understanding.  Then we DID have more time in class to do the lesson activities.  I like the flip!