Description

I am a math and science teacher at a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This blog documents some of my journey as I explore the use of the Flipped Classroom model with my classes.

Wednesday 7 February 2018

New semester, fresh start

I've proposed the following topic for a #flipblogs chat tonight:

 
This is my first year back at teaching after a year of maternity leave after the August 2016 birth of my second child. Let me tell you, I did NOT find it easy to adjust to working again with two children rather than just the one I had the last time I taught, and I'm definitely not the happiest with the teacher I was last semester. Our new semester started last Friday (Feb. 2), though, and I am thankful and more than ready for a fresh start!

Here are the main changes I'm making that I can think of off the top of my head.

Change #1: Simplify - by using learning goals, but in a simpler way.

I have blogged before about my ideal teaching process - one in which all assessment, instruction, and grading is based on a predetermined set of learning goals. Unfortunately, last semester I failed to get lists of learning goals drawn up for the courses I was teaching, and ended up just trying to keep my head above water from day to day. Keeping my head above water from day to day is not the way I want to run my teaching practice, and it is impossible to flip any course in such a situation.

What am I doing differently this semester? Well, for one thing, I already have my lists of learning goals almost completely finalized for the first units of the two courses in which I want to do substantial flipping this year. I have already started to use them to guide my instruction in one of my courses, and I will be creating my first videos based on some of those goals for that course by the end of the week; in the other course I'd like to flip, we're just getting out of the introductory review of safety rules and symbols, and my goal is to start giving them some flipped goals-based instruction next week.

The other thing I'm doing differently in my use of learning goals this semester is recognizing that I do not have the time to make my use of them "perfect" this time around. My grade book will not end up having entries dedicated to each learning goal -- it will still have entries that look like "Quiz 1," "Intermolecular Forces Assignment," "Chapter 3 Test," and so on. This means that each goal will not be assigned a certain percentage of the mark, nor will it be as easy as I'd like to tell at a glance where students need to improve their understanding or skills to increase their overall standing in the course, but I will still be basing my design of those quizzes/assignments/etc. solidly on the learning goals, and I will still offer students the opportunity to improve their mark by studying and reattempting questions of the types on which they did not do so well. It's a necessary compromise I need to make at this point.

Change #2: Plan my flipped instruction with the group space firmly in mind.

Having now completed FLGI's Flipped Learning 3.0 Certification Level - II course, I've had my eyes opened to some really cool things I can do in the group space. I want to take my students' learning beyond what they'd get by just doing in class the simpler types of questions that used to be assigned as homework.

I want to try using a mastery approach with the organic chemistry unit in the grade 12 university-preparation-level chemistry course.

I want to see what awesome ideas my grade 9 pre-IB academic-level science students can come up with in a Genius-Hour-type open investigation of their own questions -- although this time around I'd like to try giving them the broad guideline that it should be something at least broadly science-related.

I want to try peer instruction with some of the more mathematics-based lessons in both my grade 12 chemistry class and my grade 9 pre-IB academic-level science class.

I want to modify some inquiry activities I've done before to reflect the Explore-Flip-Apply model, and perhaps bring in a couple more such activities as well.

And...that's enough to try to implement for now, I think :). The course also reassured me that when flipping, "it doesn't have to be glitzy" -- every day doesn't have to be something awesome and higher-level. These are approaches that I can experiment with inserting into my courses in a small way at first, perhaps trying something out every couple of weeks and growing in my practice bit by bit.

Change #3: Try to make the most of the time I have.

I have to thank several of my colleagues for continually acting as examples of productivity around me -- examples I was not ready to learn from for far too long, but could not ignore forever.

In the past, once students had finally left my room for the day (perhaps after sticking around or coming back to my classroom after school to ask me all their burning questions), I often treated that time as "me time" that I deserved and needed in order to recharge after a long day giving of myself to others (especially on days I was especially feeling the put-upon introvert). A lot of Facebook and e-mail checking went on, and not so much marking and planning. This was a throwback to the time I had pre-kids to mark and plan at home -- time I no longer have right now, with a toddler who is even clingier than my firstborn was and tries to draw on or crumple any piece of paper Mommy seems to be giving any attention.

I have noticed that my colleagues at my new school keep on a-workin' in a dedicated way after the ringing of the final bell, and I am trying to learn how to make that my model as well. Last semester, I had two alarms set: one at 3:45pm to suggest that I start getting ready to pick the kids of from daycare, and another at 4:30 or 4:45pm to tell me that it was definitely time to get going. This semester, I am treating those two alarms as bookends of a time in which I try to abide by the philosophy espoused by a sign on a colleague's desk: "MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY!" Today, I used that time to mark and record grades for a safety quiz that I had given a class earlier that day. It's not all the marking that needs to be done, but every little bit will help me not end up with the huge, shameful backlog of grading that I ended up with at the end of last semester. More timely feedback for students, here we come :)!

What changes have you made at the change of a year or a semester? Let's chat!

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