Flippin' In The New School Year

We are currently in the fourth week of school where I teach. As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to flip my Chemistry classes this year after doing so in my Biology classes last school year. I was apprehensive at first, but it is going well! One thing I would say to all you that are considering flipping, if you teach any type of class that has a mathematical base such as Physics, Chemistry, Business, or any math class obviously, you must flip. I run from bell to bell helping students with their various tasks but it is so worth it. The vast majority of students are working through the material and doing well with it. The goal of flipped learning for me was to get students actively learning, this is something they don't often have to do. I am retraining them from 12 years of "playing school" and trying to get them to focus on learning. This is a daunting task but I believe well worth it. Thus far, I have been using a mix of tutorials I create using Screencast-o-matic and the Showme app. Because I use Edmodo as my LMS, I create self-check quizzes in Edmodo that the students can do when they feel they are ready. I have the results sent to the "gradebook" in Edmodo and even though I do not count the grade I can easily see who has not done the self-check, how students scored, which questions were being missed, and I can get a class average so I can see what topics we definitely need to review before a graded quiz or test. In other words, I have DATA! AAAAHHH! I know I said the dirtiest four letter word in our language.

 On an entirely different note, I attended EdCamp Atlanta on Saturday and came away with enough good stuff to make my head spin. If you have never attended an EdCamp or TeachMeet, I recommend doing so immediately! They are awesome! Both are free "unconferences" where those in attendance drive what goes on. This is particularly the case at EdCamps where you go in and sign up if you want to "lead" a session, notice I didn't say "present." Both of these are also great ways to talk to and network with others. I would love to do an EdCamp at our school in North Georgia because there just aren't those kinds of opportunities for our teachers, without driving to Atlanta.