The Flipped Classroom Craze is out. I'm still not completely sold on it. I need more convincing that it will work for me. (Flipping the class is having students do traditional classwork at home online through videos or websites and then doing activities and homework in class) Here are my thoughts. Please give me yours.
Pros
- There is value in having students doing preparatory work before class instead of work that is all after the fact (homework)
- I like the idea of having more 1 on 1 time with my students.
- Homework will get a better start because you will have a network of people including the teacher to help you.
- Differentiated learning is much easier to accomplish in this setting.
Cons
- Watching a video is not always the best way of learning something
- Class discussions and engaging activities are vital in the learning process and they might be limited in the completely flipped classroom.
- The classroom environment will be less about the whole team and more about the individual
- Structured learning will decrease
- Not all students have easy access to the internet.
Moot Point
- Not all students will prepare for the class. This means that in the flipped classroom they might not do the prep work before class. In the traditional class they might not do the homework.
I think a combination of flipping and regular might be a possibility for me. I'm not ready to jump ship completely to flipped, but I like many of the Pros of flipping the classroom. One thing I do know is that I don't want my students to watch a long "lecture" every night. I would have to incorporate great online investigations (Geogebra or Desmos Calculator activities) and some things they could discover on their own and then gather them back the next day to discuss what they did.
STILL DECIDING!!!!!!