Tonight’s #flipclass #flashblog focuses on reflecting on successes and failures for the year. What will you change for next year? What worked this year, & what didn’t? How can you turn failure into learning?
With this being my first FULL year of #flipclass I’ve definitely experienced many successes and failures. I feel a lot more confident with how I’ve decided to flip my class and really how to begin! When I started flipping at the end of last year, it went so well! By the time I got to that point, my students knew how crazy I was and I could trust them to work well in groups without my supervision. It’s amazing how much sixth graders grow and mature in just a short few months.
When I started this school year, I wanted to start the way I ended last year and my kiddos just weren’t ready. They were still learning me and I them – so I didn’t have a good handle on who would work well together. I floundered…..my SS partner (who was also flipping) talked a lot about how to adjust to something that worked for our kids. I was SO frustrated those first few weeks! But I learned…..I modified…and I adjusted.
My biggest change for this year will be to start the way I adjusted to…..lol! Also, I plan to put more thought into what projects the students will do throughout the year. I’m really proud of the way that I decided to flip writing. Writing is now ongoing instead of 3 weeks a quarter. We have a reading and writing focus every week and video days are mostly on Mondays and Wednesdays. Writing Lessons include: Perfect Planning, Developing Well Structured Paragraphs, Enhancing Content, and Putting on the Polish. We just use a different prompt and type every month. So every month, students have a finished writing piece.
I also want to incorporate more novels in my classroom. The students enjoyed the 4th quarter the most, because they loved our novel studies. We read The Giver and they did a FABULOUS job! They were so involved in the novel – they shared their love for it with everyone.
In failure, it forces me to be creative and think outside the box. For struggling readers, English can be torture. I want students to enjoy coming to my classroom even though it will be tough! I’ll continue to revamp and adjust, because there’s always room to grow. My kids deserve it!
Until the next time,
I enjoyed reading your blog post! I had such a great first flipped year, I need to be prepared to adjust to a new group of kids in the fall. Thanks for sharing!