Thursday March 22

Figured out some stuff ( I think). I should have gotten away from my fixation on WS for this chapter! Having all this paperwork is extremely cumbersome. I need to get it a little more open ended or online short assesments. There is no way I could do this for a whole year.
 I also spent some time today going to each student and talking about what they had done and where they were going. This seemed to really motivate them as they worked well today. A lot of them said, "am I behind?" In some cases, they didn't like the answer, because they were. Most though, are moving along pretty well. Overall, I am still glad for the change, but I need to tweak it to make it more manageable. I think getting away from the individual pacing would be easier, but might take away a lot of the student excitement.

mountains of...

papers! Ok, the drawback to the kids all working at their own pace is I don't control when things get turned in. Graded a huge pile this morning and will have another pile waiting for me tomorrow am. Although, the nice thing is, two of the papers in that pile are from a kid who hardly ever turns ANYTHING IN! That was cool.
 Another good thing that happened today was while I was helping some students with a lab I realized that it is much easier to help them when only a few groups are working on the lab at one time. When 28 people are doing the same lab, even in groups, it is hard to make it to all the groups for a significant time. When there are only 3 groups working on it and everyone else is on some other assignment, I can actually spend time with those 3 groups. Never thought of it like that until today.

March 15

Another good day today. Starting to get a lot of papers turned in. Struggling a little bit with how to get them all graded and returned in a timely manner...same problem with any classroom. Had a lot going on today and I am wondering if everyone is working up to level. The response from the kids was pretty positive after a week. The kids who didn't like it said they didn't like the assignments that we had done. I tried to explain to them that those assignments would have been there regardless of what style of classroom we had. No matter how you package it, some kids don't like to work. Overall, I am really excited about how things are going. It isn't perfect, but I like the way things are going. Maybe just "flipping" is the answer, the self-paced format may be too much for students.
 Right now, I think next year may be: traditional classroom for quarter 1, flipped for quarters 2 and 3, and this open format for quarter 4. Too early to tell for sure though.

what a difference...

a day makes! So I spent the first 15 - 30 minutes today answering questions. It was great! The kids were so on topic and we were getting somewhere. The questions were good, the answers were hopefully just as good. I liked the feel of the class also. Students working simultaneously on labs, math applications, worksheets, and watching videos/websites. Pretty cool. I also think it helped that some of our students were out of the class for the school musical. Allowed some of the remaining kids to ask questions with less people watching. Hopefully that will continue...
 Also, I stepped out in the hall for a minute to talk to another teacher and when I came back in...2 students were writing on the board...TEACHING THE MATH TO ANOTHER STUDENT like I had just done for them...AWESOME!

2 days grace?

Ok, so two days down. At times, more hectic than I ever could have imagined. At others, found myself there thinking, "Doesn't anyone have a question?" I tried to hold back from initiating too many talks with kids, because I was afraid that would start them down a bad bath (unofficially known as "I don't get it-land). The overall vibe from the kids is that they like it. The ones who do not seem to not like the first assignment, reading a web page and taking notes, more than they don't like the process. 2 things that I am watching: 1) Some kids are getting lost in the flow of everything, lots of what do I do next questions. 2) I am afraid some kids are going too fast. But, how do you tell them to slow down? I am thinking that the first test will be the true indicator. If they are the first one to the test, but don't pass it, they will have to go back and re-investigate some things. That might help them pace better for the next chapter. Only time will tell, I guess.

So my basic idea is this...1) Kids will work independently on a list of assignments, videos, research pages for each section. 2)All assignments and tests must be completed at an 80% in order to move on. 3) Their overall grade will be figured by the number of chapters they pass (with the 80% or higher). It is the basic premise of the flipped classroom, without the idea of all students having to be at the same place. Basically,  I feel that whether the homework is reading, watching videos, or doing a paper the same kids won't do it. Because of this my class currently is, for some kids, do enough to get a D (or F) and move on. While the kids who really work at it wait for the middle kid to get the concepts they got at first glance. Here are my three major concerns starting off (I am sure more will surface): first, how will I communicate to parents if kids are falling behind. Regular progress reports didn't seem to have much effect, but they might have been better than nothing.Second, how will the students do with self-monitoring. They will need to take more investment in, "am I understanding this?" And finally, can I keep up? I already have one student who within 3 hours of leaving school has completed what I had planned to do in one week. Hopefully that is a "look what I can do" and not an all the time thing. Although, he may have just volunteered himself to be my guinea pig/assistant...

Introducing my class to the idea of "flipping" our physical science class. So far, the reception has been "luke warm" to excited. The kids like the idea of trying something new, but are worried about the grading and staying on schedule part...ready for the adventure!