Now if you read my post on setting up your math class you probably know I mentioned a flipped classroom. You guys I can’t tell you enough how this has saved my life. Especially with Covid moving to remote learning was a breeze since I already ran a class this way. When I was trying to run a 4/5 class in an inner-city type school where parents couldn’t help their kids with homework and I just didn’t have time to teach a lesson, go over homework, and then help kids who really need help. I wanted to clone myself to run around the room like crazy but I just wasn’t that good. I’m sure you have been in that boat. You need to teach but even in a straight grade class there isn’t enough ‘you’ to go around. Flipped classrooms really take a lot of the problems out of that scenario
A flipped class essentially assigns lessons as homework. You assign the kids a video and they watch that for their homework. For example tonight my kids are watching a video on place value using decimals to the tenths. In my class, they make a note in their interactive math notebook when they watch a video and that’s it. Parents don’t need to struggle through math problems, kids don’t need the frustration of trying to teach their parents how to do the math that they won’t understand. Really that’s the end of homework. I know what you are going to say. But what about all those kids without internet access at home? I’ll tell you how I’ve addressed this and remember I’ve taught at schools where if the kids had something for breakfast and lunch they had a good day – never mind the internet.
I always gave my students two options. The first option was to watch the video at home. The second (depending on my duty schedule) was to either come in early that day to watch the video, or to watch it the day it was assigned during one of the breaks. Usually they amazingly found a way to watch it at home. To do this I made use of my interactive math notebooks which are a lifesaver in digital form!
I’m not going to tell you this situation removes work from me. See me shaking my head violently. To run a flipped classroom I create a google classroom for every math unit I teach. I find or make videos for every concept they will need instruction on and then make each video an assignment. I order the assignment and then I give that google classroom a name that makes sense to me because you get to keep this google classroom and reuse it every single year without having to re-make anything. That’s another reason to love a flipped classroom. This means that while this takes about a week to set up, once it’s done it’s done!
I bet you are wondering what I do with the extra math minutes in class. After all aren’t those minutes truly precious. I’ll tell you. We have rich number talks, we do more practice questions, we do big real-life math projects, we do my super saver program for financial literacy. Essentially we can get through so much more of the curriculum and kids have the time to truly understand and practice things.
I get it a flipped classroom isn’t for everyone. Ok. But if you are genuinely curious about trying this I’ve included a link to my free resource with my favourite links for grades 5 and 6. My suggestion? Give it a try with one math unit. Just one. I bet you will be hooked for your teaching career.