My Math Classroom, Flipped: Saving Time and Empowering Learners
By Guest Blogger and Math Teacher Stacey Roshan
I am a high school math teacher. When I began teaching AP Calculus, I felt tremendous pressure to get through material way too quickly. My students were anxious and I was losing sight of the calm, excited, inspiring classroom atmosphere I so desired. This problem that I had, though, led me on a pretty wonderful journey to discovering new and innovative techniques to take my classroom to a whole new level.
Back in 2009, I asked myself a question. How could I shift class time back to the students? How could I give them time to engage in discussion without feeling flooded with new information to digest at an all-too-quick pace? I knew my roadblock: the 20–30 minute lecture that I was doing on a daily basis.
It was the summer of 2010, at the Building Learning Communities Conference, that I learned about Camtasia Studio — software that would allow me to create a screencast, edit my video, and produce and share my final product. As soon as I saw a demo of Camtasia, I knew that my classroom would change completely. And it has!
I started by simply having students watch a video at home, for homework, and then come to class the next day ready to work problems and engage in discussion. The format worked immediately. It was a customized, personalized model that I knew would help my highly motivated students thrive.
But this was only the first step of my journey. After my first year of using video lectures in AP Calculus, I discovered that I had time to change the activities that happened in the classroom. I had to structure the classroom to be much more collaborative and student-driven. I freed up space within the lesson for awesome conversation and discussion. I showed students how to teach one another and gave them assignments requiring them to share their thinking process.
By 2012, I was ready to flip my Honors Algebra 2 class. This presented a whole new challenge for me, as I was teaching ninth and tenth-grade students. I made a big mistake my first year shifting the format in that class. I failed to thoroughly and completely explain the model and my reasons for implementing it to parents. (I have since resolved this by creating a Welcome to the Flipped Classroom video that I share with parents at the start of the year). Remember, this was at a time when flipped learning was not yet widely being talked about. Without having parents on board, I struggled to gain the trust of my students. So I spent the first month fixing my mistake, and by late October, these Honors Algebra 2 students were thriving in the same way that the AP Calculus students were.
In structuring my Honors Algebra 2 class, I also knew that it would be critical for me to monitor if students were completely watching and comprehending the videos. So I began embedding quiz questions into my video lectures. Not only was I able to monitor if students were watching, but students were able to gain insight into their comprehension through instant, on-the-spot feedback to multiple choice questions. What’s more, these analytics provided me a quick snapshot of areas that needed attention (whether that be class-wide or individual-specific) before students even walked into the classroom.
As my flipped class has continued to evolve, my classroom space has become more student-centered, and we have time to do many activities I could not have dreamed of doing back in 2009. For example, students now contribute to a global forum of math Q&As so that they can help other students struggling to understand concepts. We have time to engage in discussion where students dig deeper and discover new ideas on their own. I have time to individualize instruction on a daily basis and students can customize their learning to a pace that fits them best. And I think that might be one of the biggest benefits I continue to see for my students — the level of personalization and individualization I can provide through the flipped model has been tremendous.
This current school year, I have begun teaching a purely online version of my AP Calculus course. Before starting to develop the course, I thought carefully about my biggest concerns in moving to an online format. For me, that was having the opportunity to enjoy each student’s personality and get to know each student as an individual (and for them to feel this same connection with me). With that in mind, I structured the course in a way where I would thoughtfully work to maintain interactions with students so that we could preserve strong teacher-student relationships. In addition to synchronous group video chat requirements for the entire class, I built in other video chat assignments for students to do in groups of their own. I asked that they record and submit these videos, not only so that I could monitor whether or not they were completing the task, but more importantly so that I could see and hear them working through problems, help one another, and view their interactions with classmates. I also created a class chat channel through Slack where students could post questions to their classmates and me at any time. This constant, instant interaction has been an incredible way to build community. Even though we don’t meet face-to-face, we are connected and communicating throughout the day. We are there to help one another so that the learning continues to feel collaborative and never isolated.
I love being a teacher because I love the interaction with students. I love helping build their confidence in math and building them up to a point where they no longer fear beginning a complex problem. I love group discussions where students come up with new realizations of their own through their contributions to the conversation. I love seeing that light bulb moment when a student applies their knowledge and sparks a new connection. I see this consistently in my flipped classroom — I get to move around constantly and hear the conversations that are organically happening… because there is actually time for that.
Using technology has brought the compassion back into my classroom, giving me time to hear from students and to work with them one-on-one, getting to know them better as individuals. It allows me the opportunity to listen to their discussions and see them take ownership for their learning. They’re teaching one another instead of me having to do the majority of instruction. My students have become resourceful and empowered learners. The flipped classroom has allowed me to create a supportive, positive, calm environment where learning can truly thrive. And that is the greatest thing of all!
To me, the art of teaching is that each teacher brings their unique talent and passions and shares them with their students. One of the most important things in being a successful teacher is to think deeply about why you love teaching. After you have figured out the things that bring you the most joy in a day or class period, think about things that disrupt your ability to carry these things out on a daily basis (for me, it was a time constraint) and then creatively brainstorming solutions (for me, it was flipping my class format). Each year, I end by reflecting on what I loved about the previous year and areas where I struggled to find maximum satisfaction. And from there, I pick one area of focus that will be my theme for the upcoming academic year. This is my process of innovation and improvement and what keeps me so passionate about what I do!
Stacey Roshan is Upper School Technology Coordinator and Math teacher at Bullis School. She has a keen interest in discovering and bringing innovative tools into the classroom to engage students and to make learning feel like play. She has spent a lot of time working to flip the mathematics classroom in an effort to shift the culture to a more participatory learning space, focused on relationships and individual student’s needs. Her work on the flipped classroom has been featured in major newspapers such as USA Today, CNN, and The Washington Post and television on PBS Newshour. She has also been named Teacher of the Future by the National Association of Independent Schools. Stacey aims to empower teachers with ideas and tech tools to enrich and enliven the classroom by engaging learners. She tweets at: @buddyxo and blogs at: techiemusings.com.
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