Pause, Rewind My Teacher: A Flipped Learning Approach @chriswaterworth

Overview • What is Flipped Learning - Is it really a new concept? • Flipping Blooms Taxonomy • Pause, Rewind my Teacher: Flipped Learning and Ofsted • A Learning Culture – Flipped Learning is NOT just homework! • Learning is a Social Experience – Edmodo and The Flipped Classroom. • How can I get my students on board? • How can I engage parents? • How can I flip my classroom - where do I start and what do I need? • What has been the impact so far? • Questions

What is Flipped Learning? Is it really a new concept? • Have you watched a YouTube video to learn a new skill and then fixed your car, sketched a portrait or baked a cake? How many times did you pause and rewind different parts of the clip? The biggest advantage of flipped learning is that 'You can pause and rewind your teacher.' • Flipped learning enables children to complete the knowledge and understanding aspects of a learning journey OUTSIDE of class time. They are then ready to apply, analyse and evaluate the concepts INSIDE the classroom.

Flipping Blooms Taxonomy • ‘Stand and deliver' model of teaching; • Why shouldn’t children gain knowledge and comprehension via websites, blogs, online encyclopedias and videos specifically created for them by their own teachers? • Developing the ability to use higher-order thinking supports children to become more reflective learners.

Flipping Blooms Taxonomy • "If there is a YouTube video explaining what you're about to say to your class then you should be out of a job...” Aaron Sams and John Bergmann, BETT 2014 • Use this model to save countless hours of ‘chalk and talk’. Think how much more time you will have to steer your students towards higher-order thinking skills. • Children are naturally curious and need to follow their own lines of enquiry, to answer their own questions and be given time to publish and, crucially, refine their work.

Pause, Rewind my Teacher Modelling the process – finding next steps • The children in my Year 3 class laughed when I said that I needed to teach them how to watch a video. “You just watch it…”, “…just press play Mr Waterworth and sit back.” • At first I modelled the whole process, out loud, verbalising my thoughts. I modelled how to pause, make a few notes, watch some more, pause, make more notes and then how to rewind the parts I needed to covering again. I paid particular attention to modelling how to find the point in the video where I got ‘stuck’ and how to articulate my difficulties – finding the next step in my learning.

• I then sent the children away to practise the skill using a short video I’d prepared for this weeks maths learning. I could see the children pausing, having a go, rewinding, and making notes.

Pause, Rewind my Teacher: Flipped Learning and Ofsted • Ofsted arrived at my school looking for people to ‘take risks’ and to show how using a variety of learning techniques could achieve outstanding outcomes. • Learning Without Limits and Self differentiated challenges • The children really excelled, knowing exactly which part of the calculation strategy they were challenged by. They could tell me this, in detail, because they had watched the video before the session. They had already tried at home and now they needed their teacher to help them apply and refine their methods.

Pause, Rewind my Teacher: Flipped Learning and Ofsted • Throughout the lesson the children were confidently using the video to drive their learning forward when they needed help. Consequently, I was able to spend more time questioning children's understanding and moving learning on, maximising the valuable learning time available. • Independence was key to the lesson – letting go of the children, let them take the lesson.

Pause, Rewind my Teacher: Flipped Learning and Ofsted

The lead inspector commented on how confidently the children used the technology to learn. They didn't just use it because it was there; they used it because they knew it would help improve their learning.

A Learning Culture – Flipped Learning is NOT just homework! • Children have been given homework for as long as children have been in school! When first introduced to the concept of flipped learning people often say, “Yeah, its just homework, isn’t it? Nothing new.” Well, they’re partly right but also partly wrong. • Homework is a large part of the flipped classroom and the children need to have completed the ‘pre-learning’ before coming to the next session. It can be a challenge to get children (and some parents) to commit to this initially.

• The key is to show that completing the knowledge and understanding element at home is worthwhile so that they don’t need to spend time in class doing it, whilst others are applying and evaluating projects.

How do I know if they’ve watched? • The children need to have completed pre-learning. • Short entrance quiz before the lesson, post a comment on Edmodo, share a piece of information on Padlet etc • Most effective tool I’ve used so far is Educanon. • Embed questions into the video and receive feedback.

Learning is a Social Experience • My experience with this approach does not mean that I think that standing and telling children is always wrong. After all many children have become successful learners in this way over many years. • Learning is at its most powerful when it is a social experience, involving children and adults engaging in a shared dialogue to solve problems and build understanding.

Learning is a Social Experience • Up step Edmodo – Social Media for Education. This really was a game changer for my Year 3 flipped classroom. It was named “Facebook for kids,” by the children in my class and they love it. • Edmodo is an online ‘work flow’ solution for classrooms and it allows children to save, share work, receive feedback, improve, and publish again.

Learning is a Social Experience • I embed videos, share documents and now the children are commenting on the information I am sharing, something they didn't do before. • I realised that by using Edmodo, prelearning had become a social learning experience but online. • When one child replied to the prelearning I had posted more children replied and an online conversation about the work began. Collaborative learning had started before they had even got to school.

Children Creating their own Videos • Use Vittle or Explain Everything and teach the children how to Screen Cast. • Great for assessment purposes - how much do they really understand? Listen to the language the children use? • We mark at the END of learning, normally not with the children. • Using screencasting we can watch and listen to the children working. • Upload to Edmodo for feedback and next steps. • Building up an online portfolio – Assessment without levels?

How can I get my students onboard? • You need to convince the children that by watching the videos they will have more time to think about different concepts, write down any questions they have and tell them that you’ll be available to unpick any misconceptions in class. This has been one of the great successes from my experience of developing the flipped classroom – the children know and understand exactly what their next steps are. • My advice would be to keep the videos short and make sure the application of the knowledge back in the classroom is exciting. Pose a problem or question, rather than setting a learning objective (learning objectives can spoil the surprise of the outcome) and give the children free reign to present their findings in a format of their choice.

How can I get my students onboard? • "Not all my children can get online...." Hard to believe in 2014 but still very true, not all children have Internet access outside the classroom. Aaron Sams and John Bergman advise a creative approach to this issue e.g. burning DVDs for children to take home, allowing time in school to watch or listen to the videos or send home a flash drive with the content on. You could leave an iPad or video running in the class as an Interactive learning wall.

How can I engage parents? • Weekly newsletter –Tell them what their children are learning in class. • One of the biggest advantages of the making the videos accessible to parents online is to help them understand the teaching methods we use today, many of which may be different from the parents own experience at school. • It creates a level playing field for the child, the parent and the class teacher. I knew that parents were helping the children pre-learn or build on the same methods that I would be teaching the following week.

How can I flip my classroom - where do I start and what do I need? • Start small. Do not expect that the children to buy into this way of working straightaway. Model the whole process in class first to make sure the children understand it. The key steps are: • Explain the new way of working and what the benefits for the children will be. • Teach the children how to watch a video • Watch again, modeling how to make notes when the video is paused • Model how to write down any questions or misconceptions they may have • Plan with them how to use the information. • Send a video home for the next unit of work

How can I flip my classroom - where do I start and what do I need? • For primary teachers, I would recommend flipping one area of the curriculum to begin with. I started with mathematics and will begin to flip other areas of the curriculum throughout the remainder of the school year. • I have used videos from YouTube, Vimeo and even created my own which are short and easy to consume. I’ve also discovered teachers and lecturers who record whole lectures and send them to students before classroom based lessons. • Make your videos entertaining – You would not want to sit through a 45 minute video that did not engage you so don’t expect your students to.

What has been the impact so far? • I spend more time questioning the children’s understanding by giving them problem-solving activities rather than spending time talking them through basic skills, particularly in mathematics. • Children are independently accessing videos when they need to confirm an approach to a skill or to check a fact • Parents are building on the learning in class, knowing they are using the methods we’ve used in school. • Children are beginning to share learning online and peerassess ongoing projects independently.

Questions and Reading • Website: videoformyclassroom.blogspot.co.uk • Twitter @chriswaterworth My eBooks Pause, Rewind My Teacher: A Flipped Approach to Learning Technology is a tool to be used, not an outcome.

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Pause, Rewind My Teacher: A Flipped Learning Approach @chriswaterworth