#ASCD14 Foundations of Flipped Learning.

Day one of the ASCD is in the books.  Overall, I have to say it was a pretty good day.  Here is a brief recap of my learning from the day.

Session 1: Foundations of Flipped learning with Jon Bergmann  @jonbergmann and Aaron Sams @chemicalsams  was a good basic session covering Flipped Learning.  

Definition of Flipped Learning

The basic of the session is that educators need to transition from a teacher centered classroom to a student centered class. Flipping aids in this transition, At the end of the day we have school back words we are doing the easy stuff at school and are sending the hard stuff home.

In most teacher centered classrooms controlled by lecture teachers are typically hitting the lower three levels of Blooms. The work we are sending students home to typically requires the top three level of Blooms. Stop sending the hard work home for students to tackle on their own.

One of the other main concepts from the session is the idea that with a flipped class you have the ability to gain time for your students and provide them opportunities to really expand their learning.  There are three keys for good learning; Content, Curiosity and Relationships.  Too much content kills curiosity.  The flipped classroom allows for teachers to cover the content and still  provide more time for curiosity and relationship building.

My thoughts on flipped learning:  I like the concept of flipped learning.  I have worked with many teachers as they began to flip their classes.  Flipped Learning is a concept that has great potential.  The one problem I have seen over and over is how flipped counts on your students completing the homework.  And that has been the problem teachers are constantly facing.  Students just do not complete their homework.  In a flipped class, homework is more important then ever.  I know there are strategies to address this problem but that just adds another layer of complexity to the management of the classroom.  Flipping is not easy and it is something that takes time to work through and really begin to embrace.  

Any teacher looking to flip their class should start out slow and not try to flip their entire class at one time.  And remember to always understand, change is hard and change takes time.