"I can honestly say this is the first course that has anything to do with social studies that I know without a doubt that I will remember because of......." This was a recent statement by one of my pre-service teachers in my social studies methods course as we were discussing strategic instruction in social studies. Do you want to guess how her sentence ended? Let me give you some choices......(1) reading the textbook, (2) answering the questions at the end of the chapter, or (3) writing all of the vocabulary words with definitions three times each? None of the above! (Okay, that was a trick question, but I now know I have your attention.)
She ended her statement with ".....all the blogging, the exploration of resources before class, and the small group discussions we are having." You cannot imagine the thrill that ran through me as she shared that reflection openly in our whole group sharing time! I then knew that I had stumbled upon a teaching method that not only helps my students learn and become excited about teaching social studies (which they had shared at the beginning of the semester was something they almost dread), but also has revitalized me as an educator myself.
Do you want to know about the magic? It's called the flipped classroom model with a little BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) thrown in. Students in my Teaching Social Sciences methods courses read portions of the chapter in their textbook, explore resources (websites, videos, podcasts) that I have posted on our course website, and blog about their learning. I give them guiding questions to give purpose to their exploration, but they have a lot of autonomy in what they blog about. I can easily see their connections, read about their Aha! moments, and know how they plan on using their new knowledge in their own future classrooms.
I first learned about the flipped classroom model at the Celebration of Teaching Conference at the University of Missouri right after the close of the Spring 2013 semester. I listened as presenters shared how they empowered students to be in charge of their own learning. I had long been an advocate of student-centered instruction, but to hear those professors discuss how students were actively involved in discussions, projects, and problem-solving DURING class instead of OUTSIDE of class prompted me to analyze my own courses to see how to reorganize them to explore this new method.
This is the first in a (hopefully) long line of posts to document my journey to integrate technology into all of my university courses. I would love to hear from other teacher educators and classroom teachers that integrate technology into their classes as well. I look forward to sharing my experiences and learning from you as well!
Stay tuned for my weekly update. I plan on posting each Friday.....you'll never know what I'll talk about next!
Jen this blog is a great idea! As a colleague of yours I've experienced firsthand how helpful you are - and how full of ideas, resources and hard-earned wisdom for using technology in schools. Flipped classrooms truly are exciting. My only complaint is you didn't define BYOD - it took me a bit to figure out this means "Bring Your Own Device." So I hope you keep the explanations simple enough for those of us with one foot still in our horse-drawn buggies, because I'll be returning periodically to get tips.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. I did go back and edit it to include the "Bring Your Own Device" definition, but maybe I need to define things further. I'll remember that going forward. The only problem I might have is knowing what to share when.....I don't want to make posts too long because then people won't read them. As you know from being in class with me, this is a problem that I have quite often! Thanks again!
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