Project #3- C4T #1

For my first Comments for Teachers assignment, I was assigned to Syded, which is written by Daniel Edwards. The title of the first post I commented on is "Flipping Your Classroom? 5 Learning Ideas." Before reading this post I had heard of flipping a classroom before, but I wasn't sure what it meant, so I took advantage of the links he provided to some previous posts about the topic. I learned that flipping a classroom means that the students watch a video or lecture for homework. The next day in class, instead of presenting the material, the teacher is able to jump straight into discussions and practice work on the material.

Now back to the post I actually commented on. In this post, Edwards talks about five activities that he used to kick off the school year in his flipped classroom. First, is "Ask Teacher." In this activity students can ask the teacher anything from getting to know you questions to questions about their holiday work. The second activity is "Genius Bar" for which students were given a small section of material to become a genius on. Then half of the class opened their Genius Bars while the other half were the customers, and then they switched. Next is "Guess the Learning" in which the students have to guess the objective for the lesson that is sealed in an envelope for a prize. The fourth activity is called "Ten Questions," which means that the class has to agree on only ten questions for the teacher to answer during the entire lesson with only three sentences per answer. Finally, the last activity is "King of the Court" which Edwards describes as a, "knock out quiz tournament."

For my comment, I began by introducing myself. I then went on to let him know that his older post on flipping the classroom taught me what the phrase means. I said that I am an elementary education major, and I think his ideas could be modified for use with any age level. He even commented back thanking me for my comment and wishing me luck.

The second post I commented on continues with the idea of flipping the classroom. It is titled "Top 10 Do's and Don'ts When Flipping Your Classroom #edchat." This post is exactly what the title says it is, ten tips for flipping a classroom successfully. The do's include making your own material for students to learn with at home, deciding on a "workflow solution" and being consistent about using it, having specific deadlines, providing internet access for students who don't have it, and explaining the new teaching style to parents. The don'ts are expecting students to read and watch the material just because they are supposed to, assuming class time will always run smoothly, expecting other teachers to support the flipped classroom teaching style, expecting teacher observation templates to work with the flipped class format, and believing the same material (text and videos) will last forever.

For my comment, I said how I think the tips are great for teachers considering the flipped classroom method. I mentioned the tip that stood out to me the most, which is the one about explaining the new teaching method to parents. Finally, I talked about how wonderful it is for education students to have blogs like his to learn from.