Flipped Classroom with Khan Academy resources

Teachers are always striving to find ways to be more efficient and effective. One strategy that has gained a lot of attention is “Flipped Classroom”.   This approach uses technology to extend student exposure of the conceptual understanding over period of tome that is not depended on physical access to classroom or time.

There are various great websites that have awesome tutorials and step-by-step instructional videos for you to follow. Some of these websites will claim that:

Flipping is easy – and with a little thought and planning, teachers can use the flipped model to create engaging learning experiences for their students.  – http://flippedinstitute.org

IMHO that is marketing talk. Any new strategy and framework adds a considerable strain on your current practice and one should make sure that there is collegial support and coaching available. Having said that I do think that this is an excellent journey to embark and I would like to share a few insights how this can be done.

Before we go any further we need define: What is a flipped classroom?

Teachers who have flipped their classrooms either create or link to content related instructional materials and post them to a web site or learning management system for students to view outside the school day. By having students view the videos and learning resources at home, teachers use class-time by helping students apply or practice the learning. Activities that have been traditionally assigned as homework are now done in class with the teacher’s support. –21things4teachers

To me this means:

1. Teacher provides material that is explaining the concept.
2. Students then watch the content at home.
3. During class time teacher can focus on Transferring  Meaning and Applying Knowledge instead of Constructing Meaning.

For me the hard part was to find the material, especially because many how-to’s  stated that I should make a screen-cast or a video myself. This whole task seemed huge and daunting. After some reflection I realized that I can and should find these ready made educational videos and curate them into individual learning paths and I could even differentiate this material so that it would match my students needs and levels.

One such resource is www.khanacademy.org

Most people are held back not by their innate ability, but by their mindset. They think intelligence is fixed, but it isn’t. Your brain is like a muscle. The more you use it and struggle, the more it grows.

New research shows we can take control of our ability to learn. We can all become better learners. We just need to build our brains in the right way.

Their website is produced to give educators a plethora of quality materials on various content and concept levels. Should you want to try it out, come and let’s try this together.

Ways to use Khan Academy for Math