For those of you that have followed my blog for a while, you know that I am a huge fan of utilizing the flipped classroom strategy in classrooms. That being said, I worry that I haven’t talked enough about the tips and tricks to make a flipped classroom truly effective for students. Implementing a flipped classroom can be an amazing strategy – or it can be a complete trainwreck. If utilized properly, a flipped classroom can be an amazing way to open more time in your instructional day for deeper learning. However, if you don’t implement it properly, students are less likely to engage with and/or retain the material that was taught.

An effective flipped classroom is not simply sharing a video for students to watch. An effective flipped classroom is so much more than this. It is thoughtful, systematic, and continues to challenge and support students.

Ready to up your flipped classroom game? Check out these 5 tips! (Bonus: Check out the AWESOME infographic at the end and feel free to share out!)

Tip #1: Keep it Short

Gone are the days of 45+ minute lectures. Have you recently tried to sit through a long lecture or meeting? I swear my attention span is getting smaller as I am getting older. Imagine what is like for our students? As a middle school teacher, my flipped classroom lessons were never over 20 minutes. Usually, they were somewhere in the 10-15 minute range which was more than enough for my students. Remember, your students will have to account for writing time and checks for understanding. This means that they could be doing their flipped classroom for longer than the recorded time.

Pro-Tip: Use Screencastify to record your lessons. It keeps a timer of how long you have been recording to help you keep track of time.

Tip #2: Check for Understanding

Adding checks for understanding in your flipped lesson is one of the most important aspects of a flipped classroom lesson. It challenges students to stop, reflect, think, and apply the new knowledge they have learned. It doesn’t have to be a lot questions – just simple, quick checks. As a Math teacher, I usually added 3-5 problems per lesson to check for understanding that could be automatically graded within the system (EdPuzzle) I was using.

Pro-Tip: Utilize EdPuzzle to check for understanding. It can track how long the students have watched the video and grade questions that you embed into the lesson.

Tip #3: Allow Time to Reteach

Once you give your flipped lesson, please don’t move on until all of your students have a strong understanding of the material. After a flipped lesson, I would have students check their grade on EdPuzzle from the previous night’s lesson and have them break into groups based on their progress. For struggling students, I pulled them into small groups to reteach. For students that had done well, they could move onto the next assignment or an enrichment activity.

Pro-Tip: Utilize the grading feature in EdPuzzle to quickly grade and track student data to develop your groups.

Tip #4: Accessible to All Learners

This one is simple – check that the technology that you ask students to use is accessible across multiple platforms, even cell phones! More times than I could count, I have had students that lost internet access, or their Chromebook broke, or some other technology issue that prevented them from completing their assignment. However, EdPuzzle has an AMAZING mobile feature and I could always refer my students to that option.

Pro-Tip: Test out your flipped lesson on a mobile phone. If it works there, it will probably work anywhere.

Tip #5: Time to Apply Their Knowledge

Once students have completed their flipped lesson and you have followed up with them, challenge students to demonstrate their knowledge. Personally, I always assessed their skills and application of their knowledge. Simple, skills practice was completed in Google Forms where they could receive immediate feedback. The deeper application was done through projects, game-based learning, and other assignments. Make sure students have a chance to show what they know!

Pro-Tip: Need some new ideas? Check out this fun list from The Ed Advocate: 27 Ways to Have Students Demonstrate What They Have Learned.

    What are some of your best flipped classroom tips and tricks? Share in the comments below!

In this post, I will be sharing resources from our Geometry unit which covers ratios, proportions, area, surface area, volume, and angle relationships.

As a disclaimer, this unit is not organized in a way that you would traditionally see it in a Math 7 classroom.  The class that I teach is aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) but it is an 7th grade Math Honors course that contains all of the 7th grade standards and the majority of the 8th grade standards.  My goal is to prepare them for Integrated I in their 8th grade year.  One of the 7th grade units that I did not cover this year was Ratios & Proportions, instead, I embedded it throughout the entire year and within several units.  In addition to this, the Geometry that is covered in this unit also embeds 8th grade Math, such as cylinders, cones, and spheres.

If you only teach Math 7 or Math 8, I hope you find some resources that you can use in your classroom and/or modify for your classroom.  It looks like a bizarre unit but, in my case, it totally works!

If you would like to see how I create these Flipped Classroom lessons, please view THIS video on YouTube.

Below are a list of resources that I sharing with you from our Geometry Unit.  Feel free to use, copy, and modify!

5.1 – Ratios & Proportions (Google Slide) (EdPuzzle) (Foldable)

5.2 – Scale Factor (Google Slide) (EdPuzzle) (Foldable)

5.3 – Area of Shapes (Google Slide) (EdPuzzle) (Foldable)

5.4 – Surface Area of 3D Shapes (Google Slide) (EdPuzzle) (Foldable)

5.5 – Volume of 3D Shapes (Google Slide) (EdPuzzle) (Foldable)

5.6 – Angle Relationships (Google Slide) (EdPuzzle) (Foldable)

As a reminder, I have a flipped classroom and created my notes by using Google Slides and Screencastify.  From there, I add the video to EdPuzzle and create questions to check for understanding.  If I see the students struggling, I pull them into small groups to reteach during our “Choice Time” the next day.

If you would like to access the resources from the other Units, you can find them below:

Unit 1: The Number System

Unit 2: Expressions & Equations

Unit 3: Exponents & Roots

Unit 4: Linear Functions & Equations

How to Flip Your Classroom

YouTube Channel

Feel free to leave any questions and/or comments in the comment section below!

Last weekend, I presented at the SGV Summit and one of my presentations was on “Four Easy Steps for Flipping Your Classroom”.  The attendees were amazing and I was so excited to receive such positive feedback on this session.  Since there is so much information to cover in this session, I promised the attendees that I would create a video that would go over the presentation and the four steps.

Although it is one of my longer videos, I really encourage you to watch this video if you are serious about flipping your classroom.  I am certainly not an expert, but I have been flipping my classroom for two years and I feel that it has been a successful implementation.

In this video, I share:

• The difference between a traditional and flipped classroom.
• The benefits of flipping the classroom.
• The logistics of flipping the classroom.
• The four steps for creating a flipped lesson.

As always, feel free to reach out to me at anytime with any questions that you might have – I love having conversations with other educators!

Today I will be sharing the resources from our third Unit, which covers square roots, exponents, and scientific notation!

The class that I teach is aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) but it is an 7th grade Math Honors course that contains all of the 7th grade standards and the majority of the 8th grade standards.  My goal is to prepare them for Integrated I in their 8th grade year.  It is a lot and it can be a tough transition for some of the 7th grade students at the beginning of the year, since many of the students are used to one teacher and a class where it may be easy for them to “skate” along.  These students are truly gifted and benefit from the challenge of this Honors course, but it tends to be the year where they learn that they are not perfect and might have to work harder than they have in previous grades.  Personally, one of my favorite parts of the school year for my 7th grade students is the end of the first semester.  At the end of the first semester, the 7th graders are now comfortable with middle school, their classes, and the pace of the Honors class.  It is so exciting when they start to realize the benefits of a more challenging class!

Below are a list of resources that I sharing with you from our Expressions & Equations Unit.  Feel free to use, copy, and modify!

• 3.1 – Square & Cube Roots (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 3.2 – Estimating Irrational Roots (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle) – Beware of the Number Line foldable, I need to find a new copy of it…Read more about it HERE.
• 3.3  – The Pythagorean Theorem (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 3.4 – Product & Power Rule of Exponents (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 3.5 – The Quotient Rule of Exponents (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 3.6 – Negative Exponents (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 3.7 – Converting between Standard and Scientific Notation (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 3.8 – Operations with Scientific Notation (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)

As a reminder, I have a flipped classroom so I have create my notes by using Google Slides and Screencastify.  From there, I add the video to EdPuzzle and create questions to check for understanding.  If I see the students struggling, I pull them into small groups to reteach during our “Choice Time” the next day.

If you would like to access the resources from Unit 1: The Number System, click HERE and Unit 2: Expressions & Equations, click HERE.

Feel free to leave any questions and/or comments in the comment section below!

Now, the students complete the notes at home and the majority of the practice in class.  By completing the notes on EdPuzzle, I am able to check that they have watched the entire video and create questions to check for understanding.  By completing the practice in class via Google Forms, the students are able to receive real time feedback on their results and quickly receive help from the teacher.  On top of this, the students can finish the practice at home, after they have received support from their teacher, and resubmit the practice that they did in class for a higher score.

There will never be a perfect system but I found that this works well in my classroom.  After all, I always say: When students are taking notes, that is when they need me the least.  When they are working on practice, that is when they need me the most.  So, why not allow more practice in class and the direct teaching at home?  Why not leave more time in class for practice, project-based learning, and fun activities that will excite and engage students?

If you are a Math teacher and looking to get started on flipping your classroom, I am going to share my Math 7 Honors – Unit 1: The Real Number System Google Slides with you.  Every lesson, I create a Google Slide, record over it with Screencastify, and upload it to EdPuzzle.

Unit 1: The Real Number System

• 1.1 – The Number System (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 1.2 – Operations with Decimals (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 1.3 – Fractions, Decimals, and Percents (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 1.4 – Adding & Subtracting Integers (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 1.5 – Adding & Subtracting Fractions (Google Slide) (EdPuzzle)
• 1.6 – Multiplying & Dividing Integers (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 1.7 – Multiplying & Dividing Fractions (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)
• 1.8 – Order of Operations (Google Slide) (Foldable) (EdPuzzle)

Feel free to make a copy, modify, use, steal, etc. I’m pretty sure there are quite a few things on these resources that I have “borrowed” throughout the years.  That’s just what educators do!

• Flipping the Classroom – Students complete the “direct teaching” for homework. EdPuzzle prevents them from skipping ahead and checks for understanding.
• Intervention – Students can review a lesson taught in a different way to review material.
• Enrichment – Students can learn about a variety of topics beyond what is currently being taught in class.

EdPuzzle is a great website and it is one that I use every week within my classroom.  I cannot express how much I am in love with this website!

To get started on EdPuzzle, click HERE to view a Google Doc on directions for setting up and using your EdPuzzle account.  In addition to this, there is a quick video with an overview of EdPuzzle, as well as how I am using it within my classroom located below.

Enjoy!

To install the screencastify extension, complete the following steps:

1. Go to the Chrome Web Store and type in “Screencastify” or click HERE.
2. Click “Add to Chrome”.
3. Check that Screencastify has successfully installed at the top right of your Chrome browser.

Record by Tab & Desktop

The record by tab option allows you to record the tab that was initially visible in Google Chrome.  When recording by tab, you will only be able to record the tab that was originally open when you began recording.  The record by desktop option allows you to record your entire desktop.  When recording by desktop, you will be able to record anything that you do on your computer, including switching tabs and applications.

To record a tab or desktop screen, complete the following steps:

1. Select the screencastify extension.
2. Choose “Tab”.
3. Check that “Microphone” and “Tab Audio” is selected.
4. Choose “Record Tab” or “Record Desktop”.

Record by Cam

The record by cam option allows you to use the webcam and record yourself.  When recording by cam, the webcam will turn on and begin recording.

To record by using your webcam, complete the following steps:

1. Select the screencastify extension.
2. Choose “Cam”.
3. Check that “Microphone” is selected.
4. Choose “Record Webcam”.

Accessing Recordings

All recordings from Screencastify can be accessed on your Google Drive.  To access these files, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Google Drive.
2. Find the “Screencastify” folder.
3. Find your recording.

That’s it!