It’s hard to talk about flipping a classroom without building on the work of Crystal Kirch, a math teacher and department chair of her Southern California high school. For the past year, Crystal has been flipping her classroom and documenting the entire experience on her blog, flippingwithkirch. Her surveys, videos, and reflections give other potential flippers a look at some of the obstacles and rewards of flipping.
She also came up with my favorite explanation of what “flipping a classroom” really means:
There is no single definition for a flipped classroom, and every teacher’s flipped classroom will look slightly different. I feel that it is a classroom that uses videos, vodcasts, and podcasts as instructional tools to help time-shift the instruction of concepts so students receive the most support (teacher presence) when they are working on the heaviest cognitive load (actually solving problems and working on understanding and using the content by themselves).
I met Crystal early this year while searching for techie teachers to try out MentorMob and give feedback. And as a passionate educational trailblazer, she was happy to help. Crystal’s suggestions and guidance have helped us tailor MentorMob to fit the needs of educators everywhere.
In addition, she has demonstrated numerous ways to incorporate MentorMob into her classroom, including curating fun student created videos made through educreations in the playlist below.
Thank you, Crystal, for being a MentorMob Innovator. (And Happy Birthday! :)
