Reflection on Article #3

Niederberger, Mary. New Twist in Education: 'Flipped classroom' makes homework an in-school effort, put lectures online. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 5 January 2012. 

A few days ago, I was on the classroom section of the online "scapbooking" website Pinterest, when I came across the concept of a flipped classroom. I had never come across that educational term before and I ventured to guess that it involved revamping a classroom. My prediction was far from correct when I ventured more deeply into the topic of a flipped classroom. Basically, it involves the process of a teacher recording online lectures in which the students watch in their free time and class time is spent working out problems based off of the online lecture.  It is considered flipped because lecture occurs at home and home work occurs during class time. Just through reading this short article, I can see some major benefits and flaws within this newly flourishing teaching method. 

I personally would not want to engage in a completely flipped classroom in my future teaching career, because I greatly enjoy teaching and interacting with the children. Teaching "virtual" children would be quite strange for me and I believe that it would be difficult to gauge whether or not the students understood the material if I am just a recorded video. I also see the issue of children who do not have computer access at home; the article does state that various accommodations are made for these students to ensure that they have ample time to view the lectures.  What about the children who engage in various after school activities or have a long commute to their home, when will they find the time to watch online lecture videos? Another wonder I have is how much extra time will be added to a teacher's already overwhelming work load. I know from experience of creating digital stories that recording your self speaking requires you to typically create a script and record quite a few takes to get the perfect shot. This seems like quite a lot of work! 

I also wondered how the teachers can truly ensure that the students listened to the lectures and were ACTUALLY engaged. I know that I can watch an online video while at the same time watching TV, eating, and talking to my family members. I am technically watching the video, but my full attention is not on the video. The article states that online quizzes are given following the lecture, but does this leave room for modifications??

Even though it was simple for me to come up with glaring issues with this method, I do believe that I can see some benefits. Due to the fact that the lectures are recorded, the students can work at their own pace and rewind the video if a concept needs to be refreshed due to misunderstanding or simple forgetfulness. Because of the fact that the students are learning the concepts online, this leaves much more time during class for problem based learning, experiments, and other engaging classroom activities. 

At this point, I can see a few benefits of this method but I mostly see some worrisome aspects to a flipped classroom. 

Reflection on Article #2

Roache, Joel. Lewis, Ramon. "Teachers' Views on the Impact of Classroom Management on Student Responsibility". Australian Journal of Education. Nov. 2011. 132-146. 


Even from the beginning on Tutor year, I always had the understanding that classroom management would be a struggle for me. With a quiet voice, small stature, and a free spirit personality, it was difficult for me to discipline children. There was the constant worry of hurting their feeling, the balance between being too harsh and too lenient, and what behaviors should be ignored. So many wonderings and the constant answer I would receive is that these skills will come from experience. Working with fourth graders was completely out of my comfort zone ( especially since a few of the children are almost as tall as me!) so this classroom management experience would have been a much needed tool in my back pocket. 


I found this article to be quite interesting and relevant to my personal views on student classroom behavior. Fourth grade children are nearing the end of the elementary school years and I believe that these nine and ten year old ladies and gentleman should have the developed abilities to maintain responsibility for their assignments, desk area, and the well being of their fellow students. The purpose of this Australian student was to determine the effects of teacher demeanor and the amount of student responsibilities on the overall classroom environment. Would less disruptions occur? This quote found within the article beautifully describes the purpose of the study:

".......that children should be willing to assert their right to learn at school and be prepared to protect the rights of other students in their class to learn in a safe and emotionally secure environment.To help encourage students to do this, there is a growing body of research that argues that the nature of the student–teacher relationship needs to be built on a basis of sensitivity, trust and mutual respect."


This study invited the students to take part in classroom management decision making, hinting when unacceptable behavior is occurring, making not of appropriate behavior that is occurring within the class group, and making expectations clear. Interestingly enough, the study found that when students misbehave the teachers obviously grow concerned and somewhat angry that their methods are failing. These unwanted student behaviors are in turn paired with the punishments inflicted by the teacher. These  teachers are also less likely to reward and validate appropriate behavior in the presence of misbehavior. This in turn causes the teacher to become less "responsible" and also diminishes the childrens' responsible behaviors as well. 


I would say that in simple terms, this article is stating that it as important to dole out consequence as it is to praise students who are behaving appropriately! 

Characteristics #1 and #6

#1- We believe that the novice teacher should have a commitment to and skills for life-long learning.

As a "novice" teacher, I know that I still have so much to learn about teaching, differentiating, and effectively transferring knowledge to my students. Technology, student interests, and classroom atmospheres are continually changing so it is absolutely crucial to remain a life long learner. Over the past two years, I have encountered so many different classrooms from collaborative, to ESL, to Pre-K and I had to adjust my teaching styles, lesson difficulty levels, and demeanor to meet the needs of all of these students. From year to year, so many diverse children will be filtering in and out of your classroom and it would be silly to believe that the same lessons can be used to meet these students each year. Becoming a "comfortable" teacher would cause a major disservice to both my students and to myself. Remaining a life long learner also involves on going reflective practices to determine what works, what needs tweeked, and the methods that are providing zero benefits for your students. 

In my opinion, a life long learner is an individual that welcomes change into his or her classroom and actively seeks out the latest educational journals or bright and shiny technologies. For example, North Elementary recently introduced the Sparks system for Science classrooms. These gadgets can be a bit overwhelming at first, but many teachers attended and were willing to learn during the tutorial. 

I believe that to be successful in any job, but most importantly teaching, you must be prepared to adequately  adjust in this ever changing world. Recycling lesson plans for the next ten years, solely relying on the textbook as an informational tool, and displaying information on a out dated overhead projector are methods that do not fall into the category of a life long learner. 

#6 - We believe that the novice teacher should have in-depth knowledge of content.

I will admit that this is a characteristic that I struggled with immensely this semester. Truthfully, fourth grade mathematics caused me the same amount of head aches that it did when I was a nine year old child. I felt as though I sadly did not have an in-depth knowledge of the mathematics content and this in turn caused me to lose confidence when teaching these concepts to my students. I now see that a teacher must study the course materials and develop an appropriate grasp of the concepts. If you do not understand how to add and subtract fractions as a teacher there is absolutely no way that you can effectively teach your students the correct methods to add and subtract fractions. 

You always hear the age old saying of "Those who cannot do, teach" and that saying is absolutely false. If you do not have the knowledge or skills to play soccer or understand what a helping verb is, how can you teach this information to your pupils? I believe that our methods courses were created to teach us this knowledge of content, though some educators are much less successful than others. Assignments such as the small group mathematics activities for Math Methods most definitely required us to have background knowledge on the topics. 

Hopefully, I will feel more confident and comfortable with teaching kindergarten material Intern year and will not feel like I was somewhat drowning as I did this semester!