We are almost a month in and I am working harder then ever! I have 3 newish class preps; biology, AP Environmental Science and general Environmental Science. Add to this, my colleague and I have decided to flip our classroom. This is a fantastically cool teaching strategy where I no longer give notes and lectures in class. Instead I record videos of the information and post them on YouTube for the students to watch and take notes and an online quiz. Then I use class time to expand and do tons of fun and educational labs and activities. It is exhausting and overwhelming and amazing. My students are doing phenomenal! It is amazing to see them work together, gain a deeper understanding and enjoy learning.
Work
It appears as though it would be a lot less work for me as a teacher, but in reality it is a lot more work and more rewarding as well! I am continuously walking around guiding, teaching, expanding, questioning and playing devils advocate in class. Outside of class my grading is more meaningful as the assignment are more culminating rather than periodic and random checks. I am spending hours on my videos and creating lesson that are awesome and make the material more fluid! It feels fantastic to be doing something like this. It’s refreshing, but it’s taking all my time which is why the blog has been getting less attention.
It’s not that I don’t want to write, it’s that I literally have no time. I am trying to update 2-3 time a week an hope to get back to my consistent 4-5 time a week post soon. Until then I will be head deep in amazing educational strategies and refining my craft.