Flipping Math

I had a few requests to do a post about how I have flipped my class for math this school year.  I don't have many pictures and I'm still constantly tweaking how I do math, but I'll let you know what we are doing right now or what I plan to do!

I decided to flip my math lessons back in November along with a team mate.  I teach in a K-12 school and a couple of our middle school teachers have flipped their classrooms and most classrooms you see that are flipped are middle or high school, but we decided we wanted to try it in 2nd grade.  We started in January when we returned from Christmas track-out.

My students watch a video lesson of me teaching at home for their homework 2-3 nights each week.  I use the Apple app ShowMe to record my videos.  I have been told this is not the way to flip because myself am not in the video, but I'm not a fan of videoing myself and by using the ShowMe app, I can work on videos from anywhere - including my bed :)

My videos range in length from as few as 3 minutes to no more than 10 minutes.  Usually they are around the 5-6 minute mark.  This is probably a little long, but my kids are being active with me during the video, so they aren't just sitting and watching.  I have even had a couple kids tell me that the videos only seem like they are a couple minutes long (even if they are really 8 minutes long - haha).

While the kids are watching the videos, they are completing a Flipping Homework Response Sheet that I created.  It has 3 boxes.  The top box they write down any important vocabulary terms that I introduce at the beginning of the video.  After introducing vocal, if any, teach and do 1-2 practice problems for my kids to watch me solve, depending on the topic.  They are just watching right now.  The middle box is where students will work a problem out WITH me.  I remind them constantly during the video that if they need to pause, they can do that, but I'm going to keep going.  After they have solved a problem with me, I leave them some sort of problem to do in the bottom box.  This is how I can check to see if they understand the concept.  One nights where students do not have a video to watch, they do an assignment on Scootpad.

If a student does not watch the video at home the night before, they do this first thing the next morning after they unpack.  I had one child who was without Internet the first few weeks we were flipping and after her mother approached me with this problem, we discussed options and she made sure she was at school first thing, 7:45, so she could get it done.  She would watch the video and complete the response sheet for her morning work.

Then fast forward to the next day!  When we get back to our classroom from specials we only have about 50 minutes for math, in years past I've had about 75 minutes, so I knew I had to do something different this year - which led to flipping.  When we get back, I give brief directions and then we start.  I do 4 rounds of centers each day and each center is 12 minutes long.  I have one of these cool timers to keep us true to time...that is, if I can remember to start the timer after we switch!

Now, what are the four rounds/centers my kiddos are doing?

The most important one is Work with Teacher!  During work with teacher, my kids and I are working on an assignment or activity to assess their understanding of the concept.  This is what my other team mates, who are not flipping, use as classwork.  Some of these I make myself, some are things I find on TPT, and some are the classwork sheets from our Envision Math curriculum (we don't use it too much anymore).  Depending on if this is a brand new concept or more of a review/practice day, my role may change.  Some days I do a lot of guiding and we have discussions while we work through the assignment.  Other days I am there just hanging out monitoring progress and checking while they work.  If they need help, they ask for it.

After my students leave Work with Teacher, they have been moving to our Hot Dots center. I purchased lots of Hot Dots pens, sets, and boxes of cards earlier in the year with my fundraising money from Candy Man to use during math.  My students get a pen, choose a bag or box of cards, go find somewhere to sit and work independently on their Hot Dots.  Most of my kids love using Hot Dots and are great for differentiation.  Check them out if you don't already have some!

When we return from track-out, I am actually going to change this center to Math Journal.  My kids already have math journals that we have used time to time this year, but for the last quarter, students are going to be given different activities to do in their math journal.  I plan to start using Sunny Days in 2nd Grade's Weekly Math Magic - students will just do one side each day.  When they finish, they can then do Hot Dots.

After leaving Hot Dots/Math Journal, students go to what we call, Math Center.  My 1st grade TA helper comes in during math each afternoon and she "mans" this center for me.  Since we began flipping, I have been using Hope King's monthly math centers.  They are GREAT!  Easy to prep, same activities each month so the kids begin to understand the centers better, and are a great way to review different concepts.

The last center students go to is iMath.  This is a new name for this center, my kiddos don't even know yet, so you are special because you get to find out first!  iMath changes each day, so I write their directions on the board for this center.  Some days my kids watch last night's ShowMe video, if they feel they need to see it again, and then they do different math apps if they have time left.  Other days, I give students specific apps or activities I want them to do.  Some of these might include:

Scootpad assignment

Splash Math

Front Row (going to start this after track-out)

Math Games - Sushi Monster, Todo Math, etc.

So, that is a run-down of how I have "flipped" my classroom and how we do math in our room.  I hope I have covered it all!  If you have any questions, please ask!  I'm sure I have forgotten something.

Have a great weekend!!