Reflections from my first week of flip (student) training

"It always starts with them, it is for them, they want this to happen and here is another reason why.  I have to continually remind them of the message that started it all.  Although the conversation was powerful and engaging, it was like three or four days ago and big emotional and cognitive ideas don't stick for that long in the heads of most people."


Here is a walk through of  what my first full week in the lab looked like.


If you have questions about curriculum design follow LINK to a post on how I formatted my class so that students can self navigate content, which (seems to be?) is an essential component to making this thing work.

The first two lessons were done in the "lab" that is to say the controlled environment of the classroom so that I could coach steps of the process (as opposed to simply letting them know today's lesson can be found at www...be prepared for discussion tomorrow).



Topic 13 Lesson

Cultural Goal:  practice what it is like at home, and learn the structure of the lessons.  

Lead with the "Why":

 "We are going to be spending a week practicing what this process will be like for you.  I have done this with students before so I would like to warn you it may be awkward.  If we are going to succeed at changing school so that it can serve you better, we need to practice like we play.  Therefore (although it may seem small), it is very important that everyone works independently (no sharing computers) so that you can get a feel for what it is like."

I learned this lesson the hard way last year, because I didn't think it would be, and it has nothing to do with being distracted.  Students are far less likely to do the things that are intended with this model.  Pause, rewind, "stop and think" when the lessons prompts them to because they are concerned about the person sitting next to them and slowing them down.

Also notice how different this message is then just simply starting with

"Today you need to work individually, so no sharing computers or devices"

This message was shared before I walk through the structure of a lesson.  It took me two periods by the way to figure out that I need to Start with this idea as opposed to end when they are (mentally) on their way into the computer lab or what ever.

Here is a look at some types data I collect at the end of every lesson.  How cool would it be to know this stuff at the beginning of class.




Topic 14 Lesson

Culture Goal:  I need your feedback, but am not sure the best way to get it.

"We have already discussed how much more efficient school could be if we weren't so stuck on the idea of delivering one message to everyone, there is another possible benefit to this system should we succeed in working together to make it work.  I usually share some info, we work on it, then have a small quiz or assessment.  It is only then that I really am able to take a look inside your heads and see what things are sticking and what things are missing their mark.  Think of all the time wasted between the lesson and the grading of the quiz...we usually have moved on to another topic by then.  That crucial information is almost useless at this point.

One thing I would like to coach you all to get good at is leaving feedback the moment you finish a lesson, when you are best able to articulate what works and what didn't.  Here is one way to try doing that..."

It always starts with them, it is for them and they want this to happen and here is another reason why.  I have to continually remind them of the message that started it all.  Although the conversation was powerful and engaging, it was like three or four days ago and emotional and cognitive ideas don't stick for that long in the heads of most people.

One important question that I lovingly rip off from the godfather of flip, Harvard Physics Professor, Eric Mazur 1, 2, 3.


He is my friggin hero! and all three of those links are worth investigating in order of awesomeness.  The first is an audio documentary on the observed ineffectiveness of lecture at the college level. Number 2 is a video podcast with tons of his "how to" stuff.  3 is a keynote he did at a teaching/tech conference. killer.

"Please tell me one thing you found difficult, even if came to understand everything, some parts were certainly more difficult than others.  We are going to practice different ways for you to communicate with me your thoughts.  Feel free to look at what others wrote and give them a thumbs up if you agree with them, as opposed to putting another comment. "

Here is the information they left me...open the "view comment" button.
video feedback (check comments pretty sweet)

Culture Eats Structure For Breakfast

"Listen to politicians now, with their comprehensive 12-point plans. They're not inspiring anybody. Because there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they're individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves. And it's those who start with "why" that have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them."

How not to coach the flip

When I first experimented with digital lesson's in the lab (literally computer lab), I was shocked by my student's response.  "Boring", "no interaction", and a nearly uniform desire to continue with lecture.  They even complained that they needed a teacher standing over them so that they would stay focused.

It is important to note that I am kind of a whack job in the way I run my class so relative to most teachers, there is an entertainment/interest factor associated with "what is he gonna do next?". I would like to recognize that this does not translate to better learning, as much as it makes them more willing to sit through lecture.

Anther unexpected mistake was that I waited until the end of the year to experiment with it.  Student's had learned the system and were comfortable with it, even if it meant accepting a lower grade then they would have expected of themselves.

Comfort is a powerful draw...sad face.

On top of all of this, my most glaring error was articulating my intentions with structural rational predictably following the what, how and very little on the "why", which is a trademark of uninspiring leadership everywhere.

Culture Eats Structure for Breakfast

I have changed very little in my videos, curriculum, and website design.  Before I started the flip, I obsessed over creating a course that students could self navigate.  Criterion referenced so that students had incentive to revisit old material.  The structure was ready for the flip, so why was my initial experiment meet with a luke warm response?  Because culture eats structure for breakfast, at times I have tried to replicate what other people do in their classrooms, things that don't appear to be terribly complex. When my results fall short it is not for lack of execution or experience, but the lack of cultural leadership that usually lead me to say things like, "well that doesn't work with my students".


This summer, I spend 18 min listening to this TED video during a morning run, the first 8 min was all I needed.


Leading with the "WHY"

Combing my experience last year with ideas from this video I made the following move.

First:  Do business as usual for the first unit.  Students are very effectively primed to experiment with school after they have gone through the pain of sitting through lecture and not understanding content while the class keeps moving, or sitting through example after example when the message was clear to you the first time.  My first unit is very rigorous, possibly the most difficult of the semester, so most students are below where they would like to be and therefore more open to change.

Second:  I carved out time for them to make a case for what works and what doesn't.  We used todaysmeet.com to have a quick informal conversation around two questions.  How much time does (during a given class period) does a teacher spend addressing your questions?  How much time does a teacher spend talking to everyone?  The results are predictable.

After this brief interlude from business as usual, my students were ready for the "why", ready for it to be something they could b a part of, that would meet their interest.  The entire pitch needed to be about them, how this is for them, and how this will solve more problems (and there will be problems) than it creates.

The Pitch...I made a recording of the conversation I lead (minus the student interaction) to provide some talking points you might consider.

The results were a complete shift in my students initial attitude toward the process.  They see it for what it is, an experiment to solve a problem that is important to them.  I continue to be honest with them about the challenges and regularly invite their feedback.  They are part of the process, it is 100% for them and they know that it is experimental in nature and expect problems to come up.  It's less about if they like it or not, and more about inquiry to see if it works.  

Why should I call you Coach?

“Coaches are often portrayed as tough and demanding but deeply concerned about helping players to realize their potential.

After reading the following article, I decided to make the switch and have my students call me “Coach V” instead of “Mr. V”.  I made this decision the night before my first day on the job!

I have been consistently impressed by my students ability to go along with whatever weird stuff I throw at them.  My typical response to the question has evolved to, "Science, Tech Stuff, and being Awesome!".  I pretty much agree with everything Steven G has to say so I will let the original author speak for himself.  Leave comments or questions below.

What do you think?

Dr. Coach: A Metaphor to Teach By Steven M. Graves Department of Geography CSU Northridge

You win with people.Woody Hayes, Head Coach Ohio State Buckeyes, 1951-1978Every term, students ask, “Why did you give me a C?” or “Is this going to be on the test?” I think these questions indicate something more fundamental than laziness or stunted intellectual curiosity: a misperception of the teacher-student relationship. Faculty members think of themselves as enablers of student performance, advocates for students who guide them through the learning process. Students, on the other hand, frequently think of “the teacher” as the opponent in the learning process and the primary obstacle to an A+. Of course, not all students see us this way, but a disturbing number of freshmen and poor students consider us competitive adversaries.This unfortunate notion develops early in students and represents a discourse reinforced daily in our culture. Media and political interests have contributed mightily to less-than-desirable images of teachers. Students may be internalizing some media-driven stereotypes of the adversarial teacher. Though a significant number of positive media images of individual teachers exist, these characters stand out precisely because they are cast as heroic figures, laboring in a sea of mediocre, apathetic pedagogy. Many teachers are portrayed as contemptuous and embittered.On the other hand, coaches are often portrayed as tough and demanding but deeply concerned about helping players to realize their potential. Teachers who are similarly demanding tend instead to be characterized as unfair and unsympathetic to student needs. Students frequently avoid demanding teachers, but athletes search out coaches with high expectations. My point is not to complain about the unfairness of the media representations, but rather to encourage teachers to claim some of the cultural capital earned by coaches. The mythology of “the coach” is both common enough to make it usable as a metaphor for teaching and powerful enough to help supplant student notions of the teacher-as-adversary. Observing a Colleague as a Coach The value of the coaching metaphor first became apparent to me during my second year of full-time college teaching. I began to realize that I was becoming stigmatized as a “hard teacher.” I thought of myself as having high expectations of my students. I thought they should want their money’s worth from a class. I also realized that most students treated my courses as games where their grades were a metaphorical final score. I noticed that one of my colleagues consistently seemed to elicit better classroom effort and performance from a common pool of students, especially from our student-athletes. Initially, I thought his success was a by-product of his friendships within the athletic department, and that the athletes worked harder for him because he knew their coaches. I came to doubt this hypothesis, for it explained neither his success with non-athletes nor my continuing failure to get athletes to perform, even after I made contact with coaches myself. Eventually I suspected that my colleague’s love of sport and his ties to the athletes permitted him to employ psychological transference among students, who worked harder because they saw him not merely as the teacher but also, at least partially, as coach. It was a simple distinction, but it made a lot of difference and I came to envy it. Though I can never completely transform myself, I have for several years encouraged students to think of me as their “geography coach,” and it has been a successful strategy. The Power of Metaphor The power of metaphor has been widely championed in recent years among theorists working in cultural studies (Hebdige 1993) and in my own discipline of geography (Cresswell 1997; Gurney 1999). Many of these authors have found that successful metaphor manipulation by media and political interests has wide-ranging effects on our perception of the world. Effective use of metaphor also figures heavily in recent research on student learning (Wilson et al. 1987; Wineburg 2001). The most valuable component of having students think of a teacher as a coach is how they are forced to rethink their role in their performance. Sports is an arena still relatively unburdened by society’s pervasive culture of blame. In defeat, coaches often take the blame, but players rarely permit them, repeating sports clichés like “Coach put us in a position to make plays, but we didn’t make the plays and we lost.” After a win, the players repeat, “We needed to step up and make plays, and we did that this time.” Moreover, coaches are never blamed for the difficulty of the opposing team, and indeed players relish playing tough opponents. The sports attitude discourages the unexamined assignment of credit and blame often overheard in hallways after an exam. The coach metaphor reconstitutes teaching and learning as a team effort, with the instructor as a hard-working advocate of student success. Thinking of themselves as academic athletes encourages students to take greater ownership of their performance. Acting as coach also permits a fairer assessment of the teacher’s part in student success and failure. Practical Applications of the Coach Metaphor On the first day of each term, I make it explicit that I consider myself the “course coach” and that students had better get used to thinking of themselves as “players.” I also point out that the schedule of “opponents” that we will be facing during the term will be challenging. By putting myself on the sidelines with the students, the evaluation instruments (tests, quizzes, writing assignments, etc.) become the opposing team. I admit to manufacturing the opposition, but most will agree that a quality education requires challenge in much the same way as championship sports. Once the metaphor is successfully implanted in the class psyche, many academic-term routines easily snap into place. For example, sporting metaphors make clear the value of regular attendance and conscientious preparation. While I don’t ask students why they “missed practice,” I do label my assessment-oriented assignments “Practice Quiz Five” or “Practice Essay Two” to reinforce the metaphor. Frequent Practice Assignments Not only students benefit from this metaphor. I have become more aware of the value of regular feedback when I’m thinking like a coach. For example, I have increased the number of quizzes and short writing assignments. These assignments give students multiple low-risk practice opportunities before a test, chances to make and correct mistakes. Students experience less test anxiety because they’ve seen mini-versions throughout the term. These “scrimmages” also allow me to assess student progress and fix problems before they get too big. Assessment activities of this kind are manufactured, structured teachable moments that allow both student and instructor to focus on improvement rather than on evaluation. It is exactly the process used by coaches as they prepare teams for games. Cumulatively, practice assignments are worth a small percentage of the students’ course grades, but those who develop good practice habits on these short assessments regularly score higher on exams and longer writing assignments. Students seem to accept that this process is similar to the way football teams “scout” upcoming opponents as they search for tendencies sure to be seen in upcoming games. The metaphor also permits me to justify why students cannot practice for “opponents” the class has already “played,” and I see fewer late assignments than I used to. Twice, several weeks before the first midterm and again shortly after the midterm, I review the practice habits of a few anonymous students with the class. By first projecting my grade spreadsheet onto a screen and making predictions regarding the success of students based on their practice habits, I can later point out the strong correlation between practice habits and midterm scores. A Winning Mindset By the time “rivalry week” (finals week) arrives, most students are in a mindset conducive to success. Since I’ve been urging students to think of the term as geography season, performance on test questions from a standardized test bank has improved by 5 to 8%. I cannot say for certain that the coach metaphor is the operant variable in the improvement, but I can report a significant drop in post-term complaints. Fewer students blame me for poor grades, and seeing them take responsibility for their education is the best incentive for using this metaphor. To me it signals that in becoming self-educating, my students have taken the indispensable first step to lifelong learning. The structural nature of the relationship between player and coach, so deeply encoded in our culture, permits and even encourages players to give in to the manipulative tactics and strategies of effective coaching. I try to work those structures into my courses. Many professors, some of whom openly disparage “dumb jocks,” may resist trading the hard-won cultural capital that comes with a Ph.D. for the mantle of “coach.” I don’t like it myself, but this role-playing game has produced enough positive results that I don’t mind occasionally being called “Dr. Coach,” especially if coaching prompts students to give the metaphorical 110 percent.

Inspiration

The video below outlines the inspiration for the project you are about to join in...cheers!

As part of my masters research I came across President Obama's opening letter  and I meet it with mixed emotions.  The voice of the letter sounds approachable, however I couldn't escape the gut feeling that this is just another political goal that that sounds great, is ambitious, and ultimately no one in the trenches believes is doable.  After all, we a big more than one year away from all students being proficient (as planned at the onset of NCLB in 2002).  

It also explained my districts interest in raising the graduation requirement to match those requirements set by California University and State Schools (CSU/UC).  

It is important to note that this is a good idea, or noble as I put it in the video.  Many of our students have no one in their life that has high expectations for them.  If not us (school system) then who?  Anthony Muhammad described it as (paraphrasing), "We are regularly giving our students carte blache decisions about the direction of their lives at ages 15, 13,...10 years old, when we let them fail based on their own behavior, decisions, and motivation.".  Rare is the adolescent that can exceed his or her families lack of expectations.  

Although Muhammud, my school district, and President Obama may be right, that doesn't take away from the very real and present challenges that come with this mindset. As my district has moved towards a graduation requirement that matches the UC/CSU enrollment requirement secondary teachers across the same needs I described in the video.  We need not look any further than results of the algebra for all 8th grade mandate of 2008 to predict how this plan will work out so long as our approach to teaching and preparing to teach remains constant.  

My prediction is as long as the lecture is the main format of information delivery, we will not be successful in meeting the needs of so many students.  The flip is the response to the differenciated instruction need that I personally have been struggling with for 4 years.  Unfortunatley this is not something you can just "try out for a unit", because it sounds nice.  It is a big front loaded endeavor, one that I am willing to take on if it means that others have an opportunity to authentically assess the effectiveness before investing in their own practice.    I will still count on the support of others, after all...I have no clue what I am doing, which I think makes worth following.

When trying something new, the most common questions that arises are along the lines of, "what happens if...?".  

Providing an opportunity for others to see how I handle things, as well as establish a network of supporting suggestions when things go wrong (and they will) is a great two way road worth driving down.

Still intersted?  

I hope so, because I certainly am.

Cheers,

Sergio