These are the words of 7th grade math teacher, Bonnie Wareham, when describing her students almost unanimous agreement about enjoying her flipped classroom iPad project, for which she received a 2012 Teacher Innovator Award . The annual Teacher Innovation Awards are sponsored by PBS LearningMedia and the Henry Ford.
For this pilot project, she and the class designed “Ladder of Success” together as “ a way for students to demonstrate their understanding of Common Core standards.” She describes the program as a “joy” that allowed her to immediately review students work and give feedback, which then provided them with a process for reviewing and revising their work before returning it for a final assessment.
You can read how this method transformed the classroom environment where students have endless options such as creating movies, picture collages, puppet shows, snapshots of written work and cartoons. In addition to — and more important than – their higher grades, Bonnie shares how “students are able to explain their understanding in math language, work collaboratively, and are confident in their abilities. They are creating their own situations and then solving them.”
What do you think about flipped learning or this “Ladder of Success” pilot project? What challenges and/or successes have you had teaching math?