40 Days for Life - Our Lady of Good Counsel

4 | The Good Counsel Courier Vol. 5 | Issue 5 | November 21, 2013Teacher Slips, So Classroom FlipsMonday of the first full week of school ismy favorite day of the school year. It’s a timeto start fresh with my students, with plans andideas that have been growing all summer. Butthere’s an old saying, “If you want to hear Godlaugh, tell him your plans.”It’s 7:30 a.m., only 30 minutes to go beforethe students arrive and we can get started. Butat 8:00 a.m., when I planned to be greetingstudents, I was in an ambulance with afractured hip that would keep me away fromBy Mr. Larry Pizzi my students for the next 50 days.Four days later, with a brand new hip, I started teaching again, thistime from home. For the next six weeks, great substitute teachers taughtliterature and vocabulary to 49 seventh graders. During that same time,because of technology we put in place during the previous school year,students successfully completed a six week unit of grammar that I taughtfrom home using a concept called the flipped classroom.For six weeks, students received their grammar instruction by videolessons produced on my iPad and posted on our class web page. Studentswatched the videos at home. After each lesson, our great substituteteachers, Mrs. Dowiak and Mrs. D’Antonio, reinforced the instruction inthe classroom with exercises that would normally have been homework. Ithen made up quizzes and emailed them to the classroom teachers, whoreturned the results to me to grade. Within 24 hours, students and parentscould see the results online using our student/parent portal, Genesis.Finally, I produced another video in which I went over the quiz with thestudents, showing why and how each concept worked.Twice during my absence, we used the video calling program SkypeFirehouse VisitKindergarten A’s visit to the Moorestown Fire House, September 25, 2013.Students interact with Mr. Pizzi using the Internet video calling program, Skype. Theprogram allowed students to collaborate with him while he was recovering at home froman injury.to interact in real time. I was able to see and talk to the students and theywere able to interact with me.Did it work? Nine videos and eight quizzes later, on the last Fridaybefore I returned to the class room, Mrs. Dowiak and I gave a cumulativeassessment covering the entire unit. The average grades were very high;the students had learned the material well.Did it work? Here’s how some students answered that question:Danny noted that when it was time to study for the test “I just wentback to the web site and watched the videos. It was like I was in class athome.”Gracie thought “it was weird at first, but it was a great way to learnfrom Mr. Pizzi at home. It was a cool technique.”For Tommy the experience “was a great idea and makes learning somuch easier.” He definitely wants to keep doing it.“It’s almost like you can time travel when you do not understandsomething and learn it again,” said Lia. From a teacher’s perspective, shecaptured the whole concept of flipping a classroom perfectly.An iPad, an internet connection, and two apps were the only resourcesneeded to get the students to engage the material successfully. I never hadto leave my bed or chair to do any of the teaching.I have written about students, teaching and technology several times inthe Counsel Courier, each time trying to communicate just how favorablystudents will respond to a well-planned combination of technology andtraditional teaching practices. I never imagined that an accident wouldprovide a golden opportunity for both me and my students.As with everything that is truly good, this was a team effort. It tooka group of people committed to living and working in community. Ourchildren would not have fared as well were it not for Father Damian’sgenerosity and confidence, Dr. McAneny’s encouragement, and Mrs.Dowiak’s and Mrs. D’Antonio’s professionalism and collaboration.More than anything, though, it comes down to the only thing thatmatters: the great students of Our Lady’s School.