Senior Julia Nemy takes notes while she watches Science Department Chair Ray Cinti's video on the oral cavity. The video is one of two videos Cinti made to introduce the unit on the digestive system.hief
Junior Zara de Matran says she spends Sunday and Tuesday nights sitting at her desk at home watching a video of Science department chair Ray Cinti teaching a lesson on physiology while she types notes on her laptop.
Teachers across the curriculum have begun incorporating inverted classroom methodology into their classes by assigning work, such as watching videos of themselves teaching their lessons as homework in order to use class time for other activities.
“I’ve always felt the responsibility to cover content material sufficiently, then students would be able to apply those knowledge points into experiment,” Cinti said. “When there is limited amount of time, sometimes both of those things don’t get covered properly.”
Cinti uses flipped teaching in his freshman Honors Biology, physiology and AP Biology classes, posting videos on YouTube and having students turn in notes as homework.
“I thought it was an impossible problem and it couldn’t be solved,” Cinti said about finding enough class time to teach lessons and have students perform labs. “Then I got the point of the instructional videos I had seen on the Internet. I thought, ‘Maybe you could instruct students or discuss content remotely, and then students come in and you leverage the fact that when everyone’s present.’ That’s when you do community things like discussion, group design or more labs.”
History teacher Michael Stafford incorporates flipped teaching in his project- based style of teaching.
“The thing about flipped teaching is it really puts the emphasis on students taking care of easy things by themselves,” Stafford said. “They are doing the harder things like higher orders of thinking in the classroom — where there is a teacher — and where there are peers that can help them out.”
Stafford started using the inverted classroom in August with his History II classes.
“The first thing that I realized was that I wasn’t challenging my students very much,” Stafford said. “I was challenging them to read and take notes and memorize, but memorization and regurgitation and reading never really challenges their brains in analysis and evaluation and creation.”
Students spend class time working on group projects relating to a specific period in history. They receive instructions for the project, and then refer to their books for information.
“The projects are really interesting,” sophomore Gwyneth Dunlevy said. “I don’t like that we really only learn about our topic. I know we are supposed to learn from our classmates but it can be difficult since it’s not something I’m used to.”
Stafford reserves the end of class for students to clarify concepts. If there is a topic that most of the class is concerned about, Stafford makes a short video answering the questions.
“The videos are helpful since they are always there,” Dunlevy said. “When I’m working on my project and I’m unclear, I can always refer back to the video. It’s not extremely time consuming since the videos are relatively short.”
Cinti started teaching through videos last year with his physiology class.
“The videos are helpful because you can always pause and go back if you missed something,” de Matran said. “It makes the lecture time a lot shorter and bearable because it’s not as dense information coming all at once.”
Cinti uses the majority of class time for students to work on labs, but reserves time at the beginning of class for questions anyone may have on the lesson.
“We’re spending time in class doing science,” Cinti said. “I know it sounds odd, but in the past we were doing more school work. Now we’re doing more science work and in the end maybe that’s what’s going to lead students to become a scientist.”
Junior Zara de Matran says she spends Sunday and Tuesday nights sitting at her desk at home watching a video of Science department chair Ray Cinti teaching a lesson on physiology while she types notes on her laptop.
Teachers across the curriculum have begun incorporating inverted classroom methodology into their classes by assigning work, such as watching videos of themselves teaching their lessons as homework in order to use class time for other activities.
“I’ve always felt the responsibility to cover content material sufficiently, then students would be able to apply those knowledge points into experiment,” Cinti said. “When there is limited amount of time, sometimes both of those things don’t get covered properly.”
Cinti uses flipped teaching in his freshman Honors Biology, physiology and AP Biology classes, posting videos on YouTube and having students turn in notes as homework.
“I thought it was an impossible problem and it couldn’t be solved,” Cinti said about finding enough class time to teach lessons and have students perform labs. “Then I got the point of the instructional videos I had seen on the Internet. I thought, ‘Maybe you could instruct students or discuss content remotely, and then students come in and you leverage the fact that when everyone’s present.’ That’s when you do community things like discussion, group design or more labs.”
History teacher Michael Stafford incorporates flipped teaching in his project- based style of teaching.
“The thing about flipped teaching is it really puts the emphasis on students taking care of easy things by themselves,” Stafford said. “They are doing the harder things like higher orders of thinking in the classroom — where there is a teacher — and where there are peers that can help them out.”
Stafford started using the inverted classroom in August with his History II classes.
“The first thing that I realized was that I wasn’t challenging my students very much,” Stafford said. “I was challenging them to read and take notes and memorize, but memorization and regurgitation and reading never really challenges their brains in analysis and evaluation and creation.”
Students spend class time working on group projects relating to a specific period in history. They receive instructions for the project, and then refer to their books for information.
“The projects are really interesting,” sophomore Gwyneth Dunlevy said. “I don’t like that we really only learn about our topic. I know we are supposed to learn from our classmates but it can be difficult since it’s not something I’m used to.”
Stafford reserves the end of class for students to clarify concepts. If there is a topic that most of the class is concerned about, Stafford makes a short video answering the questions.
“The videos are helpful since they are always there,” Dunlevy said. “When I’m working on my project and I’m unclear, I can always refer back to the video. It’s not extremely time consuming since the videos are relatively short.”
Cinti started teaching through videos last year with his physiology class.
“The videos are helpful because you can always pause and go back if you missed something,” de Matran said. “It makes the lecture time a lot shorter and bearable because it’s not as dense information coming all at once.”
Cinti uses the majority of class time for students to work on labs, but reserves time at the beginning of class for questions anyone may have on the lesson.
“We’re spending time in class doing science,” Cinti said. “I know it sounds odd, but in the past we were doing more school work. Now we’re doing more science work and in the end maybe that’s what’s going to lead students to become a scientist.”
