Every year, our failure rates have been through the roof.

In English, the failure rate went from 52% to 19%; in math, 44% to 13%; in science, 41% to 19%; and in social studies, 28% to 9%. In September of 2011, the entire school began using the flipped instruction model, and already the impact is significant. During the first semester of the year, the overall failure rate at the school dropped to 10%. We’ve also seen notable improvement on statewide test scores, proving that students’ understanding of the material is better under this model.

With the new classroom model I am able to target my instruction to specific students in small groups, give more substantive feedback, and provide students with authentic opportunities to collaborate and problem solve on more meaningful assignments that truly assess their learning.

Niecy, a struggling and often disengaged 7th grader who was frequently disruptive because she would rather be the “bad” kid instead of the “dumb” kid, went from guessing answers on exit quizzes and assignments to earning perfect scores!  When I asked her what changed she boldly replied, “I could do it different kinda ways, not just one way. And I got to take my time and do it until I got it.  It was kinda fun too.”

Students in my classes are more excited about learning.  They are mastering content and Common Core standards.

Blended learning gives proven results. 

Not having the technology on day 1, has long lasting ramifications.

However, if the technology is not ready and relatively glitch free by opening day, it is not exactly confidence inspiring. And this loss of personal capital can leave a lasting impression. At the very least, it is vital that the technology staff and decision makers have a physical presence and make sure that the teachers feel 150% supported when the technology finally arrives.

We decided, for example, that each teacher would have a class set of Chromebooks. The teachers preferred this method of organization to some of the other proposals – e.g. each student having their own to use throughout the day – and so far this has been a huge success. Each teacher has developed a system within his or her classroom that works with the rest of his or her routines, and there has been very little breakage and zero theft.

This pilot also provided our tech department with some important data about our wireless infrastructure and what our schools would need in order to function in a 1 – to – 1 fashion moving forward. This is huge. I have heard of schools rolling out new 1 –to – 1 programs without this information causing the system to totally crashed, and then staff and teachers are disheartened and so on. We hope that through incremental expansion and close monitoring we can avoid this pitfall.

people need to learn things through experiencing the change, through making their own mistakes, and through adapting.

it is important to have some one, or a team, to manage the chaos, someone to say “we have been here before and this is what we said we would do should we find ourselves here again.”

It is important to have strong leaders in favor of this growth. Whether this be principals, superintendents or even teacher leaders, these decisions cannot be made only in an office. These decisions must be made by hearing all of the voices, hearing people’s fears and their excitement, and with an honest recognition that what worked well in on classroom or at one school, may work well at another and most certainly will end up looking at least a little bit different.