By Kristen Haga
Flipping the classroom and learning at home.
Three years ago, US History teacher Holly Lennox started a YouTube channel to post reviews, but has since used it to upload note videos for her students to do outside of the designated class time.
“Several years ago, a couple of history teachers I knew and followed started a channel,” Lennox said. “I asked myself, why can’t I do that?”
Although she believes her videos are not as good, they have been helpful in these times of online learning.
“Because I already had the YouTube channel going, it was a natural transition for video notes,” Lennox said. “When I started the channel, it was made just to store my live reviews.”
She has since updated her ways of teaching and has decided to use a new idea of “flipping” the classroom.
“What flipping the classroom does is let students do the lower level and knowledge base learning stuff at home,” Lennox said. “Then you can bring that knowledge into the classroom where you can do the higher level thinking skills here, with me, in person.”
Lennox believes this has helped her students to ask more questions during class and have a better understanding of the broad concepts in her videos.
“In education, we have what is called Bloom’s Taxonomy,” Lennox said. “It is a pyramid where the bottom level is the knowledge based stuff and we try to work towards the top level where we have what you call the higher level thinking skills.”
Through flipping the classroom, she believes online learning can become more efficient and helpful for her students.
“This has made [teaching virtually] easier as it has taken away the pressure of having to push out information to [my students],” Lennox said. “Otherwise I would be lecturing the entire class period every single day.”
Lennox describes her tiresome process of posting these videos, which aims to save actual class time to do assignments that require more help.
“I first start with creating the powerpoint, which is the foundation of the lesson,” Lennox said. “Then I use a program called Camtasia and I will spend an hour or so recording myself.”
Recording is only half the process, while editing and trimming is the real time consuming part of her videos.
“I record [the lesson] without stopping,” Lennox said. “If I make a mistake, the recorder is still going and I’ll either fix the slide or fix what I am saying.”
Lennox continues filming and when she is done, she goes back to cut out or trim the pieces of the video.
“Depending on how many mistakes I made or how smoothly it goes, then I go into editing,” Lennox said. “If there’s no mistakes it goes real quick, but sometimes it takes twice as long to edit as it does to record it.”
This lengthy process is sometimes a hassle, but Lennox believed it is the best way to continue with online learning.
“[The process] is a necessary evil,” Lennox said. “If you make these videos, you don’t want them full of mistakes, so I edit them out [to give] a clear presentation of what I need my students] to know.”
It normally takes Lennox 45 minutes to an hour to edit one of her 20 minute long note videos, and so far she believes it has been a success.
“From what I’ve seen, I think most of my students are responding well to [the videos],” Lennox said. “I think it is working as far as getting the information to [my students] that they need.”
Most of her students have used her channel to watch the notes, some more than once.
“The number of students turning in notes is at least the number of views I have on every video,” Lennox said. “I have 180 students, and most of my videos have been watched over 225 times.”
Although flipping the classroom is new to her, Lennox plans on continuing to use her channel as it gives her more class time to do activities and work more in depth with the material rather than using that time to lecture.
“I have not flipped the classroom like I did this year,” Lennox said. “ I just started that this year, But previously I used my channel to store my live reviews I did before exams.”
Lennox believes flipping the classroom has improved her student’s understanding of the subject and has been beneficial to their learning process.
“I’ve heard some teachers flip their classroom, but I haven’t watched the channels or done anything like that,” Lennox said. “I have a network of teachers that I work with across the country and share ideas about flipping our classrooms on our YouTube channels.”
She also likes the channel because it gives students the chance to rewatch notes and review over certain subjects they don’t understand.
“My goal was to create this channel for it to be a continual resource for my students,” Lennox said. “So if you’re preparing for [test day], you can go back and watch the video and it’s always going to be there.”
Although this process has not influenced her teaching style, Lennox believes it is the best way to move forward in times like these.
“I am excited when I teach history, so I hope that comes across in the videos that I make,” Lennox said. “The only thing that has really changed is what we do in class as I am coming up with more activity driven lessons.”
After the first semester of flipping the classroom, Lennox has looked back on its success and has decided to continue this method of teaching.
“I recommend other teachers flipping the classroom because I believe it is a great way to have one location for students to go to find lectures,” Lennox said. “It is also great in case students are absent in class and so they can still go back and watch a lecture online so they don’t miss any material from class.”
Lennox loves this newfound idea of flipping the classroom and the opportunities that have come with it. She believes it will continue to be a successful way of teaching her students through these tough times.
“What flipping the classroom does is it removes the four walls of the classroom and helps [break the restrictions] of teaching during a 50 minute block that is set aside each day,” Lennox said. “You can take that information and put it out there where it can be accessed at any time, opening up so many doors for potential learning opportunities.”