FLIPPING AWESOME TEACHING
  • My Flipping Blog
  • My Flipping Method
  • My Flipping Classroom
  • Articles/Media
  • Contact Info

My father died last week.... and this blog post can only get less awkward from here.

5/4/2017

0 Comments

 

       

       I got the news on April 23rd, the last day of April Vacation.  He passed in his sleep at age 75 -- probably the best way to go.  I have a small family that's scattered across the globe from California to China to Austria (Dad's final home), although our ancestral homeland is in Britain. That's where I'm heading for final services in a couple of weeks.  What's this got to do with flipping?! Maybe nothing, maybe I'm just venting to the digi-verse....

        But I'm also an almost-40-year-old man who is still trying to learn the meaning of perseverance. When do you keep going? When should you give up? Especially when you have children and/or when you have students ... what are we supposed to model for them?  You might wonder something like this when you feel sick with a cold or the flu: demonstrate a strong work ethic by coming to work, or exemplify restraint by staying at home to recuperate?
       Specifically for flipped-learning colleagues & newbies, you might sometimes wonder:  If/when the students struggle or resist the videos or the class activities, what should I do?  Sometimes it seems better to revert to the textbook, to the familiar, to the "tried-and-true" techniques.
Picture
Is this what progress & perseverance looks like?!?!
        I don't really know.  I can't even tell you why the font of this post has changed.
        I am writing in the middle of my own thought process, and while I'm still living on the Stages of Grief spectrum between "Depression" and "Testing".  (I have spared you the drafts of my earlier stages. You're welcome.)

         What's your overall goal? What is the top priority?  If you want to keep the kids busy, then fine: bail out to the familiar. Copy those worksheets, get back on stage in front of the whiteboard, and feel productive.  If you want kids to learn and you want proof of that learning, then that's harder.  Flipping is the best solution I have found so far, but I will ditch it in a second (I WILL QUIT!) if I found something better.  Is that still perseverance? I think so, because if the goal is to reach the other side of that wall then I don't have to bash my skull.  Look for a door, a window, another entryway or a weak spot.  Again, for me that has been the flipped-learning model because that solves most problems at my school.

        Some problems are not that easy to solve. Now I only have one parent, and there's no earthly resolution for that.  Still, in many ways I feel fortunate and I'm starting to regain control of my own life after a few days of self-pity and robotic despair.  Going back to work right away seemed to be the mature and appropriate decision but maybe that was a mistake. So I'm going to try persevering a different way, because whatever this is it isn't working.
 
Next post: "Was this all a pile of $h!+?"
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Who is this flipping guy?!

    Andrew Swan is in Year 19 of teaching middle school (8th-grade US Civics/Government in a Boston suburb). Previously he has taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English, US history, geography, and ancient history in Massachusetts and Maine. 
      This is Andrew's 6th year of flipping nearly all his direct instruction, so we have more class time for simulations, deep discussions, analyzing primary sources, etc. ... and also to promote mastery for students at all levels.
      His 8th-grade daughter, 10th-grade son, and wonderful wife all indulge Andrew's blogging, tweeting, & other behaviors. These include co-moderating the #sschat Twitter sessions and Facebook page.
      ​
    Andrew does not always refer to himself in the third-person. 

    Twitter: @flipping_A_tchr
    Instagram: aswan802

    Categories

    All
    Analogies
    Assessment
    Asynchronous
    Bloom's Taxonomy
    Critiques
    Curriculum Planning
    DBQ
    Definitions Of Flipped
    First Days Of School
    #flipblogs
    Flipping Problems
    For Beginners
    FTEC18
    Grading
    Historical Thinking
    Homework
    In-class Flipping
    Local History
    Making Videos
    Mastery
    Parents
    Projects
    Reflective Blogging
    Research
    Schoology
    Snow Days
    Special Ed
    Student Centered
    Student Survey
    #ThisisWhyIFlip
    Troubleshooting
    Writing

    Archives

    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly