What is Bloom's Taxonomy? The video below helps to explains the revised model. I had no idea it had been revised with the infusion of technology in education. 

By flipping their classrooms, educators will have more class time to work on developing high order thinking skills in their students. Most of my passion for teaching mathematics with the flip model comes from using this extra time to help my students learn and grow.

Mathematics is a very creative subject too, and it is impossible to create in mathematics without higher order thinking abilities. I am referring here to computer technologies, architectures, and design in engineering.

Students need additional time to process, instead of simply completing rote problems from a textbook without any connections to college or career. This coming year, I will be focusing on student authenticity - making a real-world connections that can motivate their learning.
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Reflections on Chapter 3 
 
Excerpts from the book are in bold text.
  
Flip Your Classroom by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams 
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Flipping the classroom has transformed our teaching practice. We no longer stand in front of our students and talk at them for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. This radical change has allowed us to take on a different role with our students…we realize we could never go back to teaching in the traditional manner."  

I had to see for myself how well the flipped classroom model worked, and my experience has transformed both my own teaching approach and the learning experiences of my students. They love using technology, so lessons became more personal and individualized. Students were finally learning at a pace that was appropriate for them.
 
Nothing brings joy to my heart than seeing more students really understand math! It's why I have continued to teach for 20 years. Flipping allows me to reach even more students, engage them, and fill the gaps in their learning, and it is thrilling to watch them making progress. The following from Bergmann and Sams’ book speaks volumes:

Reflections on Chapter 3 
 
Excerpts from the book are in bold text.
  
Flip Your Classroom by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams 

This book was the basis of my research, because the ideas developed by Bergmann and Sams were so inspirational to me. I watched their TED talks and YouTube videos, read parts of their books, and have included them in my list of resources for the website.  
 
As a result of this inspiration, I chose to try flipping my middle school mathematics classroom.  As I have gone through the program, I have shared my experiences and my own excitement as I gradually flipped one lesson. And having done so, I have had cause to repeat numerous times what the authors state in their first paragraph: that I can never go back to the old paradigms of instruction.

Reflections on Chapter 3 
 
Excerpts from the book are in bold text.
  
Flip Your Classroom by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams 
​
Flipping speaks the language of today's students. Today's students grew up with Internet access, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and a host of other digital resources. They can typically be found doing their math homework while texting their friends, IMing on Facebook, and listening to music all at the same time." 

As a mother of a 7th-grade student, I realize that my daughter has interacted with technology practically since birth. Generation Z has information available at their fingertips 24/7.  It was a battle to keep her off of social media in order to focus on her homework! We finally decided if she continued to keep her grades up, she could have her devices with her while she did her homework. Perhaps as a result of this arrangement, she was admitted into advanced Language Arts and Math.
 
My students also improved their math scores when allowed to engage with the technology for math and math lessons, which I shared in my own action research. As a teacher and parent, I had the same concerns that the authors share in the following paragraph:

"One concern we have heard from adults is that we're increasing screen time in front of a computer, which aggravates the disconnect many adults feel with today's youth. To that we say that we are infiltrating the video/digital culture instead of fighting it. Isn't it about time we embraced digital learning and used it to help our students learn, instead of telling them they can't learn with today's tools? It seems preposterous to us that schools have not embraced this change." ​

I have experienced and agree wholeheartedly with the reasons for flipping the modern classroom. This is the section of the book where the authors explain the reasons to flip your classroom, and they provide much deeper explanations and details behind their thought process.  All of their points are true to my own experience. Flipping allows us to encourage and witness the growth of our students, and has reignited my passion for teaching.  
 
By flipping my classroom, I was able to accomplish so much more than I had in my past 20 years. Naturally I struggled a bit, and made mistakes. I fumbled with the technology, but my students appreciated the fact that I tried. At first I used videos created by other teachers, but when the students heard my voice and realized I had made the video, they felt connected to me at a more personal level. I cannot stress enough that students need to feel connected to the instructor and the material.

When I first began using the new technology, students would tell me that I should make my own videos. I had only made a few, as I thought they might get bored of my voice. But on the contrary, they appreciated the effort, and were more motivated to give me their best. Program instructor Rebecca Anderson told us that research has shown that flipped classrooms work best when teachers make their own videos, and encouraged us to try it. That was it - I was hooked by own students’ responses to my videos! 

The second point I would like to stress is that flipping a classroom does take time. I have flipped many lessons over the past 6 months, but already see potential areas for improvement. Building the activities for the saved class time also takes time and professional development.

Flipping your classroom gives you class time to complete projects, conduct discovery/inquiry labs, and engage in deeper problem-solving than was previously possible – especially if you have students who are below proficiency level. These students need to build the foundation of understanding and skills to help them succeed, and technology can be an invaluable part of that process.

Programs like Khan Academy, Learnbop, and ALEKS further personalize and differentiate learning, filling the gaps in each students' education. The authors call this the flipped-mastery program, and go into more detail about how it works with blended, inquiry-based, project-based, and problem-based learning (which in my research, I referred to as inductive teaching strategies).
 
When the above strategies are combined, you will find the most powerful teaching taking place in any subject! It is a gradual process and does take time, but the results and improvements in your students across the board will be undeniable, and you will find yourself becoming hooked. And this is aside from improved communication with parents, and their positive feedback. Huge win for everyone!  

Lastly, pedagogy trumps technology. Some things are better taught through activities (some hands-on), collaboration, inquiry, discovery, projects and games. Technology is a tool. Like a calculator it can be useful and time-saving, and at other times it is better to not use it! This is where teacher expertise, best practices, and continued professional development and collaboration are so vital to our profession.  ​

I plan to continue my gradual journey toward flipped-mastery, combined with inductive teaching strategies. I view this as the future, not just as a powerful teaching and learning method. I hope more research becomes available soon, especially on middle shcool mathematics classrooms. 
 
As a side note, my school has also been implementing Carol Dweck's ideas on growth mindset. After completing my action research, sometime in May 2016 I discovered the work of Jo Boaler of Stanford. She applies growth mindset in her book Mathematical Mindsets to teaching and learning mathematics. I feel that every mathematics teacher should understand these concepts, and I am including the link to her book here. For the next year, I will further expand the ideas of mathematical mindsets, flipped classrooms, and inductive teaching strategies to create even better learning experiences for my students that motivate, engage, and empower them. ​

 
As a veteran teacher of 20 years, I have seen so many changes in education – especially over the last 10 years. I remember getting a whiteboard, then an overhead projector, followed by an LCD projector that could project my screen onto the whiteboard. Finally, in 2008 I got a Smartboard. I was so excited, because each of these innovations improved my teaching and the learning experiences of my students.   

But when I moved to Northern California in 2014 and was hired at a technology middle school in 2015, I was surprised to find that I had no Smartboard! For 6 years I had developed and shared Smart-lessons. I loved it, and it greatly enhanced whole-class guided instruction.  Now I had 14 Chromebooks instead. I had no training, no idea of the possibilities, and I had never used Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc. Thank goodness they were very similar to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, in which I had intermediate to advanced knowledge.   

I began this Master's program wanting to learn innovative teaching strategies in order to help me survive at a technology school. I didn't know that what I would learn would transform me so much from the traditional pedagogies of my past. I had strong convictions about student learning in a mathematics classroom. I was using the Smartboard and I was designing creative lessons, but only one or two students would come to the board and interact with the technology. Now with Chromebooks in my classroom, the students could work directly with the technology, create with it, and engage in more powerful learning sessions. The student experience became more personalized, and technology allowed for greater differentiation – something that has always been difficult, as we have students at all different levels with gaps in their learning in different topics.   
 
As my teaching has transformed, my goals have changed. As PD lead, I brought much of what I learned with me, and shared it when time allowed. I want to continue to help teachers incorporate technology into their classrooms, and transform the learning experiences of their students. I want to ignite veteran teachers’ passions to the level of their earliest years, and I view myself as a bridge to assist them in that process. I know how overwhelming the transition can be without support, so I want to help all teachers, administrators, and district leaders to be connected educators who are able to keep up with the technologies that enhance student learning.   

As a veteran teacher, I also see a need to synthesize the data in technology, brain research, and how learning takes place. The new research is hard to dismiss, and educators will not understand why these changes need to take place if they do not also have an understanding of the latest findings. Math in particular is in need of these changes. Some of the most powerful reasons are presented in Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler, a professor at Stanford who applied the research of Carol Dweck on growth mindset to mathematics learning. Like Boaler, I have a passion for improving mathematics education, and I am eager to share this information with other mathematics educators. 
  
I appreciate the insights of my peers, and the way they are applying these innovative strategies in their subjects and various grade levels. I hope to continue this powerful collaboration to develop a website that helps other educators enhance the educational experiences of students everywhere, without investing extensive time in research. It has the potential to grow into a larger community, and I hope as we develop our sites there will be a place for sharing ideas globally, including products, lessons, and new research. I am thrilled to be in a cutting-edge program that makes this goal possible. I want my peers to continue to help me, encourage me, and challenge me so I can create high-quality work that is worth sharing.   

I'd like to end with a quote from George Couros, writer of Innovative Mindsets: "Change is an opportunity to make things better!" I am truly excited to share some innovative teaching strategies, and want everyone to see that by transforming our students’ learning experiences, we are making education better and more personalized.  

My daughter continues to be my main source of inspiration, as she just completed 6th grade. She was not at a technology school or BYOD school, and would often tell me "I wish my teachers taught us like that!" Even though I teach 7th grade math, she helped me to review a lot of my coursework, and helped me clear up any points of confusion that my students might encounter before I shared the lessons with them. I’m pleased to report we were recently notified that she will be placed in the advanced math program at her school. 
  
On that note, my daughter mentioned that there are so few students in the advanced program that students had to be recruited from another middle school as well. This saddens me, as I can’t help but think that if her district used technology and inductive teaching strategies, they could have far more students achieving at higher levels of proficiency.  ​

In the hopes of improving that situation, I have been sharing my work and my program with a parent that is very involved at my daughter's school. She can't wait to share our site with the other parents and the principal. If the information helps effect change at even one school, I will have accomplished my number one goal.

As I mentioned before, change is an opportunity to make something better, and there's no time like the present to make it happen!