As I have been going over the content of course 4 and reflecting on it though my blogs and others the topic that sticks out the most to me is the idea of the flipped classroom.  I pointed out in one of my previous posts reasons as to why I think this would be relatively helpful and at times easy for me to implements as an art teacher.

The top 4 reasons I’d like to flip:

1. Flipping would save class instruction time and give students more time for their art which is always a top priority for my class time.
2. Students would be able to review my instructions as often as they like.  This would also help give me more time to help students who are needing further clarity or wish to extend themselves.  At the moment a lot of my one on one time is spent simply repeating things from my demonstrations, videos for review would eliminate this repetition.
3. Flipping lesson would give me a platform to introduce deeper concepts that sometimes get cut out of my lessons because we are short on time. I could easily introduce other concepts and bits of art history to give students more background on our current subject matters.
4. Demonstration videos would be very easy to make since I am already doing many of them under a demo camera at the moment. With technology I can easily enhance them when appropriate.

As I have been reading through articles and other blogs I have come to realize that there are many other possible benefits to flipping the 4 I have mentioned.  I’m excited to see if these four possible benefits are noticeable once I have flipped a lesson or two.  I’m also curious to see what other types of benefits or possible setbacks may occur in the process.

I have decided to focus on simply flipping a lesson or two to start.  As I was reading Jon Bergman’s article on Flipping the Elementary Classroom, several ideas for flipped lessons came to mind. Bergman says to start will a lesson instead of a whole unit or class, and that you should pick one the historically students have struggled with.  When I read this a lesson on negative space that I have done many times immediately came to mind.

Looking Back: My lesson on negative space is a drawing exercise.  This particular lesson focuses on one of many exercises that I have taken from Betty Edwards and Drawing on the Right side of the Brain. Students draw the negative spaces around a stool so that when they are finished they end up with a well proportions outline of a stool.  It sounds simple when I type it out but it is actually very difficult because our eyes are not trained to look for negative spaces. I find this exercise to be incredibly helpful and it immensely helps student to find better proportion in there art work.  The problem is that I often find the demonstration of drawing negative space to be rather confusing for many of the students. I end up spending a lot of class time working with kids one on one to find the negative spaces and I rarely have enough time to get to everyone.

Looking Forward: Flipping the instruction for this class could be very beneficial for my students.  Technology could greatly enhance my demonstration.  When I do this lesson in class I often put a stool up on a table for everyone to see and then under my demonstration camera I draw the negative spaces and talk through it. A video demonstration for students to view on their own could look very different. I could use a split screen effect with a photo of the stool on one side of the screen and then a video of me drawing on the other side.  This way students can easily see the two side by side This is a big improvement over the live version in class where they have to look back and forth.  Another bonus to making a video for this demonstration is that I could easily draw on top of the photo using Explain Everything and show the students the negative space in a way that I haven’t been able to in the past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to the demonstration portion of the video I can show different examples of positive and negative spaces in other artwork to help explain the keep concept.  I’m hoping that this new use of technology will further enhance students understand of the concept as well as more clearly explain the exercise so that they can easily jump into practicing.

To be sure that my students have taken the time to watch the flipped videos I will have a small drawing assignment for them to complete in their sketchbooks. The drawing assignment will be a sort of entry ticket into class, if they haven’t watched the video they will have to do so in class, taking away from their work time. This short sketching assignment will also give them a little practice with the exercise being taught and at times will become the beginning stages of another assignment down the road.

I plan on flipping a couple of other lessons as well in the same manner.  Each focuses on drawing exercise for the same class.  If all goes well I hope to continue to develop flipped lessons for some of my other classes.  Since the class I am focusing on is mostly a drawing class my videos will be mostly tutorial.  Other videos for other classes could easily give more insight into art history and deeper artistic concepts as well.  This is my ultimate goal,  flipping lessons, units and eventually classes.  Hoping to free up more time in class for critiques, discussions and more than anything, creating.