Algebra 1 Student Thoughts on #flipclass (part 2) - 4.5 months in

The following are responses to the survey I gave to my Algebra 1 students after approximately 4.5 months of flipping my class.  The survey was given via Google Forms.  I had 97 of my 104 students complete the survey.

After each question are just a few personal reflections and thoughts that came to mind when I considered the results.

See the closed-ended responses from my students in the first part of the post here:  
See my Math Analysis responses here:  Closed-ended    Open-ended 

What have you liked best about the “Flipped Classroom” this year?  I left pretty much all the comments in here, but bolded the ones that really stuck out to me.

• The only thing I like about the flipped classroom is watching it and answering the questions.
• it helps me for my test.
• everything
• We have our work for the week, so we can work ahead, and we do our work in class. Mrs. Kirch is in our class to help us right then and there.
• not getting homework cards for every assignment we miss huge focus at my school. Students only receive "punishment" for every two assignments they don't complete.  I still don't really like this, considering I truly believe that every assignment I assign is valuable and important to a student's learning, and I really don't think I assign busy work.  However, if this is a little motivating to students and encourages them to keep going, I'll keep it.
• I learn the concept better at home so I already know what to do when I go to class.
• I learn at my own pace
• everything i like how they are all up early so i can watch ahead of time
• I like that we can discuss the wsqs
• About The Flipped Classroom So Far I've Liked How We Get To Ask Whoever we want for help.
• I liked how the Flipped Classroom evolved into something better from the beginning of the year.  I like the part where we can take quizzes on our own time.  It's nice to hear that a student has noticed that we have been "evolving" the flipped classroom this year as I have found out what I like and don't like.
• That you can replay the video as many times as you please. It makes me understand the concept more.
• that now it's is more amazing with all the effects to make it more interesting nice job Mrs. Kirch just started using Camtasia for Mac and started putting an "intro/objective screen" on each of my video, annotations to highlight key points and important steps, as well as a webcam with my face in the videos!
• I like that I am able to finish my classwork in class. I also like that most of the time I am able to start watching the video for homework or finish it and finish my wsq.
• what i like the most about the flipped classroom, has been pretty much working with my classmates on hw in class.
• What I have liked the best about the flipped classroom this year is that you get to learn at home and if you don't understand it you can get help in class.
• I think I like the flipped classroom because i can ask for help in class after watching the video.
• The part I've liked best is being able to work with others in class and getting their opinion on what to do and how to do a problem.
• What i like most is that we get to have discussions about the concept/video and that we get to discuss/answer the questions we have
• I don't really like it at all I liked regular class time 45 minute lessons ...no comment!...
• Being able to watch the videos again if I still don't understand what I watched
• I can watch it at my own pace and not have to rush
• I like how we do the PQs in class because I get help from people who know what they're doing.
• Getting my homework done in class.
• that when having trouble you can just watch a video if struggling.
• i like that i can watch the video at my own pace and stop to review things when i need to.
• I liked actually watching the videos because they helped me learn way easier and understand the concept way better.
• i liked that we can do our p.q in class because if we need help you are there to help us.
• That it helps us and shows you better at home than in class. At home you could listen to what the videos say and not get distracted you could rewind, back and stop if the video is going to fast.
• the best thing i liked about the flipped classroom is that when we finish watching the video and we come in class and discuss about what we watched last night...
• That we work on our PQ in class instead of home because when we're home we can't ask you in person if what are doing wrong or right on the PQ. so basically its better to work on it during class.
• What I like about the flipped classroom is that I can watch the videos at home and pause the video or rewind it when ever i need to. Also that we do the PQ's in class and can get help from Mrs. Kirch and other classmates. Because before when we would do it at home our parents or brothers and sisters probably wouldn't know how to do the problems and now we have the teacher and other classmates to helps us.
• I can concentrate more.
• no distractions, sit there get it done. surprisingly it goes by fast.
• That i can pause and rewind as much as i want & that's good because sometimes it takes me a while to understand it.
• From the being when you first introduced it to us i knew it was going to be a different but an extraordinary way of learning.What helps me the most is actually watching the the video, answering the questions you ask and asking a question on what i don't understand. Yay!  A student who actually really finds benefit from asking the question!
• the thing i like is that we have the chance in doing our homework  in class.
• that we do the pq's in class instead of home were we can barely get any help.
• I liked how we get to learn at home and then at school you could help use with the material we did not understand.
• i like best that we can work on our homework with other students because i get help from them and i don't have to be stressing out at home by myself.
• That we do the pq in class with the people that help us.
• the best part is that we are able to rewind and pause the video when we need to and when we don't get it we can play it over again
• It has really helped me a lot with understanding the concepts
• That we do our homework in class and get help and we watch videos at home that give us information to fill in and make a unique summary.
• The fact that we get to watch the videos at home and get a lot more help on it since we can get as much time on the lesson.
• The part that we are taught at how where we can rewatch videos till we understand the concepts
• Watching videos at home and making notes.
• You get to work with and help anyone. Also, the way we take our quizzes.
• I like it because if you taught it in class and i didn't understand it, it would be harder to really learn it than watching the video at home and rewatching the key parts i need help on. I needed this in 8th grade where algebra was harder
• its easier and faster than being taught in class.
• Watching the videos
• i liked the way you explained most of the problems in the videos and if we needed more help we would be able to watch the part 2.
• The way we talk and communicate in class. Love hearing this!
• that we have our own time to watch the videos
• I like how we get help in class
• The part i like best is that we get to learn at home and at our own pace.
• watching the videos and helping each other out in the homework.
• what I've liked best about the "flipped classroom" is that we get to come home and learn about it and in class we get to work on our hw and get to ask you questions while you're there.
• I think it's really cool how we don't have to have the teacher in front of us, but we can have a screen & its playing for her. & also it's really nice to have a teacher that teaches you at home (The videos) & then when you get to school, The real teacher.
• I liked that we get to watch the videos at home.We get rewind if we don't get a question.
• What I like about flipped classroom is that it is something new i have done and i love it.
• What i liked is all the changes you have made throughout the whole semester its been very helpful.
• The best thing, that I've liked about the flipped classroom is having guidance at home. Not like when your at school and you have about 50 minutes to learn a lesson and then forget it at home. There are so many distractions in class, and at home you have all the time you need. :)
• I like when we get in class and we ask each other our own question on what we need help. Also when you go over what the concept was like you give a little summary about it. I've been trying to focus on doing this more often in Algebra 1 - first thing we do in class is do a little review of the lesson (2-3 minutes).  It gives me a feel of where the students are at and gets us focused on the task for the day before our WSQ discussions.
• i like how there is no student distractions
• The part of Flipped Classroom that I liked the best was watching videos on our own time.  It really helped me manage my time with all of the other homework that I have.  Also, I liked how everyday we get to work with the people in our groups so that we could all learn from each other.
• The best part of flipped classroom was learning the material at home.
• That we get to talk about the video with our classmates what we learned and how to do a problem by watching the video and asking our own question to our classmates
• Being able to do classwork at home and watching videos make me learn more.
• The best part about the flipped classroom is that i can't understand the things in my pace.
• I liked watching the videos at home because it gives you time to ask questions at home.
• We get to all work in groups with people that will help us
• I like the fact that we could watch the videos at home in our own time.
• that we do hw in class and all we have to do for hw is watch a video and finish a couple problems we didn't finish.
• What I've liked about the flipped classroom this year is that whenever your at home and you need help or you don't understand anything you could always look at the videos at anytime of the day and try to figure out what you missed or didn't get.
• That we can make our own questions and discuss them as a class.
• i like that we can rewatch videos and we do homework here in class not home i can get help from my peers
• watching the videos and giving us time to do homework in class.

What part of the "Flipped Classroom" would you like to see changed for the rest of the year?


"Summary" and/or "Question" part

• The fact that we have to write a question at the end,especially if we understood the whole concept.
• The part were you write questions that doesn't even help especially because we make it up so we don't know if its even a possible question
•  To be honest I don't really like the summary part.
• the question and summary isn't really something i enjoy doing everyday.
• for them to be shorter or at least not have to write a question unless i have one.
• The question part needs to be changed into a problem that you give to check that the student understands it. For example if you gave out a problem like 3x5 and the student knows it, he would write 15. But if they didn't know it , they would write down the part they got stuck on and stuff like that.  Interesting idea. I don't like that to replace them asking their own question, but I do give questions like that to students that must be answered before they come to class the next day.

In-class WSQ discussion

• i don't really like having the in class discussion so i would like if we didn't have to do that part
• the part of the "flipped classroom" is that maybe its better off not reviewing the summary or the questions we've made after watching the video.
• i liked that we changed summary [open summary] to questions [guided summary] because if i can answer the questions you ask i know i have watched and understood the videos to my full capability.
• What i would change for the rest of the year is for you to keep giving us questions to answer instead of writing our own summary.

Random comments

• sound effects would be nice and very interesting 
• I think it would be better to just do the work in the SSS then just write down any questions we have at the bottom of the paper in the packet instead of doing the WSQ.  There's not enough room in the packets to do a WSQ.  Save paper - make the students use lined paper or do it online! 
• I think that we should go over the pq's more in class and focus on quizzes more on like a certain day like Wednesdays or something.
•  not to watch videos every night Currently, students have 3-5 videos a week, depending on the week.  They are given the videos on Friday for the next week, so they don't have to watch a video every night (or even at home, they could watch them AHEAD of schedule in class)... but many don't choose to do so. 
• i think i would like it if you put more jokes or weird facts in the videos. I stopped doing jokes...I've decided that my videos are used to teach and not to spend 1 minute in the middle telling a joke.  I can tell jokes in class :) 
• taking the quizzes together at least sometimes, so we can stay on task 
• Something I would like to see change if maybe we can do a couple problems together in the beginning of class. Have started to try this, but would like this focus more on small groups and not on whole class
• Can we a do a group project where each group teaches the class for a day? That would be a great experience

Many students (much more than what I copied below) said things like this:

• everything i find it perfect
• i don't want anything changed
• nothing i like it the way it is 
• None. I think the Flipped Classroom is perfect!
• I think that the flipped classroom is good just the way it is.
• actually i don't really want to change anything about the flipped classroom because pretty good the way it is right now.
• I really like flipped classroom & don't want it to change 
• there is nothing to change its great the way it is!  

What could Mrs. Kirch do for you to help support you more in the "Flipped Classroom"?

(some great suggestions and some encouraging comments I left in there to make me smile after a very long two weeks)

• just help us do the problem not what it means This is a "play school" comment.
•  Mrs kirch can keep up the hard work that she puts in, and keep her instructions in the videos.
• I think that you should explain the hard concept in class.
• i would like her to keep helping me find my mistakes when i make a mistake on my quizzes.
• give us less problem but make the ones she gives us challenging 
• it's all good you've done everything good Mrs. Kirch.!!
• i think that she should review a couple of problems on the board for a few students just to see if we understand the material because i know that when mrs. kirch asks if anyone needs help, some people wont raise their hands.
• I think like go over the pqs and hw or like go over one or a couple problems that some of us didn't understand (in class)
• i like when she helps us and when she explains a lot. i would want her to do more of that :)
• right now how Mrs. Kirch is doing a good job she's checking how are we doing with the PQ so basically there's no need to change.
• She can be asking each group the questions from the video from the night before so we can understand why it's that answer and what the correct answer is. Also make sure that we understand what the concept was about.
• Mrs.Kirch is already a great teacher and there's nothing more she can do to improve that.
• I think what she is doing now, is good as it is, because we get our lesson taught at home and if we still need more help we can just ask her the next day.
• talk slower sometime in the videos she talks too fast
• Mrs. Kirch has done a lot to help me. It's lenient and fair. 
• You could make more quizzes. The quizzes test if i'm ready for the test or not
• i think one way you can help me more is in the part 2 videos like explain it better because the people that are watching the part 2 videos are the ones that need more help and explaining for it so you can explain it more. other than that i think you are doing great.
• Give us the opportunity to go across the room and ask the students who know the material for help because sometimes students have a different way of explaining it that is more helpful. for example kids our age or close to our age have that way of explaining how to do the material that helps me a lot. 
• Maybe she can keep like keep giving us an over view of the video we watched the night before like just a small fast overview of the concept.
• I think Mrs. Kirch has done her best, and she has done everything she can. She is pulling her weight as a good teacher, and if your failing its probably because your not pulling your weight. So, keep doing what your doing.
• I feel that Mrs. Kirch should keep going around the class and asking every group questions about the new concept we learned for homework.  It gives her the ability to see if we know what we're doing.  
• When i call you to come right away and not have to wait almost 5 min. for you to answer a question. This is a student I actually had to have a mini-conference with because of her attitude.  She thinks that if she has a question, I should stop whatever I am doing and go answer her question.  She refuses to ask any of her classmates for help or get out of her seat for help.  I finally talked with her and went over the expectations of "Ask yourself, ask a classmate, then ask me".  Next year I really need to emphasize the "ask 3 then me" rule.  I can't be everywhere at once!
• If you talk slower and if your face shows more often.

See the closed-ended responses from my students in the first part of the post here: