Flip the Workshop!

I did it!

No…we did it!

Cognizant of the school budgets for teacher education, I wanted to find a cost effective model. I found it with the help of “Hopetown girls school” Maths teachers.

The opportunity came accidentally when I could not go for a 2-day session with the teachers and decided to conduct it remotely with the HOD Maths as my mediator. Their team jumped to try it out and made a success of it!

Beginning

I asked the coordinator of school to do a needs analyses and send it to me for planning the sessions. We went about it in this way on WhatsApp:

Planning

I had my modules ready. So I simply put everything in Dropbox and sent the HOD a link. I added a document that clearly mentioned how to use the material in the folder called "Overall Plan".

Sending the material is never enough! Each folder in the modules was divided neatly with labels. We were all not very sure how it will go, hence I focused on only 1 thing "clarity". I chose material and module that could be "self-run" or enabled us to "flip the workshop".

Every module had a sheet titled "Session Plan" with details on what to do. Here I drew upon the days I wrote instructions for students. Clarity was the chief skill to be focused on. For example, this is how the directions for Projects started.

Workshop

The workshop ran with the HOD and teachers working together. I was 1 call or WhatsApp message away! We interacted the whole day. I asked questions, they sent pictures, video clips and I could sense that the work was being done intensely by them.

They had the freedom to modify anything if that was their preference. The priority was not "my model" but evoke their thinking.

The feedback I received was, “The instructions are very clear”. The feedback I gave was always honest...they were doing very well. The teachers worked with complete focus, as is evident from the pictures.

Evidence of work

Through the day the HOD sent pictures and video clips to share with me the work that was being done. The teachers created creative worksheets and worked on the projects.

Feedback in the end

And here is the final feedback from the coordinator. She called it 'cost effective', 'very well possible to adapt it' and 'would want to do it again'.

My own reflection

Nothing is perfect is it? So what was "wow and muddy about this effort"?

Wow

The whole process was a wow! We flipped the workshop.

1. My instructions were very clear. I have worked for a long time to ensure clarity of instructions and have discovered that it pays rich dividends.
2. The group of teachers were highly collaborative. They participated, had deep discussions and did not waste a single moment. The HOD, coordinator and the principal were deeply involved.
3. I kept it as an experiment, cut the normal fee to half, and asked the school to pay only if they were satisfied that the 2 days added value to the team. It did! They paid happily...

Muddy

1. I could have had a Skype discussion with the group. That way it would have been complete.
2. Could have given them '1 week after workshop' goals to ensure that it goes into the classes.

Will I do it again? Of course...

This is a way one can do much more. Take shorter sessions with teachers and more relevant to the ongoing difficulties in the school. It can spread out through the year. Long insets can be quite heavy at times. Hence a spread out model could have a better effect for the work of teacher education.

Teacher education is an issue troubling so many...this experiment is my small contribution for the same.

Monica Kochar

(www.humanemaths.com)