Honors Algebra. It's not the easiest subject, but with the help of technology and the courage to take risks, Mr. Kirk Humphreys is flipping the way lessons are learned and teaching is taught.
Instead of teaching his lectures during class, Mr. Humphreys records his lessons, posts them on his YouTube page, and then has his 8th graders at Washington Junior High in Rock Island watch them from home. Then, the next day, the students work on the homework in class with his help and the help of their peers.
"Students always go home and they get stuck on something and there is no one to help them so what I have done is I want them to work on it in class so they can ask each other and work together, use the media, because I'm not always going to be there," says Mr. Humphreys, who has taught at Washington Junior High for more than 11 years. "I'm not going to be with them in the future and they're not going to have their teachers at home so they need to learn how to start looking up things themselves and coming up with the answers based on what they have and that's what I'm trying to do with this."
For more, click on the video link above.