So, I got my husband to take off for the afternoon so I can work on my website. It’s a mess! Half started units. Blank pages. Everywhere I looked, evidence of indecision and procrastination. 

I need to have them ready to go for Monday. 

It’s slow. It’s tedious. It’s necessary.

I’d love to change the videos I made at the beginning of the year, but I think that’s a summer project. I’m keeping a little list of things to do and things to change (I’m always making lists!). The top item on the list is MAKE TIME TO FIX MY VIDEOS! 

What I’m finding as I work my way through the pages is that ideas are coming more easily to me than they did when I started flipping this class. Of course, when I started, I thought I’d just flip the “boring stuff” like grammar and editing information. But now that I’ve been flipping little parts, it’s easier to think about how to flip the big ones.

I also was thinking about how the first couple of days went. I’m having kids create digital portfolios. I’ve allowed them to choose whatever site they want to use, so there are a few different sites. The guys tend to gravitate toward Blogger because they are more familiar with it and it seems easier. The girls tend to like weebly and wix because they can be more creative in the design of it. 

Seems about right….

Another reason I decided I better get my site cleaned up is I’ve got five students who are taking an independent study with me. Creative Writing 2, if you will. They are all self-motivated students who like to write, so this will be fun to do. I can’t wait to read what they write. I did think they might need refreshers in some of the genres, so I need to get everything ready to go!  They will truly be flipped because they don't even have a 

"real" class period. One will meet with me two or three times a week, two others meet fifth period and the last two meet sixth period. I'm trying to connect all of us via google docs, schoology, and email. I plan to have them all read and respond to each other's work via shared google docs. I've set up folders so it's easy to share. We've got a document with everyone's website listed. I'm thinking a google group might also be a good thing to have, but haven't decided for sure. I'm just trying to make sure we are all connected. 

Writer's need to be connected. Learners need to be connected. And aren't connections and relationships the cornerstone of good teaching?