By Campbell Foster, Design Editor
We are all fortunate enough to attend a school that has so many intelligent and capable teachers. One teacher in particular has been raved about on numerous occasions, and it is about time we acknowledge her. Her name is Ms. Christine Browning.
Ms. Browning, unlike many teachers, uses the teaching style of the flipped classroom. This is a system in which students are assigned videos to watch and take notes on for homework. The students then have the following days to ask questions and get support from Ms. Browning and their peers. If you don’t get a chance during class, you can often find her after school when she’s helping students.
“Ms. Browning’s teaching style is really effective for me, because I can get a basic understanding of what we’re doing outside of class and then practice it in class and ask questions if I need to,” sophomore Julia Ellison said. “This way I don’t have to worry about doing problems I don’t know how to [solve] outside of class.”
Ms. Browning uses a tool called Bellwork sheets. It is a new way of doing an entry task, with a different question to answer everyday. Each entry task helps students remember past material, find errors, learn the history of mathematics, examine past knowledge and think of goals for the future.
She also gives students a problem of the week (POW), which requires more critical thinking than a typical problem. On Fridays, the class has a socratic seminar-like discussion about the problem, which allows students to get ideas from peers, and compare problem solving techniques. This is helpful for students who had a hard time with the problems so they can get questions answered from their classmates, and help those who solved it look at it in a new light.
The video notes, entry tasks and POWs are all placed into each student’s journal. This helps students stay organized, and helps them on quizzes in which students can use their notes.
But although Ms. Browning is well known for her incredible teaching style, nothing can beat her personality. Student’s rave about her approachability, as it allows the flipped classroom to work. Each student knows that not only does she care about your education, but you as a person. She is known for her friendly conversations with students in class or the halls, with topics ranging from your pets to how you are doing.
Overall I (as well as many students) give Ms. Browning an A-plus. She is doing a great job at keeping her students engaged, and keeping the classroom atmosphere positive, as well as energetic. We are all fortunate to have her working at our school; anyone would be lucky to have her as a teacher.