GEG Mississippi GHO Event - Flipping the Classroom

For this GEG Mississippi GHO event, fellow GEG Mississippi member James Comans, leads a discussion about flipping the classroom with Jennifer Gwilt and Sarah Thomas, GEG DC leader.

James Comans

James is a Mississippi educator born and raised in South Jackson.  He attended JPS schools for 11 years, then graduated from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.

James has been in education since 2005, teaching at both the middle school and high school level.  He also serves as a teacher consultant for the Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute, and was a Common Core trainer for the Mississippi Department of Education for their 2013-2014 Middle School Language Arts Cohort II.  He holds a master’s degree in secondary education (MAT-S) from Mississippi State University and a specialist degree in educational leadership (Ed.S) from The University of Mississippi.

In April, James married the beautiful Robbie Henry of Cleveland, Mississippi.  James, Robbie, and their cat Zooey live in Southaven, where he teaches 8th grade science at DeSoto Central Middle School. Robbie is a graduate assistant in the Speech Language Pathology program at The University of Memphis. Zooey enjoys taking naps and burrowing in couch blankets. 

Jennifer Gwilt

Jennifer has been teaching high school for 10 and a half years. Currently, she teaches high school Algebra and Biology in a high school in the suburbs of Detroit. She has been flipping her Algebra 2 class for about a year, and is halfway working on flipping her Biology class.

Sarah Thomas

Sarah is the Technology Liaison at John Hanson French Immersion School in Oxon Hill, MD.  In addition to this role, she also teaches Technology Integration and English Language Arts at the middle school level.  She has served on the School Leadership Team, advising administrators and teachers on technology-related matters.  

Outside of her work at John Hanson, she also conducts professional development for teacher recertification hours at the county level, on topics such as Google Drive, Google Sites, and Using PowerPoint in the Teaching and Learning Process.  Sarah has presented on various technology topics at the local, regional, and state level.  She also presents free interactive tutorials for teachers on various educational technology topics.

Sarah holds a Masters degree from Howard University in the field of Curriculum and Instruction. She is currently a doctoral candidate at George Mason University, with a major in Education. Her upcoming dissertation, Using Technology to Facilitate Language Acquisition of English Language Learners, is rooted heavily in student-created artifacts through the use of project-based learning.