Originally posted July 11, 2017 by the globaldigitalcitizen.org
By Lee Watanabe Crockett
There’s something exciting about the concept of the flipping your classroom. Imagine the excitement of learners doing hands-on work at school and taking video lessons at home. The idea might feel a little uncomfortable at first, and if you are new to it the nuts and bolts of the flipping process may be unfamiliar. That said, it is an effective method of improving learning outcomes. Having the right flipped classroom tips will help make it succeed for you.
Classroom flipping gives teachers a way to interact with students on their own level. It uses a format students are both familiar with and interested in. This is why so many teachers are attempting their own flipped classroom. The following tips can help you flip your classroom in an effective and fun way.
Do a Bit of Homework
When you decide on flipping your classroom, it can be quite freeing. It allows you to deliver lesson content in a range of creative combinations of video, audio, and text. It also presents a unique challenge—you can’t just walk into class and give a lecture. You have to have content that will teach the material effectively. It also has to work on devices your school or your students have.
You can gain inspiration for flipping your classroom from those who have gone before you. Read this case study about Jeremy LeCornu, the Digital Learning Coordinator at South Australia’s Brighton Secondary School. Jeremy is an avid supporter of using technology to enhance classroom experiences for students and teacher alike. We also recommend you check out Jeremy’s YouTube channel for examples of his work.
The notion of flipping your classroom ultimately means you are going to become a meaningful content creator. Using different tools, you’ll gather appropriate material from multiple sources and create your own videos and other media content. You will use all this to construct your lessons.
Make Your Own Video Lessons
To flip your classroom effectively, you will need to get comfortable making videos. The better you get at building video lessons, the better you’ll be at teaching your audience. It is normal to be intimidated by this stuff at first; you will get more comfortable and will adapt with each successive video.
Here’s some more help if you need it:
- 8 Free and SimpleTools to Create Video Tutorials
- YouTube Flipped Learning Tutorials
- Edudemic: The Teacher’s Guide to Flipped Classrooms
- Edutopia: Flipped Learning Toolkit
Become a Collector
You can look to the Web for help with any aspect of flipping your classroom. Any video or text that is available for public use can be used in your lessons. The key with so much available flipped learning fodder out there is to become a constant content collector. If you see a great lecture on quadratic equations, save it. If you see an awesome news article about Teddy Roosevelt and conservation, save it.
Everyday you are online presents an opportunity to grab lesson material. There are so many things you can incorporate to keep you and your students excited. Here’s few to get you started:
Consider Differentiated Learning
Every student learns differently, as all teachers discover early on. When you are flipping your classroom, you can build lessons that will work for all students. For struggling students in a flipped classroom, offer multiple explanations for the same material from different sources. For faster learners, incorporate expansion into the lesson. Provide other resources so these students can go deeper into the subject.
Get Honest Feedback
Classroom flipping is a fairly new approach to learning. If you want to make sure your approach is the right one for your students, you need honest feedback. Ask students and parents to let you know their thoughts, and how you might improve. Combine this information with quantitative feedback, in the form of tests on the material, to get the bigger picture.
As you work on flipping your classroom, be prepared for bumps and bruises along the way. It takes time to get it right, but with practice and perseverance you can become an amazing flipped content creator. There will finally come a day when both you and your learners can then just focus on reaping the benefits of flipped instruction.
In the meantime, learn on the go by consulting experts, tutorials, and forums as much a possible, and just dive in and start getting messy with recording and screen casting. You may end up progressing faster than you ever thought possible.
