As you enter a classroom ask yourself this question: "If there were no students in the room, could I do what I am planning to do?" If your answer to the question is yes, don't do it. ( —General Ruben Cubero [1])
My inspiration for flipping the classroom came from several sources: the constant striving to keep my students motivated and my lessons fresh, my assistant superintendent and Mr. Zoller's video pod casts. Mr. Zoller is kind of amazing. I first found his You Tube Channel when I was looking for a video to show my class about Chinese geography. It's an interesting topic, but there aren't many documentaries which are engaging for eighth graders. When i first watched the video I was in awe. "How does this guy do this? Is he getting paid?" immediately popped into my head. The video I found was clear, concise, engaging, and really easy for my students to follow. When I showed it to my students they were engaged and they loved it! I immediately wanted to to the same thing. (side note: this was before I had even heard of "the flipped classroom"). I emailed him a couple of months ago to ask how he came up with the ideas, how he produced his videos, and if he had students make videos too. He got back to me and offered some great suggestions. For creating videos his format is very simple and very easy to follow for the kids. He begins with an introduction which includes a little bit of music and images of himself and historical landmarks. Then he poses the focus question for the lesson and gives kids instructions on how to follow along and take notes. He explains the topic using more questions and lots of images. Finally, he summarizes his ideas and answers the guiding question again. Brilliant!I have decided to use his format to make my own videos. I start with the focus question, provide explanations with images and diagrams, and finish with conclusion. My students seem to like the first couple of videos I made and the time I have in class to do other activities is a blessing. I have noticed overall engagement increase. Currently I am engaged in a project based learning activity and I haven't given any notes in a couple of weeks, but next week the Renaissance begins and new videos will abound!
