Flipping the Classroom ~It's the 90% you should be focused on

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a training in our district today by two of my colleagues (Amy and Heather). I love watching them speak about their experiences with flipping the classroom. They are so passionate about making their lessons available for students 24/7 and holding students accountable for their learning. However, only 10% of the flipping process means that you should be assigning the videos for homework. During their workshop, they showed a video by Lodge McCammon that describes the "pitch" for videotaping your lessons for homework is just 10% of the reason of why you should do it. View the video below to hear Lodge describe it himself.

Flipping the classroom can be such a powerful tool in the classroom. Think about reteaching... Think about instruction for students who are absent... Think about having yourself in the classroom as your own co-teacher! These are the reasons that you should be flipping your lessons! Think about it and then do it!

Lodge McCammon is a great resource and was a great inspiration when I saw his keynote a couple years ago at the Midwest Educational Technology Conference. You should definitely view all of his YouTube videos if you want to get started in flipping your lessons.

Although Lodge uses a traditional video recorder, I tend to use screencast-o-matic for my videos. It is free (or you could pay a small fee for premium features). It is very simple to use and you can decide if you would like to be on camera or just capture your computer screen for the video. Using a mixture of both methods can also be a way to keep the students guessing what your next lesson will be like.

So, whatever method you find is best for you, just try it! I'd love to hear what you use to flip or how flipping has impacted your teaching!

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