Flip or Flop?

...And just like that, spring break has come and gone! Now it is crunch time during the semester for most of the education classes and a lot of lesson planning is heading my way.  This week in Social Studies methods, we are putting into practice the flipped lesson plans that we created before we left for break.  I find this to be really exciting because I also get to experience what everyone else in my class came up with and get to participate in some great learning experiences. 

This week I found an article that explains and breaks down the reasoning for flipped classrooms and flipped lessons.  The article described how the learning in a flipped lesson is reversed from the traditional ways of teaching.  The teacher instruction occurs outside of the classroom, usually by an online video that the students will watch before class.  This benefits the students by allowing them time to ask questions that they may have about the material, and allows the teacher to work more one on one with students and help to explain the material more in depth.  It also helps when students miss class, they are still able to watch the videos and stay on track.  This article was intended for the parental audience, but it gives great background information about flipped lessons and gives tips as to how parents can support the flipped classroom.  However, I think everyone can benefit from reading this article and learn how to make their flipped lessons more effective. 

On Thursday, I will be presenting my flipped lesson to my classroom peers and I am interested to see how well it goes.  The students are to watch the instructional video and then are going to be assessed at the beginning of the lesson to see how well they comprehended the information from the video.  Depending on how well they do, it will determine where we go from there, and how intensive our review session will be.  I think the flipped classroom is an awesome idea if everyone will participate.  It is going to be my self challenge to get my students excited and interested in the flipped classroom routine. 

This ties into the fourth North Carolina Professional Teaching Standard, which states that teachers should facilitate learning for their students.  During class time, students should be the ones guiding their learning experience.  Based on the questions and discussion generated by the students will determine how the class goes.  The idea is that the teacher is just there for additional help and guidance if need be.