Permission Granted

This blog is about flipping my classroom.  It's about inverting the instruction and the place where homework is done.  It's about leveraging technology to become better learners. It's about differentiating instruction more effectively and efficiently. It's about students watching my "lecture" on video at home at night and doing the work of the lesson the next day in class. It's about tracking my thoughts and experiences as I journey into largely unfamiliar instructional territory. It's about change for the sake of my students.

I intend to use this blog as a journal/record of what went right, what went wrong, and what just plain went.

After researching what a 'flipped classroom' entailed, I decided to go for it.  I looked at the make-up of my students -- three 6th grade classes -- and began to envision what flipping would look like for us.  I completed a prezi (you need to have an account on prezi.com to see my prezi) laying out the reasons why and answering questions that may be roadblocks to this format. Yesterday, I presented it to my principal and assistant principal.  They were as excited as I was to get this going.

Now I have to do the following:

1. Survey my class to understand what they have available at home to view online videos
2. Make a date to educate my parents about the change.
3. Establish the date to transition to the flipped model
4. Navigate the use of ActivInspire, Screencast-o-Matic, YouTube, SchoolTube, and iTunes to produce and publish my 10-minute shorts.

Whew.

A couple of resources that have helped inform my thinking thus far:
The Flipped Class Network
MindShift
My Flipped Classroom (a blog by Dehlia Bush)
Flipping with Kirch ( a blog by Crystal Kirch)