Let's get back to the step-by-step, practical, take-action tips that we teachers so LOVE... is that alright?

Super.

This week, I'd like to focus on a very sure reality that is shifting for teachers, and that is making video for our classrooms.

Here's the thing, no matter if we go back to a traditional setting, a hybrid model, or fully online next year, we teachers need to be ready for any of those setups to change one a DIME!  As a mother, I am predicting that although my sons' school will start normal next year, entire buildings will be shut down WHEN one student or staff member tests positive.  I just don't see how to avoid it.

Please know that I'm not saying that to invoke panic amongst teachers (or mothers for that matter).  I offer up my prediction as a way to get ourselves prepared (both as teachers and parents, by the way).   Prepared for what, you might ask... prepared to be flexible in an every changing educational setting so that it's not over...

The last couple weeks on the blog have been focused on talking to and hearing from students of the flipped classroom.  If you haven't checked those out yet, I would encourage you to here and here.

This week, however, we are shifting gears and our focus to be on teachers not who have just flipped their classrooms, but who have done it by participating in the implementation program that is Flipped Classroom Formula.

Flipped Classroom Formula is the online course I built over a year ago to help teachers not just consider flipping and if it will work for them, but instead to get tools in their hands and actually build the thing.  That's right, it's an implementation program where I walk teachers through, step-by-step, exactly how to flip their classrooms like a seasoned veteran without the overwhelm of DIYing it.

 But instead of hearing me talk about it, I want you to hear from teachers who have been in the program and flipped their classrooms.  Keep in mind that...

Last week's post was a walk down memory lane and a bit of a challenge about talking to students in the flipped classroom - how it allows the time and teacher-brain space to have personal, one-on-one conversations with each of your students more often than the opportunity arises in the traditional classroom.

This week, we'll focus on hearing from students of the flipped classroom.

So often, for various reasons, primarily for safety of students, we only hear about classroom experiences from teachers.  Meaning, when it comes to soliciting experience inside the classroom when we're wanting to make decisions for our own classrooms, we only hear from teachers.

I am by NO means saying this is a bad thing, because, hey, even our most mature and articulate students are still, well, kids.  Less experienced, holding less expertise, and a different, less informative perspective.  

But what if we could hear from students about their classroom in objective ways?

I feel...

Talking to students.

Who would've thought teachers would be craving such a simple, what was an everyday occurrence?

At the time this post is published, it will be exactly two months since the month of Ohio, where my family and I live, teach, and raise our kiddos, declared school doors would be closing for the foreseeable future.

In those two months, teachers started distance learning by frantically getting their classrooms mostly accessible online.  Then teachers were hit with the harsh reality that many, and sometimes most of their students are not working remotely or even at all reachable.  And now, as we are broken-hearted over the harsh reality that although distance learning has (and still is) saving lives, it is widening the achievement gap that we all personally trying to overcome minute-by-minute, day-by-day inside of our normal teaching lives.

We, teachers, are the ones who know the names of the statistics inside the achievement gap.

And we are screaming from the...

Raise your hand if you are so totally over this whole online teaching thing?  If we were together in person (reminisce on physical presence with another human being real quick - big huge nostalgic sigh - now back to reality), I'm sure we'd reflect on all the things we miss about the classroom and being physically present with our students.

In fact, I think this whole pandemic is teaching us a very solid lesson on the importance of physical presence.  With our families, with our friends, coworkers, and especially our students.

In fact, your role as an educator sans students you see on a daily basis is probably nothing more than "messenger and grader".  Your role doesn't go much deeper than that because without physical presence any attempts to do so seem superficial and not as effective when done online.

Over the last week or so as we've been hearing the news of schools closing for the year and as I've listened to many teachers about their struggles with online...

In a time of distance learning where teachers are flying by the seat of their pants, and essentially building the plane while in the air when it comes to teaching online, we all are feeling the effects of working our butts off and yet not having the same impact we did when in the classroom.

Except for flipped classroom teachers.

Teachers who had previously flipped their classrooms, in many ways were prepared for a unpredictable setting like this one, as well as their students, because of how the flipped classroom functions.

Please hear me when I say that I am not trying to throw flipped teachers' success during distance learning in the face of teachers who had not previously flipped.  NOT AT ALL.  I'm not here to shame or guilt anyone (see my posts on these topics here and here).

But I do want to use those teachers who had flipped before the pandemic-induced school closures as a story of success when it comes to building accessible and sustainable classrooms.  And...

A very common question I get from teachers about flipping is about the videos themselves.  Particularly best practices in making them and what happens when students DON'T watch them.

These are SUPER important questions that you want to be crystal clear about before venturing into flipping.  You don't want to put all kinds of time and energy into making these videos just for them to be boring, poor quality, and your students rarely watch them.  What a waste.  

When I hear teachers ask these questions about flipped video, here's what they are really asking...

Is all the work and time investment in making these videos going to be worth it?

Teachers want to know upfront, as they should.

Now that we have a clear understanding of what we're all dying to know before we start flipping, we can give it an equally clear answer.

I'll answer this question by pointing out the power of flipped videos because it will help clarify the impact we will have as flipped teachers,...

A few weeks ago when the world seemed to all but shut down completely - I admit that statement seems a bit dramatic given all major media companies including the life-giving Netflix and Disney+ are still available, but when schools shut down, to me, that seems like a pretty big shut down and huge shift for most homes - teachers lives shifted in a way unique to few other occupations.

Instead of just spending time at home, teachers are sometimes working more hours than they were in the classroom given the new demands of distance learning and all that it takes to meet each of their students' needs while not in their physical presence.

This is not a newsflash for anyone reading this blog right now.

I state the obvious, though, because I want to put a stake in the ground here and say something that I hope all teachers hear and ponder for a bit before eventually responding, and ultimately making a slight shift that will benefit them in the long run.

In all this work you're doing right...

Within about one week’s time, the entire nation’s population of teachers went from teaching in-class to teaching online.  Take into account the varying degrees of tech-experience amongst teachers, some who have built online lessons for years and others who still keep a paper-pencil gradebook, and we’ve got ourselves a uniquely exhilarating and terrifying situation when all the nation’s schools simultaneously closed their doors.

In this post, my goal is to put words to what most teachers are experiencing right now as they wrap their minds around the molded-together, modge-podge position they now hold as an online, work-from-home teacher.  Identifying what we are experiencing is the first step, but then I hope to provide effective and efficient strategies for this new dual role. 

A Message For Teachers

I want to take a moment and give a huge shout out to all teachers.  Because we have a career in common, you are my people, and today I stand...

*This post includes affiliate links to tools I have used and loved for years.  All of the opinions in this post are completely mine and if you choose to purchase anything from a link in this post I will get a small commission.*

By far the most frequently asked question I get about the flipped classroom, next to what do I do when students don't watch the videos (stay tuned for a post on that), is how to make the videos.  Specifically, what tool can I use to make my flipped videos that won't take me a ton of time to learn how to use it and will have a fairly easy process of getting the job done?

I LOVE this question because I LOVE telling teachers that making the flipped videos will be the easiest thing they do when building their flipped classroom.

For some of you that might actually be rather scary because you have no idea where to begin or might call yourselves technologically impaired.  Stick with me here for a second though, because I assure you that videoing...