A Great Article That Supports the Flipped School Approach.

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Week One and Two: Flipping a School

Hello everyone.  Well our entire high school has begun the flip. This week, I had the greatest moment that I ever had as a high school principal.  During the first week, I had our staff explain the flip classroom process to my students in each class. This allowed each teacher an opportunity to explain and reflect on the flipped classroom approach and it also enable us to start the dialog between my staff and students. During the second week of school, I had organized a large student assembly in which I had the opportunity to fully explain why we were changing to a flipped classroom approach.  In the assembly, when I started talking about the flipped classroom approach,  students began applauding and it ended in a STANDING OVATION!!!! I had to fight back the tears of joy. WOW! This was the greatest moment I ever had in 10 years as a principal.  I think that we have finally figured out how to set up a school who lacks funding and has at-risk transient student population base.

Great Explanation of a Flipped Classroom

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

When Planning a Lesson

Often times when I am speaking to teachers and administrators,  I become involved in conversations that blend technology, information and skills all together. When planning a lesson, there are three distinct things a teacher must keep separate when planning their lesson and/or unit.   The first one is information or content.  A teacher must ask themselves what is the most critical/important information their students need to know?  That information is available within the recent roll out of the national core curriculum and on recently released ACT/ SAT.  National Core Curriculum Link and ACT Preparation Site.

In recent years, with educators not knowing what careers will be available in the next five to 10 years,  it is crucial that within our classrooms we are building skill with the important information we have.  As we unpack what is expected of us in the national core curriculum one can easily see an emphasis is placed upon skill development.

Lastly, a tool is an instrument that is going to assist us in building skill and/or relaying relevant and important information.  For example, You Tube, Google Groups or + are tools and not skill or information but the instrument used to relay or develop it the other two areas.

I hope this helps when you are speaking to other individuals about successful technology integration.

Here is a video I created to go into more detail.

How Flipping Supports Our Secretary of Education's Vision

I saw this video from Arnie Duncan on combining services and meeting the needs of the community.  I spoke about how the flipped classroom is a game changer.  Flipping allows all students the opportunity to learn in environments that are supportive. When watching the video please consider how the flip is more than just a movement, it is how we should be supporting our students and their learning.  We are transitioning as a society and our schools are failing.  I feel that the reason they are failing is because we have not properly adjusted our delivery practices to meet the needs of our students.  He makes several points..

Duncan's Video   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuO_nB7WY9w

Just Thankful to Have an Opportunity to Speak!

November Learning Conference in Boston!

Jon Bergmann, Aaron Sams and myself speaking at the BLC11 Conference about the Flipped Classroom.