“You Are The Teacher And Should Be Teaching My Student”
(This is an excerpt from a letter addressing common concerns and questions I sent to parents before school started.)
You are correct that I am the teacher and should teach my students. In the flipped classroom, we will find that your student has more of my time with work where my expertise will be needed.
In a traditional classroom in the past, much of my time was spent watching students take notes from the work we did on the SmartBoard. Some students struggled to copy the notes and others waited while their classmates wrote more slowly than they did. I prepared “classwork” for us to use immediately following the instructional notes to reinforce the concepts just discussed.
Many times, taking notes took longer than expected and the practice offered by the classwork was cut short or sent home as additional homework along with the regular homework page. Students then had to do homework problems at home, sometimes without sufficient practice in class and without my knowledge and explanation available to them.
With the Flipped Classroom, students can become introduced to the lesson and write their notes as quickly or slowly as they need by watching me present the lesson on video at home. In class, I will work with students throughout the entire 90 minute class. Sometimes I will give demonstrations to the entire class that will work better in person than on video, other times we will have small group activities connected to the lesson and designed to give students deeper understanding of the material. Other times students will work individually on exercises and I will work with them individually.