Why Flipping Out in a Classroom is a Good Idea!

Don't just a book by its cover, or in this case, a blog by its title. I am not going to suggest screaming in your classroom or berating students. I really only raise my voice to be heard and that is only in crowded hall/assembly situations!
The idea of a flipped classroom came to me from a you tube video that someone shared with me once on Facebook. The concept is simple in that direct instruction is given to students outside of class and class-time is used for extension, collaboration and support for harder concepts. I have not fully flipped my classroom but it is something that I am in the process of doing and the more students that have reliable access to the internet or an internet capable device, the more I will be able to do so. Listed below are some simple ways that I have started the "Flipping" process. These are things that are easy to do and allow you to spend less precious class time doing things that students can handle without you by their side.

1. Create an account on www.edmodo.com and have your students do the same. I will have a post later about how to do this but it is easy and invaluable. Edmodo.com is a secure educational network for teachers, students and parents and looks similar to Facebook and works similarly as well. I use www.edmodo.com as my class webpage.  
2. Use www.edmodo.com to share all lecture notes, handouts and any lecture videos that you have made with students. 
3. Show students how to download the free edmodo app onto their phones, iPod, tablets, etc. This means that if they have cellular service, they can access edmodo as well!
4. JING! Jing is a web-casting tool and allows you to record what you do on the computer screen as you do it! If you have instructions to give to students, JING them on your computer and share them with students that way. This helps a great deal when students are out, need a refresher on how to do something or just want to make sure they did something correctly. 
5. Encourage all parents and students to communicate with you via email or edmodo. Transitioning communication to a digital format has made my life much more simple. Of course I want to see parents and speak with them but many parents are just as busy as I am and things helps them too!

This is a short list but it is a great start to flipping your classroom. Having all handouts and presentations online prevents making new copies when a student loses something and allows absent students to catch up much more simply.

Please comment with questions!! :) Links are below for above mentioned websites!