How I started Flipping

I follow Crystal Kirch and when I first started researching the flipped classroom I happened onto her blog and LEARNED SO MUCH!!  I know that I could NEVER reach her level of expertise but when I needed to get a question answered, I could go to her blog and find what she experienced and get help.  So, as I am starting to get questions from fellow teachers at my school about how I started, I hope that this blog can be a little bit of help.

On the first day that I introduced the "flipped classroom" to my class and how my class was going to change, I gave the students a computer access survey that assessed how and if they have access to the internet outside of school.   If you would like a copy, just email me and I will share it with you.  I gave this survey to the students BEFORE I told them why I was asking so they would be honest with their answers.  Once I got the surveys back I only had a handful of students who I needed to talk to about their computer access.  I was able to come up with a solution for each student so they would not be left out!  After the survey, I briefly explained how my class was going to be changing.  I also showed the following video so students could see how this was going to work.

Then we talked about the website that I chose to use to house all the video tutorials...Sophia.  I had each student create a Sophia account and then I went over how to watch the video AND the google doc that they would have to submit to me after each video tutorial.  I went over any questions that they had and assigned their first video!

The most unexpected thing that came up was that the students who were being very successful in my class were the ones that expressed the most concern with the change.  After I gave it some thought, it dawned on me that OF COURSE they were hesitant to change.  They had been SUCCESSFUL in the traditional classroom.  They were scared that that was going to change...it hasn't!!