Presenting the Flipped Classroom (part 2 - presentation to entire staff)

On Wednesday, February 8, I had the opportunity to present "My Flipped Classroom" to all of the teachers, counselors, and administration at my school at one of our Delayed Start PD meetings.  I previously presented the same presentation to our Teacher Leadership Team a week earlier.  I posted about that here.

The purpose of this post is to keep record for myself of perspectives, comments, and questions regarding initial exposure to the flipped classroom.

Before The Presentation...

Before the presentation, I got some feedback from the teachers on what they knew about something called the "Flipped Classroom".  Here was their background knowledge.   This represents just over half the staff responding.

Have you heard of the flipped classroom?

Yes, and I know what it is		17	38%
I've heard the phrase but don't know what it means		6	13%
No, never heard of it		23	51%

If you have heard of the flipped classroom, have you used any aspects of the flipped classroom in your teaching?

Yes		6	17%
Not Sure		7	19%
No		24	67%

The teachers who said they had used the flipped classroom in their teaching described it as this:

English Teacher: I have had students watch a video and/or a Powerpoint presentation before coming to class so that we could workshop the class room time.

English Teacher: I have not incorporated this in my classroom as English lesson would be very difficult for students to follow in "flipping"... It could work with grammar, but I have yet to try it.

Special Education Teacher: "I collaborated with [science teacher] while he was doing this.  It was amazing, the students were using academic language during their labs, they were actually learning...though I am not sure that they knew that they were learning!!!  I loved it and am very excited that we may be moving in that direction.  I loved the research on it that [science teacher] made me read before I could ""help out""!!!  Please tell me anything I can do help.  Eliminates some of the ""Sage on the Stage"", and is actual student centered learning!!!  I would love to learn more about it!"

Math Teacher: AP stats, students read articles regarding polling bias/sabotage, then the next day they learn about the bias and do an experiment on it.

During The Presentation...

The teachers overall seemed to really enjoy the presentation.  It took about 30 minutes, with about 10 minutes for questions.  We probably could have had another 10-15 minutes of questions, but the meeting was before school and the bell was about to ring.  So, I had the teachers fill out a post-presentation questionnaire where they could ask me further follow-up questions.  I received 40 responses, for about half the staff responding.

It was a little bit of a tougher presentation to give since it was to almost 100 people vs. 25 people.  You know that there are people who are highly interested, moderately interested, and not at all interested, yet you want to stay engaging for everyone.  I really like the way my Prezi is organized.  I would make a few changes to it when I have the chance:

1) Include videos of what class time actually looks like (right now I just have pictures)

2) Include more short clips of students talking about the flipped classroom (right now I just have a 2 minute clip of "why I like the flipped classroom").  I have several hours of video interviews with students, I just haven't had the chance to go through and edit them yet.

3) Include picture/video explanation of how I make my videos for interested teachers

4) Include a clip of one of my finished videos (I ended up opening schooltube.com and showing about 20 seconds of one to the staff)

After The Presentation...

I wish I had a little more time after the presentation to mingle with people and answer questions, but alas we had to rush to class.  Thankfully, most of the teachers responded to the survey within the day.  I'm still hoping to receive some responses next week, but it's okay if I don't.

After hearing about it, what do you think about using the flipped classroom in your classroom?

	I want to fully flip! 4 9% I'd love to try it in pieces, maybe once a week or so 12 28% I'd love to try it, but more rarely, like once a unit 7 16% I'd like to try it, but don't really know how often yet 19 44% I don't think the flip will work in my classes 3 7%

What are your biggest concerns about flipping your classroom?

Student buy-in		9	21%
Parent buy-in		3	7%
Student access to technology		17	40%
Figuring out the technology yourself		11	26%
Time it would take to make it happen		24	57%
Other		7	17%

Here are some questions, comments, and concerns that the teachers had (questions are put in red font):

*If you have any answers or resources for the questions that are asked, please feel free to comment about them.  I will be contacting the teachers soon to answer their questions to the best of my ability. Thanks!

English Teachers: 

I'll need to find some examples of how this would work in an English classroom for some of the content I'm teaching.  Just taking some time to find examples, which I'll do on my own.

I think it is great.  I can see it working for the grammar aspects of my class but not too much for the literature parts.

How do you know if students watched the video versus copying their friends' notes?  I would love to flip my classroom for grammar lessons, but I don't want students to copy each other's notes or summary just so they can avoid the homework cards.  

I have already flipped certain aspects of my class, but I would like to do more.  The trick is figuring out all aspects of English and how they can be flipped.

I wasn't at school today for the presentation, but I'm very interested in finding out more about this!

This is a cool concept to try out!

Social Science Teachers:

Looked like a great way to teach. I will try to incorporate some flipping in the near future. No real questions.

Music Teachers: 

Flipped classroom lends itself well to music classrooms, and can be used in different ways.  I wish I had thought about it when I was teaching AP Music Theory because the students were at so many different levels, and it was truly difficult to get past the teaching of content and to actually apply the concepts.

Special Education Teachers:

I love the "flipped"model as I have the "experts" on file to help reteach!!!  Makes me more confident in reteaching outside of my strengths!!!  I dig it!

I think it's really a cool concept and provides more 1 to 1 time.  I'll need to start watching the videos to be able to help students even better!  I think this could be a really useful tool for the special education teachers here and at other sites who go into all levels of all content/core classes.  I would love to have mini lessons that I could view on my time to be able to better help my students. How could I use this with the students with special needs for enrichment and extended learning (slower paced videos, etc.)  Also, I could see how this would be great for some students with special needs, but for others, I could see this being a disaster.  How does it account for different learning styles and disabilities? 

What is the approximate number of students in your classes who are not doing the work of watching the videos at home and completing the summaries?  

Have you had comments or feedback from resistant parents? 

Physical Education Teachers:

So is the school policy changed to allow the use of student owned electronics in the classroom and on campus?

Art Teachers:

I am looking forward to using "flipping", I have already spoken to some of your students who have been very positive about their experience. My only question is in using copyright images of which I use a lot of for reference.

Science Teachers:

Again thank you for sharing. Maybe as a PLC group, a focus group for WASC, etc people could pilot this or work on developing it for next year. I would be interested

I do the low tech version now. I make them read & do notes from the book before we talk about concepts in class already so that we can maximize problem solving in class. so I think it would be possible to do some of this in the flipped method and expand it also. Thank you for sharing today!

I like what I see, I just need more evidence for the CP kids. I wonder how this would compare for an Honors/AP class vs a CP class?

Math Teachers:

I don't oppose doing this, but I would like to see some validated results prior to committing to the project. I would like to see a controlled test and comparisons of the outcomes.

The text has videos on the lessons which could also be used

I'm waiting for a great training so I can get this revolution started!!

Here are some nice compliments teachers had - I think I'll read these whenever I get frustrated or overwhelmed... it's nice to feel appreciated and feel like I'm doing something beneficial and worthwhile!

I just want to find time to sit, chat and pick your brain. you got some great stuff going on and this is just one more example of that.

Your presentation this morning was well constructed, thought out and I'm sure an adventure for you.  While I'm not necessarily a convert, I was impressed with not just your effort which is significant, but also that I expect you will have improved results in that you have sold this approach to your students.  Congratulations to you and thanks for all you do.

Great presentation will def implement with dance.

Your presentation was great!  Bravo! 

Your presentation on the flipped classroom was inspiring and awesome! I can see why the students would love this AND I can't wait to try it myself!!! Don't change anything about your presentation! You were extremely thorough and clear on your explanation of all aspects of the flipped classroom! 

Great job. I love that you are always looking for new was to help your students and not afraid of a little effort. Some teachers will be turn off to the idea because it involves some work outside of class. However, great presentation and work. You are a very valuable member of this staff and we are lucky to have you.

You were awesome!!!

Thanks for the presentation! 

u rock kirch 

You rock! Thanks for being an awesome leader. 

Thanks for sharing with us!

Good job Kirch. You rock...

Great presentation, I really enjoyed learning more about what you are doing!  

Great presentation.  Thanks for all you do.

You are a natural presentor and a great role model.  

Thanks for presenting. You are always so dynamic and innovative! 

Thanks for a great presentation!