Flipped Classroom Ideas

I found this great article by Kate Petty discussing the flipped English classroom experience. Something I found incredibly useful in this article was the idea of never sitting behind a desk during class as a teacher, "I am constantly around them to bring them back on task, guide their conversations, participate in great discussions, and to show them that I am interested in what they are doing". This is a crucial step in the flipped classroom. If we send them to watch videos at home and work on their own once they're in our classroom, we're not really teaching much. As teachers, we need to be involved during their "homework" time to guide them and answer any questions they might have. 

I would like to use the flipped classroom idea a couple of times during my first year of teaching just to get a feel for it, improve, and then use it more and more as the years go by. It depends on the area I teach and what kind of resources I would have in my school. Ideally, I would like to do mostly flipped after I have a few years of being in the classroom under my belt. I would like to get myself situated as a teacher before I overburden myself, and my students, by trying things I haven't done before. The reason why I like the flipped classroom is because I know my students are working and learning. They're not just listening to my lecture that I've said 4 times already, but they're actually applying what they learned at home in my classroom. I can guide them and answer questions as they arise. I would have more control over their assignments and projects being completed. I would have them either fill out worksheets or quizzes to know that they're doing the "homework". Since I don't have any experience, I don't know what would honestly work best, but I know that I will figure it out once I give this a try in a real classroom. I would like to use a variety of technologies to flip. I think just plain videos would get as boring as a lecture if I use them every single day. Like the Petty mentioned in her article, "I treat the strategies as a candy shelf-choose what works". I know that videos will be the best option for some lessons, but a podcast would work better for another. It would just depends on what I want my students to learn. The technology I use will only enhance that. 

An example of a lesson I could flip would be to have the students watch clips of different interpretations of Romeo and Juliet at home. They would fill out a graphic organizer to gather their thoughts, notes, and ideas. In class, we would create our own interpretation of the play using GoAnimate. They can use different characters, time, or settings to make it their own. We would have to use the computer lab if we don't have enough computers in the classroom. Since Romeo and Juliet can take a bit of time, we would use most of the class time to create these and watch some as a class at the end. The students would be held accountable by filling out the graphic organizer that was provided.