I’m starting to get excited about the upcoming school year, and this is NOT something you would normally hear me say at this point in July! Thanks, flipped classroom model!
I’ve created two documents (thus far) that I believe are essential to setting up a successful flipped classroom: Parent Letter and Student Letter/Contract.
I’ve always used a Classroom Contract in my classes, but I felt that my traditional contract needed tweaking this year. For example, since my building will be 1:1 with Chromebooks, I won’t require my students to bring multiple notebooks and writing utensils.
My Student Letter/Contract describes the flipped model, briefly, and list expectations I have of the students. For example, I fully expect the students to WATCH the videos I assign, as they are obviously essential to their success in the course. My Student Letter/Contract requires a student signature as well as a parent/guardian signature. I think adding the parent/guardian signature is extremely important because it indicates that the parents are “on the same page” as the teacher. AND…if students think they are being clever by forging their parent’s signature and a problem arises at some point in the school year, I can always break out the contract to show the parents “their signature.” 🙂
The Parent Letter is also a must for my classroom this year. I will most likely be the first and possibly only teacher in my building using this model, so it will obviously be a foreign concept to parents and students alike. Parents (in general) are deeply interested and concerned with their students’ progress and success in the classroom. Therefore, communicating the flipped model to parents is ESSENTIAL! I plan to give this letter to parents during Open House, perhaps as they leave, so they can read the information and have this document to reference!
For Open House, I plan to show a brief video that describes the flipped classroom…in one minute or less. Wish me luck! I’ll post that video when I’m happy with it 🙂
Feel free to use my documents in your own classes, but please leave the “Teaching with Technology.2014” in the footer 🙂
A post about cool apps for class is coming soon!
Thanks for reading 🙂
These are great resources! Well written and useful! Goid luck this year!