6 Tips for Teachers Seeking to Flip Their Classrooms

Graham Johnson was a traditional math teacher at Okanagan Mission Secondary School in Canada. He began his class everyday with a review, followed by a quiz and then a lecture, but two years ago he attended a flipped classroom conference. Inspired by speakers Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, Johnson began flipping his classroom, embarking on what he calls a year long “roller coaster ride.”

“It definitely wasn’t all roses and lollipops,” says Johnson. That first flipped lesson was especially hard. Unaccustomed to having free time, Johnson didn’t know what to do.

“The first day I started flipping my classroom we stared at each other for an hour before I could figure out what I was going to do with this face-to-face time,” he says.

Johnson eventually figured it out and the culture of his classroom has completely changed. Students now take ownership of their learning through self-paced lessons. Because he doesn’t lecture in class, students spend a lot more time collaborating in groups and solving problems than they do listening to him talk.

“I used to do in class activities maybe once a month before I flipped and students really didn’t like it,” says Johnson. “They always complained and they just didn’t see the relevance. My understanding is that it just wasn’t really part of the culture of my classroom. Now, by flipping my classroom I’m able to do some type of hands on activity every single day. This really kind of got kids on my side and they got to seeing these kinds of activities as beneficial.”

The Tools

There are a number of ways to flip the classroom. Most often, teachers make a quick video lesson about 10-15 minutes long that students watch before the next class. Class time is used for discussion and activities related to the lesson. The teacher is free to engage with students and provide help as needed. In some cases, as is true in Johnson’s class; teachers provide in-class time for students to watch the video lessons. Johnson’s tools of choice are a tablet PC, Camtasia, a screen recording software that allows you to edit and enhance your videos, a Samsung microphone and YouTube.

“I chose to host on YouTube because that’s where my students are already hanging out,” says Johnson. Interestingly enough, Johnson even has students who aren’t in his class and who don’t even attend school in the district who watch his videos.

Johnson also has 10 laptop computers in his classroom that are available to students. That way they can watch the videos even if they don’t have access to a device or Internet at home. These computers were something Johnson and his colleagues asked the administration for after attending a flipped classroom conference.

“Schools are cash strapped so to ask for 10 computers in our classes was a tall order,” says Johnson.

Fortunately, the school was supportive and the principal even asked the district to consider the flipped classrooms a pilot project. Now, Johnson begins class by having the students ask questions so he can gauge their understanding of the material. Then he will have the students do some kind of collaborative activity like a math lab or journaling followed by flex time. This designated flex time can be used in different ways.

“I give students a package at the beginning of every unit that has a list of all the things I want students to accomplish,” says Johnson. It’s up to students how they want to use that. Sometimes the students are meeting with me one on one to get some help. Sometimes they may be working on questions out of a workbook [or] they may be taking a quiz in class.”

How to Deal with Pushback

The first year of flipping the classroom was difficult for Johnson as he adjusted to a new way of teaching and a new style of classroom management.

“Our biggest critics were sometimes the students and the parents of the kids who were winning at school, who were getting A’s and didn’t want anyone to mess with the existing structure or the existing system even if it might have been better for their child,” says Johnson.

The flipped classroom is a culture change and parents may understandably be concerned that altering the traditional classroom structure will affect their child’s academic success.

So how did Johnson deal with concerned parents?

“It’s just a matter of educating them with what we’re trying to do with the bigger picture. I think the one thing we had to convey to them was that what we’re trying to do is maybe a little bit bigger than basic learning outcomes. We were trying to work on 21st century skills,” says Johnson.

He also made a video for parents introducing the flipped classroom, which explained the benefits and outlined his goals for the class. The benefit that resonated most with parents was the idea of students taking responsibility for their learning. Many former students even told Johnson they felt unprepared for college because the teachers “held their hands too much.”

“We kind of used the whack-a-mole approach where every time a student deviates from what we want them to do we make sure we get them back on course. Then, of course, when they go to university no one is there to do that. Sometimes students crash and burn,” says Johnson.

Once parents understand there is a benefit to what you’re doing they are less likely to be afraid and more likely to get on board.

Tips for First Time Flippers

Johnson has a few tips for anyone just starting out. One, if you’re nervous, start small. “You do not need to make an entire course. You don’t need to make an entire unit. Just try making one video and see how that goes,” says Johnson. If it’s a success, then keep building from there.

Two, make your own videos. “I’ve often heard from teachers who say why bother making the videos when Kahn academy has all the videos I need,” says Johnson.  “What we’ve found is that if you’re making the videos yourself you’re establishing a kind of relationship with your kids,” Students know it is their teacher behind the video and can be 100 percent sure the lesson aligns with curriculum.

Three, consider giving students time to watch the videos during class. This was a lesson Johnson learned the hard way. Before he began flipping the classroom Johnson used to allow students who finished class assignments to begin homework. As a result, the hardest working students rarely brought work home with them. When he began flipping the classroom, Johnson’s students complained. There was no longer any benefit to working hard in class because activities took up the whole period and there was still a video to watch at the end of the day.

“I thought yeah, this is criminal. I’m penalizing my hardest working demographic because I want to flip my classroom,” says Johnson. “That was an ‘aha’ moment for me to say I don’t care when you watch the videos.” Now students can watch the recorded lessons during their flex time.

Four, operate using the buddy system and consider collaborating with someone outside your discipline. “As a math teacher I really didn’t have a lot of activities in my back pocket that I could use in this additional face-to-face time. It’s been really neat talking with other educators and teachers in the humanities and figuring out the things they do that might work in my math class,” says Johnson.

Lastly, get on Twitter and search the hashtag flipped class. Every Monday there is chat where educators talk about what they’re doing and you can take in what they are saying or jump into the conversation at your own pace. “It blew my mind,” says Johnson. “I thought Twitter was all about telling everyone what you had for lunch and it’s obviously so much more than that. It’s absolutely the best professional development I’ve ever had.

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