There are so Many Topics you can Write About and Share With Your Peers
Last week, we offered 7 Great Reasons to Write Original Content for the Flipped Learning Network. For some, this begs the question, “what should I write about?”. Well here are some great ideas!
Your Experience
Tell us how it’s going! Other educators who are flipping, or thinking about it, want to hear about their colleagues’ experiences.
A Favorite Tool
Have a favorite tool you use to create content, deliver it, make it engaging, assess students, or capture feedback? There are so many good tools available to teachers today. Let others know what’s worked for you.
Student Feedback
How do your students feel about the flipped model? Are they taking to it? Resisting? A little of each? How are you gauging their sentiments and addressing concerns?
Your Interactions with Parents
What are you doing to engage parents and get them on board? Hopefully you have communicated with parents (and, even more hopefully, it was a positive interaction!). Have you received support? Push back?
Your Questions
If you are pretty new to this, or have been flipping for a while and want to evolve your work, you may have questions. You know what we tell students all the time … if you have questions, other probably do too! Same holds here. Share yours and let’s see what the flipped learning community has to offer in return.
Your Experience With Your Administrators
Did you embrace your admins? Are they on board? This is another part of the process that we all encounter. Here’s one good experience that one of your colleagues wrote about recently.
Your Experience With Other Teachers
Getting your peers on board can be challenging sometimes. Of course, there are also plenty of situations where other teachers can help you. For example, flipped pioneers Aaron Sams and Jon Bergmann have written about how they recorded flipped content by partnering with other teachers.
A Favorite Technique
Years ago, Crystal Kirch wrote about the “WSQ” technique she developed and it became a big hit (I’ve been using it for years myself). Of course, you don’t have to have created a unique technique with a cool acronym in order to write about an approach that works for you.
A Favorite Resource
There are so many great resources out there! Do you have a favorite YouTube channel you like to use for inspiration for your own videos, or as study resources for students? Maybe there’s a web site you’re a big fan of, with some great lesson plans, or interactive content for learning about a specific subject? Write a post and tell others about it!
General Tips and Techniques
Maybe you developed your own personal list of “4 things I need to do to make a flipped lesson work well” or “3 different ways to get students to interact with content”. Tips and techniques that work for you can help others!
What NOT to do
This can be a huge help to other teachers! Did you try something that just didn’t work out? Maybe you spend too much time trying to make your video perfect (don’t!). In any case, if others can learn from your experience, it’s a beautiful thing. Share.
What you wish you knew before you started
One of the videos I have participants in the 4 Week Online Workshop watch when we get started in Jon Sowash’s “5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Flipped my Class“. You’ve probably had thoughts like this from time to time … “wow, I wish I knew that before I started this”.
How you Assessed Success
How have you tried to determine if this new approach has been successful? When we piloted “partial flips” at The College of Westchester, we used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to assess how well it was working. Have you attempted to measure success?
What you Would do Differently
After gaining some experience, would you change anything you’ve done? Most of us learn through experience. Help others get a leg up and learn from you.
Specific Challenges you Faced and how you Overcame Them
Flipped Learning, like most changes, comes with challenges, and obstacles you will encounter. How have you dealt with the challenges you’ve faced?
Considerations Specific to the Subject you Flipped
Did you flip a subject other than math or science? Many teachers are under the false assumption that you can’t flip certain types of courses. In the meanwhile, lots of educators have written about flipped everything from drama to PE. Tell you unique story about the subject you are flipping.
How Flipped Instruction Changed how you use Class Time
Of course, this a prime reason we flip … to change how we can use class time. How have you been using class time since you flipped?
How you Evolved Your Approach
Many smart educators ease in to the flip … flipping a little content, a chapter, a couple lessons, and learn as they go. Others might flip one course or class, and then others over time. How has your approach changed as you learned from your experience and adapted?
How Flipped Teaching Changed Your Overall Approach to Teaching
Flipping the teaching and learning model has been a gateway for many teachers. Aaron Sams speaks to this in this video. Maybe you started with a flipped classroom model but soon found that this encouraged you to focus more on active learning or mastery learning models. Maybe the flip was a spring board into a headlong dive into Project Based Learning. This type of experience can be inspirational to others!
So What are you Waiting for?
Well, there you have it … many different ideas for what you can write about to help others learn from your experience. We’ve given you 7 great reasons to write content for the site, and now you have an arsenal of ideas for content. Go for it! Once you’ve written your masterpiece, reach out through the Contact Form to let us know you’ve got some content you want to share and we’ll get in touch with you and work with you to get it published here. Thanks!
Very nice and inspiring post!! Thanks a lot!!