The Flipped Life

I've heard a lot about the flipped classroom. Five years ago I had never heard the term, and now it is prevalent in many conversations with teachers and leaders. My eldest son is in his second year in a flipped math classroom. It has made sense for his learning and he certainly seems to be growing in the experience. Math made sense. Children watch the video of the instruction. Replay the skill a couple of times. Teacher does guided practice in the class. Ok, I get it. Then I started to hear more and more. His English-Language Arts teacher shared that she was flipping the grammar instruction. He brought home the video. In great Cameron style, 5:10am will snagging down some pancakes, we were introduced to independent and dependent clauses with a few references from the Simpsons. Ok, I get it. Later that morning, I was talking to his cross country coach and she shared that she was flipping her PE class. OK, I didn't get it.

She explained, that while she has been teaching for twenty-something years, she always is looking to try something new. Like all teachers, her instruction has constraints. She is limited by a 39 minute period and wants to maximize movement, dialogue, and skills during that time. In flipping her classroom, the children watch 5-7 minutes at home and then can maximize their feedback and processing time with her. In her world the interchange of dialogue, practice, and reflection was the priority. Distribution of content knowledge needed to at times come in a different form.

It was a lot to process. So many of us had gone to school to be content specialists. I was a Chemistry and Political Science major. I had a vast background in two disciplines that I loved to share. Yet, as constraints are starting to pull on how we use our time, here were several veteran leaders in multiple disciplines giving up their group knowledge distribution fix and focusing their time and energy into processing, reflection, and feedback.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that as a society we love flipped learning. I remember growing up watching Bob Ross and the Joy of Painting on PBS and Bob Villa on This Old House. I have spent more than enough time watching What Not To Wear and HGTV. Simply we want content knowledge when we want it.

Moreover, our children are learning to find and seek resources in this manner on their own from their friends. Children learn ways to shoot basketballs better, build/mod Minecraft levels, and new fashion tips from "YouTubers" everywhere. They are teaching themselves how to gather content knowledge in quick and efficient methods from short videos they find online. Our students are leading the flipped life. We can to. Whether it is learning to fix the laundry machine online or refining our movie editing skills with a professional course at lynda.com there are flipped opportunities for all of us.

That's the funny thing. When my wife was in her social work program, she would often say, "meet the client where the clients at." These teachers, whether math, language arts, or physical education have begun to realize, that the path to knowledge distribution is now more often on video. The way they find value is how they can guide these students to refine their work, products, and practices. It's a different world, one that is truly moving from the sage on the stage to the guide on the side. A world where content knowledge is a commodity and teacher feedback and guidance is where the true value lies. It's a flipped life, a life where each of us can be a difference maker.

"We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents." -Bob Ross