Teachers also need to ensure they are using tools that will help their students achieve learning goals. For teachers looking to provide direct instruction to students outside of the classroom, they need to consider integrating tools that allow them to record video and capture lectures. Teachers also need to be able to deliver that instruction to each and every student no matter their device or location.
“It’s so easy to make a video of me solving a problem,” says Murray. “I have my own YouTube channel where I upload my videos and I have a website that I link to the channel. I also deliver my videos to students in Google Classroom. Those are the usual methods of delivery.”
“When I look at the best teachers, they see themselves as advisers or mentors or guides. They are people who are sitting on the side of student learning and not in the front of student learning.” —Warren Barkley, CTO, SMART Technologies.
Delivering instruction through web tools that students can easily access is as equally important as ensuring they all have their own devices.
While integrating the right tools and devices is crucial to the success of a flipped classroom, a key point to remember as a leader of the flipped classroom is the irreplaceable role a teacher still plays, even if they are no longer deliverers of instruction.
“[The flipped model] is a supplement, it does not replace teaching. It is another tool in your toolbox and I think you have to go into it with that mindset. This is another way to reach my students, it’s not going to replace what I do,” says Murray.
In order to be a successful leader of the flipped classroom, teachers need to understand the value of their new role in the classroom, and embrace the new learning opportunities that this new form of teaching will provide students.
“When I look at the best teachers, they have a bunch of things in common. One of them is they don’t think of themselves as teachers. They see themselves as advisers or mentors or guides,” says Barkley. “They are people who are sitting on the side of student learning and not in the front of student learning.”
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