We talk too much!  There I said it!  Lets face it, we teachers like to hear our voice.  Before I flipped my classroom the beginning of the school year was hard on my voice.  I had to get my “teacher voice back.”  I had to re-train my voice to talk much more than it had all summer.   I liked being the one with all the “answers” (though I really didn’t have all of the answers – I just liked to think I did).  We teachers like being up front.

Thus one of the most powerful things about adopting a Flipped Classroom model is that it forces teachers (me) away from the front of the room.  The Flipped Classroom helps teachers break the habit of lectures.  For so many of us, it is our default form of teaching.  But when we embrace the flipped classroom, it forces us to concisely present relevant content away from class time.  It takes us off the stage as the sage and allows us to be the guides on the side.

How many of us have sat in a class where the teacher drones on and on and on and on?  Like in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off…Anyone?  Anyone?

I just got off a Skype with my daughter who is in her first year of college and she told us about her history professor who droned on and on.  Kaitie sat in my flipped classroom for two years and knows there is a better way.  She told us she is still hopeful her professor will engage more and lecture less.

So lets flip our classrooms so that we can break the habit of lecture.

My question for you all:  Be honest!  How much time do you spend doing direct instruction (lecture) in class? And if you have flipped, how has getting away from the front of the room helped your teaching practice?