One of the key questions I pose with teachers as I share about the flipped class is: What is the best use of your face to face time with students? Many teachers have answered this question in their flipped classrooms by moving the direct instruction to videos that students watch before class, thus allowing for so many great face to face activities with their students.
This past August I started a new job as the Lead Technology Facilitator at the Joseph Sears School north of Chicago. Prior to the beginning of school we hosted a Technology Boot Camp where I had the chance to share the flipped class with my new staff. The teachers at the school have not only embraced me, but many have embraced the flipped class. We have Science, Math, Foreign Language, and Elementary teachers flipping either their classes or individual lessons
However, one group of teachers utterly amazed me. After I posed the question: I had the Physical Education team come up to me and tell me that they wanted to flip their classes. That’s right: the PE teachers. I then asked them to tell me what they were thinking since these would be the first PE flippers I had ever heard about. They told me: “When you asked us what is the best use of our face to face time?” It was a simple for us: We want our students to MOVE. We spend far too much time talking to students and expecting them to learn how to move, and we don’t have them move enough.
And then over the course of these past six months I have seen this amazing team of physical education educators begin the process of flipping their classes. They are creating videos which students watch before class and then in class they MOVE.
I love it when people do what is best for their students. One of the teachers has started a blog: Jason Hahnstadt calls himself the Flipped Coach and you can follow him at: http://www.flippedcoach.com/