In my class, flipped learning is very much based on newsletters and notes sent home, as well as phone calls to explain how things work. Parents will have questions, so I freely share my phone numbers and email, although this may not be possible in every case.  Since we live in a rural school district, most parents know me.  To let parents know I am approachable and willing to make their child get off to a smooth start in kindergarten, I send out postcards before the first day.  It pays off in dividends!

Notes and newsletters are the old standby because not all parents have digital access.  In the notes I explain a concept, why we need to practice it, and how the parent would actually conduct a dialogue with their child to help them learn at home.  Then we implement what they are expected to have learned at home when they arrive at school.  It may be as simple as signing in with the first letter of their name, then explaining to the teacher where they would find the first letter in their name.  I monitor how many parents participate, and follow up with phone calls if I haven’t heard from them in some way.

I am extremely excited to see how many “connected” parents I’ll have this year, because there is an explosion of apps just perfect for flipping instruction.  I am definitely going to use Periscope (a live video app that allows teachers to explain and answer questions in real time).  I can see so many possibilities in how this can help to communicate better.  

Since it is summer, my comments will relate to this past year’s activities.  

 

So much of student time is spent sitting in front of the teacher who is explaining concepts, and quite frankly doing too much of the talking.  If we want students to think for themselves, they MUST have an opportunity to explain their thinking.  We are failing them miserably if we aren’t asking questions to elicit responses that cause students to think critically.  If most of my “lecture” about letter Aa can  be viewed over and over at home, then our instructional time can be used to practice what we truly know, rather than hear the mini-lesson.  

This has been the $1,000,000 question for a few years now:

How to make sure all students receive the same information whether they have a computer, or not.  Having had a website for many years, I have always had an online component to my students’ learning.  It has been successful with those who can access at home.  And to make sure the same opportunity is for all, I alot time at the beginning and end of the day for my students to view instruction on our classroom computer or smartboard.  I also use part of our small group time to show snippets of  the online instruction.  This is true of my sight word slideshows that are available for home practice, or links to online games to help practice concepts or learn about nature, etc.