How will this course change the way I teach in the classroom?

I was teaching nursing clinicals a few months ago when one of my students was telling me that she had to watch the nursing lectures at home and participate in discussion during classroom time.  At the time, I remembered thinking to myself what an interesting concept.  Fast forward to two weeks ago, I am sitting on the Principal Selection Committee at Sharp Middle School.  During one of the interviews, one of candidates talked about his work with flipped classrooms.  However, this time I was able to intelligently ask questions about what kind of classrooms he was using this teaching strategy, how did he get teacher buy-in, what percentage of his teachers were using this strategy, etc.   One of the results of this class is definitely a greater awareness of the teaching strategies that can be employed to engage learners.  As educators, we need to share this new knowledge with others in our teaching-learning community to move our students to mastering 21^st century skills.  If change is truly going to take place in our schools, it all begins with these critical collaborative conversations.  To the best of my knowledge, a flipped classroom instructional strategy is not currently being used at the high school or middle school in Pendleton County.  By introducing this approach to co-teachers from each school, this strategy hopefully will get the necessary buy-in to help it become successful in the future. 

I strongly encourage each of you to read Bellanca and Brandt’s 21^st century skills: Rethinking how students learn.  The concept of Teach Less, Learn More was introduced in this book.  At first, I was a little skeptical about this concept.  However, the more I read the more I agree with this concept, and it is something I want to incorporate in my own teaching in the future.  You see Teach Less does mean” teaching less in the traditional didactic delivery of information-less teacher talk, less pour and store, and less-frequent one-way broadcasts” (Bellanca & Brandt, p. 105).  Teach Less means using wider and deeper instructional methodologies, hands-on learning, and collaborative interactions.  Teach Less, Learn More is about preparing our 21^st century students to learn more, faster, and deeper.  If we can do this, we can equip our students with the skills of learning and the skills of life.

Bellanca, J., & Brandt, R. (Eds.). (2010). 21^st century skills: Rethinking how students learn. Bloomington, Indiana.: Solution Tree Press.