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Flip the Faculty Meeting

This summer I was reading a post by Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) on his blog The Tempered Radical.  His three part series on flipping the classroom was very inspiring, but the best part (and what hooked me) was his challenge to administrators to ‘flip the faculty meeting’.  I read this and pondered this quite a bit over the course of the summer, finally deciding in early August to take the plunge.  Below are my thoughts, ramblings, frustrations and victories on the way to my first flipped faculty meeting.  (which occurred on August 27)

I had seen a lot of posts, Zite articles, and tweets about flipping classrooms – even my librarian/academic learning center coordinator (@wyotigger) Angie Spann had pushed and prodded me on flipping.  I wanted to see teachers in my building try this, hoped it would happen, and even had talked with some about it.  It became obvious, especially in Bill’s blog post, if I did not model it, they would never try it.

I had made the decision, I was all in – but I had not the first clue how to flip a faculty meeting. Like any connected educator, I reached out to my PLN on Twitter and asked for help.  Bill turned me on to several other resources.  I got a lot of replies on twitter that night. (my wife wasn’t too keen on my spending all my time on my iPhone that evening)  Then a tweet came from @DSteward89.  David Steward is Principal of Monett HS in Monett, MO.  I have never met him, probably never will (although I hope our paths cross at a conference some day).  David sent me his video for his upcoming staff meeting.  This absolutely INSPIRED me!!!  I asked him about the software he used to video him and his powerpoint and shortly after had downloaded the program Camtasia 2 for Mac.

I built my powerpoint and shot a few practice versions of the video.  On Sunday, August 26 I sent the video out via email (a link to Screencast.com)  Staff was very positive about having a 30 min video with all the opening information that would normally take 2 hours.  I had them submit questions via email to me (and answered them in the staff meeting later that day).  I used a 5 question quiz based on our district initiatives (done on socrative.com – which ROCKS!!)  I had a meeting at 1pm with staff – and we WORKED, not listened to me talk.  We were able to develop a comprehensive understanding of our school data from 10 different points of view (done by 10 departments).

My take aways:  what a great activity and way to demonstrate to staff how a flipped classroom could work.  Don’t use screencast.com expecting ‘free’ access.  In only one day my staff consumed all the bandwidth I was allotted.  I will be moving to YouTube for sending out the videos to staff.  Use socrative.com for Assessment for Learning/Formative assessment.  What an awesome tool and I really saw staff buy into this one.

I will continue to flip meetings – in fact I need to film one tonight for the staff going over the evaluation tool and how I want them to archive their documentation for a meeting on Friday.

Anyone wanting help with flipping a faculty meeting or a class – here is a list of some great resources:

@plugusin   @DSteward89   @ideaguy42   @steelepierce   @MrPowersCMS  @bennettscience  @kadaniels  @wyotigger

and I suppose I am now a resource for flipping faculty meetings or classrooms

@DarrinPeppard  on Twitter

Thanks to all those who were great supporters and resources in launching this process.

Inspire others,
Darrin M. Peppard

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9 Comments

  1. einfeldtb

    I really enjoyed the meeting. The video before hand allowed me to get a little more centered in what we were going to talk about and I really enjoyed the way it eliminated the “town hall meeting” atmosphere that seems to monopolize such meetings. Thanks for this. I am so excited to be part of a staff, school and PLN that supports and models technology and progressive education. Also, a side note: Angie Spann (@wyotigger) is incredible!

  2. Angie S.

    Thank you for the shoutout! I’m so happy to see you going out on a limb and trying new things. It has inspired me to think a little more about what I do and ways I can change to better serve our faculty. One of the biggest things I hope our faculty comes away with is to not only try “flipping” their classroom, but also seeing you try something new and innovative. Modeling that can maybe help them to take that leap and change what they are doing in the classroom. Heaven knows we have several changes this year, but hopefully your leading the way with this will inspire them as well. As always, a pleasure to read your blog and work along side you! Keep up the great work you’re doing for our kids!

  3. Brandy Nutt

    I like the flipped faculty meeting. My sister’s 7th grade son had Math flipped. Neither liked it at all. He is in the high group, so he gets no instruction at school. He is supposed to instruct the middle group, but they don’t ask. The teacher only works with the low group. My sister is concerned about the ease of spreading misconceptions (has a math teaching degree), so she teaches him. Do more parents feel the same?

  4. darrinpeppard

    I think, regarding Brandy’s post, there is a fine line. I cannot imagine flipping the whole thing, full-time. I still would want some interaction in math (as a student and as a teacher). If my daughter was in a flipped math class, she would struggle a bit because she would need examples done for her. The time used in class for the one on one with the teacher is the key. You cannot flip a class and then not give kids quality one on one time.

  5. Rick

    Coach, I really like the push to elevate our competence of technology to a level which our “customers” know far more about than we do. Did you say there was an app for the socrates software for Iphone/ipdads? Please keep showing us more.

  6. lebariol

    Darrin you have encouraged me to seek out 21st century skills to implement into my classroom. I like flipping the classroom because resource students have an opportunity to view a lecture if needed….which could be an excellent accommodation. Great supplemental tool for the classroom!

    • darrinpeppard

      Thanks Lollie – I am happy to hear you are looking for new resources. I will keep looking for stuff that could possibly help you and your students!!

  7. darrinpeppard

    Thanks Rick…I appreciate that, I really feel we need to meet our kids where they are and move away from an old paradigm that really does not meet our needs (more importantly the needs of our kids) as well as it could

    Yes there is a free app for iPhone and iPad for Socrative…see Angie Spann on that

  8. Bill Ferriter

    Hey Darrin,

    Really glad to hear that you decided to give flipping faculty meetings a whirl!

    Here are a few more bits that you might dig related to the same topic:

    http://bit.ly/PVhs4E

    http://bit.ly/OeeK7e

    http://bit.ly/NFvV69

    http://bit.ly/NFvWqB

    What I like the best about principals who are willing to flip faculty meetings is that you are modeling the same kind of professional experimentation that you expect of your teachers.

    If we REALLY want to see teachers become more flexible and inventive in their instruction, principals — and the people who design PD for teachers — need to become more flexible and inventive in designing professional learning experiences.

    That’s what you have going here — and that’s cool.

    Rock on,
    Bill

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