1) Misery Loves Company: You have to find a buddy, or in our case several. Sharing the workload makes your life bearable. Its great to share the work and split up, but the biggest benefit is having other people to bounce ideas off of, to point out things that could improve, and to share these new teaching experiences with you (both good and bad).
2) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: The good is that kids learn so much more. We have some data that actually shows that, however, its the day to day interactions with students that demonstrates that to us. Also good is that we know our students (strengths, weaknesses, personally) so much better than when we were traditional teachers. The reason is the mastery checks...it allows us to interact with our students and provide instant feedback on THEIR SPECIFIC needs. The bad (and its not that bad) is the fluctuation of grades. Unfortunately, mastery learning doesn't fit the traditional grading system. Towards the end of the year we will have more kids "failing" than some teachers will have students. This is hard, however, by the end their grades bounce back and they have learned significantly more than our students when we were traditional teachers. Its hard to stomach the grades at times, but as teachers its imperative that you don't allow them to progress without mastery. Sooner or later the students understand they have to learn! We have yet to fail a student who really has TRIED AND WORKED TO LEARN! We've failed several who chose to do nothing. The Ugly of it (aka The Kelly of it) is that it does take a lot of time and energy (in class and out of class). However, its well worth it.
3) SHOW ME THE LEARNING: There are ton of reasons not to do a mastery based flipped program. For example, going back and changing grades, standardized or many other reasons. However, its all about the learning. You must remember this. You are going to face challenges and obstacles along the way. What matters? Are your students learning? We always talk about how not everyone learns the same or at the same pace. Does it matter that kids learn the material at the same time (which is unrealistic) or that they learn the material (which is possible)?
See you next time,
Brust and Sully