Survey time: So how long after you heard about flipping your class did it take before you really understood what that meant? No, no...I mean REALLY understood? All the little pieces about assessment, instruction, etc. How long does it take before a professional educator can wrap their head around the intricacies of a Flipped-Mastery classroom? I know for us, we are still trying to wrap our heads around all of the things it possibly could be. (This is actually quite a ginormous task for Brust simply considering the surface area of his head alone!!)
Now take all of that information and try and get your PARENTS to understand it. After 3+ years of managing Flipped-Mastery classrooms, we STILL have confused parents! But we proactively try and eliminate confusion and we do our best to ensure that every parent understands the expectations that we put on our students. We do this several ways:
1. An Intro Video. We slap that right on the home page of flippedmath.com. It's one of the few videos where were we were brave enough to show our faces. (Some argue the audience members are the brave ones... )
2. Topic Specific Videos. We made a video to address more specific questions, such as: Grading, The Classroom, Parent FAQs, Tips for Success, etc. We put these more specific videos on our home page under the How FM Works tab.
3. Open House. Depending on how your open house in run, this can be a great opportunity to run through the basics. You can always refer the parents back to #1 and #2 above if they want more time to process at home. Bean and Brust ran a special "Flipped Mastery" Open House that was only for parents with questions about FM.
4. Paperwork! It's always nice to have something in writing. One day, Brust sat down and wrote Flipped Mastery Learning in a Nutshell. It's not exactly a piece of literary genius, but it gets the job done.
Being proactive with parents is ALWAYS worth your time. Sully sends so many emails to parents, the SPAM filter had to be reset at his school. But we have learned this investment has always paid off. The more parents know and the sooner they know it, the better off YOUR life will be. Nobody likes the teacher that informs you in December that your student has 2 weeks to make up 8 weeks of work.
And conversely, sending the message that you WANT the parents informed sends parents the message that your instruction is solid. "Please know what my classroom is about!! I have nothing to hide because it IS that effective!" When your classroom is transparent, parents assume great things must be happening without ever stepping a foot inside.
And guess what? They are.
Now... if we can somehow get them to subscribe to our Algeblog....
Remember, It's nice to be Important, but more important to be nice!
Kelly
Now take all of that information and try and get your PARENTS to understand it. After 3+ years of managing Flipped-Mastery classrooms, we STILL have confused parents! But we proactively try and eliminate confusion and we do our best to ensure that every parent understands the expectations that we put on our students. We do this several ways:
1. An Intro Video. We slap that right on the home page of flippedmath.com. It's one of the few videos where were we were brave enough to show our faces. (Some argue the audience members are the brave ones... )
2. Topic Specific Videos. We made a video to address more specific questions, such as: Grading, The Classroom, Parent FAQs, Tips for Success, etc. We put these more specific videos on our home page under the How FM Works tab.
3. Open House. Depending on how your open house in run, this can be a great opportunity to run through the basics. You can always refer the parents back to #1 and #2 above if they want more time to process at home. Bean and Brust ran a special "Flipped Mastery" Open House that was only for parents with questions about FM.
4. Paperwork! It's always nice to have something in writing. One day, Brust sat down and wrote Flipped Mastery Learning in a Nutshell. It's not exactly a piece of literary genius, but it gets the job done.
Being proactive with parents is ALWAYS worth your time. Sully sends so many emails to parents, the SPAM filter had to be reset at his school. But we have learned this investment has always paid off. The more parents know and the sooner they know it, the better off YOUR life will be. Nobody likes the teacher that informs you in December that your student has 2 weeks to make up 8 weeks of work.
And conversely, sending the message that you WANT the parents informed sends parents the message that your instruction is solid. "Please know what my classroom is about!! I have nothing to hide because it IS that effective!" When your classroom is transparent, parents assume great things must be happening without ever stepping a foot inside.
And guess what? They are.
Now... if we can somehow get them to subscribe to our Algeblog....
Remember, It's nice to be Important, but more important to be nice!
Kelly
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