top of page

     I was the second person in my family to graduate high school, ever, and the first person in my family to graduate college with a bachelor's degree. I was proud of that until I listened to a podcast last spring that discussed how people who are the product of parents who didn't receive an education rarely get any degree higher than a bachelor's because they can't dream they could do more. I registered for graduate school the following summer semester.

     I work on a campus with students who, due to circumstances beyond their control, would fall into the category of those as the podcast said who possibly "can't dream they could do more". Many times in my life I have felt like the "one who made it". I want to create opportunity for more students to "make it" to whatever that definition is of success for them. Therefore, I must constantly be growing and adapting to make sure my classroom continually accommodates their growth and the growth of resources.

     While my students may not have someone to pick them up from school, attend campus events and much less help them with homework, most of them have a device. It is what it is. So we should use this fact to the advantage of their education. If I can flip my classroom by having a student watch a 5-10 minute video in between Netflix episodes or fortnight games then I can make sure there is adequate time for practice and content mastery in the classroom.

  • We can move from constant lesson disruptions to students hearing the lesson one on one with a video, uninterrupted.

  • We can move from rushed examples because of classroom interruptions to more experiential learning because their is time. 

  • We can move from constantly falling behind in class with no hope of homework completion to all assignments completed and turned in on time. 

  • We can move from hurrying from our lesson to our assessment to independent lesson application as they think about the video they watched before they get to class.

     There will be obstacles, but there are obstacles now. At least in a flipped classroom design we are providing time for students to succeed and actually giving ourselves more time to help scaffold their learning. We will only know what could be if we try.

The What

The How

When creating my call to action video, I began like I begin most things...with the end in mind. When we start by working backward it is easier to make sure we don’t miss anything. I knew right away what I wanted my Professional Learning to teach, and I knew what I and my colleagues had experienced in professional development, but the readings helped to put words, facts, and data to the feelings we have felt. Everything I read and listened to supports everything teachers are wanting. 

 

Simon Sinek is one of my favorite authors and I will listen to him talk about almost anything. While his video applied to pretty much every day of my work life, I needed more for this video. After listening to Nancy Duarte’s video, I was hooked. I laughed, cried, related, and learned. The entire video I kept thinking “I know she’s using all of these tools on me right now, but I don’t care!” So I took what I learned from her and tried to apply it to my ‘Why’ and ‘What’. I found it easier to apply it to the ‘Why’. 

 

I was introduced for the first time in this course to Slidesmania where I was able to start out with a more engaging powerpoint than I would have been able to create on my own at this point in my skill level. When I began to create my PowerPoint there was a huge temptation to fall back into the same PowerPoint patterns. I had to make a conscious effort to minimize the words on the screen and remind myself that I can say more than I type. I even pasted many of the things I was tempted to type into a doc with the promise that if I wanted to print a script, I could use that there, but not on the PowerPoint. Instead, I made myself create every other slide with just the topic word and a quick blurb to make the audience think. The alternate slides have a quote from evidence with a picture to help the audience make a connection visually while I speak.

 

This might be the first time since high school, and for me that’s been awhile, that anyone has taught me about bettering my visual presentations. I learned a great deal from the provided videos, amazing authors, and classmates.

bottom of page