Flipped Classroom Tips and Tricks

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Tips and Tricks:

• Keep the content short. Students are not used to viewing, reading, and scanning through long content unless it is a movie they’re crazy about! Give them enough to teach it, build their inquiry and enthusiasm, and get them ready for the next live classroom session. Do not exceed one topic per video, screencast, PowerPoint, audio or podcast and keep it to about 15 minutes or less (Bergmann & Sams, 2012).
• Animate voice when possible. This will engage and interest students. Change inflection, tone, intonate. Garageband software allows for change of voice, and has many options that can engage students appropriately, and in keeping with content choices. Dialects can also be appropriate at times.
• Create the content with another teacher or student. Colleagues can light up rooms with collaborative ideas. Involving others in the recording of content, such as recording a conversation among teachers and/or students, will also enhance, engage, and further authenticate any video or audio created for a flipped classroom. One can be the teacher, the other the student learning. Or two students can learn and question together, mirroring a typical, authentic process that students viewing and navigating will relate to.
• Create open forums for on-going questions. Always provide students with opportunities to ask questions and clarify information. A shared Google document or spreadsheet (include a link to explanation of Google shared docs) for example, can be used to anonymous or non-anonymously field questions that other students can answer as they are able to, or that the teacher can answer openly for others to benefit from. This is also an opportunity to for students who might otherwise shy away from asking, to ask in a safer environment. These question forums can be separated by topic, by content, or by unit of instruction.
• Inject humor. Students like, and get most, humor. Keep a stream of running jokes in the content; use cartoons or animation they’ll relate to when introducing or annotating content. 
• Annotate the content creatively. Use cool pictures, avatars (name avatar programs) pen markings in language students will get and keep. Digitally writing and interjecting on the screen, whether it is a PowerPoint, a Prezi, an online discussion, or a video, will further reel in and engage students to the content.
• Use callouts. A callout is a text box, a shape, or another object that appears for a short time in the video, then disappears. These help bring, and keep, student attention. They can also be used to point to steps in a problem, or exemplify a list of steps to a process. Visual callouts are also useful for students with short attention spans, or students learning to speak a second language. Here are some examples of callouts:
• Zoom in and out to enhance process. Zooming capabilities are most applicable for screen casting and when creating video. While zooming capabilities for video are pretty much the same, various screen casting software will have their own zooming tools. Find out how to use them by conducting a Google search and clicking on “video” for a how-to on how to zoom in a certain type of software. (include screenshot). You can also learn how by going to any video host, such as e-how, schooltube, or the type of software it self will usually have a how-to forum created by them or by other end-users.
• Keep your content copyright friendly. Especially when posting these in a public online space, make sure that you follow appropriate copyright laws. Do not take copyrighted content from others without checking first what the rules are. Typically school districts and not-for-profits are exempt from sharing and making others’ content public, however again: check first.

Of all the flipped classroom tips and tricks, name one you feel is most important for flipping your own classroom. Why?