Flipped Classroom: To Flip or Not To Flip, That's The Question!

As it was already said in the old song, It's a bad time for lyric  poetry... Many times, teachers wonder what we are doing when we explain something in which our  students are not interested or we see them bored to death! . Laziness invading us is also the worst thing that may happen. The "relationship" between learning and teaching is really difficult in these situations, and then the results could become negative.

That society is changing, is a fact.  We don´t have students who only obey their teacher without  questioning any more. Our students live in a frantic  society , in a digital era. They think that a picture is worth a thousand words. However, when they are at school, the time stops: they have to pay attention, they must do boring exercises without moving around , and then... they get bored. they aren´t used to learn in this way...and they start asking themselves :"Why do I have to study Literature, Maths... even languages?"

  Flipped classroom was born to avoid this pessimistic view of education. How can I get my students be the agents of their own learning? With this new methodology the teacher is a guide of the learning, not the only source of knowledge. The time in the classroom is not to explain, is to work and solve queries. The teacher leads to knowledge, but the pupil is who chooses  how to learn.

They learn to learn.

It's not easy to change all the way. Teachers need a great amount of time to create new classroom materials instead of using the " text book ". And the most important thing, we need the commitment and effort of our  students. But well managed , it is worth . Students feel integrated in their educational process , many times they are the searchers  of their subject matters. The teacher gives the index , they fill up the gaps and the teacher tells them if they are on the right track .

Many of us want to "flip" the classroom. This is easier in a digital education, because every student has got a laptop or tablet. The point is adding competences, and the digital competence is really important in our society. The school can´t close its doors to changes. We can't turn our back on the new way of acquiring  knowledge. Nowadays, any thing can be found on the internet and we have to teach them how to browse, how to manage all that information and consider these concepts.

So from optimism we, all the teachers who are already  "flipping", are trying to adapt our classes to this new methodology, a new type of learning. #flipanndoelSalzillo

Translation by Dª Bárbara Vicente

Jefa de Departamento de Inglés

IES Francisco Salzillo