Flipped Staff Development

Recently, there has been a great deal of discussion about flipping instruction. I've posted on the topic several times and it was a hot topic at the SW BLC a few weeks ago. In my preparation for the upcoming Staff Development in August, I decided to step out there and flip my staff development.

One topic we will be covering is Differeniated Instruction. The idea was inspired by a teacher on my campus who said to me one day, "We all know why we should differeniate, but no one has ever told us how to do it." As you know, I just can't dive into a staff development on DI without first giving some background. But I couldn't stand the thought of my teachers sitting there listening to something they've already heard while newer teachers grasp on to every word. It was time to differeniate my staff development.

I decided to create a short podcast of the background and overview of DI. I added in my expectations and what we'd be doing as a campus this. The idea is for my ladies to listen to this prior to coming to staff development and then be ready do dive in to DI!

Originally, I wanted to use Keynote for my iPad2 and add audio. Well, I found out the iPad version of Keynote doesn't support audio. Next idea...I moved on to iMovie and decided I'd video myself with audio overlays. But I couldn't put the slides I wanted into iMovie. (I really need a Mac computer!) After several attempts at using Audacity, iMovie, GarageBand and Keynote I wasn't about to give up. As much as I hate to admit it, I went back to PowerPoint. It's not my favorite tool to use, but it will accomplish what I need it to. I created a short set of slides and then added my audio summary to each one. In a few weeks I'll send it to my teachers and post it to our campus blog for them to view.

I am excited!! One of my goals as an administrator was to teach my teachers like I want them teaching the students. Flipping Staff Development....it's a start!