The Birth of My Flipped Classroom

I knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl. Growing up, lining up my toys as students while using my bedroom wall with chalk, pretending to be a teacher was my favourite past time. Most of my teenage years, I wanted to be a music teacher. I always loved music and instruments always fascinated me. Then in my 11th grade, I fell in love with Chemistry. That was it. Decision was made. I was going to be a Chemistry teacher. So, how did I end up being a Math teacher? I was fairly good at math in high school. It was a subject that was easily digested for my overly logical and linear brain. So the last two years of my high school career I was taking more math classes than anything else. By the time graduation came around, I was so very sick of Chemistry but still quite enjoyed math. So... math teacher it is.

I spent the first 13 years of my teaching career being very content and confident with the kind of teacher I was. Students learned well from my classes and I always got positive feedback. Then one day, early on in my 14th year, something didn’t feel right. Class time felt tight and it was stressing my students out and in turn, stressing me out. My enthusiasm for teaching was dwindling. My principal walked in to casually observe my class. I saw myself through his eyes and I didn’t like what I saw. I quickly fell into depression. Questioned myself as an educator and even contemplated giving up teaching. I was very unhappy and was ready to throw in the towel. I consulted with few of my peers, mostly venting my frustration and after two weeks of that, my flipped classroom was born.

Flipped Classroom in Action