What is not working: posting just because

I am a very goal oriented person.
That being said: when I decided to try this flipped classroom idea I wanted to do it all the way – a video for beginners weekly (or close to it). I have to tell you that I failed. There were weeks (ahem: UIL week) where I did not post a new video for my beginners. There were weeks when I would go home from school and think “I need to make a video because I told my percussion kids I would. I left all my books at home. I think we were on line 112. I will make a video telling them to practice line 112.”

People. This is not a good enough reason to make a video. This is abuse of the beautiful system and abuses the trust that you have with your students. Warning: if you do this too many times, you will lose them – they will not visit your website because they will not be learning something new on it. They will rely on someone else to tell them what line the challenge is over or they will wait in class for someone else to perform it and then just copy whatever their friend did. Don’t make this mistake like me!

Luckily I don’t feel that I completely lost my students for learning this way but I would be lying if I told you that it didn’t get harder to keep it up at the end of the year when everyone wants to be done anyway.

My advice: keep it real, post good and instructional videos to reinforce concepts and teach new ones – make this a rich resource that your students depend on!

Ideas for easy videos on weeks you are feeling overwhelmed or lazy?

Related Posts

  • 6 Reasons All Music Educators Need Google in Their Life Google knows more about us than I care to fully fathom and, if you are not familiar with all of the products that Google is producing, it is pretty much taking over the entire internet […]
  • YouTube Week: Creating A PlaylistYouTube Week: Creating A Playlist Now that you have your YouTube account all situated, it's time to start exploring! Hopefully you figured out how to subscribe to someone's channel - if not, try it now: 1) Go […]
  • 7 Practical Ways to use Canva in Your Band Hall!7 Practical Ways to use Canva in Your Band Hall! If you have been here before, you probably know that I have a teeny tiny obsession with Canva - you would think I work for them (I don't) or am getting paid by them (I'm not) because I […]
  • Getting Started: What do I need to do first?Getting Started: What do I need to do first?     Use this guide to help you get started - keep in mind that it is just a guide! The fun thing about this type of classroom is that it is totally creative and can be […]
  • Using Sections in a Google Form to Assess Multiple GroupsUsing Sections in a Google Form to Assess Multiple Groups As teachers, we are CONSTANTLY assessing our students formally or informally. If you are a music teacher like I am, you are probably assessing multiple grade levels and/or instruments […]
  • Top 8 Must Have Music Teacher AppsTop 8 Must Have Music Teacher Apps First, I really need to tell you that YOU are AWESOME! Yes, YOU! You are a great educator! You want to be better than you are right now, you want to make your lessons engaging and […]