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

  • Going Google? Simple overview of Sites and Classroom!Going Google? Simple overview of Sites and Classroom! Is your district a "Google district"? Is your school a pilot for using Google for Education? Have you been (or will you be) provided with Google credentials from your school or […]
  • Beautiful DayBeautiful DayIt is a beautiful day when you teach a new scale to your clarinet class and then some of them come up to you after class to make sure you are going to post a video so they can review it at […]
  • Explain EverythingExplain EverythingMmkay. Explain Everything has seriously changed my video creation life. My poor husband: he calls me on his way home from work and so often our conversation is about my video that I am […]
  • Four Best Practices To Keep Your Google Drive Organized!Four Best Practices To Keep Your Google Drive Organized! Four Best Practices To Keep Your Google Drive Organized!That Flipping Band Director Happy New Year! There is something in the air in these single-digit-days of […]
  • Virtually there for my students…video sub instruction!I'm sitting at the San Antonio Airport - but it's a Friday! Don't worry - my kids will still have me as their teacher thanks to a little thinking ahead and the beautiful power of video […]
  • Pancakes and Pro TipsPancakes and Pro Tips   "can you make a video about that and post it on the website?" -my favorite student Just kidding...we're not supposed to have favorites, but it makes my flipping band […]