Reflections on FlipCon12

The Flipped Class Conference is over, and I have been home for a few days and have read through my notes and the notes, tweets and blogs of others. I am still reflecting on much of the information, but overall think the conference was a great success. I loved meeting all the foreign language flippers and potential flippers that came to the conference and attended virtually. Technology is awesome when we can stay connected even after the conference to continue to question and share ideas. I still have to work my way though all of the sessions via video since there was no way for me to attend them all. There are so many great ideas and presenters in other content areas and I can always find a gold nugget in every presentation.

My own presentation was interesting because I focused heavily on the "how" to put it into practice in your classroom. Because I am such a perfectionist, I did change my presentation from day 1 to day 2 and think it was better the second time around. The problem is there is just so much I wanted to convey that it was hard to keep on track with my prepared presentation. Just as in class, if someone asks a good question, a teacher can lose what they were going to say next. Next time, I am going to take a page from Jon and Aaron's book (haha!) and do slides with a guiding statement and pictures. (On a personal note, the feedback hasn't been compiled and sent yet, so if any of you saw the presentation and thought improvement was needed, or you were looking for something more/different, please comment and/or email me so I can continue to improve!) If you weren't able to see the presentation, I think this slide should convice anyone to flip in foreign language.

My biggest takeaway from the conference was to never stop improving how I incorporate the flipped class model in MY class. With that in mind, I have rewritten the format for my units (ok, I have only done one unit so far!), how I offer the practice of vocabulary and grammar, a realistic way for how I can include different countries perspectives in my class, and even how I make and present my videos. I am so excited about the changes, I am just unsure where I am going to find the time to implement them all. It of course means that I have to go back to my classroom to delve into all my resources to be able to effectively implement my new master plan.

I am planning on recording my new, Flipped Class 201 video for por vs. para tomorrow, and I will post a new (working) outline of my approach to the class as well. I am still working out how this new project based practice will align with my Benchmark Assessments, but I still have a about six weeks to figure it out!