Flipped teaching comes to PD for educators

The flipped instructional model is being incorporated into professional development for teachers, said Nicole Tucker-Smith, a former principal in Baltimore County, who described the system at the ASCD conference. Educators began creating LessonCasts, or teacher-created videos, with short voice recordings in which they explain a particular teaching strategy, education reporter Liana Heitin writes in this blog post. The recordings are typically accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation or a video, which teachers watch and listen to at home, Tucker-Smith said.

'LessonCasts': Flipped PD for Teachers
By Liana Heitin on March 19, 2013

From the ASCD annual conference in Chicago

In a session, Nicole Tucker-Smith, a former assistant principal in Baltimore County, described how she'd set out to solve one of the most challenging issues related to teacher PD: How do you provide PD that's neither overwhelming for new teachers nor repetitive for seasoned teachers? Is there a format that can be truly valuable for everyone?

She decided to use a form of teacher-led PD in which teachers record themselves explaining a teaching strategy that they are strong in to a colleague. The two- to three-minute voice recording is accompanied by a PowerPoint or a video and, Tucker-Smith explained, is meant to offer something the listener can put into practice right away. "It's not a lesson plan. It's more like a teacher-to-teacher conversation. As a teacher, when I wanted help, I never asked to see a lesson plan. I asked, 'What did you do?'"

Read More at:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2013/03/lessoncasts_flipped_pd_for_teachers.html