First Hurdle

Well, I knew this flipped classroom thing would come with struggles and I have already come up against my first one.

I'm not sure the exact quote but it goes something like this: "It is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission." I always seem to be doing this but never as my intention. This summer when I put in all my hours to get ready to do this flipped classroom thing, I was just super excited about the prospect of trying something new and different. I had been inspired by the classes I took and just took the idea and ran with it never thinking twice about whether or not I should get permission.

I blame it on my first four years of teaching at a school where I pretty much had free rein (I had to look up whether it was "rein" or "reign" and found this interesting article). If I thought it was going to benefit my students I went ahead and did it and no one ever really questioned me. My heart is always in the right place.

So when I emailed my principal to get her approval on my syllabus and homework policy for the upcoming year I detailed all the exciting changes I was making and was shocked when I received her response. She was supportive, don't get me wrong, but she let me know that whenever I'm going to make drastic changes to my teaching that I should always run it by her first and that she would need to present it to some people at the district office. I completely understand and realize that in my zeal I may have done things out of order but I still spent all day yesterday feeling pretty disheartened that I had made such a mistake and possibly put my principal in a tough position. I contemplated putting the flipped/blended idea on hold and just moving forward with the in-class portion of work that i had done related to the common core. I was honestly ready to scrap the online videos and discussions for a later date when I was able to go about things properly.

Once I finally talked to my principal in person I felt better about continuing with my pilot as planned. I apologized for not speaking with her first and she assured me that she is behind me trying something new, especially when it is something that could help our students. I just need to be better about asking first and I'll avoid the situation of having to ask for forgiveness. Lesson learned!

And the great thing about hurdles? They are meant to be jumped over :)