Dearborn Michigan—Sources at a local school tell us that at the end of the school year twelfth-grade teacher Rosalyn Ynott walked into the faculty lounge and announced: “I’ll be Flip*%ng my classroom in September!”
Reportedly other teachers in the room were shocked to hear the “F-word” coming from this veteran teacher, who has been teaching the same lessons, the same way, for 30 years and getting exceptionally adequate results.
Eyewitnesses reported that despite the threat to the status quo, most teachers remained calm and showed little response. But others discretely picked up their cell phones and sent text messages to report her troubling behavior to the principal. News of the incident eventually leaked to the media. Within days, the local community began weighing in with letters to the principal and 95,677 posts on the schools’ Facebook page. The public comments revealed a wide range of attitudes about flipped classrooms.
Though most saw the potential benefit of Flipping Learning, others were worried that sending home video assignments would disadvantage the 43% of students whose parents routinely do their homework for them. “It’s just one more thing my mom will have to do at the end of a long day to make sure I get into the college of her choice,” said one high school senior.
Others wondered how the school would possibly find the budget to cover the cost of hiring a production crew to produce the flipped videos. According to the principal’s administrative assistant, who asked to remain anonymous, initial bids from companies ranged from $5,000 to $50,000 per lesson plan, depending on the quality of writers and actors the school wanted for each unit.
The community was surprised when an interview with Mrs. Ynott on Good Morning America revealed her intention to produce the flipped videos herself. Though parents and school leaders expressed serious doubts that students would ever be interested in watching videos of their teacher, they approved a pilot and promoted Mrs. Ynott to the new position of instructional technology coordinator.
We attempted to interview Mrs. Ynott for this story, but she could not be reached for comment. In a letter from her literary agent, she wrote that though she has the complete support of her administrator, she believes that to preserve harmony with co-workers, it’s better if she stays out of the spotlight. Good luck with that. This week, Mrs. Ynott was nominated for the global teacher of the year award and her first book is coming out in the fall.
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