Flipped Classroom

Throughout this last week I have been doing a lot of research on flipped classrooms. I am very interested in this concept and have been trying to decide if this is a concept that can work in my choral classroom. In a modified way it is essentially how performance classes work. Music students do the rudimentary musical learning at home and then work together towards the final production. It may have never been done through the guidance of a video from the teacher but the concept is still the same. They should come to class prepared by knowing the notes of the song or the fingerings on a musical instrument. What will be beneficial is the video guiding students to learn the notes of a piece of music. I can teach students different aspects about singing through video they watch at home and then put it to practice at school. Also, I do not find a lot of time to teach music history and such because we are focused on learning our songs and all that entails. So, I could have students watch information about these topics at home and be ready for discussion or short projects to complete in class. I did not find a lot of flipped lesson ideas for the music class, much less the choir class. The ones I did find were for the instrumental classes. I think since it is such a new concept many music teachers have not gone down this road yet. Maybe I can lead the way, but I have to figure it out first myself. While searching I did spend some time on Ted-Ed in hopes of getting ideas. It is a great sight with lots of lessons for high school and college students. I think it has great potential for all grade levels. I spent a lot of time on Google looking for Flipped lessons is music and ran across some sights that mainly talked about the concept of flipped lessons in music but not really any lessons or much information to take away from them. One such sight is called Music Education 2.0 http://www.musiced20.com/flipped-music-classroom-smart-music/. I found this as a great resource for technology and music and I will probably use it as a resource in the future. I spent some time on ArtsEdge which is an online program through The Kennedy Center. This sight has lots of lesson plans over a variety of fine arts. It did not contain flipped lessons but would be a good resource towards a flipped lesson. As with all technology, it costs money. I think flipping a class could cost a minimum amount of money unless we want all students equipped with iPads. If we can provide students with computer access at school, we can keep the cost down. So what do I feel about the concept of a flipped classroom? I think it is a great concept for certain lessons and certain situations. It is something I will continue to explore when it comes to certain lessons I am teaching to my choir students.