Blended and flipped classrooms have seen a dramatic rise in recent years. The idea behind such classrooms is that students watch instructional videos made by their teachers at home or in the classroom at their own pace, and then apply their learning in the classroom with the help of a teacher. This eliminates the frustration of students trying to apply their learning individually at home and having no one to turn to for help. In addition, this method allows students to have access to their lessons at any time for help, practice, and review when posted on a class website.
One such instructional video is shown below. There are additional geometry videos posted on this website under the "Math" then "Finding Area" tab. Click here to be linked to this tab.
Many educators have found flipped classrooms especially helpful for step-by-step subjects such as math and foreign language learning. The key to effective videos, though, is that they must be short. Hour long videos will not be watched by students. Break down a lesson into sub-sections, rather, and label them so students can easily find the part of a topic that they are looking for.
It is also good to give students a task while watching the videos such as taking notes, writing down questions, or jotting down interesting points to bring to class. A couple of questions to answer at the end of a video are also a good way to engage students. Refrain from giving too much work to do during a video, though, as this is primarily instruction time.
NOTE: Educators must also be aware that not all students have access to internet at home. Alternative methods should be found to give instruction to these students such as putting the video on a flash drive if the have a computer, having students come before class to watch videos, allowing them to use class time to watch videos, or providing an alternative assignment.