As a student that wanted more control of my pace and considered the traditional teaching environment too reliant on the personality of the instructor (ie effective teacher vs less effective).  I consider the flipped classroom theory to be very important.  In my opinion, the best tool we can teach our students is how to manuever through the world as a life-long student and informed citizen.  Pro-Active. Interpetitive. Responsible

I love creating an atmosphere of intellectual safety in the classroom by disarming normal student apprehensions: peer judgement, incorrect answers, penalties for different attitudes.  It allows me to gain their trust as an impartial mediator of the content.  Equally important to my efforts is to have a clear message for the lecture, which is especially important when an active discussion happens with the class.  I find that I spend a lot of time trying to distill my message as much as possible to make make message have a greater impact and to give more time for discussion.

After completing the Introdution to Culinary Education course, I can see that some simple interactive assignments will benefit my classroom.

- Using a combination of techniques to engage the students for each lecture

- Having the students relate the material to their experiences and (perhaps) TV shows that they watch.

- Including "soft work" by the students in the lesson plan: daily qutoes, sharing food blogs, posting a food pic for discussion

Keeping the classroom environment vibrant and engaging must be designed by the instructor.  The benfit to the studens is a constant stimulous of information to digest and… >>>