So this is how it really started. I saw a Brian McLogan math video on YouTube and I thought to myself, I can do that. I took my Canon camera. I hit record. I sat on my bar stool in Room 30 of my BHS classroom — and I stared at the camera for 30 minutes. Nothing was coming out of my mouth. Nothing. Just me, the lens, and the silence.
That was 2009. Welcome to my first day as a flipped classroom teacher.
§The 30 minutes of nothing (and yes, I have video proof)
If you have never tried to record yourself teaching, let me tell you — it is awkward. Not normal awkward. Special awkward. You suddenly forget how words work. You forget what your face is supposed to do. You feel like the camera is judging you, and somehow your students are also judging you, and you have not even pressed publish yet.
This first clip is not pretty. But I want you to see it. Because I think every teacher needs to see that the people who are now confident on camera — we all started exactly here. Sitting on a bar stool. Staring at a lens. Producing a whole lot of nothing.
30 minutes of nothing — me, my Canon, and a wall of awkward.
This is the moment I almost decided flipped classroom is "not for me." Spoiler: I'm glad I kept going.
§I almost quit after 10 videos
I started the flipped classroom in 2009. I produced 10 videos. And then I said it — this is not for me. I was spending too much of my time trying to produce a 20-minute AP Stats video that, honestly, no one was watching. Not even my own students. I was burning hours of my evening, my weekend, my life — for a 9-view video.
I was ready to walk away.
And then the announcement came: next year our class periods would go from 60 minutes to 50 minutes, because the school was adding a 7th period. I remember thinking, I need to do something about this. I cannot teach the same content in 10 less minutes a day. Something has to give.
§The Google search that changed everything
So I did what any desperate teacher does at midnight. I went on Google. I asked Google: "how to record lessons faster." And Google gave me Dr. Lodge McCammon and his FIZZ method. It was a revelation.
One-take video. Handwritten lesson on a slider of whiteboards I cut at Home Depot. Just my camera and a mic. That's it. No editing. No retakes. No fancy graphics.
I followed it. And it was a miracle. I was able to record a full lesson right away. No more 20-minute AP Stats marathons. No more weekend editing sessions. Just me, my markers, my whiteboard slider, and one take. Done.
§What I want you to remember
If you are sitting on your own bar stool right now, staring at your own camera, thinking this is not for me — I get it. I have been there. Literally. Room 30. Canon camera. 30 minutes of nothing.
But here is the thing. We get so caught up thinking about thousands of haters who will bash our YouTube video — and we forget, we don't even have a follower yet! We are nervous about a crowd that does not exist. Stop that.
Just focus on your automatic subscribers. Those 30 students sitting in your room. They will watch you right away. They have to — it is their assignment. And once you stop carrying the imaginary baggage of a million haters, the recording becomes easy. The words start coming out of your mouth. The camera stops being scary.
Your first 10 videos will not be your best work. Mine weren't. But your 11th video — that one might just change how you teach forever.
Trust me. Keep going. I almost quit, and I am so glad I didn't.