Week 4 Leadership Post: Role model reflection

Jonathan Bergmann's Blog

As a high school teacher working at my own alma mater, I’m in the fairly unique position of having many of my previous teachers as my current colleagues. My situation means that I am constantly in contact with role models for my own personal and professional development. Not to discount the important roles that colleagues play in my life now, I want to step outside my job and point to a role model whom I’ve never met as I respond to this blog prompt. This role model is a man I’d never heard of before starting the EMDT program at Full Sail, but he’s become an important part of my work here. I’m referring to Jonathan Bergmann, one of the co-developers of the increasingly popular flipped classroom model.

Bergmann was not the first teacher to use video lectures to replace in-class lecture presentations, but he and his colleague, Aaron Sams, are largely responsible for sharing their success with the flipped classroom model, and for the model’s growing popularity. Through his blog, Twitter feeds, and conferences, Bergmann has been extremely influential and reached an incredible number of educators. I can only hope that, given my education and learning at Full Sail, I will be as confident and prolific in sharing my ideas and helping other teachers.