These words of advice permeate the Twittersphere every day.

Just start: don’t worry about the outcome, the quality, nor how the kids will react to you screencasts.

After watching thousands of teacher screencasts and creating some of my own, I’ve come to the conclusion that once you start, your screencasts only get better. One thing’s for sure, if you don’t start they will never get better.

“I don’t have the time right now.”

I’ve heard these words uttered many times by would-be flipped classroom teachers. My response? “When will you have the time? Over the summer?” Unlikely. Some do start over the summer however, that seems to be a very small percentage of flip class teachers. After all, summer gives us that much-needed downtime to recharge and reflect. Plus, you won’t have any students to give you feedback so you’ll know whether or not you’re going in the right direction.

Got a prep period? Got 20 min? You can make a video.

It won’t be of the highest quality but it will be a start and your students will still appreciate it.

Maybe you just start using them as referential support for your lessons instead of replacing your lecture. Some days I have about 30 min or so as a prep. I have started using Doceri to make support screencast videos for my life skills math class. They have helped!

It took me two-to-three class periods to get across a new concept to my students just by using manipulatives, worksheets, drawing, and lecture. This changed dramatically when I added video; all of the sudden, I got the concept across in one class period.

Results are always better with more modes of instruction. Plus, parents didn’t have to help with homework!

So just start. You, your students, and their families will be glad you did.

The screencast video below was created and uploaded to YouTube with Doceri in 20 minutes, based on this blog post.