He and Sams also are launching a nonprofit organization to train teachers in the concept. A book he and Sams wrote, “Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day,” is coming out in June, and Bergmann is planning the fifth annual conference on Flipped Learning this summer. Last week, he was at Harvard Law School talking about the virtues of flipping. Today, the 48-year-old helps teachers around the world “flip” their classrooms. The result has been a total rethinking of how classrooms operate, all based on a question every teacher should be asking: “What is the best use of our face-to-face class time?” The answer for Bergmann: turning his class upside down. The initial impetus was reducing the time kids spend with teachers after school. But seven years ago, he and Aaron Sams, another teacher at Woodland Park High School in Colorado, decided to do something different.

He was good enough to win a teacher award.

For nearly 20 years, high school chemistry teacher Jonathan Bergmann would teach a lesson in class, help students after school and give them standard homework assignments.

Classwork