Seeing myself on film: "Oh dahhhling, I just LOVED it."

Obviously I'm kidding. Does anyone short of a full-blown narcissist enjoy seeing himself or herself filmed? I suspect that few enjoy it.

So first, let me address the many things I did not enjoy about this experience. I did not enjoy seeing my physical person on film. The camera angle could hardly have been less flattering. This is a personal issue, I know. In terms of the teaching itself, the main weakness that I noticed is something I already know about myself: that I repeat myself and fall into "verbal filler" habits. Usually, I tend to fall back on um and uh. In this case, for whatever reason, I clapped as a segue, which isn't something I particularly believe I do in the classroom unless I am trying to send subtle cues to a sleepy, chatty class. In this case, I was filming in front of...no one. I suspect I was behaving a little strangely because I was trying to present the appearance of my usual style and self without actual students there. I also repeat myself from time to time (see below). Finally, I noted at one point, in a segment that may have been edited out of the final product, that as I was modulating my voice, I emphasized an odd syllable or word that probably would have made the sentence harder for students to understand or follow had they been present.

Since I'm also supposed to discuss the strengths of my presentation, I think it's safe to call it "solid." My lesson made sense and was manageable; at the same time, it would have required some time to browsing the Library of Congress collection and editing the class wiki heading to students, and my video shows me in the midst of allowing that time.  I also worked hard, as I always work hard, to use the classroom space even when tied in many ways to the computer from which I'm projecting. I believe that I explained the process I was demonstrating clearly, with good volume, and that I pointed to the board and used other means to direct (hypothetical) student attention to relevant elements of the display on the board. I also believe that this assignment, although not an actual task for my class, would be a valid and meaningful assignment; I might well use it in a later year. The target audience for this lesson would be my English 9 students, in their first year at the upper school at Seven Hills, and so introducing them to important resources like the Library of Congress electronic collections serves a purpose for them as learners beyond the mere significance of this particular collection for this particular assignment. I would even say that points of weakness noted above are not wholly weaknesses: I do tend to repeat myself as I talk in class, but that is in part an adaptation because I seem unable to make myself consistently speak more slowly (when I repeat key ideas, that gives kids a second chance to catch that essential point); and my verbal modulation -- loud and soft, higher and lower pitches -- serves to draw and keep student attention and, usually, to help me emphasize key points.

All in all...it was fine to see myself on film, but certainly not a pleasure. I do believe that any teacher stands to learn from this sort of experience, every now and again.

My actual video lesson plan, should you be curious:
I had to record two lessons. When I recorded the first, the Explain Everything introduction I discussed in a previous post, something went awry in my recording and the timing of the sound and video became misaligned: the sound seemed to be missing snippets while the video had recorded my whole presentation. GRRR.

Then, when I went to re-record, it occurred to me that I had inadvertently left my iPad at home. Since my colleagues do not all have Explain Everything on their iPads, I was unable to borrow someone else's iPad. Time being of the essence -- I needed to record that very day, for good and all -- I developed a new plan.

So here is the new plan.... I invented a lesson related to what my students had been working on in class that day. I will film myself showing students (1) how to go to a Library of Congress print collection (WWI propaganda posters), browse, select, and download an image, and (2) how to edit the heading of our class wiki (as opposed to making comments on it, which they are familiar with) so that they can upload the image they chose before commenting on it.

Obviously a 1-2 minute film will only feature part of that conversation, so I will have to edit. As I recorded 50+ grammar videos this February, I'm not worried about doing so. I also plan to use text, opening and closing frames, transitions, and music. While the videos I recorded this winter only used the text-over and opening/closing frame capacities of iMovie, I'm not worried about managing the other parts of the film. Now that I use it regularly, I find iMovie pretty intuitive.

I'm not excited about seeing myself on film, though. Because I will be moving around and because of where the computer will have to be positioned to film (not on a podium, since I'll need to podium to hold the computer I'll be projecting from), I will be featured in less controlled ways that in the grammar videos I recorded. *sigh*

OK...to the studio!