Are you ready for your close-up?

The best solutions start with a problem, and I had a problem.

I needed to provide a resource for some year 11 students who would be missing a whole week of lessons at a critical time. Notes wouldn’t cut it, I knew they wouldn’t read them, so I decided to film the lessons they would miss, that way, they could watch the lesson, pause the video and take notes/answer questions at their own pace and it would hopefully be the next best thing to actually being in class.

Brilliant!

So, armed with a flip camera and a pile of dictionaries to prop it on, I pressed the little red button. So far, so good. And then I watched the film…

Pretty soon, I was engrossed. Why do I do that with my hands? How many times do I say ‘Ok?’Why do I sound like the love child of DIck Van Dyke and Mary Poppins? And why, oh why, didn’t I hold my stomach in?

But once I stopped cringing, I also noticed some other things. I could analyse my questioning, I noted how long I gave students to respond, I could see how I interacted with individual students,  who I overlooked and how I adapted when things went wrong. And it was fascinating.

I intend to make filming a regular part of my practice and would encourage us all to consider doing so for a number of reasons:

1. To provide resources for students as a flipped or revision resource.
2. To share good practice
3. To reflect and improve on your own practice
4. As a method of data collection as part of action research

If you’re interested in filming one of your lessons but need help getting started, drop any of the Lead Practioners a line. You can keep it to yourself or why not watch with a colleague for some friendly and supportive feedback.

But don’t forget to hold your stomach in!