Teaching video part deux

After a few near tears sighs I’ve finished my second teaching video! The actual content of the video wasn’t the issue, it was that the audio and video went out of sync somehow. I rewatched a YouTube video a good ten times but I fixed most of the issue. I’m sorry if anyone gets peeved when lips are out of sync with the audio, I know I hate it, but I did the best I could. While at first I thought these videos would be awkward and a bit of a bother I have to admit that I know find real value in watching them. I’ve noticed all of the strange things I do with my hands and that I say “um” way more than necessary. More importantly, I’ve come to realize how crucial it is for me to be careful when choosing my words, especially during conferencing.  For example, in one of my conferences, I started by saying “What do you want to change?” I feel like by starting off on this foot it created a negative tone for the entire conference. I started with a question that signifies that there will have to be changes because what you start with is never good enough.

Conferencing is something I’ve wanted to improve in since we started observing last semester. As I viewed my entire teaching video I noticed that as I walked around the room and conferenced they became exponentially better. I started asked more constructive questions and waiting for the student to find the answer themselves instead of giving my opinion as the end all, be all response. Sometimes I find it hard to know what the student needs or is looking for in a mere two-to-three minute conference. In this video by two minutes in I felt like we were finished talking. Perhaps that’s because this assignment was  supposed to be very short, to engage the reader for only six sentences but I did not talk to students for more than three minutes at all. It was good because I got to see a lot of students but did the conference have any real impact considering it’s brevity?  

I’m the kind of person that needs to say things out loud to clarify if they make sense or not. I’m always the strange person walking into the grocery making sure I have my list in order by saying it out loud or I start recounting all of the things I have to do later that day as I walk around UT. Saying what you’re thinking out loud, whether for an audience or for yourself is a good way to organize your thoughts and craft them in a way that is effective and meaningful. Hopefully, by having my student’s read their writing out loud and articulate their goals to me they will be able to become stronger writers.