Classroom videos

Completed 5 lesson observations this week with video recordings. It was a good experience and I learnt about quite a lot of things about how I should do this effectively. What is most important to me is that teachers getting a copy of the video footage will find it to be of value to them in analysing what exactly happened during their class time, so that they will be able to make use of this information to improve.

It took a while to export a typically 20 min footage to a DVD playable on both computers and home DVD players but everything was managed without much hassle really. This is possible today more so than a couple of years back mainly because high-def videos can be captured and processed very easily and very inexpensively through technology. The Flip Mino HD was used with iMovie in this case to quickly put the video clips together. All DVDs were passed to the teachers involved either on the same day or the following day they were recorded so that impressions are still fresh.

Teachers will bring the DVD back to reflect on what they saw on the video clip by isolating 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses they perceived of themselves in the video. We will then make use of those impressions and have a discussion over our perceptions during the post-observation meeting a week later.

I suppose the key to this is what value it brings to our teachers in improving what they do. Good practices can be shared collectively as a team and individuals can analyse in detail their methodology in class with the perspective of a pupil. I am glad that a couple of teachers who had watched their own videos told me that it is worth doing. I will need to collect more feedback from the team on how this can be done better.