Video Response

Feb. 2, 2010
I videotaped myself teaching last week and finally got up the courage to watch. I felt so embarrassed! I could not believe that is what I looked and sounded like in front of my classes.

Immediately, I noticed the negative things:

I sounded like a small child –I spoke too quickly, too high pitched and too much

I acted like I was nervous (even though I feel like I’m used to teaching by now) –I noticed myself twitching a lot, adjusting my clothes, fixing my hair, etc

I snacked on candy while the kids were working and it looks very unprofessional

I do not give enough positive feedback or pause long enough after my questions to give students time to answer

I said “uh” a lot and stumbled over words some –even though it was the third time I taught the lesson

After watching the video a little more, I also came up with a few positive things:

I can see I interact with the kids on their level

I could see my enthusiasm and excitement for the lesson, which I think the kids appreciate

I liked my lesson plan and thought it flowed well and included many different types of learners

Although I am still very embarrassed, I think this is a great opportunity for me to learn and grow as a teacher. I plan to work on speaking slower and enunciating my words. I also plan to be more aware of my physical twitching while I’m teaching since it is probably distracting to many of the students. I think just by doing these two things, my class will be able to follow the lesson better. Many of my students are ESL and bilingual, and I did not realize how fast and jumbled my words come out when I’m in front of the class. The video also showed me how awesome my cooperating teacher is! I need to watch her more closely and see if I can pick up on her good habits –like being clam and still in front of the class and enunciating clearly all the time.