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Lessons Learnt from recording

2020 - The year of live-streaming or videos. For me these have been on various platforms. In the professional sense with Google Meets, Loom and Skype. With social events on Zoom or Houseparty and I have to admit I have even fallen into the black holes of video's on Insta and TikTok... there has been some desperate times but now I feel is the time to reflect on the lessons learnt from all of these platforms. 

During lock down we held virtual lessons for our 6th form in a 'tutorial style' on Google meets. The premise of these was to review some of the work we had asked them to do independently, i.e. Flipped learning. I found Loom a super useful tool in structuring these tutorials (alongside my Husband’s surface pro... Accountant vs Teacher budget right there...) as I was able to model live worked examples. If you haven't used Loom give it a try as it is very easy but the surface pro definitely helped the functionality. 

There are endless lessons to reflect on from lockdown teaching which I hope we don't need to use again but just in case we do I am looking forward to reading the new book from Doug Lemov on this when it is released 27th October.

Now we’ve returned to the classroom I felt it was time to flip the filming experience on to the students too. I asked the students to create a video of themselves explaining a topic (for Chemists reading this - they had to explain an organic mechanism). There are many reasons for doing this activity:

1. It is a great way to informally assess the students true understanding of the topic. Are they able to use the correct terminology? Are they able to structure their work in a logically order? Are they able to explain their workings?

2. The video's produced make excellent models to use for many years to come

3. With universities planning online interviews it is a good way to build 'camera' confidence

4. When reviewing the video's with the class it provided an excellent opportunity for live questioning and challenging the student's understanding further

5. It's 2020 and filming is the way of the world! 

6. We used playdough - because it seems I can't get through a day without my toddler's favourite 'aydough!

Two take away thoughts:

- If lockdown remotes teaching returns - try using Loom

- Is there anything you can 'flip' onto the students and get them to video themselves explaining?







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