Holy moly what have I gotten myself into?! After talking to my math coach the other day, she suggested I "try this out" before the end of the year. This way I can get a feel for some of the what to do/what not to do before I spend my whole summer working on this.
With my 7th graders, I've been giving them a little "what to expect as an 8th grader lessons" since the NJASK, so I figure I'll try out writing the equation of a line in slope intercept form given the graph. We've gone through slope, intercepts, etc. so I figure this will be good. I wanted something they don't really know yet.
I couldn't wait to see how it would be to make a video so I started with that. I have an Elmo document camera and in my mind I picture my videos as my hand working the problem out as I talk. My principal really likes the I do, we do, you do model, so I am thinking my videos will be the "I do". I did it just like I would if I was in front of the class. How lovely not to have to stop for a million questions before I was done LOL!
My coach also warned me that since it is going to be a ton of work, I have to put perfection aside. UGH! It looks the way I imagined, but my voice sounds funny, it is pretty much BORING, (but to the point) and there are so many things I want to change. I actually brought my Elmo home with me and will be recording it again, but I know I can't do that with every lesson or I will never get anywhere!
Now I also have to figure out what I'm going to have them do in class besides review their WSQs. The stinky thing is that they are d-o-n-e, they even told me flat out today. We did a fun lesson from Mathalicious about Tyson Chandler and LeBron James and it was like miserable! I finally had to say "you know this is technically 6th grade work we are doing?" and it didn't faze them! Oh well. I am still excited about next year and flipping I'm just like them a little d-o-n-e with this school year!
I like the advice of your coach to put perfection aside. But it does involve some careful planning. As far as the "boring" goes, you should watch what you record, and think about how to liven it up.
ReplyDeleteMy first few videos had poor sound and video quality, but we're short and to the point (I got started flipping in the last month of school with my grade nines). My videos haven't improved that much (I made about 16 of them), but at least I'm not so self-concious in front of the camera, and thinking about ways of having fun with it.
Good luck!
Tommy
Thanks Tommy! One nice thing is that since I'm going to test it with a pretty good group of kids, they will probably give me good feedback as to how I should liven it up. :)
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