1. Videotaping individual students or groups at work, or whole class activities can be a
very meaningful and enjoyable addition for your students and yourself to what you are already doing.
2. The resulting record of the work can also be a great way to help parents see what their
children are learning in your classroom. Additionally, your video can be shared with other
classes and their teachers to show projects in action, field trips you went on, or dances
your students learned.
but, remember the following...
3. A poorly made video can have just the opposite effect.
4. Creating and editing a video can be very time-consuming, and most likely, will end up
coming out of your own time.
5. Before you shoot the video, plan, plan, plan! This will save you so much time and trouble later. Try to...
..."storyboard" the sequence of shots beforehand.
...if students are performing, speaking, singing, dancing, etc..., make sure they are
well rehearsed, so the video is representative of your expectations for them.
...as much as possible, "edit" in the camera. That is, shoot in sequence, and reshoot
immediately over a goof, by rewinding to the end of the last segment, and retaping.
...keep the camera close to the subject, especially if you want the sound to be audible.
...zoom and pan (turning the camera laterally) slowly
6. Basic videos can be simply copied to standard VHS-sized tape, which only requires the length
of the video to transfer.
Good Luck!
Mr. Anker