Helping teachers improve: filming
Watching yourself teach can be an excruciating process, but video is one of the best tools we have for teacher development. Here’s how to make it work.
When I first watched a recorded lesson of myself back it was, shall we say, an illuminating experience. I couldn’t quite get over the expressions I inexplicably pulled and the strange things I said. Why am I speaking so fast? Why am I pacing around? Why do I keep touching my face? Surely these things distract the class more than help them…? It was more than a little gruelling… but I don’t think we should expect otherwise. Having the veil drop down to reveal what we actually look like teaching is always going to be an awkward process — the very wise Jo Facer once said to me that “only a narcissist actually enjoys watching themselves back” — but the truths that recording yourself expose are one of the most useful development gifts we can give ourselves.
The fact is, classroom interactions are so complex that even the most self-aware teacher is more focused on the children in front of them than how they themselves are coming across. We are all too often blissfully ignorant of the things we do that get in the way of the learning of the class. Filming short bursts of teaching therefore lets us see what the children see every day. It lets us consider the parts of our instruction that work really well and the parts that need a little bit of work. I would argue that seeing these things for yourself is worth a lot more than someone else giving you feedback, parts of which can often be lost in translation.
But the best bit of filming teachers is being able to share snippets of excellence with minimal effort. The Teach Like a Champion clips have been incredibly useful in exemplifying techniques and have arguably contributed to the upskilling of teachers around the world. But with such amazing teachers in our schools, we should also be using video to showcase excellent practice closer to home. Here are five things I’ve learned along the way.
1. Consent
It goes without saying, but never whip out an ipad without speaking to the teacher first. In my experience, a quick ‘I love how you use mini whiteboards; please can I film you so others can see too?’ is enough. We’re also very careful about using the videos in school only on secured networks. But with forewarning and sensitivity, teachers are amazingly generous and understandably invested in helping others grow.
2. Recognition
Enthusiasm for filming teachers is far more likely if the aim is the recognition and sharing of excellence. And let’s be honest: experienced teaching is a gem that should be shared, far more than is often possible in the busy lives of teachers when it’s tricky to get into other classrooms as regularly as we would like. The teacher videos I collect are edited down (ScreenCastify editor works well) to short 1–2min clips and then featured on a half termly newsletter. I label each with the point of interest in each clip and we’ve now got a bank of about fifty, spanning everything from ‘cold call questioning’, ‘reading rulers’, ‘calm entry’ and ‘equipment check’.
3. Modelling
Over the past year, remote teaching has forced us to record ourselves and hear ourselves back, and I’m certainly not the only person to have found it an exposing process which can leave you feeling vulnerable. But the team at Oak National Academy introduced me to a way to lower the stakes and model teacher development. You take a video of yourself, share it with your team in a department meeting, and discuss together three strengths and three suggestions for improvement. Modelling the process of taking on feedback in this way normalises it and signals to everyone that we are all in an industry where perfection is impossible and development never-ending. I’d like to see this kind of supportive feedback form a central part of all department meetings: sensitively done, it could have the power to transform CPD.
4. Individual coaching
So far, I’ve outlined ways in which videos can be shared between teams to improve teaching. There are times, however, when privacy is needed. When I’m coaching teachers who are struggling, or NQTs who are at risk of not passing the Standards, using video is an incredibly useful tool. In an initial meeting, we’ll discuss how film can be used and the parameters we’re both comfortable with (e.g. not sharing more widely or deleting after). I’ll then visit the lesson, film a short section, and we’ll watch this back together, pausing and discussing strengths and areas for development. This is often a really empowering experience — the teacher can see first hand what they did or didn’t do that caused issues in the lesson. We’ll then use the videos to script an improved scenario (I’ve written more about using scripts in teacher development here) and practise it together. Then I’ll pop back to a lesson to film it in action, and the process starts again. The videos allow teachers to assess for themselves what might have gone wrong, and encourages them to feel in control of their steps to improvement.
5. Subject specificity
The next stage in our school use of teacher videos is in the development of subject specific clips. The dream is that new teachers to our school can not only see great practice in general elements of teaching, but also the specifics of each subject area. Perhaps, for example, how to set up expectations for a practical experiment in chemistry; how to promote peer feedback in PE; or how to use choral response in teaching the present perfect in Spanish. This is one of the strategies outlined in my next post in this series — helping teachers improve: subject specific CPD.
