Update on Weekly Video Newsletters

***Update on our Weekly Video Newsletters***

In my post from September 24th, I shared the struggle with starting an online video newsletter for parents. Read about that HERE. Well, good news! We reviewed our first newsletter, all 13 1/2 minutes of it, as a class and discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly, then made a plan to move forward. 

Here's the Video Newsletter Norms we created:

1. We will work with a partner or small group. Partners/groups will remain the same.
2. Each week, groups will rotate and report on a new subject.
3. As a whole group, we will discuss and share highlights of our week before breaking off in groups to record.
4. Partners/small group will plan and perhaps practice what they want to say before recording. Personality is welcome.
5. Videos will be 30 seconds or less.
6. Medium wide shots or close-ups are best.
7. We will respect other groups recording- no photobombing or loud side conversations.
8. Partners/small group will use ipads or student iPhones to record the video newsletters then airdrop them to Mrs. Thiery's computer. Mrs. Thiery will thread them together on iMovie and upload them to the youtube channel. Also, send a copy to See Saw and class twitter account.

We are getting better every week! See the latest two videos below...

5th Grade Video Newsletter

Sept. 25th- 28th

5th Grade Video Newsletter
Oct. 3rd-5th

Thinking forward... it'd be fun to drop images and videos into a green screen video, but we don't have enough green screens or devices with the green screen app to be able to do this in the 15 minutes we've allotted. 

As we get more comfortable, maybe we could spread this out over a couple days... or maybe just keeping it simple is good enough.  After all, pictures and videos are shared in See Saw and on Twitter. Something to think about. 

One thing we'll need to add to the norms is: Set up the camera and don't move it while videotaping.

Do you do video newsletters? If so, what do you include?

Trying our Hand at Weekly News Video

I've spent the last hour watching 5th-grade videos of them (sometimes with a partner) reporting out to parents for an end of week newsletter... and I haven't stopped laughing.

I thought that asking 5th graders to videotape themselves telling about their week was going to save me time and maybe even increase engagement with parents. A win-win for me. Actually, feedback from parents hasn't been overwhelmingly consistent with newsletters, or videos, or Twitter, or even email. So I thought, why not? Why not turn the reigns over to the kids? We are student-led. They love to videotape themselves and we've been working on reflecting in authentic ways. So they chose a subject area, got their Chromebooks, sat with their partners, and made a video.

I envisioned 2 students visible in front of a camera articulating all the cool things they'd learned this week, maybe even show some quick artifacts from the week. 30 seconds later, parents would feel like they had a window into the classroom. Well, there were some 30 second videos and other 6 minute ones! After I threaded all their videos together, the video was 23 minutes long! No problem, I'll drop them into iMovie and start editing... only the videos were made on a Chromebook app that wouldn't download from Google Drive in a readable format. Insert teacher grumble. This was no longer a time saving idea. After searching the internet for forums to help problem solve, nothing worked. What to do next? Screencast them, save them as mp4s, then download and finally drop them into iMovie. Whew... another hour later all videos are in iMovie ready to edit. While each video was recorded as a screencast, I got to watch every single second of every single video yet again. The big question: where in the world do I even begin to edit? What would even be left of the video, if I took everything out that I deemed not important?

And that question led to a reflection. What is the purpose of this? I'm not sure what these videos reveal about our classroom. A bunch of giggling 10-11-year-olds trying to gain the attention of a camera. Reality check... kids aren't hearing what you want them to hear... it's not about you... and it's about them. As clear as my purpose is in planning for them each week, one of two things must be happening, either they are only hearing what they want to hear, or I'm not clearly teaching the purpose behind what we do. I'm guessing it's the latter (insert belly laugh).

Just as we teach kids that we write for different purposes and audiences, we also need to teach kids that we speak for different purposes and audiences. As they giggle, play around with each other, hem and haw over what they want to say, point out what we'd (teachers) hope what had happened in the classroom wouldn't be repeated is, pop in and out of the screen, record with half their head showing... I blurt out loud, "What in the world are they doing?"  NEWSFLASH SElf: They are doing what they know because there haven't been taught otherwise.

And so I'll edit these student-led videos the best that I can, download them a one video, and unapologetically share it with parents. Next week, we'll be intentional as we watch the videos and make a plan for improvement. Here's to the "Just do it" mentality. It's the best way to fail, learn, improve, and sustain a growth mindset.

Here we go...13 1/2 minutes of raw footage (minus 10 minutes of them hemming and hawing).