My comments

This post is in fact a follow-up to Vera Bobkova’s post on her experience with self-video-recording.

Since I have experienced this means of self-monitoring for several times, I thought I can also add up to the topic by sharing my learned points about how video-recoding can be productively be used for our professional development, in case you decided to try it:

One of the major considerations you need to deal with is the fact that your performance as well as your students is going to be affected and somwhat artificial at the beginning, as you are not accustomed to camera’s presence. My solution to this issue was to set up the camera in the class for a number of sessions without recording anything. This will help you as well as your students to get used to it and soon it becomes part of the class which you won’t notice anymore.

The second consideration is about what is it that you want to record? For example, is it you as a teacher or your students? Is the focus for example teacher-student interaction or student-student one? Or is it certain aspects of your teaching which you want to analyze? So be clear about your objectives to help you make a better use of the footage.

Finally, make sure you test-record in the class before the official ones, to find the best place which will give you good voice and video quality.

Self-video-recording can greatly enlighten your teaching. Try it!