Teacher Time: Making My First Demo Video
I’ve left the world of screencasts...
Temporarily, anyway.
I freaking LOVE screencasts! They allow me to teach a lesson in quarantine, and with software like Camtasia, I can even annotate it, step-by-step. But, as of August 2020, I’ve found myself seeing my mug in the Google Grid every single day of the work week.
What in the new normal?!
The problem is, once I’ve given the students the customary 3-5 minutes to come into the virtual art room and get settled, there’s only so much I can do in a half hour time segment. So, most often, I go through our lesson using Google Slides and demonstrate what I want them to do for the assignment. If there’s time, we can get it done in class. But, I also have to make an additional replay of sorts because, inevitably, there will be students who need it. So, my slideshows also include screencasts to go through the lesson and show them visually what was demonstrated in class. I post these slideshows to a Google Site that I created for my students to house things like student work, my weekly schedule of classes, extra resources, etc.
This covers students who got to class late, or missed it entirely for a doctor’s appointment or technical issues, etc.
But, this project was different.
In my interview with Typism, I was asked if any of my lettering trickles down to my students, and indeed, it does. My younger, elementary students have been learning lettering categories like serif, sans-serif, etc., and how to use them to make lettering projects. Much like I had been learning in my own last lettering assignment, we have been talking about how to fill our lettering projects with emotion. Last week, we went over various phrases, their moods, and how we could draw them in ways that would be appropriate for the “feel” of the phrases using tools like color, line, illustrations, etc., with whatever supplies they had on hand. They each got to choose a phrase and try to make me “feel” the words. Would the edges be sharp? Would the letters be tall or short? Happy, bright colors? Or darker, serious, colors? But, some kids like to make things rather than draw things. So, to satisfy those creative urges-and still make it accessible for all students working at home-this week, they were to make a simple frame for their lettering art from last week. I think my students who were able to keep up step-by-step, were doing a great job following along. But some things are just difficult to demo in the grid.
Since my promise is that the students will always be able to find a previous lesson on the site if they had to do it from home, I had to make one…and this time, I had to record actual footage of….Gasp! My hands!
What can I say? I’m bashful!
So…what did I learn? Here’s my list, complete with corresponding emojis (just for overall effect).
It can take longer than creating screencasts since there’s quite a bit of staging and sometimes retakes. 😳
Using grid lines to line up what’s in the viewing plane or making markers in the area you will have the viewer focus on could be helpful when setting up your camera so that the action stays in the frame (though I might need practice 😬).
Taking the time to set up your camera/phone properly before starting is not wasted time. Nobody wants to keep adjusting throughout a recording. 🙄
Getting ALL the materials together BEFORE you start to make the project saves time. Even if what you need is within arm’s reach, arm’s teach still takes time you’ll have to edit down later in post-production. 😣
Speeding up the repetitive areas of your video will help cut the length…Do it and cut, cut, cut. The attention span of an elementary student is a fickle thing. 😕
You’ll need a TON of available memory. Enough said. 🤦🏾♀️
All in all, if it helps your students visualize what they’re supposed to do so they experience fewer frustrations, it’s totally worth it. 👍🏾
