This guide will give you some practical tools and tips for making your lesson plans more effective when you are out of the classroom.
Tools needed:
- Quicktime (installed on every Mac laptop)
- YouTube account (included with each NIST teacher account)
- Optional: iMovie for adding titles, transitions, etc.
At an active school like NIST it is likely that you will have planned absences from time to time. We usually leave written instructions for the students and the substitute teacher and hope that everything is clear enough for the students to be productive. However, the fact is that students are often less productive when their teacher is absent. As teachers we provide a sense of leadership, guidance, and accountability that is very difficult to replicate without being present.
The good news is that we have technology at our disposal that allows us to maintain some of the teacher-student dynamic even when we are away. By using video and screencasting we can provide a more personal approach to delivering instruction that can be produced without spending time writing out detailed plans.
Part One: Creating a Video Using Quicktime
This video will show you how to create and export a video using Quicktime:
Part Two: Shooting Intro Videos
A welcome video is a great way to start a lesson with a personal touch. The students see your face, hear your voice, and receive the expectations and important details for the lesson directly from you. This video will give you some tips for how to shoot an intro video.
Part Three: Screencasting
Screencasting is a great way to film parts of a lesson where you need to show students resources or materials and discuss instructions. It allows you to show the student your laptop screen (or part of it) as you guide them through a task. This can be especially effective for giving instructions for a task without having to type everything out. The video below will show you how to record and upload a screencast using Quicktime.
NOTE: Before recording a screencast, you should close any unnecessary applications and turn off notifications. Students will likely be able to see these, and you don’t want messages popping up while recording.
Part Four: Editing and Finalizing
You may have made a mistake or two that you want to edit out of your video before uploading and sharing with students. This video will show you how to use the TRIM and SPLIT CLIP features in Quicktime for simple editing:
Part Five: Organizing/Delivering Lessons
Once your videos are recorded and hosted on Youtube, you will want to organize and share them with students. There are a number of options for doing this, but this video will provide and example of setting up lessons in Google Classroom.
Part Six: Leaving Lessons for Cover Teachers
It is crucial that the cover teacher have enough information and access to effectively hold students accountable for staying on task. There is no one way to do this, but here are some suggestions:
- Using the VeraCross “Email Students” feature, craft an email to students giving them any basic instructions and links for the lesson(s). If you know who your cover teacher is, please CC them on the email. If you do not know who your assigned cover teacher is CC James Cohn (jcohn@nist.ac.th) so he can provide it to the cover teacher.
- Unfortunately there is no easy way to give cover teachers access to your Google Classroom. In your last lesson before the absence, ask 3 students if they are willing to be responsible for supporting the cover teacher and showing them the instructions and materials for the lesson. Identify these students when you contact James Cohn so the cover teacher has names before going in to class. Asking 3 students will provide a contingency if any students are absent that day.
- It is recommended that these support students have the knowledge necessary to use the projector and sound system in the classroom as you might want one of them to play the intro video to the whole class at the beginning of the lesson. If you project from a desktop machine please do not give students login access to this.
- If possible it is helpful to leave a printed copy of instructions for the cover teacher. Make sure it is left in an obvious place (e.g. a tidy desk) with a clear title like “Cover Plan” at the top.