My contribution to our school's distance learning plan
As part of our district's plan for the rest of the year, each department at the middle school level has been asked to create two video lessons per week. Each lesson is supposed to be about 15 minutes long, be able to work for all three grade levels, and be enriching or supplementing curricula that have already been taught.
The lesson I came up with is about the seven wonders of the world. After watching and blogging about virtual field trips and thinking about places I'd like to visit and bucket lists and the like, I was reminded of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the wonders of the modern world.
So I decided to jump into the world of video lessons and created this, my first YouTube video:
Like all rookie video content creators, I can hardly stand watching it. I'm happy with the slideshow itself, but listening to my voice – ugh! This is just my first foray, though, so I'm confident I'll get better.
At the suggestion of one of my colleagues, I used Screencastify to record the video. Because it is an extension for Google Chrome, it was super easy to use, even when I had to continually stop and start again and again because I kept forgetting what I wanted to say.
I decided to learn more about Screencastify and tried one of their online courses. Wallah – I am now officially a Screencastify Certified Genuis! I'll be adding my new little badge to my email signature!
Then just yesterday I learned that my local chapter of CUE is sponsoring a mini-grant to support teachers in distance learning. I whipped up an Amazon wishlist – actually, I did a bunch of research and obsessed over it for hours and hours because that's what I do – and submitted my application this morning. If all goes well, maybe my future videos will be a little more slick 😎.
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