Student Teacher Recorded Class and Summary

When doing my video assignment, I did it in a ninth through twelfth grade high school social studies classroom where I substitute teach, and I had the classroom teacher video tape me with a video camera from the school. I had the student desks set up in a half circle, so I could walk around to do frequent student checks. I left a gap in the back, and had three students sit on each side of the video camera, so everything would be captured on the video camera. The video camera was set up on a stand, so all he had to do was slightly move the camera to catch my movement and interactions with students. I also had an extra student to record me using the video button on my iPhone. I wanted to do this so I could have two different sources and perspectives to look at. I had them record my class objectives, me reading an article on alligators and asking questions to my “4th grade” students, who helped me fill in our animal flowchart. This is where I ran into my first problem, I thought that it would just pop up, but apparently Xmind has to be downloaded to every computer that you want to use it on, so I just decided to create our own handwritten flowchart, since it would have taken forever to download the document from Xmind. After this, I gave them directions to the computers to start a summary and reflection in their blogs on WordPress, then directing them that they are now going to begin researching on their very own animal using a blank flow chart that was exactly like the one I used as a template to take important notes on, then I just wrapped it up by saying I was going to have you do your research on a certain animal of your choice and you would have to choose a form of media to present it to the rest of the class.

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...s to keep their students actively engaged so they can expand and further develop their understanding. Another benefit for these new requirements is that they promote teachers to prompt their students to be able to make a connection between prior experiences, whether it be academic, personal (cultural, community, etc.) to what they are learning at a given time in the classroom, and these links will help students better understand and remember the new information because they can relate it to something that is already in their knowledge base. These new requirements also focus on deepening student understanding, by not asking surface-level right/wrong questions, but instead, the teacher elicit student responses that they really have to think about, and the teacher also should have the students interact among themselves to extend their understanding and comprehension.