The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

Video Mini-lessons {Keeping Parents Involved}

Parent communication has been a huge learning curve for me this year. Being departmentalized, parents have five different teachers sharing about their classrooms and expectations for students. Finally, in February, I feel like I have really hit my communication groove, and parents have become very responsive- yay! 🙂

So, how do I communicate with parents? Of course I utilize and love the basics – emails, phone calls, conferences, Infinite Campus, and weekly newsletters. I’ve also spiced it up this year with a class blog that focuses on what we are learning in the classroom, as well as, showing exemplary student work. I use a class Twitter page to share small moments or victories from the day, and Remind 101 to share after-school reminders with parents. Today, though, I want to share with you my newest venture…video mini-lessons!

Video Mini Lessons

So many times when meeting and talking with parents I’ve heard “We never did this when I was in school.” Families that are genuinely interested in helping their students with homework or to review for a test just do not have the ‘content knowledge’ that we expect in our Common-Core world. Hoping to bridge that gap, I’ve started creating weekly content videos that I add to our class blog and email home.

Before this week, I had been uploading the video from my iPad directly into the class blog/email, but with today’s Snow Day (#9, by the way), I opened my own YouTube channel. Over time, I’ll go back and add my older videos, but for right now, my latest video – Point of View is up and running!

What do I like about these videos?
  • If students get home and need a re-teach, they have immediate and easy access to me
  • Parents always have the opportunity to learn with their child.
  • Families know the ‘language’ we are using in the classroom.
  • Eventually, these videos will become student-centered as students will take the responsibility for creating them! I am so excited as we transition to this step and students can show what they know!
How do I create these videos? Great question!
  1. Mapping – I make a list of the most important things for my students to know about the topic. If they went home to share about Point of View, what would I want them to share? I make a list of the learning targets, vocabulary words, and any anchor charts I want to share.
  2. Visuals – What do I want families to see? Honestly, NOT my face – ha. 🙂 I take pictures of any anchor charts, printables, or student work I want to showcase. In the video above, you saw some mini-posters I created in A Beautiful Mess and a class anchor chart.
  3. Script – I make a brief outline of what I want included in my video. I actually do write the entire thing out, but you definitely could!
  4. iMovie – Then, I add in my visuals to iMovie, and record my voice.
  5. Upload to YouTube!
The first few definitely took longer (i.e. 90 minutes or so), but as I have done more, it takes me somewhere around 40ish minutes a video. Although a definite time commitment, for me it is worth it. Plus, I have received some awesome feedback from parents about the videos!
So, there you go!  Do you use video mini-lessons in your classroom? What are your favorite ways to communicate with parents?

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Comments

    • Kate says

      February 4, 2014 at 2:21 am

      Absolutely, Kristen! Plus, I can see the videos being especially helpful with math. Our kids are learning REALLY different ways to 'prove' their mathematical thinking!

      Reply

  2. Collaboration Cuties says

    February 4, 2014 at 2:08 am

    Wow, this is great!!! I love that we can make a video without it being a video of US! I'm with you- I don't want to be in the video! Is it kinds like a "move" with how you zoomed into the posters? Did you have a site that gave you directions on how to do this? I LOVE it!! Awesome idea!!! And, you'll have them forever! Thanks for sharing Catherine!
    Amanda
    Collaboration Cuties

    Reply

    • Kate says

      February 4, 2014 at 2:23 am

      Hahaha – I LOVE your enthusiasm. Thank you, Amanda! And definitely – no staring in a movie for me -ha! 🙂 I actually did all of it in iMovie. When you upload videos you can choose where to start the focus on the picture and where to end it. I chose my starting and stopping points after I added the audio, so they were mostly synced. It takes a few minutes to fidget with, but after that it is not bad! 🙂

      Reply

  7. Kelly Anne says

    February 4, 2014 at 2:53 pm

    Looove this idea! How perfect- and I love to think that they could be reused year after year {although we all know that they will most likely get changed again and again to make them even better and differentiated for each class because that's how teachers roll} 🙂

    XO!
    Kelly Anne

    Reply

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