sandcastle

I invited the students to share in this exercise with me by walking part of the journey in my shoes.

We completed the 3rd voice process by videotaping one of the lessons and then watching and evaluating from the perspective of this third eye present at the back of the classroom. I chose to tape a class during which I was teaching the class, rather than the students delivering their lessons, to facilitate observation of my own teaching. The lesson was partly instructional and partly practical, with students completing a heart dissection during the greater part of the lesson time. We learned several interesting things about ourselves. I learned that I speak with my hands… a lot! I was satisfied with the lesson – it was broken up quite well, and the students were able to begin the dissection equipped with various bits of information needed to complete the task. The students were quite critical of themselves when they could take a peek from the outside, especially about their appearance and the sound of their own voices. But they were also able to comment on aspects of their own behaviour and level of focus, which was really interesting. But they were observing themselves from behind, as the camera was mounted at the back of our laboratory. They have asked to do a second taping, this time with the camera set up at the front of the class, so that they can observe themselves more clearly. I think this is a great idea, and we will do this sooner than later. Also, I only taped one of my two classes, which in itself caused a stir. The second class clearly felt somewhat short-changed by this, and have asked to be allowed to be taped for the purposes of self-evaluation as well. Of course I will be obliging them in this request!