We Want to See You!

 This afternoon's focus on instructional videos struck me in an unexpected way. As many people do, I dislike the sound of my own voice and seeing myself on video. As we were told "it's not about you, it's about the students." Hearing this helped me to put myself in my students' shoes. If students are depending on a video to not only give them instructions but to learn content, why wouldn't they want to see their teacher talking in the video? Why couldn't this be a form of connection that deepens the relationship we have with our students? 

We will make mistakes every day as we teach. We will be embarrassed, jumble our words, and have other kinds of mishaps. It's easy to let ourselves get caught up in those little details but they make us human. More importantly, it shows our students that we're human too. We can fail, and that's okay. We can make mistakes, and that's okay. As teachers, those unspoken lessons can be more impactful than being a teacher who's the end-all, be-all perfect authority in a classroom. This helped me to put a bit of my anxieties about teaching aside and I hope I will become a better teacher because of it!