Thinking About Learning

What a week! Have you ever worked on a project where turn after turn you encountered a roadblock? That is exactly what happened to me this week. I have a 4th grade teacher who is working on National Board Certification. She asked me to videotape a small group discussion lesson for her. As I have previously mentioned, I don’t have a digital video camera. When I inquired about using the school news team’s camera that had been recently dropped and broken, I was assured that it would work sufficiently for the task. I went and video-taped a superb lesson, but when I tried to capture the video to my computer, the screen showed up with 1/3 of the area blue, and there was a file error message. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper!

I shared my troubles with my principal, who authorized me to purchase a new camera. I was encouraged to buy one with built-in hard drive memory. Okay, I admit, there are lots of things I just don’t know a lot about. Turns out that HD cameras have their own file type that isn’t compatible with Movie Maker. (Now you tell me!) Also, the cameras in my price range don’t have an external mike jack. I bought what I thought was a decent camera for the money, and taped this teacher again. Great video…terrible audio quality.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I was fairly peeved by this point! I called my former partner, Ron, from the Global Horizons class to borrow the old Sony camera(which I knew had an external mike), and I scheduled a time for a 3rd videotape session.  FINALLY I was able to get a video with quality audio, and the lesson was superb! My next challenge is to learn how to effectively use my new hard drive video camera.  I’m going to need a DVD burner next!

Curriculum Connections:

Literacy: One of my 5th grade teachers found this great lesson on learning to write details in descriptive writing: Looking for Details? It’s a fabulous lesson for teaching sensory imagery.  Her students posted their writing on their blogs.  Check out this great student work sample: A Snowy Day.