Assessing & Evaluating…YOURSELF!
I recently bought a new digital video camera. My intent was to have an instant feedback tool for my practicing as well as my students (and for me to have a new toy!). It serves these purposes exactly as I had hoped.
But wait, there’s more…
Last week I decided to video MYSELF teaching my beginning orchestra students. I have alway felt teaching beginners is the most difficult and every year I refine that skill. Over the course of two days I shot several hours of videos. Right afterward, I quickly edited out blank time since I just set the camera and let it run. (For those interested, I use Quicktime Pro to quickly edit .MOV files.)
This week I started watching them and taking notes as I did. I always recommend waiting a bit before watching yourself in a performance situation. (n.b. practice is different – that is for instant feedback)
The result? Good! I’ve been doing this for 13 years so I have my system and had a good idea of what I would see. I did however take lots of notes on what I said and the order of which I presented the material.
There is always room for improvement and even seasoned teachers can sharpen their educational blade. We often tell students to listen, watch, or video themselves and we should take our own advice.
