Vidcast Reflection

The Vidcast that my partner and I put together was labeled “Expressing Emotions.” This vidcast covered the sixth grade Health Education Standard 1, Objective 1. Standard 1 states: the students will learn ways to improve mental health and manage stress, and objective 1 states: develop strategies for appropriately and safely expressing emotions. As a group, we focused more on an introduction to instruction for objective 1 because a whole standard is hard to cover.
I believe that learning how to express emotions appropriately and safely is very important for the students to learn especially in sixth grade because this is when children start becoming really in tune with their emotions. If students do not know how to appropriately express the way they are feeling, they are going to run into problems as they get older. In our vidcast we discussed the proper ways to express the six main emotions: happiness, anger, contempt, fear, surprised, and disgust. We displayed pictures that gave hints to the children on how to express these emotions through their face and even on how they can read these emotions on other people. As a person it is very important to be able to read other people’s emotions in order to react properly and respectfully to how they are feeling.
I think that vidcasts really connet to NETS standards because as a teacher we are suppose to use technology in order to facilitate student learning, creativity, and innovation. I believe that vidcasts help us, as teachers, complete this specific standard. By showing the students a vidcast about expressing emotions not only are they learning through a virtual environment, but they may even be having their creative ideas churning. They could be thinking of how to express these emotions just like we are discussing or they could even be thinking of how to put together a vidcast for their own use. Either way they are expanding their knowledge, creativeness, and innovations. Another standard that I am clearly completing with this project is continuously improving my professional practice by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools. In this vidcast I am using many digital tools with Photo Story.
There are many INTASC standards that are being demonstrated through this assignment. I believe by showing the children how to appropriately express their feelings I am making an environment that is managing the student’s behaviors and creating an environment that is engaging all students to learn. If emotions are not being controlled and used properly the classroom will be hectic for everyone! I believe by creating a vidcast according to a Utah Core Curriculum standard that I am demonstrating my knowledge of the content. As a teacher it is very important that we research and make sure all of our material is accurate. I believe by presenting this vidcast and narrating it, that the children will understand the instruction as clearly as possible. I think that students, as well as teachers, really enjoy presenting information like this because it is interesting for the children and a great way to introduce your instruction.
Vidcasts can be a great way of instruction; however, I believe that if they are not presented properly that they could be very boring for the students. I think that if I am going to use vidcasts in my classroom frequently I will have to use different formats, so it wasn’t the same thing for my students every time that I present one in class. As a teacher, the only thing I would be cautious about in using vidcasts is making sure they were creative enough not to bore my students.
I believe that as a teacher I will use vidcasts, because I believe that they really are a great way to introduce different things to the classroom. I believe that they are very creative and require a lot of personalization, which I enjoy. As a teacher, I think that it will be great to switch things up in my classroom so it is always not the same old lecturing and Powerpoints. This is no fun for the students, and as a teacher I want to make my classroom as interesting and fun for the students as I possibly can!