Teaching is not a natural gift of mine—I mix up my words often when I speak, I sometimes think in circles, and I’m not comfortable standing “on display” in front of a room full of people.  I’ve grown a lot in this area, though; most of that was figuring out my “groove” in teaching.

The thing that has been most influential, though, in learning how to teach well was in videotaping myself. Most people cannot bear to watch themselves teach—it’s intimidating. It’s easy to pick yourself apart. But for me, watching myself teach has been the way that I’ve been able to be aware of all the weird stuff I do and hone in on the charismatic parts of my personality in order to be a more effective communicator.

Remember these helpful tips, and don’t forget to take notes—

Set up the Camera

Once you’ve convinced yourself to videotape, set up the camera in a place that won’t distract you or students. I have trained volunteers to know where to place the camera once students arrive—I have a few boys who like to make dinosaur noises as I teach, and I don’t like that recorded on tape.  As you teach, try not to think about the camera—engage the class with your best and brightest personality.

What do you do speaks louder than what you say

The way that you position your body can distract your audience from hearing your message. If you read off of your notes, it may sound more like a lecture than a lesson. Your arms say a lot as well—I have a mad case of the dino arms, using them frequently but only at my chest level.  Although the students may not notice that, I felt like I looked really stiff and uncomfortable.

How you speak can distract from what you’re saying

Listen to the way your voice fluctuates. When I watch teachers who haven’t had a lot of experience, I notice that their voice gets high when they’re trying to convince a point they are unsure of.  I can also tell when a teacher hasn’t practiced, when they talk in circles or chase bunny trails. Ask yourself: Is the point of your lesson clear, and are you making it over and over again? Were there aspects of your lesson that distracted the execution of the main point? Do you have a filler word like “um” or “like” that you say a lot?

The audience tells you everything you need to know

I watch the videos of myself and my other teachers teaching every single week so that I can upload them online for students who have missed. My coworkers joke that I love watching myself teach, but it’s not for the reasons that they think: I learn a lot about my audience by watching them watch me.

There are things that I don’t hear when I’m in the middle of a sentence trying to get a point across, but that I hear later when I watch the tape. How the audience is interacting while you teach will tell you a lot: Are they talking amongst themselves, or are they engaged? Are they responding to you under their breath? What are their heads doing? Are they laughing? As a very girly female, I understandably concern myself with how I am communicating to the opposite gender—but when I hear them shouting back answers and laughing in the video, I know that I’m doing a good job communicating.

Watching the audience also gives you a good idea of what parts of communicating you are best at. My students love it when I tell stories, and I can engage them with crazy activities so that they’re screaming and then magically hone them in with a good story. Yet, I wouldn’t know that I have that gift unless I watched it on tape.

How you feel about yourself matters

For every negative thing that you record, make sure you write down a positive. It’s easy to find the things you’ve done wrong, but can you identify the things you’re doing correctly?  Lastly, I’ve decided that everyone looks worse on camera.

The next time you watch, look back at your notes you made the first time and see if you’re making the same mistakes. Sometimes we replace one thing for another: I might replace my dino arms with overdramatic hand gestures, for example. Make sure to note the ways that you are growing, and be encouraged that you probably distract yourself more than you distract your students.