Page 28 - Resources and Support for the Online Educator

Top 10 Expanded

1. Limit your retakes.

Five years ago, I didn’t have a YouTube channel. I didn’t record videos or post
them online. I didn’t do anything with video. Why?
I was afraid.

I was afraid that I would stutter, or that I would say “um” through the whole
thing. I was afraid that students wouldn’t like it or that I would look stupid.
Fear kept me from creating epic content for my students.

Then something changed. I decided to just try recording videos. I recorded
my first video, and it wasn’t great. I was afraid to share it with my students, so
I rerecorded it twenty times. Finally, I thought I had a perfect video I could
share with them. I was wrong. I still made mistakes. But an interesting thing
happened: The kids loved it. They didn’t care that I messed up. In fact, they
loved seeing that I make just as many errors as they do. After that, I refused to
rerecord a video more than three times, and I stick to that rule to this day.
If you spend your time worrying about what will go wrong, you miss out on all
the ways things could go right. You miss out on all the awesome opportunities
your videos could open up for your students. Don’t be afraid. Embrace the im -
perfections. Enjoy it!

2. Use plenty of guests.
Most students have that one adult in the building they connect with, the one
who listens to them and knows them best. It may be you, or it may be the sec -
retary in the front office, or it may be the art teacher. The important thing is to
try to include as many of these people in your videos as possible. Getting other
adults involved in your videos gives you the best chance to engage students. It
also makes your life easier. And your guests don’t always have to be “real” peo -
ple from your school—Batman may have shown up in my videos once or twice.

104 Chapter 9: The Kids Menu: Creating Videos with Students

Awesome Sauce: Create Videos to Inspire Students, Engage Parents and Save You Time 28