Teacher Tips: How To Successfully Film Your Class

The day has arrived: it's time to film your class. Never fear! We've asked a few of our top teachers to share some tips and best practices on how to get comfortable in front of the camera and make filming a breeze! The overall message is clear: preparation and planning will set you up for success. Check out what our teachers have to say:

“Plan out your class as much as you can, but don't go overboard. Before shooting, have a solid plan for your class. Know what you want to teach, what you want to say, how you want to show it, etc. Plan as much as you can so when it comes to shooting you know exactly what you are looking for. However, it's really easy to plan too much and never actually end up shooting (or pushing your recording date a million times). Give yourself a deadline and know when to stop planning and start making. From a presentation standpoint, have a good idea of what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. If you're not great speaking in front of a camera, or if English is not your first language, write yourself a script. You don't have to stick to it 100%, but it's a really great guide to have.” - Andrea Campos

“The best tip I could give is: plan ahead. Every teacher has their own style, but whether you are more casual or more lecture oriented, it's best to have a really good idea what you are doing before you press record. I try to do practice runs on my lessons; once to figure out the small details and a second time to as a sort of "dry run" to see how the lesson works when I'm verbalizing instructions. Once you've got things figured out, your recording with go a lot more smoothly.” - Aaron Bartlett

“Plan your course well, I can’t tell you how many initial drafts of my course content I wrote up. And be passionate about your subject – you have to be engaging in your delivery for that to rub off on students. This is hard if you haven’t had much experience in recording yourself… I practiced a lot and created a lot of bum videos before being relatively happy. As my confidence grew, I found myself talking more naturally.” - Faye Brown

“Keep telling yourself that no one is going to see what you don’t want them to see. So it doesn’t matter how many times you mess up, you can always edit it out, and just take the best read of whatever you’re saying.  How many “ums” I’ve had  to cut out in postproduction is ridiculous. If you get too nervous, I would recommend taking a break and walking around for five minutes. Also remember, that you’re going to get used to this new practice.” - Jake Bartlett

“I'd advise teachers to plan a good, solid block of time for editing and producing the videos. This is the aspect of the class that always takes the longest for me, so I clear out a solid weekend to make all the edits, track down the music, do all the exports, and then go through and watch everything to make sure it looks and sounds right. Quite often, I even discover during the editing process that I need to go back pick up additional shots to illustrate something a little better.” - Leitha Matz