Sound
You want your students to listen to you, not all of the background noise at your house. Ask your housemates not to watch TV or play music while you are filming or teaching. Kennel your dogs if they tend to be yappy. Keep the windows closed.
Ask your housemates not to watch TV or play music while you are filming or teaching.
Test the sound on your set by sitting in the space for a half hour and listening to everything that happens. Is there a ton of traffic noise? Maybe you could choose a different room.
Do a test video and play it back to hear how you sound in that space. Do you need to speak more loudly? Or put a barrier behind you so that it doesn’t echo so much?
Action
Got stage fright? Practicing ahead of time will help. Billups offered this advice: “Get all of the logistics out of the way first by practicing, watching and listening to yourself, and tweaking the environment. Don’t wait to do it until you’re live and then have to spend time on technical issues when you’re with students.”
Creativity is a big part of teaching. Don’t try to be like anyone else—be you.
Billups—a teacher himself—said, “Creativity is a big part of teaching. Don’t try to be like anyone else—be you. Try to engage as authentically as possible, as if you were face-to-face with students in the classroom.”
If you’re filming a lesson ahead of time that you’ll post for students to watch on their own time, don’t worry about trying to be perfect. Billups said, “It doesn’t go over well if you’re too rehearsed. You can do things like take time to think while you're on camera." He also advises you to look directly at the camera and pretend you’re talking to one single student.
