Helping Teachers Gain Video Creation Confidence

Whew! It’s been 12 hours since our webinar with The Penguin Prof, Valerie Pennington, and our heads are still spinning from the amount of knowledge and sheer positivity she brought. If you missed it, no worries! Check out this quick summary for a couple of key points, or better yet, check out the whole conversation!

Creating explainer videos can be daunting

Or as Valerie put it, “painful”. Nearly everyone who has seen or even heard a recording of themselves has been overcome with self-criticism. Does my voice really sound like that? What on earth is going on with my hair? It’s no wonder so many people give up after their first few tries! 

Valerie has been there and done all that. And then she pushed through it to create an impressively successful YouTube channel filled with explainer videos for both her students and fellow educators looking to get started using tech in their teaching. During the webinar, she gave us her tried and tested tips on how to get past that initial stage and learn to create fun, information-packed videos…and enjoy it! 

Have a look at this brilliant example of her work done with Explain Everything! 👇🏽

Breaking through the stress of creating whiteboard videos

As her college’s Teaching with Technology Coordinator, Valerie gets questions on how to incorporate tech into the lecture hall every single day. Though it would be impossible to list all of the tips she gave during our webinar in this blog post, check out our favorite pieces of advice: 

1. Harness the power of the SRT technique to relax.

As long as you are tense, you will never come off as authentic, not to mention being fun to listen to! Take a look at Valerie explaining how stress holds us back, and how we can use the SRF technique to push through it and find our own voice.

“When the planning, the judgement goes off…this is when people describe an outpouring of creativity.”

2. Ask for constructive feedback directly.

It’s exceedingly difficult to figure out whether your whiteboard videos are effective or not because you can’t see your students’ faces to assess whether they’re following. And when you watch your own videos you end up criticizing yourself way too harshly. The solution? Ask your friends or (or your students!) for just one or two practical pointers per video…and take it from there!

“Let them know. Say, I’m really nervous about this whole video thing. They will get it, and they will think so highly of you for putting in this effort.”

Do you want to find out all of the other things Valerie shared during this fun, incredibly informative webinar? Sign up to get access!

Valerie Pennington, The Penguin Prof, has been a biology professor at Southwestern College for 25 years, teaching mainly human anatomy and physiology, general biology and marine biology. In 2020, she was appointed as Southwestern College’s Teaching With Technology Coordinator and tasked with helping faculty make the transition to remote delivery during the pandemic. She started creating videos for her students almost a decade ago.

🚀 Webinar: Break Through the Fear: Building Confidence on YouTube.

Not everyone is born a YouTuber, but it’s never too late to learn! With so many educators the world over suddenly needing to go online, there’s never been a better time to get over any stage fright you might have and learn to make great explainer videos your students will love. And have fun doing it! 😊

Key takeaways of the event:

• Practical tips to make your first recordings positive experiences.
• How to choose the right mic.
• Learn how to speak to your students.
• How to use the SRF Technique to keep self-criticism constructive.
• Level up your digital literacy and remote teaching skills.

Watch the whole webinar, sign up for free 👇🏽

Anastasia Procner – Webinar Host, Online Instruction Specialist at Explain Everything and Author of this and other blog posts.