#Snapthoughts – Video Reflection
I blame Snapchat filters and Carmen Scoggins. First of all, Snapchat filters are fun, and even with two teen wannabes at home, I wish I had more excuses to play with it. So what did Carmen do at our FLANC spring fling? Give me the excuses.
The filters are kind of my motivators to sit down and sum up my day: what I liked and didn’t like, highlights, lowlights, and overall temperature taking to look for trends in my practice that aren’t necessarily full-on Blog Post materical. Playing with silly filters is incentive, you know? And doing it on Snapchat makes me keep it brief (or it cuts me off an makes me start a new story).
I’ve been enjoying using Snapchat for things like Snap stories to interpret/retell songs, and I’ve been meaning to play with it as a student video editor like Noah Geisel suggested at a mini-unconference session at ACTFL a few years ago. This gives me an opportunity to play more with it, to immerse myself in the tool–or at least wade around a bit–so I can get more ideas.
So if you’re looking to dip your toes in, too, it’s pretty easy to get started (once I figured out I didn’t have to download each individual snap and edit it together in WeVideo–the music is nice, though, right?) So here’s my process.
- Pick a fun filter! (Hint: weird voices make the re-listen more fun.)
- Record and post a story between 30-60 seconds.
- Save the story with the little “download” arrow thingie and quick switch it to “My Eyes Only” (I don’t especially want it on my snap feed–I think it would annoy most of the people who follow me more than anything.)
- Export the video to another app, i.e. YouTube. (I use my “professional” PBL in the TL one–not school or personal.)
- Add it to my YouTube playlist for further reflection later.
In the future, I think I would like to maybe establish myself a goal before the day begins, or even make that goal for the next day. I do like the freedom of just saying whatever I think of when I have a little time during fourth period planning, or what have you, but I think some sort of theme for the week might even make the reflection more effective.
Also, I want to play more with the after-effect filters and adding stickers and text to the video. Just because.
Below you can see my first four “snapthoughts,” and I cover my dive into Spanish 2 novel groups, senior projects for my English class, our current project for the Just Plain Dog Show coming up in May, and just kind of an “eh” start back from spring break.
If you start your own “Snapthought” series, tag me on Twitter or Instagram or FB! I’d love to see what you’re up to–and what filters you choose!
2 Comments
Sarah Briggs · April 10, 2018 at 12:54 pm
I always feel like an old fogie when it comes to The Snapchat…likewise I feel cheesy when trying to actually record my professional reflections… I LOVE that this adds the element of play to sidestep both of those hesitations. I think many teachers feel like “I am not enough reason to invest in this…,” so I also really appreciate the back-burner goal of exploring a tool for later use with students to bring some additional motivation to the table! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Sarah Briggs · April 10, 2018 at 8:54 am
I always feel like an old fogie when it comes to The Snapchat…likewise I feel cheesy when trying to actually record my professional reflections… I LOVE that this adds the element of play to sidestep both of those hesitations. I think many teachers feel like "I am not enough reason to invest in this…," so I also really appreciate the back-burner goal of exploring a tool for later use with students to bring some additional motivation to the table! Thank you so much for sharing!!
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