Back in August, I wrote a post titled "The Power of Video". In the post, I talked about the need to videotape ourselves so we can gain a clearer picture of our practice. I also mentioned that upon returning from maternity leave in October that I planned to videotape myself in order to grow as an instructional coach. It may have taken a few months, but I, along with Katie Seiberling and Tammy Zenti (both part-time instructional coaches and part-time English teachers at Stilwell Junior High School) videotaped ourselves in a coaching situation involving co-teaching.
Katie and Tammy approached me a few weeks into January with a request for me to observe them co-teach their 8th grade English class. Although they felt fine about their class, they wanted to look for ways to improve their practice. So we decided that I would observe them co-teach and videotape the lesson.
A few days after the lesson, we met to debrief. We watched clips of the videotaped lesson to observe their teaching styles and interactions with the students. Viewing the video gave us a clearer picture of the lesson, and it allowed Katie and Tammy to brainstorm new ideas for co-teaching in future lessons.
To help me improve my practice as an instructional coach, we also videotaped the debriefing session. While watching the video, I listened to the conversation, analyzed body language and facial expressions, and reflected on my interactions with them. This gave me the opportunity to see what I am doing well and determine what changes I need to make to improve as an instructional coach.
Videotaping both the lesson and the meeting afterwards turned out to be very beneficial. It allowed us to observe the whole picture of what transpired, and we were able to analyze the events. Although it can seem daunting at first, we highly recommend using video as it can be a valuable tool for teachers to improve their effectiveness.
Below are links to the edited videos of the co-taught lesson and debriefing session.
The first three videos are clips of Katie and Tammy co-teaching.
The rest of the videos are clips from our meeting after the lesson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEaT_kAwUFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GWizQzzpkk 
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