“If students are just learning from videos, what do you do all day?"

From the moment I introduced instructional videos in my classes, I've heard variations of this question -- and not always phrased so politely!  Students, colleagues, and parents all wanted to understand why I was no longer teaching in the ways they'd grown used to.

Over time, however, I realized that what I was doing really wasn't so different.  Yes, I replaced my lectures with videos.  But aside from that, I was doing the same things as my colleagues -- just (in my own biased opinion) more effectively.  For instance:

★ One-on-one instruction was more effective, because I could help individual students while the rest worked independently.

★ Small-group instruction was more effective, because I could determine groups based on progress through the unit.

★ Whole-class instruction was more effective, because I understood exactly what each student did or did not know.

Ultimately, I realized that video instruction is not a substitute for any of these more traditional methods of instruction -- it is a tool that makes each instructional approach better suited to meet students' needs.  

And by the way, once I understood this, it became pretty easy to answer that question about what I did all day!

Want to leverage these four modes of instruction in your own classroom?