Capture and Increase Learning with a Digital Video Camera

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

I teach 6th-8th grade (middle school) drama. I teach in a Title I designated low-income school in Los Angeles. Many of my students come from single parent homes and live in neighborhoods that are plagued with gang violence and drugs. By studying drama many of my students have an opportunity to explore their emotional well that would otherwise be stunted in their own communities. These students often are not aware of how they are seen by others and by video recording the students and then playing the recording back for them to analyze/critique they are able to step outside of themselves and see how their body language, facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, and hear how their tone of voice communicates to their intended audience. I have found the students are often astonished at how others perhaps see them because they are not aware of their habitual behavior patterns.

Especially because many of my students are already of a minority status they have been conditioned to think that their thoughts, ideals, beliefs, and artistic vision are either without merit and/or of little merit when compared to the same of the dominant culture. This often manifests itself in problematic vocal behaviors and speech patterns, a general bound stance in gesture rather than an open and free stance, and a tendency to hide ones eyes from the audience by looking down towards the ground. When a video camera is used to document this conditioned behavior in real time and then used to show the student what he/she looks and sounds like to others it really can be eye opening for them.

I have worked as a full time drama teacher at other school sites and have found video recording to be an excellent way to teach students the importance of clear articulation, projection, moderation in pacing, eye contact, owning ones space, engaging the audience, understand vocal range, and basic phrasing as they share thoughts and ideas. We need a digital camera with a built in microphone for our classwork performing improvisation, monologues, and collaborative scene work.

Your financial contribution would empower my students by giving them access to a piece of technology that can help them see themselves from a different point of view. We all need to understand how to present ourselves with confidence, enthusiasm, and assertiveness. The digital video camera is a tool that can help me teach my students to hold themselves on their own in any situation, i.e. a job interview, public speaking, communicating in a small or large group collaborative, etc. I can't thank you enough for your time, energy, and consideration in the aforementioned.