4 Easy Steps For Making a Faculty Meeting Video

October is busy month for our school. In addition to regular classes, softball and volleyball regionals as well as football games, we just hosted after-school parent conferences.

As I was also working on the state accreditation report, I realized a scheduled faculty meeting was happening the same day as conferences. So I decided it was time for something innovative: a faculty meeting video*.
(*This 1-minute edited version is a sample of the 11-minute one I shared with our teachers.)

Pros of Video-Meetings
Apart from the threats from my staff to blackmail me with the candid video still-shots, the majority of the feedback was positive. The pros I heard from teachers included:

• The ability to listen, pause or rewind if something needed to be repeated.
• The ease of watching during plan or between conference meetings.
• The convenience of not coming in extra early on a day when we were already staying late.

Making Your Own Meeting Video
If you’re interested in trying this for one of your meetings, here are some steps to take:

1. First create your normal faculty agenda. With your list in hand, handouts to share, and list of people to recognize, put the meeting together in advance as you normally would.
2. Next, use the webcam on your computer and open in Microsoft Moviemaker (or whatever camera to recording program you may have) to capture your content. Depending on your comfort level, record when ready. I just pushed “record” and went for it, but you could edit parts if necessary.
3. After the recording is finished, save it to your desktop as a video and then upload it to Youtube for easy sharing. Use a “private” setting and then share the link to make it assessable to those to whom you email it.
4. Email the video link with a list of instructions.

Here’s a copy of instructions I used:
Email To Teachers Sample

Teachers,
Because we have a BUSY day tomorrow with parent conferences, I’m trying something new: Here is a VIDEO-FACULTY MEETING* in place of our faculty meeting tomorrow.

Sorry, it’s 11-minutes; it’s not Hollywood, but there’s a lot we need to share.

Instructions:
1. Watch this video* during your plan or after school–NOT in front of students since I discuss teacher-only information.
2. Sign-in tomorrow in the main office on the regular sign-in AND the faculty meeting sign-in.
3. Pick up a your complimentary breakfast doughnuts when you sign in.
4. Congratulate our teachers of the month and BW award-winners—worth making it to end of video! *video link for this post is just a sample

Here’s the Agenda:
Faculty Meeting Agenda
A-F update
Test scores
Discuss SMART goals
Special Needs Doc–10 Tips
Parent Conferences reminders
Teacher of the month
BW Awards

I thought this may be a time saver. Plus, you can re-watch it for fun between parent meetings!

Conclusion
I still prefer face-to-face meetings because of the opportunity to gauge feedback and connect in person. But busy times often call for creative measures. If you decide to try this, share a link with me. I’d love to see some other examples!

Now It’s Your Turn
What are some creative ways you are finding to communicate with your staff or team that may be outside the norm? What are some innovative ideas you’d like to try soon?

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