One of the amazing components of Kittle's Write Beside Them is the DVD that is included. When I first saw the DVD icon, I thought it was a resource with some reproducibles, but then the portion of the explanation beside it that said, "classroom footage" caught my eye. I always love seeing ideas in action, so I could hardly wait to watch the DVD.
I was even more amazed when I actually put it in. Most DVDs with classroom footage that I have seen are sold separately and can often be fairly expensive, even if they are short. However, this DVD is an hour and 45 minutes in length giving a good snapshot into Kittle's classroom. Reading about master teachers always paints a picture in my mind of what it must look like, but being able to see it is even better.
There was something else I loved beyond the experience of the video. In the book Kittle talks about how not every day runs as smoothly as on the video. She comments, "Video children aren't real children [...] We teach adolescents not automatons" (p. 82). This level of honesty is always important for mentors to convey. Even though students won't behave according to the ideal all the time, every day as teachers we just need to do everything in our power to maximize their growth, while celebrating who they are as teenagers.
I recently asked Kittle where she got the great idea to include the DVD as a resource with her book. She said:
I worked on a project on elementary school with Don Graves (called Inside Writing) and we filmed in four classrooms around NH. We had 50 hours of video that we condensed down into a DVD of about 3 hours. I spent hours creating these clips of the footage for our project with a video editor at Heinemann and it was powerful to see it all come together. Part of the reason I decided to write the book was to also produce a DVD, kind of to extend the work Don and I started.Both the DVD and book are phenomenal. I love seeing the ideas of the book come to life and to have the unique interaction of DVD images in the book to indicate that a piece of work or portion of her workshop is represented on the DVD.
Does anybody else have a favorite professional development DVD?
I actually haven't gotten into professional DVDs. It's something I've been meaning to do, but never get around to. Thanks for the push! :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite professional book changes daily- I love The Reading Zone, In The Middle, Notebook Connections, Naming the World, anything by Georgia Heard, The Book Whisperer, and so many more!
I, too, found the DVD companion to this text very helpful. I don't often think to look for DVDs but this one has changed my opinion. I have used DVDs in iwalkthrough professional development and those are very, very well-done. I also love downloading podcast and webinars, especially if they're ones that I can watch at my leisure.
ReplyDeleteKittle and Graves make a great duo! I had the pleasure of hearing them speak at NCTE in 2008, not long before Graves passed away. I met them both at that conference and was so incredibly impressed!
ReplyDeleteI don't have any pro-d DVDs, but often check out the new ones on the Stenhouse and Heinemann websites because they show free clips (can you tell from this and my last comment that my English budget is nil!?). I have been filmed while teaching before and it is excruciating, so I give props to Penny Kittle for putting it out there!
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to read this book! Looking forward to your reflections...
ReplyDeleteKarren