When April Strong started teaching, she wanted to be the best. But it wasn’t until she started filming her own lessons and watching them back later at night that she was able to see exactly what she wanted to change about her practice.

It was nerve-wracking at first, but over time, April began to love the growth that came from self-reflecting on her videos. “Any serious athlete watches footage of their performances — why not teachers, too?” she asks.

In this interview, April shares why video is such a compelling self-reflection and coaching tool, and how she is using video to support teachers at Martin County School District in Florida, where she is now an instructional coach. And she has practical, simple steps to take for any school that is interested in taking the first step toward using video to support professional learning.

Also, check out our interview with Dr. Jim Knight about using video to support teaching and instructional coaching in our podcast episode, “See Reality, Get Better.”

Further Reading

For more on this topic, check out this white paper: “Ten Strategies to Improve Teaching with Video.” It includes: