Ready for Virtual Open House

Virtual Open House is a great idea that is long overdue. It may be one of my favorite things brought about by COVID. My past experiences with Open House have shown that it is not the most productive thing teachers do. Virtual Open House give students and families the opportunity to get the basic information quickly and easily. There is great collaboration going on everywhere online about how to make the "perfect" presentation. I encourage everyone to remember there is no "perfect" presentation or video. We all want to make a good first impression, but don't stress out over it more complicated than it needs to be.  

I started small with just a video and then went a little further because technology is in my wheelhouse. All in all it took me about 1.5 - 2  hours. I might have been done sooner than that if I didn't have to keep saying, "Do I really look like that?" (Seriously those COVID pounds need to go....but I digress.)

Basic intro video:

• Keep it short. You just want to be welcoming, introduce yourself , and convey excitement for the new year.
• Use a recording tool you are comfortable with - that can be your phone, screencastify, camtasia, google meet, or any other tool you love. 
• LIGHTING...LIGHTING .... LIGHTING  - One thing my (selfie queen) daughter has taught me is how lighting makes all the difference. Good lighting makes you look happy and healthy, and bad lighting makes you look like you will be teaching from prison. I recommend outside if at all possible. 
• Make sure you look at the camera. It is so tempting to watch yourself....but looking at the camera is more welcoming for your students. 

Ok - Here is my basic video. It gets the job done and only took 4 takes.

Now after I did that, I wanted to do a bit more....so I looked at sample videos with all the cute stuff. Made this little Hola video using Snapchat. I did it that way so I could easily share with my daughter (the selfie queen), but you can just record it on your phone as well. Truthfully this one took about 15 takes until I was happy. 

Once I did this I wanted to make it loop, but after lots of searching, I couldn't find a way to make it loop in Google. Sometimes...you just have to let it go. 

I found this video that I liked, so I decided to adapt some of the ideas (and simplify).  I could feel myself going down the rabbit hole. Here is the final presentation that I made. 

If you want to do something similar - I used "insert shape" then changed the fill color to match our school colors and then "insert text box" on top. There are details about linking pages if you are unfamiliar with that in the YouTube video I shared.

Remember you don't need something complicated. You only need to briefly introduce yourself and convey your excitement for the new year. I would love to see your videos in the comments!