Carmen Jany

Fall 2006

Certificate in College and University Teaching Portfolio

CV

Websites

• Mixe
  Dictionary
• Ling 101
• Span 2
• Span 3
• German 3

Professional Development at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Video Consultation

I scheduled the videotaping and consultation service after having taught German and Spanish for a several quarters, because it is required for the Certificate in College and University Teaching. At first, I thought that this would be something I don’t really need other than for the requirement, but in the end I consider it to be a very useful experience and I regret not having done it earlier in my career. At the time of the videotaping I was teaching Spanish 2 and had about 30 students. The students didn’t mind the videotaping, and I was quite relaxed during the class. The class went very well, but I didn’t know what to expect from the consultation. When I arrived for my appointment, the consultant had already reviewed my tape and prepared some comments. We watched parts of the tape together and discussed several issues. He noticed that I was very confident and enthusiastic in my teaching and that I made good use of the chalkboard, but he also pointed out that sometimes my voice wasn’t loud enough and that some students in the back were not paying attention all the time. Though I had a cold at that time and couldn’t do much about my voice, it was helpful to see what was going on in the back of room during my teaching. I decided to monitor the students’ attention a little more and to try to speak up as best as I could. Overall, it was good to observe my teaching from the students’ perspective and to hear about my strengths and weaknesses from someone who examined my teaching. This experience contributed to my professional growth as a teacher and it improved my teaching.