What I learned about me

For one of my Masters classes this semester I am conducting an action research project in my own classroom. As part of this I have video taped myself teaching various lessons through out the project to see if I change from the first time I teach the lesson to the last. I was watching the tape yesterday and I think I did a pretty good job explaining what multimedia is and how stop motion movies are made to fourth graders. But I did notice one thing that made me a bit self-conscious, and laugh at the same time.

I use my hands when talking to my classes to express things. My hands move a lot when I talk. My elbows, however, do not. I watched myself teach four different classes and it looked like my elbows were super glued to my sides almost the entire time. The only time my elbows left my side was when I was pointing to something higher up on the board. It was funny watching myself use my shortened arms to emote.