Performance Panic

As I'm trying to figure out what to do for my compelling video project, and beginning to panic about it, since the due date is drawing ever nearer, I'm also panicking about something else.  See, my students have this big performance on March 3rd, called Junior Festival, and I, idiotically, thought I could learn half a dozen pieces on the piano (NOT my main instrument!) to accompany them.  Okay, so when I first decided this, I did have two months to learn these pieces, and this semester hadn't started yet, so I had no idea how swamped I'd be otherwise.  But now there's less than a month, and most of the pieces aren't even close, and I have entered performance preparation panic.

That being said, it's pretty much the only thing I can think of, when I'm trying to come up with an idea for this video.  I'm thinking maybe I'll be able to instill a sense of panic and impending doom in my viewers by videotaping my less-than-stellar practice sessions, with shots zooming in on a calendar at different dates, to show the passage of time as well as the approaching performance.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to offer any sense of closure, as the due date for this project is before the performance.  Although, maybe that can work for me.

As I write about my difficulties in finding a topic, I find myself wondering how I could be having this hard of a time.  I have lots of interests, a variety of different skills, and really should be able to decide on a topic.  However, as I continue thinking, it occurs to me that perhaps at least some of my difficulty lies in my lack of familiarity with the medium.  I think I've taken all of about 6 videos in my life, including random weird ones of my pets.  So I think at least part of my panic lies with the medium, not just the lack of a topic.

I need to remember this feeling as a teacher.  It's great to expose our students to different mediums, different elements, let them explore different ways of doing things.  However, I need to keep in mind that something that may be incredibly every day and simple to me, might be completely new and foreign to them.  So when students seem to be struggling unnecessarily with something seemingly simple, perhaps they are experiencing this same panic at a foreign medium.  I hope experiencing this for myself can help me to be a more understanding teacher.

What can creating a video teach me about teaching?  There are different effects and tools I can choose to take advantage of with my teaching, and they can help to create a more compelling experience for my students.  For example, I wrote above about how I plan to zoom in on a calendar to show the passage of time.  Similarly, rather than try to teach my students everything, I should "zoom in," or focus on, a few particular details.  So in my video, you won't see every practice session, but you'll still get the idea.  My students won't learn about every day in history, or every single aspect of science, but they can still learn about a few key points, and gain a better overall understanding through them.