Monday 7 December 2009

My Day, Yesterday

videoThe title of this post refers to a video group set up by a guy called Garrett Murray on Flickr. The idea is to shoot a video of a day in your life, put it together to last no more than 90 seconds and post it on his video group. No music or sound effects should be added.

There's something about this idea I really like. We're so wrapped up in going about our regular activities each day that we probably don't realise what we do because it all seems like the daily humdrum. Watching Garrett's video, you get the impression technology is a very important part of his life! He appears to live alone and not have a family though. I think we all might get a surprisingly interesting perspective on our own lives if we did a video along these lines. There might be something we do a lot of that we hadn't ever noticed before.

It could also be a helpful little project in the same way when you get video taken of you when you are teacher training, doing a course on presentation skills or learning a golf swing for example. Watching videos of yourself can make you cringe but also reveal things you do that you were completely unaware you did. Incidentally my husband just told me this weekend of something he's noticed me saying lots recently which I wasn't even aware of.

I think it can be good for us to look at ourselves and our actions from an outsider's view. I'm not suggesting we all go and make our 90 second video of a day in our lives but we might want to consider what that video would show us if we did make it. What do you think a stranger watching you go about your day might notice or wonder? Maybe we sit at home too much and need to get out more. Maybe the tone of voice we use with our partner or children could be nicer and more reasonable. Maybe we don't play enough with our children or have proper conversations with our partner. Maybe we're always picking at food but not eating healthy nutritious meals.

With a little reflection, we would all probably notice elements of our daily lives that could be improved. Ordinarily, we would just carry on as usual without stopping to think about it but we'd probably benefit from taking time to reflect.

Have you ever been made aware of something you didn't know you did? Have your own reflections lead you to make any big or small changes in your life?

You can see Garrett's video, 'My Day, yesterday' here.

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1 comment:

  1. Very interesting idea! I also love your suggestion for watching a video of yourself to better a technique- I just got a teaching job as of yesterday and think watching a video of myself would be a great way to prepare to lecture college students! Thanks for another great idea!

    ReplyDelete

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