Year 2020 was a rather turbulent ride around the sun for educators like you. As a result, your 2021 New Year’s resolutions are extra important, serving as stabilizing guides to a smooth year of online teaching or in-class instruction ahead. But, as we all know all too well, most people lose interest in their resolutions about as quickly as they formulate them.
Clinical psychologist Joseph Luciani says in an article for U.S. News that 80 percent of people who make promises of change have already broken them a mere six weeks into the new year.
That’s the bad news.
Here’s the good news: a visualizer (document camera) can help you keep your New Year’s resolutions at least until summer vacation!
Here’s how it works for three of the top resolutions teachers make each year.
1. Be More Engaging
Many teachers were forced to teach online for the bulk of 2020, and if you were one of them, you have firsthand experience with how hard it can be to engage remote students. They’re sitting in their rooms, surrounded by toys and video games, and you’ll need a powerful secret weapon to grab their attention and hold onto it for the entire class.
So, grab your visualizer, connect it to your laptop, and amaze your students with 4K images, live dissections or step-by-step crafts, and more. Once you’ve tried it, this versatile tool will be part of your daily teaching life for the long term, which means your resolution will live on as well.
2. Become a YouTuber
You’ve probably seen famous YouTube teachers like Hip Hughes and thought, “hey, I could do that.” But then you look into it, and the idea of buying and learning how to use the requisite cameras and mics and software scares you off. Well, with the right visualizer you can skip the complicated equipment configuration, add firing up your YouTube channel to your 2021 New Year’s resolutions, and follow through all year long!
A USB visualizer makes the process so easy you’re already halfway to becoming a famous YouTuber when you pull it out of the box. Just connect your laptop and visualizer—ideally one with a built-in mic—open your streaming software (AVer CaptureShare is a free, easy-to-use option that lets you livestream your desktop, including any annotations you add on teaching materials), and expand your reach to hundreds, thousands, and even millions of learners.
3. Balance Work and Life
Pull up a list of suggested New Year’s resolutions for teachers, and you’ll probably see this one. Pledging to finally strike the perfect balance between work and home life is much easier said than done, so it’s likely the first resolution to fail come February.
Once again, your visualizer can help you keep your New Year’s promise to yourself. If you’re using a visualizer like the AVerVision M90UHD, you’ll have multiple features that make your job more efficient so you have more free time:
- Playback – Playback lets you review your lessons at any time. That means you can better anticipate student behavior, which results in smoother classes and easier lesson planning.
- Image/Video Capture – Take a snapshot or record a step-by-step process in one class, and then it’s ready to use in another class. You can get some lesson planning done while your students are enraptured by your video.
- Cloud Sync – With AVerTouch software, any content you capture on the M90UHD can be saved right to your Google Drive (just don’t forget to connect your M90UHD to your computer and get it online). That saves time previously wasted transferring files from a jump drive to your computer.
When February comes to steal your resolve, stay strong. You have a secret weapon to fight off the temptation to give up on your 2021 New Year’s resolutions. And if for some reason you’re a teacher who doesn’t yet have a visualizer, click the button below to see some of the best options available.