Youtube

10/8/2013

Oh, where to begin in the world of video. Where would history teachers without images to grab student’s attention to events, issues and people. Back when I was in school, the only imagery we sometimes had was the 20 years (already) black and white film from the state of Georgia. Oh how far we have come in 30 years. There is not a day that goes by in which video is not incorporated into my lessons even if it is only for 3 minutes. One 1 minute video can affect the whole student engagement in a lesson.

Teacher Tube does offer many advantages. The web site is a safe environment for teacher and students to be able to upload video projects. Teacher can only be sure the videos on the site and other material is safe for the classroom. I have used the site to upload a video presentation I was doing at a conference for holding place. Teacher Tube does offer many opportunities for teachers to gain content resources and a use for professional development.

Luckily, my school district does not block You Tube for teachers. I have incorporated videos from this site many times. In a lot of cases, I have made screen cast of the videos in advance to wiped out any ads. I do this because you never know what is going to pop up and next selection of videos when yours is done. You tube has a wide variety of any type of topic you might need. I generally play music in my classroom while students are working. In the past, I used Pandora for a particular station but it has ads and it can drain your phone battery. However, the group which I always played I found as a You Tube channel. So now I can just pull them up on my computers. Check them out the channel is called Vitamin String Quartet. They play current hits with no words. Students Love It.

I do have my own channel for my students which I have videos saved my different subjects which students can subscribe to as well. I follow different channels to find videos to use in my classroom. If you want to learn how to do anything just searched for a You Tube video. I had a problem with our coffee maker and found a fix to solve the issue.

I would have to say my favorite channel on You Tube is History Teacher. How can you top Lady Gaga giving history lessons?

5 Comments

Paulette Allard

10/11/2013 03:27:43 am

Christa,
I absolutely love the video you have embedded on Catherine the Great! I did not develop an interest in history until I was in college but if I would have access to resources like this in high school that would not be the case. I teach science and I use similar type videos for my classes but honestly I never gave it a thought that similar assets were out there for other disciplines. I also find it entertaining that you mention having only black and white videos made by the state when you were in school. I actually remember having films that had audio track on a cassette and you had to manually advance the film to the next slide when you heard a bell ding. As you said, it is amazing how far we have come in just a few short decades.
You also mentioned that you have your own channel with videos for your students, are these videos you have made or collected from others, or both? Have you ever made a video of your own similar to the one you embedded? If not, would you ever consider doing so?

Scarlet Collett

10/11/2013 06:23:21 am

Christa, I like how you use video to engage your history students. I also believe video is very important to help teach history. I even use it in math and especially in English. Some of the videos on grammar grab the attention of the students better than I can. I also use it in science all of the time. The phases of the moon is a hard concept for my students to remember. I don't want them to just memorize the phases, but I also want them to know them when they see them in the sky; therefore, I use videos to help reinforce their understanding. Why do you feel students are so engaged with videos?

Amy Bross

10/12/2013 09:58:12 pm

Like you, Christa, I can remember the videos and dare I say it, filmstrips that I watched in school. We certainly have come a long way. I, too, use videos quite frequently in my lessons as they are a great way to hook the students. The screencast is a neat idea to make sure that showing the video is safe. Have you ever tried safeshare.tv? It is another way to share the video online without ads or links and it is free. I never thought about using Youtube to play music. I am going to follow-up on your idea and try it at my school.

Ashley Horne

10/13/2013 10:06:40 am

Christa,
I too remember watching filmstrips in school. However, ours were only shown on special occasions or on a Friday. I too use videos in my class often. I have never played music for my students on YouTube, but I do play classical music for myself if I am hard at work. I find that using YouTube instead of Pandora or another free music site is better because there are no commercials. I will have to use it for my students and see how it works. Have you ever had your class make a video that you would feel was worth uploading? That would be interesting.

christa heath

10/15/2013 08:52:57 am

I say I am fairly new at the video making piece. I had students create paper slide videos last year. They are the easiest to do especially using an app called Splice. I love music and can play an instrument , but would never be at this level. Wouldn't it be great if our students were? Many of them are so creative , would this type of project not be a performance assessment. Isn't where we are going and would like them to be.
As far as engagement, I can still remember the day back in 1981 sitting on my couch waiting for the start of MTV( this was when they played videos). How many of our students are visual and musical learners. Videos open the doors to so many more learning styles.

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