Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Video in the Classroom


During my student teaching placements I came across a few YouTube videos that quickly became my favorites! I was teaching in a grade ½ classroom so one thing that came to my attention quite often was their need for a little movement break! I think that this is only one of many good reasons that we can use video in the classroom, but definitely one of the ways I used YouTube the most often in my first placement!

(I will warn you now that this song tended to stick in my head for hours after playing it- so listen at your own risk!)


The second video that I wanted to share was also used in my first placement but for a different purpose. I think we can all think back to rhymes that help us to remember certain things, whether it be for math tricks or spelling rules. I thought this video was pretty cute and helped the students when they were trying to learn how to add doubles as a math strategy.


I think that video in the classroom is extremely useful for many different reasons depending on the age of your students and the class that you’re teaching. It can be used as an activating strategy, a complimentary video to a lesson you are teaching, movement breaks, catchy songs to help kids learn, and so much more! Another way that I used video every day in my placement was to read my students a book at the end of the day. (I know it sounds like I am being lazy- but I would read to them myself in the mornings! The end of the day book was my time to get their Zippy’s and anything else ready to go home- it also served as a great reinforcing tool! The students knew that they would get to listen to a longer book if they were quicker at cleaning up the classroom, putting their chairs up, etc!)

(Many websites make you pay to use this site- this one is through Perth & Union District Library so there is no charge…After all of our talk on proper use and sharing online- I worry that maybe this is breaking a rule?? Leave me a reply if you think I am crossing some lines!!)

I do think that as a teacher I would love to be able to allow student or class made videos. I think there are many fun ways (like Kid Snippets) that they could play around with video but there are also many other reasons to bring it into the classroom. I think it is a very real world type of skill for them to have- many YouTube videos are teaching something, whether it is how to play guitar or how to bake a cake. Why not teach our kids how to share knowledge that they might have with others? I think this is another one of those areas that fall under the “let’s teach them properly” column. I think it will happen regardless- why not teach them in our classroom?

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