I don't know how I've been completely unaware of Teacher Tube for so long--I love that I can find online resources that I know are acceptable! Our YouTube was unblocked this year, and with the ACTIVboard, I was able to find a number of outstanding things to help in the classroom--everything from an audio and visual playing of Tupac's "Dear Mama" to lectures on Donne to a clip of Liberace, who was referenced in a novel we read. It was fantastic! This year, I'd like to use clips to help me introduce some of our more difficult, dated novels, such as Heart of Darkness and Dickens. I think that the setting is so important in so many of the novels that we read, and that our students have such a hard time imagining it or placing themselves in that time or place. So, I searched for things to help with that. Here's what I found--it somehow wound up on another post. It's a "book trailer" created by a librarian in Laredo and I think it does a wonderful job of making the book seem creepy enough that students will be excited to start reading it.
I think one of the best things about YouTube/TeacherTube is that we now have a million clips at our hands to help illustrate or enhance what we're teaching. Our students are such visual and aural learners that it will so help them with what they're reading about, and we don't have to show entire films. Can't wait to use this throughout the year!
Catie, I agree with you 100 per cent! Teacher Tube has so much to offer that most of the time I find one thing after another, and it is hours before I get back to what I was doing originally! Obviously, I am distracted easily! With your ActivBoard, you can show the clips to advantage. I once worked with an elementary school teacher on locating appropriate "scenery" for fairy tales. She, like you, wanted something to bring the literature "closer" to her students. You are just a great teacher--so innovative and creative. I admire you.
ReplyDeleteI too am excited to learn of TeacherTube's existence! Though YouTube has served me well this past year, I am always fearing that something inappropriate will pop up at the end of the video. Hopefully this will quell that fear!
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