VIDEO MEDIA

YOUTUBE

YouTube. Need I say more? YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine. Packed to the gills with short flicks on anything and everything one can think of, this is an invaluable resource for any ELA classroom.

CNN10NEWS

CNN10News provides 10-minute overviews of the daily news with fun quizzes and facts thrown in the mix. CNN10News is geared towards students but is great for any person wanting a quick recap of recent news. I have seen this news channel played in English and Social Studies classrooms alike. It is a great discussion starter. Require students to take notes during the video and then have them write a brief response / summary of the day’s news in their writing journals. This is a great opening activity for any humanities classroom.

TED TALKS

TED Talks cover a range of contemporary and educational issues presented by academics and advocates from all walks of life. TED Talks are popular because of their short length (a maximum of 18 minutes each) and because of their focused content. English teachers use TED Talks often to complement topics discussed in the classroom. Any number of activities can be centered around a TED Talk – note-taking, video questions, a debate, a socratic seminar or simply a discussion. Turn on subtitles while watching a TED Talk to promote the learning of new vocabulary words.

STUDY.COM

Study.com is an essential resource for both teachers and students. There is a video to support almost every lesson. I joined study.com when studying for the CSET and have found it to be an outstanding resource to quickly learn any number of subjects and topics. This site has over 4,100 videos geared towards middle school, high school and college students on subjects such as science, math, business, psychology, history, English, social science, humanities, Spanish, ACT prep, SAT prep and teaching credential prep. It also contains countless lesson plans for teachers on all of the subjects mentioned above. This is a great resource for learning, gaining ideas and adapting lesson plans to suite each individual teacher’s needs. Unfortunately, Study.com is a paid service ($20 a month).

UDEMY

Udemy has many great free video tutorials on Social Science, Math, Science, Humanities, Teacher Training, Language, and Test Prep. There are also many great videos on technical topics. Not all of the videos are free, but they are usually reasonably priced per video. It is a site worth checking out.

LYNDA.COM

I joined Lynda.com while earning a Web Development certificate last year. While it is a paid service ($30 a month), many library memberships will offer the subscription free. Lynda.com is a great video tutorial site for learning technical skills such as app creation, coding, web design, business development, photography, video creation and digital art creation. Teachers may find this site helpful to learn skills which will help them communicate with their students.