Thing 9

Online videos...

Ok, I have been looking at videos of songs singing the quadratic formula. My favorites include singing to the tune of pop goes the weasel, but the following original is my absolute favorite!



I would love to use YouTube in class to show how to do math problems, and ways to remember the water cycle, but of course YouTube is blocked at my school too. I will have to do a better search at SchoolTube because I do think that is available.

Just this week, I was in a department meeting and another math teacher was showing us how to incorporate videos into our school website. If I can do that, then I wouldn't need the students to go to the actual YouTube site, they could see them from my site. I guess it would be mainly for them to get extra math homework help, and they would be viewing this from home where they could go and watch YouTube anyway.

I think it would also be great to give the option for students to do video reports, whether it be of them or drawings like are shown on the 23 Things site to explain the different topics learned in class. I know the students could just as well make the videos out of school and post them on YouTube for me to grade at home where I could watch YouTube, but is it right to require students to complete projects that they cannot do at school because it is blocked of forbidden?

How do we encourage our students to use these wonderful technological tools in school (because they will use them outside of school) and still keep it "clean" and appropriate? On SchoolTube, who chooses if the videos are deemed appropriate, and how long does it take for something to be "out there" after it is posted?

And just as with blogging, it is important to teach what are appropriate videos to make and post.