Well, despite being handed a huge heaping helping of hidden curriculum the past few weeks, I am here. Obsessively overusing amazing alliteration in attempts to alleviate anxiety...but here nonetheless.
Alright, now that I've somewhat gotten myself to focus, oh, wait, just lost it...(staring at the screen, tapping my index fingers on the keyboard with major attitude...minutes...focus...eh, let's talk about You Tube. Not my original intent, but this video will make me smile. Let's watch it together, shall we?
I've had that one saved for a while. It makes me happy. Well, not happy...that's not quite the right word. It makes me calm. One might even say calm, cool, and collected...minus the cool part. As I was highlighting the words to italicize them, I hovered over each one, wanting to replace them with words more telling, more accurate...but I didn't. I don't know if they exist. For all the good and all the bad, all the certain and uncertain, insightful and shallow...for all of the ways that life makes us feel, sometimes words are not enough. For myself, I use art as my second voice; I use it as a way to reflect something in me that a mirror cannot.
Once I'm actually in a classroom, my job will consist of showing students the technical aspect of creating that mirror, how to look at it, what to do with it once they do, and how to voice its meaning to the rest of the world (if they so choose). I am not, nor will I ever pretend to be a master of all trades. I think using instructional videos in the classroom would help students grasp disciplines that fall within my weaker skill-set. I, not so secretly, love the idea of learning with my students. I think that there is a lot of value in that practice. Perhaps I'll address that in a later post.
With adequate previewing and screening of videos prior to use in the classroom, I think that resources like this are very beneficial. Below I have listed some links for quick reference.
TeacherTube
YouTube
K-12 Education on YouTube
Top 22 Sites Similar To YouTube from iSoftwareReviews
(In response to your comment on my Thing #19)
ReplyDeleteYou so get me! Songs pop into my head all the time. And I was sitting there looking at that assignment, like, "Did I not just do this?" And since I had to wait for approval....... I really had nothing else to type at the time.... :)