Thing #20

YouTube and Beyond

When I read thing #20 I knew exactly what I wanted to share on my blog. Although knowing exactly what I was going to post I still spent over an hour watching videos. YouTube is like a bag of potato chips, you can't just watch one! So now that I have totally lost the last hour to watching videos I now can get back to this post. 

The clip I chose is a shortened version of the video I find so motivating and powerful. The video clip is of Dr. Randy Pausch and his "Last Lecture".  I highly suggest that if you have the time that you watch the full video on YouTube. I can not watch this without crying but at the end I also find myself motivated. I will use what Dr. Pausch has said to motivate my own students to do their very best. I only hope that I can do Dr. Pausch justice by motivating my students like he has motivated so many others. I think that this video is a little too much for elementary students but I think it is great for older students especially seniors about to embark on their next journey in life. 

I think that YouTube and TeacherTube are great resources that should be used in the classroom at any grade level. I think short little video clips that reinforce a lesson that is being taught is a great tool. Students love videos and it is a great way to grab their attention in the beginning of a lesson or as a summary to a lesson. I know as a student I was elated when the teacher rolled the TV cart into the classroom! 

I tried GameClassroom as my other video application. I thought this was great for the classroom because it has different grade levels from K-6 to choose from. The website had tabs for videos, worksheets, lessons for math and ELA. It seems like a great resource to be added to any K-6 classroom for independent or pair work on the computer. The only thing I wish it had was tools for science and social studies as well but it looks like it is more geared toward Common Core with Math and ELA. Overall I am impressed with this website and videos for students.