Integrate Online Videos into Your Classroom by Allisyn Levy

As I’ve been planning out my upcoming units for Social Studies and Math, I’ve found one of the most valuable resources to be online videos. The better educational website make subjects come to life and motivate my students to want to learn.

Channel 13 offers a wealth of resources on its’ website. Many school districts already subscribe, so check with your tech person to find out if you already have access to an account. It is worth creating your own personal account, since you can plan videos to watch with your students in advance by creating playlists.

When I use United Video Streaming, I create a new folder for each different unit I teach. I don’t have to go searching for videos year to year, and am easily able to share my resources. EdOnline offers tools to create interactive assignments and assessments based on pre-made templates that are often ready to use.

EdOnline is a must-have resource for Pre-K through high school educators that help bring topics in every subject area to life.  There is even a video Test Prep section! If you are not already familiar with it, there is a teacher-friendly training center.

EdOnline has also added an image library, so you can find and save incredible primary documents to share with your students. For teachers who have multiple classes, EdOnline allows you to create and save media, assignments, and lesson plans, and organize it by class. You are also able to share those playlists with your colleagues. So, say if you were planning a unit on Native Americans. First you’d do a simple keyword search and then you can quickly and easily pick out the images and videos that sound interesting and appropriate for your students. Your can download the media in advance (or just add them to your “media lists”), and find additional resources that go hand in hand with each video.

BrainPOP.com and Brainpopjr.com are another multimedia favorite in my classroom. BrainPOP offers short, animated, kid-friendly videos on virtually everything! BrainPOP is geared more towards 3rd – 8th grade students, and the new (and free!) brainPOP Jr. targets K – 2 students. On both sites, short videos are organized by subject matter. BrainPOP.com offers a much more extensive list of videos. BrainPop Jr. is relatively new and growing quickly. They’ve been adding at least one new movie each week, and the company is receptive to requests if you don’t see a video on a topic you need. There are fun characters that explain common topics with a sense of humor aimed at kids (and adults). After each video, you can choose to play a quiz (in three different formats, interactive, review, or printed). There are also many additional interactive resources that extend learning on each topic.

In my classroom, we love playing the interactive review quizzes like a game show (“Come on down!”). I know the material sticks with my students, because they reference it weeks and months after we watch the video. When my fourth graders were recently struggling with the concept of division, I turned to brainPOP!

Online video is an invaluable resource that I use for every subject area. If your school/district does not have a membership, talk to your tech person. It is absolutely worth it!

Do you have a question or comment about this article? E-mail Allisyn.

If you are interested in taking an online course, make sure to read Teach Yourself with Online Videos by Carl Sannito.