YouTube+5.1

Like many teachers you may be asking "what are some new and fun ways I can teach my students". It is often difficult to implement multimodal forms of teaching that are suitable for the diverse groups of students you encounter in the classroom. Many have already heard of the popular website called YouTube actually millions and millions of people use it on a daily basis whether it is for entertainment of to spread words around about an idea or belief. So why shouldn't teachers use it as a tool to teach their students. Students are already familiar with the website and it is plenty easy to use. Teachers can use it as a supplement to their teaching to give a visual representation of the information they are trying to portray. For many students this helps to retain information because they are learning it in an entertaining way and actually seeing what is being discussed. Here are two examples of what could be done - Math, Step by step for problems, the teacher could upload for those students who need the extra time to rewind and pause - Science, Social Studies and Language arts often need to be visual for students to understand. Seeing things like animations of cells, living conditions of pioneers or concepts of a story help the child visualize what they are learning -videos that have subtitles are good for those who cannot hear, many videos on YouTube have closed captioning so they arent too hard to find.

[] This link above shows some ideas about how youtube might be used in the classroom. What is also neat about the link is that it is a YouTube channel made specifically for teachers by teachers. It can be used to find new ways to teach students and gain ideas from others around the world!

By: Edward Balfour