I have done observations while teachers used United Streaming clips for parts of the lesson - some more successful than others.
Today I researched clips to use for our monthly character themes and clips to use for team building. I found that there were several clips for most of the character themes (respect, responsibility, cooperation, acceptance) that could be used for any K-5 grade level. They even had teacher guides and quizzes for them!
I thought the clips for team building were a bit "dorky" but that could just be me. I will look some more to perhaps find one to use at our welcome back staff meeting just to show that I can do some of this : )
I tried the "Assignment Builder" to save videos for character themes. But, after I got the first step done (the administration page) I tried to get to the next step and it kept telling me that I had to save my page...which I kept trying to do. I started over twice thinking I had done it wrong and got hung up in the same place. I finally just got frustrated and gave it up.
I DO believe United Streaming can be an effective supplement that has a high probability of improving learning because:
- students like to watch videos - tv, videos, game boys, etc. are their generation!
- the videos are short and to the point (which fits the "requirements" of our movie sheets
- they are 'teacher friendly and easy to use
- they have teacher resources such as curriculum guides and quizzes available
1 comment:
I know that within the district I am seen as something of a geek, but I haven't figured out how to use the Assignment Builder, in part because I have been too busy to really soak in the tutorials, and also because I am somewhat intimidated by the process and all that I don't know. I agree that there's lots that's good there, but I liked Jan's remarks about it: "you can't just turn on a video and expect kids to learn anything." Must integrate and extend the learning.
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