Tuesday, August 24, 2010

YouTube Tools for your Class

If you show YouTube videos in your class or use them for presentations here are some helpful YouTube tools.

SafeShare.TV  will remove distractions and offensive material found around YouTube videos.


Youtube video before SafeShare.TV
YouTube video after SafeShare.TV











TubeChop Allows you to select only the portion of the video you want to show.  TubeChop will create a new url and embed code for you to share the portion of the video you chopped.

KickYouTube  If you don't have access to YouTube at school, or you want to have a backup in case you don't have internet access then you need KickYouTube.  It gives you the ability to download a YouTube video to your computer.  Change youtube to kickyoutube in the url to download a video.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Current Events in the History Class.


Should we include current events in our history classes?  I think so, and I think we should do it in a prominent way.

It seems that we focus so much on historical content in our classes that we neglect to emphasis current events.  In most classes I have observed, current events are usually addressed maybe once a week.  Typically students are required to find a current event article they are interested in, write a summary or answer some generic questions about the article and bring the article and summary/questions to class so it can be discussed.  It's a good plan, but many times the discussion get pushed to the side so that we can get on with the business of covering content.

My goal this year is to include current events in my class on a regular bases so students will be more informed of what is going on in the world.  I hope to use the current events to make connections between the present and the past.

Here's a partial list of resources for Current Events.

The Learning Network: Teaching & Learning with the New York Times
Text, video and lesson plans are available.

The Week in Rap
A weeks worth of news rapped every week.  New episodes come out on Fridays.  The next new episode with be Sept 10.

CNN  Student News
CNN Student News is a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program for middle and high school students produced by the journalists and educators at CNN.

Channel One News
Short daily video of news headlines.

TweenTribune
TwineTribune finds age appropriate news articles for Tweens (8-14) and provides them with the opportunity to comment on articles in a moderated web safe forum.  Does require registration.

Newseum: Today's Front Pages
The Newseum displays daily newspaper front pages in their original, unedited form. Some front pages may contain material that is objectionable to some visitors. Viewer discretion is advised.

Some of the descriptions were taken directly from the website linked.  The picture is from DRB62's photostream