Documentary Heaven

As you may know from previous posts, I am a big fan of documentaries.  I think these types of films are wonderful for education because of how they focus on a certain topic to convey facts and/or opinions.  They can be wonderful debate starters, eye-openers, etc.

Documentary Heaven is a portal for finding documentaries that have been posted online.  Use this site to search through subjects, or by keyword to find a film that fits your lesson.  There are over 2100 videos to search!  I found a neat science video about important astronomical discoveries, hosted by Bill Nye.  Click here to watch it!

None of the videos are hosted by the site, meaning that they may be Vimeo, YouTube, or some other video site, but they are all collected here for easy searching and viewing.  However, this does mean that if your district blocks YouTube, you will not be able to watch some of the videos.

I also want to caution you that there may be some inappropriate or controversial videos featured on the site, so make sure you check it over carefully before displaying anything to your students.

Storyline Online, stories from the stars!

Looking for an extra addition to that book you're reading to your K-2 students? Check out Storyline Online! This site is offered by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and brings video of your favorite actors reading childrens' books for free!

Check out Ernest Borgnine (The Dirty Dozen ....or to the kids, the voice of Mermaid Man on Spongebob Squarepants) reading Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, or watch Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) read A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon, or watch my personal favorite, Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, read by Betty White!

The stories also show the illustrations in the books that are accompanied by some animation.  You can also look for suggested activities to go with each book.

Check out the site today to see if the book you are reading is in the list!

Snag Films: Documentaries To-Go

Hello everyone.  A while ago I posted about a site where you could find documentaries online (freedocumentaries.org).  Today I wanted to share with you another one I have come across: Snag Films.  This site also hosts a bunch of documentaries that you can search through and play online.

In the words of the site creators themselves,
"SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we’re also a platform that lets you “snag” a film and put it anywhere on the web. With a library of over 1500 films, and rapidly growing, you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. We make it easy for you to find a film that shines a light on a cause you care about. You can then open a virtual movie theater on any web site, so any one can watch your favorite SnagFilms for free."

I think documentaries are a great way to spark discussion in the classroom and raise awareness of topics that may or may not be covered in the typical "nightly newscasts".  Plus, you are able to embed previews of the movies from the site on your blog or website (but you must be on the actual site to watch it in it's entirety).  You can also save your spot to come back to later (without an account!) if you run out of time watching the movie...most of them are an hour at least so you will need to do this!

Here's one I found:

Watch more free documentaries

Check it out and see what you can find. :)

Free Documentaries - Inspire Knowledge, Debate, and more.

I wanted to share today's site because I think it can be the source of fuel for a great many debates in a high school classroom.  Have your students watch one of these documentaries on Free Documentaries.org and shake them out of their "blissfully unaware" status quo.

This site offers free steaming (and promised future download capabilities) of a couple hundred documentaries.  There are several topics including history, popular culture, politics, and more.  I have previewed several of the videos and I found that I only had to watch one advertisement at the beginning.  I was unable to watch the movies in their entirety, but I assume that they are uninterrupted by ads for the rest of their duration. 

I was excited to see that well-known documentarian Michael Moore also had some of his films listed on the site, but I was unable to get them to play.  However, that does not mean that the others are of a lesser quality.  Why not use the film Santa's Workshop in your economics class to provoke discussion on cheap labor and it's moral costs.  Maybe you would use the 6-part mini series Hitler's Holocaust to give your students a chilling story of what happened during that terrible time.  Or have your health class take a look at The Tobacco Conspiracy and have a debate over business vs. general good.

What's great about documentaries, is you can use them to show first hand facts.  If you are using them to spark a debate, you can show how not all issues are black and white, or the news you hear at 7:00 each night might not be the whole truth.  Share these with your students and see what you can spark within them.

SchoolTube - Videos for Education

Hello all!  Boy, what a busy month it has been!  Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been so crazy in both districts!  Anyway, I have a great post for today! 

SchoolTube is a fantastic place to find educational videos that won't get blocked by Youtube filters.  Ads are minimal and, as far as I've seen so far, safe for school...no dating advertisements that is!  You can browse through featured videos and search for videos that are specific to what you are teaching.  The videos are made by students and teachers around the country and uploaded here to be shared.  Comments are controlled so you won't get any cyber-bullying here.

You can sign up for a FREE teacher account so you are able to favorite videos and upload videos that you or you students made.  This is a great way to share movie projects and photo slide shows that your students have made.  Even your students can create accounts, but it is up to you as the teacher to moderate all video submissions before they can be seen on the site.

There is so much available on this site!  But what's great is there are plenty of video tutorials to help you figure out things along the way.  Check it out!

Creative Writing Video Prompts

Ok, forgive me for getting into the Halloween spirit before it's even October, but I just can't help it!  I found this video today while browsing for Halloween lesson ideas to post for the month of October.  I got so excited about how you all could use this that I just could not wait for Friday.

Anyway, I found this video on the UK site, teachers.tv.  It's basically the United Kingdom's version of Teacher Tube.  The video explains it's use in the first couple minutes and then supplies seven different story starters that are dramatic and a bit creepy....but I guess that depends on where your little writers take the story!  Watch the video below and let me know what you think!  Maybe you could even come back and post a student's story!

Awesome online science with LHS Kids

The first site of the year is a branch of Lawrence Hall of Science from the University of Berkley called LHS Kids. 

LHS Kids has some really great places to check out.  Your students can do an online experiment like testing materials for cleaning up oil spills and learning about the functionality of different bird beaks.  Students can follow along with the experiments, fill in their answers, and even submit their final findings for comparison with other kids using the site!

Students can also check out pictures and videos of ongoing exhibits at the museum, take online quizzes, play arcade games, listen to whale sounds, and learn about interesting animals.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

National Geographic Provides Beautiful Pictures, Video, and More

National Geographic has a fantastic site where you can access pictures, videos, games and more.  There is so much to do on the site, I could literally go on forever.  But, here are some of my favorite features:


Daily News:

Stay on top of what's going on in our world with stories detailing new discoveries, fantastic locations, and much more.

Photo of the Day:

Browse through amazing pictures of animals, people and places.  See a new one every day and browse through past pictures and favorite picks.


Create puzzles from pictures:

Choose from a wide variety of pictures to make into jigsaw puzzles. This works great on an interactive white board!


Videos:

Watch videos on current events, animals, or world cultures. (I am SO jealous of the guy in this video!!)





NOTE: I was lead to this site by using Thinkfinity! (The site I highlighted yesterday!)

Xtranormal is xtra awesome

Good Monday morning.....

If you need a little pep for the beginning of your work week, I suggest you check out Xtranormal.  Xtranormal is a site where you can create your own mini movies using pre-made 3D characters and sets.  When creating a movie, you can control camera angles, actor expressions and movements, and background sounds and music.  Have your students re-create a scene from history or a book they just read.  You can sign up for a free account and have your students work from that to save their work and progress OR you can download the desktop software called State.

Here's one I made in about 5 minutes:




Here's one featured on the site:

Go crazy! Have fun! Create!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well now, I'm a bit ashamed of meself fir not postin' fir ya.  But I might as well make up fir it now?

...Ok, ok that was supposed to be me speaking in an Irish brogue to you, hence the mispellings.  But now on to business! As you may have determined, today is St. Patrick's Day!  I have some neat links for you to check out:

Want to know a bit more about Ireland?  Apples for the Teacher has an awesome eBook that was created by a 6th grade class in Ireland as well as read aloud by the students of that class.  You can learn about Ireland (just a note however, that this was made in 1999) and listen to the wonderful accents of Irish children.  Listen and learn here.

Another link, or links rather, that I wanted to share are some clips of the Chicago River being dyed green to celebrate everybody's favorite Irish holiday.

MSNBC
Time lapse photography video done by artist Anthony Stewart

60 second recap...Literature explained

Sorry I have missed the last few days...it's been very busy!  Anyways, have a happy Friday with this site:

I have found a really neat site for all you English teachers out there! 60 Second Recap breaks down and explains plot, symbolism, themes, motifs and other aspects of several pieces of literature.  The host is a fast-talking, humorous 20-something who really does a good job of bringing complex works such as Hamlet, Animal Farm, and other classics down to the level of your high school students.  What's great is that everything is described so that it can be understood by those students who may be struggling with the concepts and reading, AND it's all done in 60 seconds!

Don't see the book you want described?  Submit a request and check back each week to see if your video has been added.

EdVideo Replacement

I'm hoping that by now, you have all heard that Powermedia Plus a.k.a. EdVideo is being yanked at the end of the school year.  So, we are forced to find a replacement. Vital New York is another site that (for now) is free to teachers.  Here, you can download or view videos in your web browser.  It works a lot like EdVideo, it's just not as extensive. When you go to the site, click on the Test Drive to see if there are comparable videos to what you have been using from EdVideo.  I'll follow up with details later about signing up for a real registration.

Vital New York