Review- Blogger Summary #2
This week on Grow, Reflect, Share with Meredith Akers, Meredith discusses how to engage with your audience through the use of video. This blog post can be helpful for teachers or administrators engage with their social media following or can be used for teachers to engage with their class.
Meredith shares different resources you can use to create engaging videos. All the resources she shares are FREE- everyone likes free things so these are worth a shot!
The first resource Meredith shares is https://webcamera.io/ . This website allows you to record videos from a computer with access to a camera and microphone. Meredith uses this website to record her video newsletters. I send home a paper newsletters and electronic newsletters each week. Im sure many times the paper copies are thrown away and the electronic newsletters are skipped over. A video newsletters seems like an excellent idea to try to grab parents attention and share important information each week! She sends out a newsletter to her school community using this websites video recording. I love this idea! If I taught an older grade and students had their own devices I would use this idea to send a weekly message to them. It could be something simple as a motivational message to start the week, reminders, or a review of a lesson or skill learned in class in case they need a reminder at home.
Another resource shared by Meredith is Apple Clips. This is an app for only Apple users. You can use this app to do similar tasks as Web Camera but it has some additional features. You can add intro and outro music (my class would love this), text to videos, animations or poster and filters. I would like to try this with my students on our class iPads. Students could work in groups to record themselves reading, practicing sight words or reciting math facts. My class would love to share their videos to parents and i think parents would love to see their student's work this way. It could also be used to create a memorable gift for parents around the holidays or thank you video at conference time.
Web Camera and Apple Clips are my two favorite resources shared by Meredith but she also talks about using SnapChat (without the social aspect) and Quik to record videos if you are interested in checking out her recommendations with that.
Meredith gives great advice for anyone creating videos. This advice is great for myself but also great expectations to share with students when they create their own videos in class.
Her tips are:
1. Speak Clearly
2. Be Concise
3. Carefully Select Themes
4. Use Music
2. Be Concise
3. Carefully Select Themes
4. Use Music
I hope after reading this review and checking out MeredithAkers.com you are inspired to try using videos in your own classroom too! Have a great week!
Of course I think using music is a great teaching tool! As a music educator I have always found it much easier to set things to memory when a melody is involved. Of course, pretty music all of us learned our alphabet set to the melody of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (which was originally composed by Mozart FYI) and we probably remember our states through the song "Fifty, Nifty, United States". I can also remember as a child watching the animated series Animaniacs, as they used classical melodies to help you learn the presidents of the United States, state capitols and many more facts! Good luck with your new teaching tool!
ReplyDeleteMarc
Thank you for sharing your perspective as a music educator! Great reminder music is a tool we can use in all subjects and classes to make learning more fun and memorable!
DeleteHi Mary-Charles,
ReplyDeleteI had never considered the idea of sending out a video newsletter, but I agree that it would be a great one. While I don't send home a weekly news letter, I do send home progress updates. I usually remind the families I work with to check student grades, but now I'm considering the idea of screencasting and sending a video link that describes how to log into our learning management system. I can see how using video would be a hugely accessible advantage for many; I think lots of people are visual learners, and having a video is likely more meaningful than a piece of paper. Like you point out, I suspect mine end up in the trash. :)
I also think the "rules" for video are a good point. I think a video is only as good as it's quality, and a big key is speaking clearly and not rambling. This tends to be a challenge for both myself and my students.
Thanks for sharing this idea. Have a great rest of your week!
Maggie
I, like Maggie, have never considered the idea of using a video newsletter. I think this is fantastic though. It would be much more engaging for parents and students alike. In my fourth grade classroom, we don't currently send home newsletters. I think it could be a cool idea to have a few students create a video as a newsletter about the upcoming week, an event, or a new topic. It would be especially good for students to consider the rules suggested while making the video, as most of these are important when presenting in any form. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of having students create their own newsletters! This would be a great idea to help them take charge of their learning. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteI love the idea of a video newsletter! It might be difficult if your families don't all have access but I think it's a great personal touch that would really engage parents and students. Half the time I find my newsletters somewhere on the classroom floor or in the hallway!
ReplyDelete