I have to admit that I am one of those people that never watches videos from YouTube. Sometimes I might check it out if someone tells me that I have to watch this certain video on YouTube, but I never think to check it out on my own. So, exploring YouTube was fun and I could see many ways to use it in the classroom.
The first videos I watched were for my 8th grade Chemistry class and they were both pretty good. The first one was Dr Carlson’s Science Theater on States of Matter. There are quite a few videos from Science Theater that I could use during the year to help reinforce concepts and the students get tired of listening and looking at me all the time.
The second video I watched from YouTube was Introduction to Chemistry by Simon Tayler. It was an overview of the concepts we cover in 8th grade science and could be good to show at the beginning of the school year.
I also found this funny video of a student rapping about the atomic structure and atomic theory. It would definitely be a fun way for the kids to show their knowledge of a subject. And other kids might remember it because the brain tends to be able to remember things that a sung and rapped better than just a boring old lecture.
The ‘how to’ video I found was on how to fix a flat tire. I know that there are times that I might not be able to find someone to do it for me. It seemed like something I should be able to do but on the side of 400 in the rain might be a different story.
For fun I watched a video that the kids told me was cute, Charlie Bit my Finger-Again!. I thought it was amazing how many people watched the video and also how many people did funny remixes of it.
I did not have very good luck on TeacherTube. But I will keep trying. Overall I enjoyed this Thing and look forward to doing more research on both YouTube and TeacherTube.
