Blue Sofa Media » Home-School Connections

YouTube.com/Teachers: A place for your class and student videos

Matt — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:57:48 +0000

YouTube.com just announced their new YouTube.com/Teachers area designed specifically for teachers to use in schools and with students. According to an article on Mindshift.com:

The new teachers site is part one of two big initiatives on the part of YouTube geared towards educators. In the next couple of weeks, a bigger announcement will be made about huge changes that will address many of the concerns teachers have had about using YouTube videos (you know what they are). Stay tuned for more news in two weeks.

Getting Started

Under the Getting Started Tab on the front page of YouTube.com/Teachers you can find several areas that will help you as a teacher get started.

Create a Channel

This section contains a screencast walking you through the 5-step process of creating your own channel. There are also text based directions to help you.

Ways to Use YouTube

Under the Getting Started tab on the front page, there is a helpful list of 10 Ways to Use YouTube in Your Classroom:

Spark lively discussions
Organize all the great video content you find
Archive your work
Allow students to dig deeper into a subject
Get struggling students up to speed, and push strong students ahead
Review for upcoming exams
Create a YouTube center in your classroom
Create quizzes to accompany videos for instant feedback
Create interactive video quests
Flip your classroom
With each of these suggestions there are example videos and “how to” directions to help get you started.

Types of Videos

This section explains and provides samples of different types of videos you or your students can create:

Screencasting
Live
Animated
Student created videos (of all of the above types)

Video Production Tips

This section offers Video Production Tips and tutorials that include:

Lighting tips (including green-screen)
Audio

Tools

This section offers a selection of web-based, Mac-based, and Windows-based tools that you or your students can use to create screencast videos.

Privacy

This section explains the three levels of privacy YouTube videos can have:

Private
Unlisted
Public

Do you plan on using YouTube.com/Teachers in the classroom? Leave a comment below!

How To: Making Online Sign-Up Forms

Matt — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:00:17 +0000

So many of the procedures we use to contact and make appointments with parents are inefficient and extremely time-consuming for both teachers and parents. One very helpful way to integrate technology into your classroom is by using technology to make more efficient use of your time. Even if your school is committed to staying in the 20th (or even 19th) century, doesn’t mean your classroom has to be. Use technology to make things easier, quicker, and more user-friendly for all.

Between photocopying, collecting, making more copies, collecting, checking-off, making more copies, collecting, checking-off, and organizing, sign-ups (for conferences, field-trips, volunteers, and so on) can be a real headache. Below are two free services, (designed with teachers in mind) to help ease your burden when it comes to sign-up forms.

Two Free Online Sign-up Services

SignUpGenius.com is a FREE online tool for creating and managing group sign up lists. If you frequently coordinate snack lists, car pools, potlucks, or volunteers… we want to help you simplify your life! Read more about the free features of SignupGenius.

VolunteerSpot.com enables you to coordinate parents and volunteers the fast, easy way with FREE online sign up forms and volunteer scheduling.

Watch this short video tour of VolunteerSpot.com:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Practical Use

I would use these services to schedule:

conferences
class potlucks
class and school volunteers
volunteers for field-trips and class events
volunteers bring snacks
parents coming into the class to demonstrate their work, hobby, or some other skill
any other time I need to schedule multiple people for something

Considerations

More and more people have access to the web at home, work, or on their mobile phones — however, not everyone does. Knowing that some of your parents do not have access to the internet should not stop you from trying to use one of these services. Even if only 50% of your parents have computer or internet access, you will still save time.

Successful parent teacher meetings, parent teacher conferences, and parent teacher interactions of all kinds depend on having an effective relationship with parents. SMART is a step-by-step process that successful teachers use to establish effective parent teacher relationships. Are you interested in learning more about establishing effective parent teacher relationships? Click on the link below to learn more about SMART.

If you try one of these services in your school or classroom, leave a comment below.

Back to School Night Potluck

Matt — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:59:42 +0000

During the 2009-2010 school year I hosted a potluck as part of my classroom’s Back to School Night! I had wanted to do this for years and I was thrilled with how it finally worked out! It was so successful I will always host a Back to School Night potluck from now on.

Reasons for a Back to School Night Potluck

My initial reasons for a Back to School Night potluck were simple. I believe that anytime you have food at an event, more people will attend. Beyond that though, I really did have several important reasons for wanting a Back to School Night Potluck:

Community Building
So often Back to School Night is an event where parents are asked to be a passive and quiet part of an audience. Parents are expected to listen and receive information from their child’s teacher and then asked to leave promptly when the time is up. Usually the teacher (and perhaps the principal) have so much information to share, there is little time for the parents to chat with the teacher or other parents. My goal as a teacher is not only to help students form into a community over a school year, but for parents to build relationships with one another as well. I believe this is another way I can facilitate and support student success. Sharing food and eating together is a great way to begin this relationship building process. Something significant and meaningful seems to happen when people share food together.

Food helps people feel welcome and special. By having a potluck, I allowed as many people as wanted to contribute and feel a part of a special evening. The tone of the evening would have been much different if I had provided all the food and drinks. If I had provided all the food, I think the parents would have felt as passive recipients, rather than as active participants. True community takes active participation and helps instill purpose and pride in members. By asking everyone to pitch in, more parents felt as if they were a significant part of the evening — and they were! Requesting a small effort on their part really does help people feel more invested in an event like Back to School Night.

Cross-Cultural Sharing
Because I asked for “family favorites” we got a wonderful selection of food from across the globe. The community I work in is extremely diverse with people literally from around the globe. Sharing food is another way of sharing one’s culture. Eating one another’s food and talking with each other is a low-key method to begin the process of building a community of parents. Just as my students work together and support each other, parents who know each other, will call on one another for support, advice, and encouragement.

Relieves Stress
School nights are always busy nights with kids and parents rushing to and from work and other activities and obligations. By having food at Back-to-School night hopefully it was one less thing families had to do that night. Often families are rushed to get to back to school night. If they know there will be dinner at Back to School Night, it may help give them a little relief. If anything, it is just more enjoyable to attend any event when you know there will be some delicious food present.

How did the potluck work out?

The Back to School Night Potluck worked out really well! I actually had the highest turnout ever for Back to School Night. I had 28 out of 32 families attend our classroom potluck and meeting! Some parents only visited for a few minutes, but they came(!) and brought food! Everyone seemed to relax a bit and enjoy the variety of food and drinks!

What would I do differently next time?

When I do this again, I may actually begin the potluck even earlier so people can spend more time hanging out, eating and chatting with one another. I like the intimacy of my classroom, but it would also be fun to eat in a slightly larger room. If there was more space I might actually set up strategically placed name tags to encourage people to mix it up a bit. If I did this, I would also have an activity that each table would need to complete. This would just be some fun, low-key way to get people talking with another while they eat.

Back to School Night Potluck Letter

Here is a copy of the note I sent home with my students. Below you can download this letter in a variety of formats.

Save the Date!

Room 18’s Back to School Meeting is at 6:00 – 7:00 pm

Come eat dinner together before Back to School Night! Room 18 is planning a special potluck before the regular meeting. We will use this time to eat, relax and “hang out” together.

When: Wednesday, September 16

Time: 5:30 – 6:00 is Room 18’s Back to School Potluck

(The regular Back to School Meeting is at 6:00 – 7:00pm)

Back to School Night is a very important night. I really look forward to meeting all of you. Come get answers to all the questions you have about our classroom, how the room works, and all about how you can be involved in our learning adventures this year! Come early and eat dinner too!

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Please let me if you are coming!

Student Name: ______________________________________

Parent Name: ____________________________ Phone/Email: __________________

___ I will attend Back to School Night Meeting (6:00 – 7:00 pm)

___ Yes, I am also going to come early (5:30-6pm) for Room 18’s potluck.

___ Yes, I can bring a dish (family favorites are encouraged)

dish: _____________________

___ I can bring: (drinks, plates, napkins, etc.) _________________________________

Download my Back to School Night Potluck letter
PDF, Word, Pages ’08 and ’09

Effective Parent Teacher Relationships

Using Technology to Improve Home School Connections

Matt — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:09:57 +0000

On Saturday, February 6, 2010 I will be presenting a workshop at the East Bay CUE Cool Tools for Learning VI Conference.

East Bay CUE is a professional organization of educators dedicated to supporting the use of technology in education. East Bay CUE is a local Computer Using Educator (CUE) affiliate representing Alameda and Contra Costa counties in California.

My workshop, “Using Technology to Improve Home School Connections,” is for those teachers who want to learn how to use free and inexpensive tools to improve home-school connections, increase parent involvement, and boost student achievement. At this workshop, learn how WordPress, FeedBurner, YouTube, Twitter, Google Docs, iMovie and a camera can enhance your teaching. Also, learn to create, set-up and use a free and powerful website and create video tutorials and video messages for your students. (Mac/Windows)(K-8)

Register here if you are interested in attending: East Bay CUE Cool Tools for Learning VI

Stay tuned for another post with workshop resources.