I get to watch lots of online videos in my search for new additions to my Teaching Videos site. The site now has almost 2,500 educational videos, so I thought that I would share some of my favourites… the most inspirational… the most incredible… the most beautiful… and the most entertaining. Here they are:

1) Try to Do – This wonderful video tells a great story about a baby squirrel who tries to climb a big wall. It is a fantastic way of encouraging children to think about perseverance and determination, as well as exploring ways of helping others.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2) I’ll Be Gone - This video could be used to discuss how sounds and music are made… watch the rhythm of each sound played out in the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) Steve Spangler Science – Steve has a huge collection of online videos which teach Science in very exciting ways. Lots of his experiments can be tried at home or in the classroom, but some (like the one below) are definitely not appropriate!

Click here to view the embedded video.

4) Landscapes: Volume Two – This is a beautiful video which features stunning time-lapse video of landscapes in Arizona and Utah. It would be great for inspiring descriptive writing about settings and locations.

Click here to view the embedded video.

5) The Water Cycle stop motion – I love stop-motion animations and we make lots of them at school too. This video is a great animation about the water cycle which is perfect for Science lessons:

Click here to view the embedded video.

6) The Balloon Lady - Can you write a story about the Balloon Lady? Why is she so cheerful? How does it make the other people feel to be given a balloon? What happens to the balloons after the end of the film?

Click here to view the embedded video.

7) Kuroshio Sea – This looks incredible in full-screen HD on an interactive whiteboard. I’ve shown this to classes a number of times and the reaction is always ‘WOW!’.

Click here to view the embedded video.

8 ) The Highwayman – Lots of schools use ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes as part of their Literacy lessons and this animated video is a great accompaniment for any work using the book. Don’t forget that there are more teaching ideas linked to The Highwayman on my Teaching Library site.

Click here to view the embedded video.

9) Test Your Awareness – This extremely popular video is a great test of children’s observation skills!

Click here to view the embedded video.

10) Haerskogen – These amazing little creatures could be used in the classroom in lots of ways. Can your children write a description of them, or a story about their lives? Could they design their own creatures in Art, DT or ICT? Could you use them in Science for work on habitats and adaptation?

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are your favourite online videos?

Here are five new resources that I’ve found this week:

1) Metropolis II video (shared by Alec Couros) - Here is an amazing video of a ‘kinetic sculpture’ which has thousands of cars racing around an enormous track:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Could you use this in the classroom to… estimate the number of cars on the track… calculate how many cars pass each point in a given period of time… identify the most common colours of cars… discuss how the machinery might work… explain how gravity makes the cars slide down the ramp… discuss which materials would be the best for the surface of the track… design and build your own track?!

2) School Clip Art (shared by Mrs Angell) – This site has lots of fun clip art that can be used free of charge for educational purposes. It looks very useful for adding illustrations to your lesson plans, resources or whiteboard slides.

If you need more clipart, don’t forget to follow Bev Evans’ blog where she is posting new clipart every day!

3) Map of Outdoor Learning Experiences (shared by Peter Richardson) – This fantastic map is a collaboration between teachers all around the UK. It is a place where they are sharing places where they have taken classes for educational visits for different areas of the curriculum. The map is now expanding into other countries too and you can add your own suggestions easily. Find out more on Peter’s blog.

4) Teach Parents Tech (shared by Tom Barrett) – This site is intended for people who want to provide technical support to their parents in a quick and easy way. However, it has lots of tutorials which could also be used in the classroom.

5) Storynory (suggested by On the Classroom Wall) – Storynory publish free audio stories (with accompanying text) every week. You can subscribe (for free) to receive the latest stories by email or using iTunes and other services, and then use them in your classroom. Use the buttons at the top of the the site to explore all of the available stories by different categories.

What have you discovered this week? Leave a comment to share something with others…

Lots of teachers have been sharing their ideas and expertise through video tutorials which are easy to follow and are really helpful. Take a look at some of these and follow along yourself!

• Bev Evans has created a set of fantastic video tutorials which will help you to make your own clip art and classroom resources. You can view one of them above or browse through Bev’s channel on Youtube to see them all.
• Bev also gave a fasinating live demonstration of how she makes different clip-art in an ‘Elluminate’ session last week. You can watch a recording of this and try it out for yourself. Could you demonstrate these skills to the pupils in your classroom? Don’t forget to follow Bev’s blog, view her ‘Communication4All‘ site and the new clip-art that she shares every day!
• Ian Addison has recently set up a new site called Under Ten Minutes where he (and other teachers) will be sharing their video tips and tutorials which last no longer than ten minutes… perfect for your own professional development or for sharing at the end of staff meetings. You can also follow this site on Twitter.

www.undertenminutes.com

• Don’t forget that Kevin McLaughlin is still posting his 30 second video tips for teachers every day.
• There are also lots of video tutorials in the ICT and Professional Development sections of Teaching Videos.

Watch some of these wonderful videos and learn something new. Could you make your own video tutorials for other teachers?

A number of teachers are running 365 projects where they are sharing fantastic ideas and resources every day this year. Here are two of my favourites:

Bev Evans – Bev is creating and sharing her wonderful clip-art. Some are linked to particular subjects, topics and themes, while others are useful in all areas of the curriculum. A great resource for brightening up your class resources / displays / interactive whiteboard slides. Follow Bev on Twitter at @bevevans22.

http://bevevans22.posterous.com/

Kevin McLaughlin – Kevin is planning to post 30 second video tips for teachers every day in 2011, enabling everyone to have some fantastic professional development ideas all year round. Follow Kevin on Twitter at @kvnmcl.

http://in30seconds.posterous.com/

Are you aware of any other 365 projects that might be useful for teachers? Share them in the comments…

O2 Learn is a new site (still in beta) which is a growing video library of revision lessons, from teachers across the country. The site aims to give every 13-18 year old in the UK access to a huge choice of mini-lessons which can help them with revision or to catch up on some subjects that they can’t remember or might have missed.

By uploading your own videos, you could also win prizes for yourself and your school. Twice a month, the highest rated, most watched video, wins an award. The teacher wins £2000, and their school wins £2000.

Then, over the summer of 2011, a panel of education experts will choose eight finalists from the group of 18 two-week winners (from 1/11/10 to 31/7/11). These 8 finalists will then be eligible for winning a big prize of £50,000 for themselves and £100,000 for their school!

Following my previous posts about education resources from Channel 4, they have been busy making another set of fantastic resources for schools to use. Here are some of the latest additions:

• Alien Ink (graphic novel, videos, social media) - A graphic comic tackling teen issues e.g. Knife crime, peer pressures, bullying etc. This is perfect for PSHE and citizenship lessons.
• Battle of Britain: Squadron 303 (flash game) - A fun and historically accurate game about the Polish Squadron 303 in the British Airforce during WW2. This is great for history lessons, but also citizenship as it teaches about diversity in the British armed forces as far back as the 1940s.

• Battlefront 2 (TV programme, online videos, game) - A second series of this TV programme and website featuring 11 campaigns run by young people on themes from autism, to equal pay, to lowering the voting age to education in Ghana. A fantastic resource for PSHE and citizenship teachers.
• SuperMe (games, videos, quizzes) – This teaches young people how to “live life better”, how to be more resilient and take control of their happiness. Inspired by the Resilience program and featuring celebrities young people look up to such as Pixie Lott, Speech Debelle and footballe Shaun Wright Phillips, this is a great site full of videos, games and quizzes to engage people in citizenship and PSHE issues. Expert psychologist advice also makes this relevant to psychology classes. Here’s an example of one of the videos:

Lots of videos from these series are also featured in the PSHE section of Teaching Videos.

How could you use these resources in your classroom?

Twitter is an amazing way to discover new and interesting information. Here are links to some of the things that I have found recently:

• Design 2010 – An online exhibition celebrating the achievements of students in Design and Technology. Shared by Gareth Davies.
• Aviary Education – Aviary, who produce lots of fantastic online tools, are now offering a free service for education users. Shared by Paulo Simões.
• History Pin – A digital time machine that allows users to pin their own old photos onto modern Street View scenes. Shared by Claire Jones. Here’s a Youtube video which explains more:

• Diary of an Ofsted Inspection - Michael Shepherd recalls his recent experiences with Ofsted! Shared by Simon Haughton.
• Open ClipArt Library – An archive of clip art that can be used for free by anyone. Shared byProfteresa.
• Augmented Reality – If you’ve heard what augmented reality is, but you’re not quite sure what it does, watch this Youtube video, shared by CommonCraft:

What have you found on Twitter recently?

Image – Run!

Here are links to some useful video sites which can help you and your colleagues to learn new ICT skills. Many of the videos also suggest possible ways of using different tools in your classrooms:

Teacher Training Videos – Russell Stannard has created a large collection of videos to help teachers to learn how to use a wide range of software and online resources.

www.teachertrainingvideos.com

Learn it in 5 – This site contains a library of how-to videos, produced by technology teachers, for the purpose of helping teachers and students create classroom strategies for today’s 21st century’s digital classroom. Thanks to Mandy Barrow for sharing this via Twitter.

http://learnitin5.com

ICT Video Help – This site, created by Phil Bagge, offers a wonderful set of videos which cover lots of different software.

www.ictvideohelp.co.uk

Why not share these sites with your colleagues in your next staff meeting?

The BBC’s Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips provides rich audio-visual material for use in primary schools, secondary schools and colleges. The short videos have been selected to match the curriculum. They can be used in many ways; from the stimulation and engagement of students to the delivery of very specific learning points. The material is drawn from the Learning Zone and elsewhere in the BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips

The clips cover all primary and secondary subjects / topics and they are easy to find using the search tool, or the topic browser. This is a really useful resource to check whenever you’re planning!

StoryVault, which launches soon, is an online video library that allows people to upload – and preserve for future generations – their own remarkable stories and memories of friends and families. The site is aiming to become an invaluable resource for students of history all around the world.

The site has launched with over 250 diverse stories already saved for posterity. Celebrity followers include historian Dan Snow, comedian and Oxford History graduate Al Murray and clinical psychologist Professor Tanya Byron.

StoryVault encourages users to interview a friend or family member, usually on video, and to upload the content to the site. Content can either be marked as “private” so it’s accessible only for chosen friends or family, or it can be made available publicly.

www.storyvault.com

StoryVault also gives users the opportunity to store their memories as part of a family-tree. For instance, clicking on the name or picture of “Grandma” will immediately take the user to a set of all the clips of interviews she has given. This can then be shared on a personalised family tree with other family members, so they can add their own content – effectively capturing all the family’s important memories in one place. The structure of StoryVault’s family tree can also be used as an organiser for other groups of people such as clubs, society-members or companies.

Examples of some of the content on the site at the moment, includes:

• Former boss of Phonogram Records Tony Powell telling how his world was turned upside down when Bob Geldof came into his office one day and said “we’re going to make a charity record…..”
• In 1966 Derek Cattani was working as an FA photographer and had already spent a lot of time taking photos of the England World Cup Squad training in the run-up to the finals tournament. He recalls hanging out with the team in training and early matches and playing tennis with Geoff Hurst
• Henry William Allingham was born 6 June 1896 and was, at the age of 113 when he gave this interview, the oldest verified living man in the world. Allingham is the oldest ever surviving member of any of the British Armed Forces and the oldest surviving veteran of the First World War. He is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland of 1916. Here he describes (as best he can!) his remaining memories of the Battle of Jutland (now deceased)
• Roger Fuller was a 30 year old constable with the Metropolitan Police at the time of the riots. In this interview he talks about events of April 1981 – the Brixton Riots and how the police tried to handle the situation.

How could you use this new resource in the classroom?