I wonder if it were to be possible to teach an entire class of funny you-tube videos and clips. Honestly! I mean, I know it basically defeats the entire concept of "hands-on teaching" but I we watched a couple of YouTube videos this week and well they were absolutely hilarious and frankly just straight up engaging. I wonder if we could figure out a way to engage students about learning, like the way I felt when watching a clip of a teacher with a baby's voice dubbed over it. I think we laughed and watched about 2 or 3 clips with full enthusiasm. Again, I'm not really sure there was educational value in such a YouTube clip but if a teacher could find ways to locate funny/clever YouTube clips to begin a lesson I think its a great way to start a lesson. It promotes laughter and enthusiasm and will overall create a positive atmosphere. I decided after seeing the enclosed YouTube clip, that I was maybe going to put a daily YouTube video into my classroom routine. It can be educational or not, just something that is witty and clever that brings an everyday student enjoyment to walk into a classroom and begin a lesson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdxEAt91D7k

We also had 2 teachers come in and discuss with us further ways to use technology in the classroom. We specifically worked on using a picture editing website : http://pixlr.com/. This was really interesting and promoted individuality and creativity  The task was simple and yet broad in how far each person could take it. What do you think matters? Chose a word, chose a picture that represents it and bedazzle it using this picture editing website. It was something completely out of my comfort zone in terms of copying, pasting, downloading, cutting etc, but nonetheless I learned something new that day. It was also great because at the end each student was able to present their word/photo and why they chose it. the amount of creativity in the classroom was ridiculous! We got some creative up and coming teachers out there. LOOK OUT!

ADIOS blog world!

-E