Five Easy Ways to Use YouTube Videos in Your Classroom (Tip #5 is my favorite!)

Even if you aren't a very "tech-savvy" person, don't let that scare you.  There are so many ways in which you can implement technology into your classroom.  

Using videos from YouTube is an easy way to add the technology factor to your teaching!

There are so many great videos out there on YouTube.  In a busy teacher's life, you don't always have time to preview videos to check that they are safe for students.  However, you can subscribe to your favorite channels to create a playlist so that you can feel confident that these are quality videos.

As always, if you are unsure about where a video originates or if it is not from a channel you trust, preview it before showing it to your students.

(Side note...I am a LIST person.  I love lists...all kinds of lists.  That includes folders on my computer and in my Google Drive. They might or might not be color coded by subjects with files inside of files...)

When I show my students a video I like, it's very simple for me to copy that URL and paste it in a Word document inside a folder for the subject we are learning.

Next year, the work is done.  All of those great videos are simply a click away, already organized by subject and ready to go into my lesson plans! 

Here are five easy ways to use YouTube videos in your classroom.

1. Whole Group

Using an instructional video is a great "hook" to introduce a new topic.  Students can watch a catchy song, a funny story, a read-aloud, and more.  

It's hard for teachers to always be witty and entertaining.  Let the video do it for you!

2. Remediation or Enrichment

Now that you have those URLs saved in an easily accessible place, assign the videos to students via Google Classroom.  (If YouTube videos are blocked for students like they are in my school, first add them to safeshare.tv).

Students who need remediation on a subject will listen and watch the video through their Goggle Classroom accounts (with earphones of course!).  They can watch the video as many times as needed, whether they are at home or at school.  It's also a NO-PREP assignment from you and differentiated to fit individual needs. (I consider that a win-win!)

Similar assignments can be made for early finishers and/or students who need enrichment.  Students who have a firm hold on the concept can watch videos that are more advanced to learn new concepts and ideas.

3. In a Private Facebook Group

Another favorite way of using YouTube videos in my classroom is not really in the classroom.  Instead, I form a private Facebook group for parents at the beginning of each school year.  It's such an efficient way to communicate with parents!  I like to post the instructional videos in the Facebook group so that parents can see what we are learning in the classroom.  I especially like to post videos that show those tricky Common Core math strategies to teach the parents along with the students!

4. Indoor Recess

It happens to everyone at some point in the school year.  You've had all of the indoor recess noise you can handle, and you just can't take ONE. MORE. DAY. of being indoors.  Put on an instructional video for the students to watch.  (My students LOVE the Liberty Kids videos.  Bonus points because these also gave us some quality social studies learning!)  This is an especially great idea if you happen to have a sub on an indoor recess day.

Now, to my last and FAVORITE tip...

5. To Teach an Entire Subject from Beginning to End

WHAT?  Yes, you heard me correctly.  

Sometimes, (okay, honestly almost all of the time), it's just so dang HARD to fit everything into that 50-minute block.  Introduce, instruct, assign practice work (meaningful yet busy), work with small groups, and do a conclusion for the day's lesson. 

I developed lesson plans my students could work on at their own pace for the entire week using videos.  They had instructional videos to introduce the concept, songs to help put an idea in their heads, online games to play for practice and to solidify the concept, stories to listen to, online informational texts to read, writing assignments, and more.

All videos are placed into safeshare.tv so that ads are removed and I know they are safe!

My students LOVED the assignments.  They were engaged.  The work was rigorous.  The learning was taking place in the modality they had been raised with.  

I LOVED this way of learning because I had time to work with individual students and small groups of students to remediate or challenge them.  Lesson planning was simple.  I had more time to focus on other areas in my classroom that needed my attention.

It was a win-win for all of us.  

Now that I'm retired, I can focus on making more of these and sharing this exciting way of learning in the classroom.  (Drop a comment or send an email if there is a particular concept you would like to see in this kind of unit.)

Click here if you would like to see more of these units.

Whether you use my ready-made units or you use videos to assign in Google Classroom for your students to learn at their own pace, you will love gaining the time to work with small groups!

There you have it: five easy ways to start using YouTube videos in your classroom.  (Was #5 your favorite, too?)

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Using technology to make teaching easier, that's just...

My Kind of Teaching!