YouTube for Teachers

I recently checked in on the YouTube Teacher Channel to see if there was anything new and what I found is something very useful for teachers using YouTube in their classroom.  On the YouTube Teacher Channel you can now search by subject and grade level to find videos that will fit with your curriculum standards and class lessons.  Check out the image below to see how nice and easy it is to find videos that have been hand selected by teachers for your classroom.  In addition to the video library, users can also access content about how to start a YouTube channel as well as other tips for getting started with YouTube in the classroom.

Now What?

You may not be ready to start recording your lessons and "flipping" your classroom but YouTube is a great resource for bringing concepts to life and engaging your digital natives.  If you are using YouTube already, be sure to check out "A Cleaner YouTube" which is a Google Chrome extension for removing the clutter around your video.

Gooru

Gooru is a "search engine for learning" where free open content from the web is tagged and categorized for search by teachers and students.  When searching through the content on Gooru it is good to know that the results have been vetted and sorted according to validity and popularity.  When I first reviewed Gooru last year it contained only resources for math and science.  They have since updated their resources to include history content as well.  Also new to the site is a library section where you can see all of the resources broken out by subject rather than having to search for what you need.  You can even save your own resources from around the web to a "drawer" and create your own collections for sharing on the site.



Now What?

Gooru is a great resource when planning a lesson for your class or sharing with students for their own exploration as a supplement to your course.  If you are looking for a way to aggregate all of the resources you are finding on the web this would also work well using the "quote it" feature that you can install to your browser.

Sponge Lab

Sponge Lab is a beta site which has been developed by a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers passionate about science education. The purpose of Sponge Lab...make available cutting-edge technology and stunning interactive media for everyone, regardless of fiscal constraints.  Exploring around the site as a guest, I found Sponge Lab to be easy to use and full of resources.  The content available for searching includes graphics and images, games and simulations, animations and video, case studies, lesson plans, and quizzes.

Watch the short trailer below about Spongelab Interactive...




Now What?

Sponge Lab looks to be an excellent resource for science teachers as well as students completing a project or looking for some information about a variety of science topics.  I liked the ability to search by subject area as well as by topic.  Sponge Lab is kind of like Googling for information without having to Google it because everything you are looking for is in one place for you to explore.  One of the resources that I found previously and bookmarked was the Build A Body simulation which is great for students learning about the body's systems.