Video instruction

I look forward to talking about using video for instruction on Wednesday, February 25, at 5PM, Eastern Time. It’s something that has become such an integral part of my practice that I don’t often pause to think about how it impacts teaching and learning at New Canaan High School.

One of the things I love about doing these webinars is that it makes me pause and reflect on our program, and how to improve it. You will often hear me say in a webinar, “I’m not too proud of this…” or, “I wish I could figure out how to…” It’s in those moments that you all pitch in, and as a community we develop solutions to the challenges we face.  I love that.

So I’ve outlined the webinar to answer the whos, whats, whens, wheres, whys, and hows of video instruction. I realized a while back that I needed help with the how part. I know how we use video at New Canaan High School, but there are so many other creative uses! So I reached out to someone with great ideas. Emerging tech regulars may remember that I interviewed Emily Valenza in May 2014 for There's an App for That! 50 apps in 60 minutes webinar, and Emily shared her use of Koma for a video project with her elementary students at Kingsley Montessori School in Boston, MA, where she heads up the arts department and teaches K-6 students. I interviewed Emily again for this webinar, and I will include what she shared in Wednesday’s webinar. I am confident that you will love her creative ideas. Here is that interview:


edWeb.net/emergingtech Webinar #47 - 50 apps in 60 minutes - Emily Valenza from michelle luhtala on Vimeo.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a few great instructional video projects. They follow in no particular order:
Printz Honor winning author, Vlog Brothers co-creator, and Nerdfighter extraordinaire John Green, launched the Crash Course site three years ago. My colleagues on the New Canaan High School faculty  - several who had (sadly) never heard of John Green – absolutely LOVE these videos!



New Canaan High School students created this amazingly powerful anti-cyber bullying video. Wow!



Emily attended the Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools in Los Angeles this January, where she saw Stephanie Castle, an AP Biology teacher at United Nations International School (UNIS) in New York City, present her use of video as an assessment tool. This inspired Emily to adapt the project for her learners, and here is the result.


hundertwasser demo - full from Kingsley Montessori on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago, I was lunching with the New Canaan High School social studies department (my lunch peeps), and I was delighted to hear them discussing their use of Amy Burvall’s Lady Gaga/French Revolution video. I spent some time with Amy a few years back at Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference in Boston, and I reached out right away to relay the conversation. Here is the video in question.



Finally, I am sharing a video I use with my juniors. This is a great sub-plan lesson for any second semester social studies teacher whose students are working on the research paper. It is accompanied by this in-class activity.



I hope to “see you” on Wednesday!

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