iTunes U comes in handy once again!

WGBH in iTunes U has a bunch of great video podcasts for K-12. They also break the videos up in different ways so anyone can find just what they need. I watched a few of the videos in the K-5 section. I watched "Observe Clouds," "A night in the coral reef," and "Solar Eclipses." The first video is about watching how clouds move and change shape. The second video is about what the different inhabitants of a coral reef do at night time. The third video explains what happens during a solar eclipse and shows actual footage of one.

These videos, and others like them, are great resources for teachers. They have videos available for many different subjects and grade levels. This way teachers can find videos appropriate for their classes. Videos can be extremely helpful when teachers are trying to explain a certain concept. They can introduce the topic, play the video, then continue explaining it and give the students activities dealing with the concept. I know from my own experience in the classroom that videos usually helped the concept we were learning come alive. Videos are great for things you want to show students that is not possible through actual experience. For example a school in the U.S. probably can't take a field trip to African to see the desert wildlife, but they can watch a video about it and get a good representation.

I could definitely use the three videos I mentioned in my future classroom. The first is great because it talks about watching clouds which students can do on their own time. I could use this video to introduce a science lesson on clouds or weather. We could then talk about the different kinds of clouds and how clouds are formed. The second video could also be used in a science lesson. This video is great because it introduces and explains some great vocabulary words like herbivore, and luminescent. The third is great because it explains and shows and actual eclipse which many student might not get a chance to see in real life. This would be a great video to show the student as they are learning about space.