Tag: Educational Videos

All About Venice – Another Post Inspired by my Daughters

A few days ago while driving home from seeing a community theater’s musical production of The Little Mermaid one of my daughters asked me “why does Venice have canals instead of roads?” It was a question that I was happy to answer. The question also inspired me to revisit some items on the topic that […]

All About Batteries – And How to Preserve Your Laptop’s Battery Life

This week TED-Ed published a new lesson that addresses a topic that just about everyone who owns a cell phone has wondered about at one time or another. That question is “why do phone batteries get worse over time?”   Why Your Phone Battery Gets Worse Over Time explains how lithium ion batteries work, why they […]

How to Get in the Flow

In a world in which there is no shortage of digital distractions it can be hard to get into the flow of working a project, studying, or simply sitting and thinking for a while. That’s why I like what Engageable is trying to do, why I appreciate the work of Cal Newport, and why I […]

Journey to Mars – A Collection of Resources for Teaching and Learning About Mars

Earlier this year SciShow Kids published a series of four videos all about Mars. To wrap-up that series SciShow Kids recently published a compilation of all of those videos in one video titled Journey to Mars. I’ve embedded that video below.  The compilation video above doesn’t include an earlier SciShow Kids video about Mars. That […]

These Are the Effects of Talking to Yourself

I’m taking the week off to do a bunch of fun things with my kids. While I’m away the most popular posts of the year so far will reappear.   I spend a good deal of time talking to myself. I often do this while riding my bike. Sometimes I do it to motivate myself […]

Amusement Park Physics Lessons

We’re going to Story Land today! It’s a fairy tale themed amusement park for little kids. It’s perfect for my daughters and their cousins who are coming with us. Going to Story Land is a good reason to share some science lessons that can be taught through the context of amusement park rides like roller […]

How Fireworks Work

It’s Fourth of July weekend and despite what feels like never-ending rain in Maine we heard some fireworks being shot off last night. Our dogs did not appreciate it. My kids thought they were neat. That prompted my youngest to ask about fireworks work. If your kids are also curious about how fireworks work, take […]

Short Lessons About the 4th of July

Everywhere I look this weekend I see signs and mentions of 4th of July weekend. My daughters (ages 5 and 6) have noticed them as well. That inspired my oldest to ask while we were driving home from Santa’s Village yesterday afternoon, “what’s 4th of July?” Of course, I was more than happy to explain […]

Food Science Lesson – What Makes Wings Spicy

Last week my post about the science of barbecue got some good traction on social media. To start this week I’ll continue the food science theme by sharing a PBS Learning Media lesson about the science of hot wings.  Some Like It Hot is a PBS Learning Media lesson that features a Compact Science video […]

The Science of Barbecue

A couple of evenings ago I finished watching the second season of Barbecue Showdown on Netflix. While watching it I picked up some good tips that I’ll be using when I cook foods in my smoker this summer. In fact, one of them I’ll be putting to use when I cook on Sunday. And as […]

Kindergarten and the Summer Solstice

Tomorrow is my oldest daughter’s last day of Kindergarten. We’re going to celebrate with ice cream! We might also stay up and play outside a little later tomorrow. We can do that because it won’t get dark until late in the evening as it will be the longest stretch of daylight of the year. That’s […]

Why We Have to Wear Sunscreen – Another Lesson Inspired by My Daughters

A couple of days ago I shared 22 lessons that have been inspired by my daughters’ questions. Here’s another one that popped-up yesterday, “why do we have to wear sunscreen?” It’s the question both of my daughters asked when I told them they had to wear sunscreen to play outside yesterday afternoon.  The answer of […]

Fahrenheit vs. Celsius – Another Lesson Inspired by My Daughters

On the way to school this morning my older daughter pointed out that it was 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Her younger sister responded by asking, “what’s Fahrenheit?” To that her older sister said, “it’s the temperatures we use in America.”  The conversation between my daughters prompted me to point out that our Canadian friends and most […]

Skim vs. Whole Milk – Another Lesson Prompted by My Daughters

On Friday afternoon when I picked up my youngest daughter from preschool she promptly informed me that she now only likes 2% milk and not whole milk. That was her reason of the day for not drinking milk.  My daughter’s proclamation reminded me of a lesson that I shared years ago before I even had […]

Designing a Mars Rover

A couple of weeks ago I published an all about Mars post that included a video from SciShowKids titled Meet the Mars Rovers! SciShow Kids has published a follow-up to that video. The follow-up is titled How to Design a Mars Rover! How to Design a Mars Rover! explains to elementary school students how scientists […]

EconEdLink’s Most Popular Economics Games of the Year

Over the years I’ve referenced hundreds of EconEdLink’s resources for teachers. That’s because EconEdLink is a great resource for any teacher who needs ideas, lesson plans, games, and other resources for teaching economics lessons. On the site you’ll find resources for everything from teaching basic personal finance lessons to elementary students through resources for teaching […]

The Effects of Talking to Yourself

I spend a good deal of time talking to myself. I often do this while riding my bike. Sometimes I do it to motivate myself to get over a hill. Other times I do it because I’m puzzling through a problem and talking aloud to myself helps with that, I think. All that to say, […]

All About Mars

Earlier this week SciShow Kids published a new video titled Meet the Mars Rovers! The short video explains to elementary school students what a Mars rover is, what they’re used for, and some basic background information about Mars. The notes below the video on the YouTube page for it include links to lots of helpful […]

Short Video Lessons About Memorial Day

Next Monday is Memorial Day. Students often confuse the origin and purpose of Memorial Day with those of Veterans Day. The following videos can help students understand the origins and meanings of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a two minute video covering the origins of the holiday in the […]

This is Why We Make Irrational Decisions

The Psychology Behind Irrational Decisions is the title of a TED-Ed lesson that I needed to rewatch this morning.  The lesson focuses on the role of heuristics in our decision making processes. Of course, to understand the role of heuristics in making decisions students first need to understand heuristics. The lesson does a good job […]

The Science of Gardening

Every year we plant a small vegetable garden in our backyard. Some years it does better than others. There was a year when it seemed like we were picking seven cucumbers a day. Last year the cucumbers didn’t do well, but we had cherry tomatoes by the gallon!  Our kids like helping in the garden […]

Good Resources for Teaching and Learning About Income Taxes

There are two things that I always write about at this time of year. One of those is Patriots’ Day and the American Revolution. The other thing is income taxes. In this post I’ll share some resources for teaching and learning about income taxes in the United States. Tax Help for High School Students A […]

Get Inspired by These Videos Made by Students

The C-SPAN StudentCam contest winners were announced last week. The annual competition asks middle school and high school students to produce short videos addressing a current topic in U.S. government and politics. This year the challenge was for students to create a video about what they would make their first priority if elected to Congress.  […]

A Round-up of Pi Day Resources

Pi Day is on Tuesday. Last week I shared a few resources for teaching and learning about pi. This post is a summary of those resources and a few more. 

Two Options Explained

A few weeks ago I published a short video that I produced as an introductory explanation of stock options. Dabbling in options trading is a hobby of mine as is producing various types of explanatory videos. Earlier this week I made a follow-up to my video introduction to stock options. This new video explains the […]

Short Lessons and Activities for the Start of Spring

The snow in our yard is at least two feet deep right now. This was concerning to my youngest daughter who asked me on the way to school, “can we have spring if it’s still snowy?” My answer, of course, was that spring will still start even if our yard is buried in snow. That […]

All About Maple Syrup

The change to Daylight Saving Time coincides with the saving grace of the end of winter, the start maple syrup season! The days are getting a little longer and the sun is a little higher in the sky during the day. That increased daylight and warmth the sap in maple trees is starting to run. Some […]

“But It’s Still Sunny Outside!” – Short Lessons on Daylight Saving Time

Last night my daughters said, “but it’s still sunny outside” when we told them it was time for dinner. It was then that I remembered that daylight saving time begins next weekend. So next weekend it will be even brighter outside when we start dinner. Not to mention that next Sunday my daughters who already […]

Great Art Explained

Despite the efforts of my friend Maggie, I don’t always understand what makes one work of art great and a similar-looking one fit for display in a Hilton Garden Inn. I thought about that last weekend when I came across a YouTube channel called Great Art Explained. The channel seems to have been made for […]

167 Math In “Real Life” Lessons

Math in Real Life is a series of 167 TED-Ed lessons and TED Talks. The “real life” context in these lessons isn’t things like “how calculating percentages helps you be a frugal shopper.” The “real life” context found in the videos in the Math in Real Life series is broad in nature. For example, you will […]

“Why Does He Do So Much Sniffing?” – Another Question from My Daughters

  If you read this blog regularly, you’ve probably picked up that I love dogs. So of course I was excited years ago when  TED-Ed published a lesson about how dogs “see” with their noses. And I enjoyed it again this week after my youngest daughter asked me why our dog does so much sniffing. […]

A Good Series on How Computers Work

We use computers every day. But how many of us actually know how they work? Sure we know how to use the software, but I’m thinking about the hardware. How does that aspect of your computer work? Code.org has a good video series that addresses that question and more. Through watching the videos in How […]

Stocks, Bonds, Options, and Economics

A couple of days ago I published a short video that I made to explain stock options. In planning to make that video I went back through my archives to look at some related resources that I’ve shared over the years. Here are some highlights from my archive of resources for teaching and learning about […]

A Brief Explanation of Options

As kind of a hobby I dabble in options trading (I made $6 last week). I mentioned this to a friend of mine last Friday and he, like many other people I’ve talked to about it over the years, said, “I’ve heard of that, but I don’t what it means.” That conversation inspired me to […]

Concise Explanations of DNS & IP

One of the things that quickly became clear when I started teaching an introduction to computer science course for high school freshmen was that while they are happy to use the Internet, they don’t really understand how the Internet works. I suppose the same can be said for lots of adults too. The Domain Name […]

Learning About Languages and The Mysteries of Vernacular

Last week I wrote a blog post titled Two Lessons for a Wicked Cold Day. After publishing that post it occurred to me that readers who are not familiar with New England may be wondering why I chose the word wicked. Sure enough, someone emailed me last night to ask what I meant by “wicked […]

How Birds Stay Warm in Winter – And How to Help Them

For the last few days it has been exceptionally cold here in Maine. Birds and squirrels keep showing up at our bird feeders despite the cold or perhaps because of the cold. While looking at the birds at our feeders yesterday my youngest daughter asked how the birds stay warm enough to not freeze their […]

Two Lessons for a Wicked Cold Day

Over the next two days here in Maine we’re expecting some of the coldest temperatures and windchills of the last 50 years. As we say in Maine, it’s going to be wicked cold! It’s going to be so cold that kids will stay inside for recess and we’ll leave the water dripping in our faucets […]

Get Ready for Groundhog Day With These Short Lessons

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day! Those of you who teach pre-K or early elementary grades you may have some students who are as excited about it as my pre-K and Kindergarten daughters are. If that’s the case, you may be interested in watching the following videos that provide brief explanations of the origins of Groundhog Day. […]

What Are Carbohydrates and How Do They Impact Your Health?

One of my goals for early part of 2023 is to set a new personal best time at a bike race that I’m entered in for the third year in a row. To do that I’m watching my diet much more carefully than I typically do at this time of year. Like many people, foods […]

Short Lessons on Stocks and Bonds

A few nights ago I had a long zone 2 ride on my indoor bike trainer. Whenever I have one of those workouts scheduled, I queue up a favorite movie to watch. Last night I watched The Big Short starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, and Brad Pitt. For those who aren’t familiar with […]

Best of 2022 – Periodic Table of Videos

As I do at this time every year, I’m taking the week off to ski and play with my kids, shovel snow, and generally not think about work. I have some of the most popular posts of the year scheduled to republish this week. New posts will resume in the new year. For years I […]

All About Reindeer

My daughters are very excited for Santa and his reindeer to visit our house tonight. We’ll be leaving out snacks for him and his reindeer. Last year they spent weeks asking if reindeer are real. Since then they’ve learned that reindeer are real, but only Santa’s reindeer can fly.  Last year I let my daughter […]

Short Lessons on How Snow is Made

My oldest daughter is super excited to start her third year of ski lessons this winter. I’m also very excited about it because I’m going to be giving ski lessons at our local ski mountain. While we’ve had some snowstorms this winter, we wouldn’t have nearly as much area to ski on if it weren’t […]

How a Generator Works – And Other Short Lessons About Generating Electricity

Last weekend we had a huge snowstorm that knocked out the electrical power in my whole neighborhood and in about half of our town. In my neighborhood we were without electricity from Friday night through Monday afternoon. Fortunately, we have a portable generator that provides electricity for the essentials in our house and we have […]

“Dad, It’s Still Autumn” – Corrections from My Daughters

Those of you who have been following my blog with regularity over the last couple of years have probably seen my informal series of posts titled Questions from My Daughters. Those posts have been about answering the questions that my daughters (now ages five and six) ask me. Questions like “what do worms eat?” and […]

How Airplanes Fly – And Other Good Resources for Learning About Flying

I’m currently reading Bill Bryson’s book, One Summer: America, 1927. The book is centered around significant events of that summer including Charles Lindbergh’s crossing of the Atlantic. Airplanes have come a long way since Lindbergh flew in the Spirit of St. Louis, an airplane that he couldn’t see out of when looking forward. The physics […]

How to Read Music – And 17 Other Lessons About Music

Music Snippet is a Google Docs add-on that I’ve written about in the past. It’s handy tool for writing music in Google Docs. A reader recently asked me about it which prompted me to search my archives for other music-related resources. One that I came across was a TED-Ed lesson that explains the fundamentals of reading […]

The Science Behind My Favorite Thanksgiving Foods

American Thanksgiving is one week away. The traditional Thanksgiving meal is one of my favorite combinations of foods. My mouth is watering just thinking about turkey, potatoes, squash, stuffing and cranberry sauce from a can (I love the “shlop” sound the cranberry sauce makes as it pops out of the can).  This year I’m in charge of […]

Fun Facts About Turkeys – And a Digital Turkey Project

We frequently have wild turkeys come through our backyard. And almost as frequently one of my dogs will chase them until they fly off. I was recently telling a friend about this pattern and he said, “I didn’t know that turkeys can fly.” That’s actually a pretty common response if you don’t live where wild […]

A Small Collection of Resources for Teaching and Learning About Veterans Day

This Friday is Veterans Day. If you find yourself looking for some quick lessons to review with your students, here’s a small collection for you.  ReadWorks ReadWorks is one of my favorite places to go when I need information texts about a holiday to share with students. ReadWorks has a good collection of Veterans Day articles that […]

Why We Procrastinate and Tips to Stop Doing It

I meant to write about this a few days ago. TED-Ed recently published a new lesson that tackles an issue that most of us have dealt with at one time or another. That issue is procrastination.  Why You Procrastinate Even When It Feels Bad is a TED-Ed lesson that explains why people procrastinate. It does […]

The End of Daylight Saving Time is Near…for this year

This coming Saturday night is the end of Daylight Saving Time for this year in North America. I’m excited to turn the clocks back one hour because it means the sunrise will be earlier in the day. As someone who gets up at 5am or earlier every day and lives in a northern latitude, I […]

The Difference Between Stocks and Bonds

Last week I finished reading Liar’s Poker written by Michael Lewis. The book is partly about his experience as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in the 1980’s and partly about expansion of the bond market itself during the 1980’s. The parts about how the bond market evolved to compete with the stock market in […]

The Common Cold Is Still Here! – Why Is It So Hard to Cure?

If you watched the video that I published on Wednesday you can hear me beginning to lose my voice. That’s because like everyone else in my house and seemingly everyone in my neighborhood, I had a cold last week. Thankfully, none of us had COVID-19. But it was a reminder that the common cold is […]

Why Does the Road Crack? – Another Question from my Daughters

One of my favorite things to do these days is to ride bikes with my daughters. Sometimes I even record those rides on Strava because my older daughter now wants to keep track of how fast she can go down a little section of road in our neighborhood (current record 10.5mph). When we were riding […]

You Should Write About Rainbows!

Today is my youngest daughter’s 5th birthday! When I told her that I needed to do some writing this morning she said, “you should write about rainbows!” So that’s what this post is all about (for the record, the writing that I had planned to do this morning was about some cool resources for Geography […]

Short Lessons on the Differences Between Canadian and American Thanksgiving

Monday is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. It’s about six weeks earlier than it is here in the United States. I’ve celebrated both versions of Thanksgiving and I can tell you that there are a lot of similarities between the two. There are also some differences between them. The following videos provide a humorous look at […]

Brief Explanations of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Why Some States No Longer Have Columbus Day

Monday is Indigenous Peoples’ Day here in Maine. In other states it is still referred to as Columbus Day. The Daily Bellringer offers a good video that explains the history of Columbus Day and why some cities and states are now celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead. Watch the video on YouTube and open the description to find […]

Everything You Need to Know About Computer Monitors

Back when I taught computer repair we got all kinds of old computers and monitors donated to our classroom. One of the seemingly never-ending challenges was matching monitors with computers. That was particularly true when my students would be confronted by units that had only VGA or DVI inputs. And there was always an conversation […]

The Science of Pizza, Diets, and the Esophagus

Last week two of my favorite YouTube channels, TED-Ed and SciShow Kids, published new videos on the topics of food and weight loss. And those videos reminded me of the Reactions playlist of 76 videos about food science including Better Pizza Through Chemistry. Between the three videos there are lessons for elementary school, middle school, […]

How to Find TED-Ed Lessons by Grade Level

Yesterday, I received an email from someone who saw my post about TED-Ed’s The Writer’s Workshop. She was wondering if there is a way to search TED-Ed videos by grade level. That’s not a function available on YouTube, but it is a function available on the TED-Ed lessons website. To sort TED-Ed lessons by grade level go […]

Lessons to Answer Common Questions About Fall

Yesterday morning my youngest daughter and I were walking one of our dogs when she asked a question that her older sister asked a couple of years ago. That question was, “why do we have fall?” I did my best to explain it to her (she’s four, five next month) in terms that she could […]

Seven Good Resources for Teaching and Learning About the Value of Money

My daughters have recently started receiving a little weekly allowance. One of them is very interested in saving as many of her dollars as possible for as long as possible. The other sees the money and immediately thinks of the things she’d like to buy. This has led to some conversations around our dinner table […]

Moose Tracks and a Lesson on Eyes vs. Cameras

A couple of days ago I was walking down a trail to one of my favorite fishing spots in all of Maine. Along the trail I saw a bunch of moose tracks. I did my best to get a good picture of them. Unfortunately, like all pictures of moose tracks that I’ve taken over the […]

The Differences Between England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth Explained

Queen Elizabeth II died yesterday. The news broke after most on the east coast of the U.S. were out of school for the day. If you find your students asking questions about about her passing, the monarchy, or Great Britain in general, here are some videos that you might find helpful.  The Washington Post published […]

Fun With Soda Pop – A Nice Weekend Science Experiment

SciShow Kids recently published an updated video about a “classic” science experiment. That experiment is dropping Mentos candies into a bottle of soda pop. But before doing that and explaining what happens, the video briefly explains how beverages are carbonated and why the bubbles stick to some objects better than others. If you’re looking for […]

A Few Short Lessons About Labor Day

This coming weekend is Labor Day Weekend in the United States and Canada. For most of us it is a three day weekend. It is the traditional “end of summer” in the minds of many of us. If you’re planning to answer questions about Labor Day or teach any lessons about it, here are some […]

Learning How to Tell Time on Analog Clocks and Watches

My oldest daughter got a little analog wristwatch for her birthday a few days ago. So far she loves wearing it (she wanted to wear it to bed last night) and is rather quickly learning how to tell time with it. As you might expect, the watch has prompted a few questions including “how does […]

Short Lessons on Centripetal Force and Tea Cups

Last week I took my older daughter to Storyland to ride the roller coaster as many times as she wanted to. Today, I’m taking my younger daughter for a daddy-daughter day at Storyland. Her favorite rides are the Flying Dutch Shoes, Alice’s Tea Cups, and the Cuckoo Clockenspiel. In other words, she likes to spin […]

Five Good Resources for Learning About Airplanes and Airlines

We’re planning a little trip this fall to visit some family that we haven’t seen since before the start of the pandemic. When we told our daughters that we’re going to fly they got very excited about it. We’ve now been answering questions about flying seemingly nonstop for a few days. Those conversations prompted me […]

Why Do Birds Sing?

My daughters have recently become obsessed with Elinor Wonders Why on PBS Kids. The theme song for the show includes the line, “Elinor wonders why, why do birds sing and how do they fly?” That line has been stuck in my head and playing on repeat for the last few days. So in a quest […]

Timelapse and Virtual Field Trip – The Great Salt Lake

This morning my attention was grabbed by a BBC video titled Utah’s Great Salt Lake is Running Out of Water. It’s a fascinating video about the conditions that have contributed to the Great Salt Lake shrinking by nearly two-thirds in this century. Spoiler alert: drought isn’t the biggest contributor to the shrinkage.  Watching the BBC’s […]

Double Rainbow Lessons!

My daughters love rainbows. They have rainbow dresses, rainbow bracelets, rainbow stickers, and anything else that can have a rainbow on it. So they were super excited last week when we saw a double rainbow from our front porch! (You can look on my Instagram for better pictures of it than the one in this […]

Common Craft Explains Research Papers to Students

I often use Common Craft videos as an example of creating effective video lessons without having to spend a lot of money on special equipment or software. In fact, I did that in a webinar that I hosted yesterday. The video that I used as an example was Research Papers Explained by Common Craft.  Research […]

How Do Fireworks Work? – Another Question from my Daughters

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and that means there will be fireworks displays in towns all over the United States. My little town is having small display that we’ll actually be able to see from our backyard. And this year my kids are old enough to stay up to see the fireworks display. Of […]

Short Lessons About American Independence Day

American Independence Day, the Fourth of July, is one week away. Most of you reading this aren’t in school right now. That said, I can’t help sharing a few video lessons about the Declaration of Independence the celebration of Independence Day. Take a look then bookmark these for your U.S. History lessons in the fall. […]

Short Lessons About the Longest Day of the Year

Perhaps my favorite thing about living in northern New England is the amount of daylight we have in the summer. I enjoy the early sunrises even more than I do that late sunsets (before I had kids it was the other way around). The longest day of the year is coming up and if your […]

How to Work While Going to School

Last month I started watching a new Crash Course series called How to College. The series is a great one for students who are first generation college students and or those who just don’t have anyone to seek out for advice about things like paying for college and picking a major. The latest video in […]

A TED-Ed Lesson for Every Element on the Periodic Table

For years I have referred readers to the University of Nottingham’s Periodic Table of Videos. That table provides a video about every element that is in the Periodic Table. A few years ago the producers of the Periodic Table of Videos partnered with TED-Ed to create lessons about every element in the Periodic Table. TED-Ed’s Periodic Videos […]

What Makes Us Itch? – A Science Lesson

Last weekend we had our first really nice summer-like day of the year. There was lots of sunshine, it was warm, and there was little wind. That little wind is a curse and a blessing in Maine at this time of year. It’s nice because it makes for easier bike riding. It’s bad because it’s […]

What is Lightning? – Another Question from My Daughter

On Saturday we had the first thunderstorm of the summer at our house. I made it back from a bike ride just as the thunder and lightning started to crack overhead. The storm prompted my five-year-old to ask, “what is lightning?” We tried to give my daughter a short explanation that lighting is electricity traveling […]

A Crash Course in Decisions About College

The folks at Crash Course have developed a new channel and series of courses called Study Hall. One of those courses is called How to College.  How to College is a great series for high school students and first year college students. The course covers everything from deciding to go to college to picking a […]

A Cool Lesson for a Hot Spring Day – How the Popsicle Was Invented

It was 86F here in Maine yesterday. In the afternoon my kids had popsicles outside for the first time in 2022! That prompted my five-year-old to ask, “why are they called popsicles?” I didn’t have a good answer despite the fact that I did recall watching a TED-Ed lesson about popsicles a few years ago. […]

Electric Lessons – Energy 101

The ski mountain that is about ten miles down the road from where I live has a large array of solar panels. Their goal is to use as much renewable energy as possible. To that end, another solar array is being constructed about a mile down the road. I noticed the progress earlier this week […]

Filmstrips and Rubber Trees

This morning as I was braiding my five-year-old daughter’s hair she was playing with one of seemingly ten thousand hair ties that we have in our house. It was then than she asked me what they’re made of. I told her they were made of rubber. Of course, I couldn’t stop there. I had to […]

Pickles, Popcorn, and More Food Science

Like many four-year-old children, one of my daughters is a picky eater. Cucumbers are one of the only vegetables that she’ll eat these days. She’ll also eat pickles. In fact, she loves pickles! That’s why I was happy to see SciShow Kids release a new video all about pickles.   What Are Pickles? is the latest […]

We’ve Got Worms! And More Questions from My Daughters

Earlier this week we had some relatively warm days and were able to do a little spring yard work. My daughters like to try to help with some of it. But like most four and five year old kids, they quickly get distracted. Such was the case when they discovered some worms under some leaves […]

The Mystery Pollinator!

This morning my local television news station broadcast a segment about hummingbirds and when to put out hummingbird feeders. We always put out a few hummingbird feeders every summer so I watched the segment with slightly more interest than some of the other filler stories they show every morning. One little aspect of the story […]

What’s Onomatopoeia Mean? – Another Question from My Daughters

Every night my daughters (ages 4 and 5) ask us all kinds of interesting questions. Some of them are about things that I haven’t thought about in a long time. Some of them aren’t easy to answer in a way that they can understand. And some of them are a bit of both. That was […]

Spaghetti Trees and the History of April Fools’ Day

This Friday is April Fools’ Day. It’s a day that I’ve always enjoyed a little bit at home and at school. I’ve always enjoyed the various pranks and jokes that my students tried over the years. Where did the tradition of April Fools’ Day pranks begin? If you’ve ever wondered about that or you want […]

Maple Syrup Sunday! And Maple Syrup Sundaes

Today is Maple Syrup Sunday here in Maine. It’s a day when many maple syrup producers open their operations to visitors. All of them offer some type of educational program about the production of maple syrup. Many of them will have samples of their products. My favorite one has maple syrup ice cream sundaes!  A […]

A Lesson About Gas

Whenever I fill up my car’s gas tank I’m thankful that I don’t have a car that requires high octane gasoline. What is high octane gasoline anyway? Is is really significantly better than regular unleaded gasoline? And why is gasoline “unleaded?” Those questions and more are answered in this relatively new Reactions video.  Applications for […]

What Happened in 2008? – A Crash Course in Economics

In researching for Wednesday’s post about inflation I ran across one of my old posts about Crash Course Economics. Within that thirty-six part course there is a video all about the 2008 financial crisis caused by the collapse of the housing market.  How it Happened – The 2008 Financial Crisis: Crash Course Economics #12 does […]

Why Do We Say Ok? – Another Question from My Daughters

Last night during dinner one of my daughters asked, “what does ok mean?” My other daughter quickly followed up with, “yeah, why do we say that?” The first question we were able to answer fairly quickly and in a way that a five-year-old can understand. The second question was a little harder to answer. I […]

Good Explanations of Inflation, Recession, and Bubbles

Turn on any financial news network like CNBC these days and you’re likely to hear some discussion about inflation and concerns about recession. Even if your students aren’t listening to those stories, they might be hearing about them from their parents or perhaps in your classroom as part of a current events discussion. Financial news […]

It’s Maple Syrup Season!

The saving grace of the change to Daylight Saving Time is that it coincides with one of my favorite things about spring, maple syrup season! That means days are getting a little longer and the sun is a little higher in the sky during the day. As a result of that increased daylight and warmth […]

Daylight Saving Time is Coming! Here are Some Explanations of It

At this time next week many of us will be moaning about our “lost” hour of sleep resulting from moving our clocks forward. That’s right, daylight saving time begins next weekend! I never liked moving my clocks forward in the spring before I had kids. And now as the tired dad of two little kids […]

Squirrels!

In my family we have a bit of a love/hate relationship with squirrels. We hate that they take so much food from our bird feeders. But we do like to watch them and my daughters do enjoy reading Those Darn Squirrels! That’s why I was intrigued when SciShow Kids released a new video all about squirrels.  […]

How Graphs Can Be Misleading

Tools like Canva and even good ol’ PowerPoint make it incredibly easy to quickly create good looking graphs. But as Randy Krum points out in his book, Cool Infographics, a graphic that looks good isn’t necessarily a good graphic. In fact, many times a graphic is made to look good in order to distract from […]

Lessons About the Instruments in Symphony Orchestras

Last week I was chatting with a friend and he told me about one of his daughters learning to play some music from Phantom of the Opera. That took me back to my own middle school days when I played tuba in the band and we played some music from Phantom of the Opera. All […]

A New Academic Feature in YouTube Studio

Yesterday morning I uploaded a new video to my YouTube account and noticed a new set of options that appeared when I selected the education category. Now when you upload a video to your YouTube account and select the education category you can also add additional subcategory labels to your video. Those options include academic […]

Math, Science, and Philosophy Lessons for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is next Monday. My daughters’ preschool is having a little celebration during which little cards will be exchanged. They are very excited about it! I used Canva to make some cards for them to write their names and their classmates’ names on. If you’re looking to incorporate Valentine’s Day into some lessons this […]

Groundhog Day Explained

On Friday my youngest daughter came home from preschool and informed me that Wednesday is Groundhog Day and tell me all about it. It’s the day, according to legend, that a groundhog will predict how much longer winter will last in the northern hemisphere. Your students might be wondering where this tradition originated. The following […]

The USGS Multimedia Gallery Offers Excellent Public Domain Images and Videos

The USGS Multimedia Gallery contains large collections of educational videos, animations, audio recordings, pictures, and slideshows. As you might expect, you’ll also find lots of maps in the USGS multimedia gallery. You can browse and search the gallery according to media type, year of publication, and keyword.  In addition to the videos in the USGS Multimedia Gallery you can […]

Making Snowflakes and Sundials

Last week I shared a couple of good places to find ideas and plans for at-home, hands-on science lessons. Here’s a couple more ideas to try courtesy of SciShow Kids.  In this SciShow Kids video students learn how a sundial works and how they can make their own sundials. The video could be the basis for […]

Questions From My Daughters – What Are Freckles?

Last night one of my daughters asked, “what are freckles?” I did my best to explain that freckles are spots of melanin in our skin. Of course, I then had to try to explain to my five-year-old what melanin is. She then asked why she has freckles and one of her classmates doesn’t. That was […]

Wind Chill and Our Perception of Cold

As I mentioned earlier this week, we’ve had a couple of exceptionally cold days here in Maine this week. One town near me recorded a wind chill of -36F on Tuesday. This weekend is supposed to be just as cold.  I’ve gone ice fishing in similar conditions without moaning about it (at least that’s how […]

What’s the Difference Between Snow, Sleet, and Freezing Rain?

Yesterday it started to sleet during my daughters’ skiing lessons. They didn’t mind and kept right on skiing. But I heard a lot of other parents saying things like, “what the heck? why isn’t this snow? it’s cold enough to be snow!” As an amateur meteorologist I knew the answer was that while the temperature […]

The Science of Winter Olympics Sports

The 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to start in a little less than one month from now. I’m looking forward to sitting on my couch and drinking some hot chocolate while watching the world’s best in alpine and nordic skiing. I also enjoy watching curling even though I don’t always understand all of the rules […]

About Primary Sources

As a U.S. History teacher one my primary goals was to help students understand the past to understand where we (Americans) came from to understand how we got here and to, hopefully, avoid mistakes of the past. To that end, I frequently had students read excerpts from primary source documents. Sometimes that meant confronting language […]

Whiskers and Transcripts

One of the many things that I love about being a dad to two little girls is all of the questions they ask me. Many of their questions are about things that I haven’t thought about in decades. For example, the other night my four-year-old asked about our cat’s whiskers. Specifically, she wanted to know […]

The Science of Fireworks

Today is New Year’s Eve and while there aren’t any fireworks displays planned for my little town, the nearby ski resort will have a little display. Fortunately, the display is planned early in the evening so my kids and I can see it without staying up past our bedtime.  This is the first year that […]

Best of 2021 – The Science of Cake!

As I do every year, I’m taking this week as a break from publishing new blog posts and will be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year. Here’s one from October.  If you ask my five-year-old what she wants to be when she grows up she’ll say, “a cake maker!” She’s been […]

Building the Hoover Dam – A New TED-Ed Lesson

Blood, Concrete, and Dynamite is a new TED-Ed lesson that tells the story of the building of the Hoover Dam. The lesson explains why the dam was built, the short-term economic impact of its construction (21,000 people employed by the project), the engineering of the dam, the environmental impact, and the human toll of its […]

Reindeer Facts and a Ride With Them

My daughters are very excited for Santa and his reindeer to visit our house tomorrow night. We’ll be leaving out snacks for him and his reindeer. For weeks they’ve been asking if reindeer are real. Reindeer are real, they’re just not capable of flying like Rudolph and his pals (I leave that part out when […]

21 Activities and Lessons That Have a Winter Theme

Today is the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. To mark the start of winter I’ve put together a list of twenty-one activities and lessons that have a winter theme.  Snowy Outdoor ActivitiesI enjoy winter and my kids do too. We like to sled, ski, snowshoe, and just play outside in the snow. […]

A Platypus in My House! Fun and Learning Through Augmented Reality

My four-year-old loves Gus the Platypus in the Pete the Cat series. A couple of weeks ago that led to her asking questions like “can we get a platypus?” and “what’s a platypus sound like?” My answers were “no” and “I don’t know.” I did, however, put an augmented reality platypus in our house.  Through […]

All About Cats and Dogs – A SciShow Kids Compilation

SciShow Kids has produced a lot of fun and educational videos over the last six years. I’ve featured some of those videos in blog posts. Some of my favorite are the videos about animals including those about cats and dogs. In their latest release, SciShow Kids combined some of their previous videos to create one […]

The Story Behind QWERTY – Why Keyboards Aren’t in Alphabetical Order

Thinking back to my middle school typing class (done on electric typewriters, not computers) I remember wondering why the keyboard wasn’t arranged in alphabetical order. I was recently reminded of that when my five-year-old asked me the same question. I knew that the answer was related to the frequency of use of certain letters and […]

Five Short Lessons About the Start of Winter

Even though it has been cold and snowy here in Maine for the last week or so, the start of winter is still eleven days away. The winter solstice is always welcomed as it does mean the shortest day of the year (in terms of amount of sunlight) will be behind us. If you’re looking […]

Why Do We Have Winter? – Another Question from My Daughters

Yesterday afternoon I was playing outside in the snow with my five-year-old daughter when she asked, “why do we have winter?” She didn’t ask in a complaining way (she loves playing the snow), but in a genuinely curious way. My short answer was that where we live on Earth is tilted away from the sun […]

Why the Moon Seems Brighter in Winter

We had our first coating of snow this week. (It’s unusual to go this late into fall without having a snowfall). As I was putting my daughters to bed last night my oldest asked why it was so bright outside. My short answer was that the snow reflected the street lights and the moon light. […]

A Science Lesson for Winter Application

Winter temperatures have arrived in Maine. There’s a light coating of snow on the ground. And my daughters and I are excited about the start of ski season! While we like all of these things about winter, there is one thing we don’t like. That thing is dealing with cracked, chapped, and dry lips. During […]

What’s Snoring? – Another Question from my Daughters

For nearly twenty years I’ve gone to an ice fishing camp every winter with the same group of guys (except for last winter). Some of them are rather loud snorers. In fact, the loud snorers have their own bunk room in the lodge. I was talking about this the other day when my daughter asked, […]

My Big List of Resources for Teaching & Learning About American Thanksgiving

American Thanksgiving is later this week. All month long I’ve been sharing Thanksgiving-themed resources and ideas. This post combines all of them into one place. If you have school this week and you’re looking for some last-minute Thanksgiving resources, take a look through this list.  The Science of Thanksgiving Foods The Reactions YouTube channel, produced […]

The Heimlich Manuever Saved My Life

Last Saturday my friend Kris Still saved my life by performing the Heimlich manuever when I was choking on an omelette in a lovely little diner called Laura Lee’s. I was actually about to comment on how good the food was when I started choking. Fortunately for me, Kris is a sheriff’s deputy and is […]

The Suprising Origins of Thanksgiving Foods

Yesterday morning I published blog post in which I shared an ESRI Story Map of where traditional Thanksgiving foods are grown today in the United States. That story map covers where food comes from today, but it doesn’t cover the historical origins of traditional Thanksgiving foods. That’s an interesting topic of its own. It’s Okay […]

The Science of My Favorite Thanksgiving Foods

I don’t think there’s a meal I like better than a classic Thanksgiving turkey with potatoes, squash, stuffing and cranberry sauce from a can (my mouth is watering just thinking about the “shlop” sound the cranberry sauce makes as it pops out of the can). Behind all of that deliciousness is a whole lot of […]

Solving Problems With Simple Machines

A couple of weeks ago one of the most popular posts of the week was A Cute Series of Videos About Engineering. That post was about a SciShow Kids series containing a lesson about what engineers do and two lessons about using engineering to solve problems. This week SciShow Kids released a new video that […]

Resources for Teaching and Learning About Veterans Day

Veterans Day is this Thursday. If you find yourself looking for some quick lessons to review with your students, here’s a small collection for you.  ReadWorks ReadWorks is one of my favorite places to go when I need information texts about a holiday to share with students. ReadWorks has a good collection of Veterans Day […]

Questions from my Daughters – What is Frost?

On my phone I keep a list titled “Questions from my Daughters.” Whenever they ask a question that is interesting to them and is one that I haven’t thought about for years, if ever, I add it to the list. This week’s addition to the list came from my four-year-old who asked, “what’s frost?” when […]

A Punny Explanation of Savings Bonds

Last weekend I was talking with a friend about Christmas presents for our kids when I sarcastically said, “just give them savings bonds, that’s what every kid wants.” A day later I was still thinking about that conversation when I wondered if kids even know what a savings bond is. That thought prompted me to […]

It’s That Time Again…

Daylight Saving Time ends today for many of my friends in Europe and it ends next Sunday for those of us in North American states and provinces that observe Daylight Saving Time. As someone who gets up early and lives in a northern state, I welcome the change as I’ll see the sun an hour […]

A Cute Series of Videos About Engineeering

SciShow Kids recently published series of three videos about engineering. You wouldn’t normally associate engineering with cute, but in this case it’s an appropriate match. Like all SciShow Kids videos these are designed for elementary school students. The presentation of the lesson is made by a person and some puppets with a few still photographs […]

A Short Lesson on the Long History of Electric Cars

The Surprisingly Long History of Electric Cars is a new TED-Ed lesson that should be of interest to anyone who is curious about electric vehicles. The video begins with an explanation of the first electric cars and why they were overtaken by gasoline-powered internal combustion engines. The second half of the video explains the technological, […]

The United Nations Explained for Kids

A couple of weeks ago I discovered CBC Kids News and I shared a great video that explains what the word indigenous means when referring to people. This afternoon I browsed through CBC Kids News again and found a nice animated video that explains the United Nations to kids.  United Nations Explained is a short […]

Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Safety Tips Sheets, Posters, and Lesson Plans

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Stop.Think.Connect. has a large collection of posters, tip sheets, and videos that you can use to promote good online safety practices in your school or office. You can find all of them in this gallery which can be sorted according to resource type (poster, tip sheet, video, meme). The Stop.Think.Connect. tip sheets can be previewed […]

What Does Indigenous Mean? – And Why Some States No Longer Celebrate Columbus Day

While I was reviewing videos about Canadian Thanksgiving YouTube displayed a suggested video from CBC Kids News. The video is simply titled The Word Indigenous and it provides an animated explanation of what the word indigenous means when referring to people. The video also does a great job of explaining why the word indigenous is preferrable […]

Short Lessons on Canadian v. American Thanksgiving

Monday is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. It’s about six weeks earlier than it is here in the United States. I’ve celebrated both versions of Thanksgiving and I can tell you that there are a lot of similarities between the two. There are also some differences between them. The following videos provide a humorous look at […]

The Science of Cake! – And 83 Other Food Science Lessons

If you ask my five-year-old what she wants to be when she grows up she’ll say, “a cake maker!” She’s been helping decorate cookies and cakes since before her third birthday. She loves it when we let her watch clips of The Great British Baking Show. That’s why I was excited to come across an […]

The Physics of Riding Bicycles

Last Sunday afternoon something happened in my life that I will never forget. That event was my oldest daughter roding her bicycle down our driveway on her own! No training wheels, no Dad holding on to the back of her seat, completely on her own! It was awesome! She did it a few more times […]

Questions from My Daughters – Why Do We Sneeze?

My daughters ask me lots of questions that I haven’t thought about since I was their age (4 and 5). Many of those questions I write in a list titled Questions from My Daughters that I have saved on my phone via Google Keep. “Why do we sneeze?” is one of the questions that my […]

What Would We Eat on Mars? And Other Fun Science Questions

Long-time followers of my blog have probably noticed that I really like the videos produced by SciShow Kids. Their videos cover a wide range of science topics and almost all of them answer questions that elementary school students are apt to ask. For example, one of the recent releases from SciShow Kids asks, “what would […]

An Easy Way to Find Movie Clips to Include in Your Lessons

ClassHook is a service that I’ve been using and recommending for the last few years. It provides a good way to find clips from movies and television shows to use in your lessons. You can search it according Common Core standard, recommended grade level, and subject area. Recently, ClassHook added another search option. ClassHook’s new […]

A Good Explanation of the Slippery Slope Fallacy

About a month ago I published a collection of resources for teaching students about logical fallacies and cognitive biases. Since then TED-Ed published another good video to add to that collection. The video is Can You Outsmart the Slippery Slope Fallacy? Can You Outsmart the Slippery Slope Fallacy? centers around the Vietnam War and makes […]

The 2021 Fall Foliage Map – And Explanations of Why Leaves Change Colors

The 2021 Fall Foliage Prediction Map is a feature of the SmokyMountains.com website. The map displays a week-by-week prediction of when leaves in the continental United States will be changing colors from now through the end of November. You can see the predictions change by moving the timeline at the bottom of the map. On […]

Resources for Teaching and Learning About Fall

It’s the first day of September and even though Autumn doesn’t really start for a few more weeks, I’m already excited for the arrival of my favorite season of the year. The heat and humidity of summer are gone, the leaves on the trees are the prettiest they’ll be all year, and I’ve always felt […]

Three Short Lessons About Labor Day

Next Monday is Labor Day in the U.S. For most of us it is a three day weekend. It is the traditional “end of summer” in the minds of many of us. If you’re planning to answer questions about Labor Day or teach any lessons about it, here are some short videos to add to […]

Resources to Help Students Recognize Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases

Every year as the new school year begins I’m asked for recommendations for helping students improve their ability to discern good information from bad when conducting online research. One of the first recommendations that I always make is help them understand logical fallacies. To that end, I frequently recommend Your Logical Fallacy Is. It is a website […]

A Game and a Crash Course on Weathering and Erosion

The Crash Course for Kids YouTube channel offers overviews of various topics including weather. Weathering and Erosion is the topic of one of the more recent releases on Crash Course for Kids. In the video students will see a comparison of Cape Cod’s coastline in 1984 and 2014. That image combined with the commentary does a great […]

Superhero Science Lessons

Superhero Science is a playlist of science lessons published by TED-Ed. The lessons in the playlist feature explanations of what would happen in various scenarios if you had superhero powers like flight, strength, and speed. Each lessons explains the mathematics and science of scenarios frequently found in superhero stories. For example, in the lesson on […]

What is a Default Gateway? – A Concise Explanation

PowerCert Animated Videos is a great YouTube channel that publishes clear and concise explanations of big concepts in computer hardware and networking. Over the last couple of years I regularly used the videos in EDpuzzle to create short introductory assignments for my students. Default Gateway Explained is the latest video published by PowerCert Animated Videos. […]

An Itchy Science Lesson

Summer here in northern New England brings us long and sunny days that make us forget about the short and frigid days of winter. Those sunny days come with a catch. The catch is blooming poison ivy and biting insects that make us itch. But what really makes us itch? Is there any way to […]

A Timeline of Mathematics and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem

This week TED-Ed published a new video about Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem. This is the latest in a long list of mathematics video lessons produced by TED-Ed. The timing of the video was perfect for me as I had planned on writing about Mathigon’s Timeline of Mathematics this week. That timeline includes an entry about Gödel’s […]

Short Lessons on the Value of Money

Last week TED-Ed published a new video lesson titled Why Can’t Governments Print an Unlimited Amount of Money? The purpose of the video is to explain how governments, particularly the United States federal government, were able to spend trillions of dollars on COVID-19 economic relief programs in the last year. The video explains the role of […]

All About Rubber

Here in Maine we’ve had more rainy days than sunny days lately. That means we’ve been wearing our rainboots a lot. Yesterday, as I was trying to convince my daughters to wear their rainboots instead of sneakers my four-year-old asked “what’s rubber?” To which I replied that it’s a waterproof material used in boots to […]

Four Short Lessons About American Independence Day

American Independence Day, the Fourth of July, is tomorrow. I realize that most of you reading this aren’t in school right now, but I thought I’d share a few video lessons about the Declaration of Independence the celebration of Independence Day. Bookmark these for your lessons when school resumes in the fall. History offers the […]

How Seashells Are Made – A Lesson for Beachcombers

If your summer plans, like ours, include going to the ocean, you may be interested in this video from Reactions about how seashells are made. In How Seashells Are Made viewers learn that seashells are made of 95% calcium carbonate and 5% protein and sugar. The video doesn’t stop with just listing the components of seashells. […]

Short Lessons on the Science of Fireworks

Independence Day here in the United States is ten days away. Nothing says, “Happy Fourth of July” like a fireworks display. Watching Fourth of July fireworks displays is a quintessential part of the American experience in the summer. This year my daughters are just about old enough to stay up late enough to watch the […]

It’s Sea Turtle Week – Five Short Lessons

Earlier this week when I was checking the weather forecast on NOAA.gov I noticed a banner announcing that this week is Sea Turtle Week. Prior to that I didn’t know that there is a Sea Turtle Week. None-the-less it reminded me of the time that I witnessed sea turtles nesting in Costa Rica and it […]

Blockchain – From the Basics to Advanced – A Free Course

Turn on CNBC or any business/ financial news channel today and you’re likely to hear about Bitcoin. Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. If you’re not familiar with how blockchain works or you’re looking for a simple explanation to share with your students, Common Craft has you covered. Blockchain Explained by Common […]

A Few Short Lessons About the Longest Day of the Year

It is going to be warm and sunny here in Maine today. That temperature will make it feel like summer a few days before the summer solstice. Many refer to the summer solstice as the “longest day of the year” when they really mean “longest period of daylight in a day.” But that’s beside the […]

There, Their, They’re – Reminders for Myself and My Students

On Sunday morning I was writing in a bit of a hurry and failed to notice a mistake in the title of my post about using the netstat command to see the connections a computer is making to external sites and devices. The mistake I made (I’ve since corrected it) was to use “they’re” when […]

A Great Series About Redwoods

The Redwood National park is one of the natural wonders that I hope to share with my daughters in a few years. While the tall trees are the “stars of the show” there is much more to the redwood forest than just the trees. SciShow Kids recently released a series of videos that explain the […]

How Tall Can a LEGO Tower Get? – Life’s Biggest Questions

While getting caught up on my reading in Feedly this morning I came across a new comic from The Oatmeal. The comic addresses the question, “how tall can a LEGO tower get?” (It’s a copyright-protected work so you’ll have to view it on The Oatmeal website). The comic is based on a 2012 BBC article […]

Short Lessons About Memorial Day

Next Monday is Memorial Day. Students often confuse the origin and purpose of Memorial Day with those of Veterans Day. The following videos can help students understand the origins and meanings of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a two minute video covering the origins of the holiday in the […]

Three Short Lessons About Algorithms That I Used This Week

This week in my Computer Science Principles course we’re talking about algorithms. We started the week with an introduction answering the question, “what is an algorithm?” Then we looked at examples of algorithms that students encounter on a daily basis (YouTube suggestions being the one they related to the most). Today, my students wrote their […]

All About Plants – Three SciShow Kids Lessons

Spring has finally, fully arrived here in Maine. Our flowers are in full bloom and this weekend we’re putting together garden boxes for growing vegetables. Planting flowers and vegetables is a great way to spark kids’ curiosity and to develop some hands-on learning experiences. If you can’t plant flowers or vegetables with kids, but want […]

Strange Borders – A Geography Lesson

Yesterday afternoon I read an interesting article titled Belgian Farmer Accidentally Moves French Border. The whole story is almost exactly what the title says. A farmer moved a stone that was in his way when plowing a field. It just happened that the stone he moved is a marker for the border between two small […]

Sherlock Bones – A Virtual Owl Pellet Dissection Activity

One of the great things about living where I do is that a walk in the woods is always just a few steps away. One of my favorite things about walking in the woods is finding all kinds of neat, natural things including dropped moose and deer antlers. While those are rare finds, I do […]

DIY Wind Turbines and How They Work

Earlier this week TED-Ed published a new lesson titled How Do Wind Turbines Work? The video covers the basics of how the turbines harness the power of wind to generate electricity. The basic math of wind turbine design is also explained to viewers of the video. Overall, it’s a fine lesson but not the most detailed […]

48 Videos and a Poster About Critical Thinking and Logical Fallacies

Last week TED-Ed released a new video lesson titled This Tool Will Help You Improve Your Critical Thinking. As I wrote last week, I almost immediately used the lesson in one of my computer science classes. Writing that blog post and using that lesson inspired me to take a look back through my archives for […]

A Handful of Resources for Learning About the Start of the American Revolution

Tomorrow is Patriots’ Day here in Maine, in Massachusetts, and in a handful of other states. It’s a day to mark the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. As a good New Englander with an appreciation of history, every year at this time I like […]

Improving Your Critical Thinking – A New TED-Ed Lesson

This Tool Will Help You Improve Your Critical Thinking is a new TED-Ed lesson that provides viewers with an introduction to the Socratic method. The video has two main purposes. The first is to explain what the Socratic method is. The second is to explain a bit of Socrates’ place in history. The video’s explanation […]

A Video Tour of 17th Century London in 3D

This morning I read a BBC article about the rediscovery of the oldest 3D map in Europe. The map is a roughly 5 x 6.5 foot slab of carved rock. Reading that article prompted me to start looking in my archives for collections of historical maps. While doing that I came across a video that […]

A Great Series of Videos for Those Who Have I.T. Career Questions

A couple of weeks ago I asked for help from my Twitter followers as I planned to help my students create resumes. Many of you were kind enough to take some time to offer really helpful advice. I passed that advice along to my students when we spent a day working on their resumes that […]

Four Short Lessons About the Arrival of Spring

The snow is melting, the sun is shining a bit longer, and we’re starting to see and hear more birds around our house. Those are all sure signs that spring is on the horizon here in Maine. On that note, here are some short lessons about the arrival of spring.  Why do birds sing? And […]

How Does Artificial Intelligence Learn? – A TED-Ed Lesson I’m Using Today

Every once in a while a new video pops-up at a time that perfectly coincides with where I am in my curriculum. That just happened this morning as I was planning to introduce the role of artificial intelligence in IoT (Internet of Things) to my Comp Tech I students. Yesterday, TED-Ed released a new video […]

A Sweet Science Project

My daughters, like almost all children, love candy! So my daughters and I are going to attempt to make our own rock candy this weekend. They love doing little projects like this and I’m hoping that they’ll like this one as well. The inspiration for doing this came from watching a recent SciShow Kids episode […]

One of My Favorite Minute Physics Lessons

Flying is one of the things that I’ve missed a lot in the last year. I used to log more than 100,000 miles a year flying to speak at conferences and conduct in-person workshops at schools. (I hope to do that again whenever this pandemic ends). One of my favorite things to do at large […]

Why Do Our Clocks Spring Forward Next Weekend?

It’s almost that time of year when when most of us in the northern hemisphere have to move our clocks forward by one hour. I never liked moving my clocks forward in the spring before I had kids. And now as the tired dad of two little kids who don’t like to sleep, I really […]

27 Videos That Can Help Students Improve Their Writing

The Writer’s Workshop is a playlist of twenty-seven TED-Ed video lessons about writing. The The Writer’s Workshop contains lessons on basic topics like how to use punctuation and point of view. It also offers videos about more difficult topics like how to make your writing humorous. A few of the videos from The Writer’s Workshop playlist are embedded below. First, […]

Daddy, What Are Hiccups?

My youngest daughter had hiccups twice this week. On Friday morning she asked, “what are hiccups?” Fortunately, I knew the answer. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a great way of explaining involuntary muscle contractions to a three-year-old. I did my best and told her that it’s part of her body’s way of growing and getting stronger […]

It’s Maple Syrup Time, Yay!

Here in Maine we’re starting to notice that the days are getting a little longer and the sun is a little higher in the sky during the day. That means, as a few of my friends pointed out on social media this week, it’s time to start tapping maple trees for syrup season.  The process […]

Edible Glass Hearts and Other Lessons About Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is this coming Sunday. My daughter’s preschool is having a little celebration on Friday during which little cards will be exchanged. She’s very excited about Valentine’s Day as is her little sister. As I write this they’re making Valentine’s Day cookies (with supervision). Another Valentine’s Day activity that they could be doing (with […]

A Good Video Series for Introducing Arduino

Earlier this week I shared how I used Tinkercad to introduce my students to key concepts in Arduino design and programming. One of the supplementary materials that I posted in Google Classroom for that course is a series of introductory videos produced by Bob at I Like to Make Stuff.  In a three-part series he […]

What is a Map? – And a New Crash Course in Geography

For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed looking at maps. Whether it’s a standard Mercator projection printed on paper or a digital map, looking at maps sparks curiosity in my brain. I’m certain that’s why I always enjoyed teaching geography and why I spend so much time today teaching others how to use […]

Lava Lamps and Security

Network and data security is something is emphasized throughout the year in my Introduction to Networking course. To spark discussion in the class, I often share show short videos about interesting security incidents as well as short videos about implementing security systems. One of the videos that we watched this week was about Cloudflare’s use […]

Full Episodes of National Geographic Specials

I’ve been a fan of National Geographic for as long as I can remember. I got hooked early in elementary school by looking through the years and years of magazines in our school library. As I got older I looked forward to the magazine being delivered to my house. And now I look forward to […]

Tax Help for High School Students

Yesterday afternoon one of my students said, “Mr. Byrne, how do you do taxes?” It was one of those questions and moments that embodies the idea that we teach students first and content area second. I was happy to explain to her that her employer (Walmart in this case) would be giving her a W-2 […]

Four At-home Science Experiments for Kids

Winter in Maine has lots of short and cold days. While I take my kids outside for sledding and skiing as much as possible, we still need to keep a list of fun indoor activities. That’s why I subscribe to the SciShow Kids channel on YouTube. It regularly features science experiments that are perfect for […]

Every U.S. Election Through 2012 Explained

The events of the last 24 hours in Washington DC have stirred emotions in nearly all of us. This morning my students wanted to talk about it in my computer science class (they know that I used to teach social studies). One of my students had heard a reference to the election of 1876 in […]

Fun Facts About Reindeer

My daughters are at the age that they believe in Santa Claus. For weeks they’ve been talking about snacks for Santa and his reindeer. They’re a little too young for this SciShow Kids video about reindeer, but if you have kids who are in elementary school you might want to show them 4 Facts to […]

Five Interesting Lessons About Winter Weather

There is no doubt that winter has arrived here in Maine. The temperature was in the single digits (Fahrenheit) most mornings this week and we had our second significant snow fall this week. The chill in the air and the snow on the ground prompted me to look back at some of my favorite videos […]

Best Job Ever – National Geographic Stories About Interesting Jobs

National Geographic’s YouTube channel is one of my favorites because of the variety of interesting playlists it offers. One of  those playlist is called Best Job Ever. The playlist features short stories about people who have interesting jobs that are primarily in the outdoors. These are primarily jobs incorporating some kind of conservation and or awareness […]

When Will It End?

I’m tired, you’re tired, our students are tired, we’re all tired. I’m tired of switching from in-person classes, to online classes, to hybrid classes, back to in-person classes, back on online classes, back to hybrid classes, and starting every Friday wondering what the format for the next week will be. Yes, we’re all adapting and […]

What is a DDos Attack? – A Simple Explanation

Were you one of the millions of people frustrated by Google services like Classroom and Gmail being down earlier today? If so, and you turned to Twitter to see who else was talking about it, you may have noticed that #DDoS was a trending topic as people speculated that perhaps Google was the victim of […]

Your Password Isn’t as Strong as You Think It Is – And Other Lessons in Cyber Safety

Last night I got an email from a former colleague who I hadn’t heard from in a while. The email didn’t have a subject line and simply read “Here’s the summary for Monday” and a PDF was attached. My Spidey Senses were triggered and I deleted the email without viewing the PDF. Obviously, his old […]

A Crash Course in Computer Science

Try as I might, as an old history teacher turned computer science teacher, I can’t help sprinkling in a few history lessons now and then. We talked about the Y2K bug (history to my students all born around 2004/5) a couple of weeks ago. And this week I had some of my students watch Crash […]

The Differences Between American and Canadian Thanksgiving

American Thanksgiving is later this week. My Canadian friends celebrated Thanksgiving last month. Besides the timing of the holiday, there are some other differences between American Thanksgiving and Canadian Thanksgiving. There are also some commonalities between the two holidays. The following videos provide a humorous look at the similarities and differences between American Thanksgiving and […]

A Couple of Lessons on the Origins of Thanksgiving Foods

A couple of weeks ago I published a blog post in which I shared an ESRI Story Map of where traditional Thanksgiving foods are grown today in the United States. That story map covers where food comes from today, but it doesn’t cover this historical origins of traditional Thanksgiving foods. That’s an interesting topic of […]

TED-Ed Explains the Basics of Stocks and Investing

TED-Ed has released a new lesson that should be of interest to anyone who has hopes of retiring some day. That lesson is titled How Do Investors Choose Stocks? Some of the highlights of the lesson include a basic explanation of what a stock and the stock market is, the differences between active and passive investing […]

Three Thanksgiving Science Lessons

I don’t think there’s a meal I like better than a classic Thanksgiving turkey with potatoes, squash, stuffing and cranberry sauce from a can (my mouth is watering just thinking about the “shlop” sound the cranberry sauce makes as it pops out of the can). Behind all of that deliciousness is a whole lot of […]

How Batteries Work – And a Resource for Safely Experimenting With Circuits

From cell phones to laptops to toys we and our students rely on batteries for a lot of what we do in our daily lives. But have you ever stopped to think about how batteries actually work? Or have you asked your students to think about it? TED-Ed offers a good lesson that answers the […]

Learn About Exploration and Compasses by Making Your Own

Today, many of us just use an app on our smart phones when we need to get directions and navigate from point A to point B. Most of our students have never experienced getting directions in any other way. So they may be surprised to learn that we used to use maps and compasses to […]

Time to Fall Back – Short Lessons About Daylight Saving Time and Timezones

This weekend we have Halloween and the end of Daylight Saving Time (in most of the U.S. and Canada). Hopefully, my kids will take advantage of the “extra” hour of time for sleeping.  As I do almost every time Daylight Saving Time begins or ends, I have gathered together a handful of short video explanations […]

Five Last Minute Resources for Teaching About the Electoral College

We’re one week away from the U.S. Presidential election. While citizens cast their votes next week, the final selection happens in the Electoral College in December. That’s a concept that can be tricky for some students to understand. If you’re looking for some last minute resources for teaching about the Electoral College, take a look […]

A TED-Ed Lesson Exploring the Pros and Cons of Types of Milk

TED-Ed released a new lesson this week. The lesson is all about milk. The title of the lesson, Which Kind of Milk is Best for You? doesn’t accurately portray the number of lessons and questions that can be raised when students watch the video.  Which Kind of Milk is Best for You? explains the basics […]

Three Silent Videos About COVID-19

One of my students came ranting into class today because of a conversation she’d had with another student about facemasks and social distancing. The person she was talking with didn’t think that social distancing did anything. “Mr. Byrne, how else can I explain it to her?” was the question that my student had for me. […]

NASA ScienceCasts Explains the Harvest Moon – It’s Tonight!

Tonight is the night of the annual Harvest Moon in the northern hemisphere. The harvest moon comes on a different evening each year. If the weather is cooperative, tonight will be a great evening to get pictures of the moon rising. I hope that this year is the year I finally get a good one.  […]

Good Video Lessons About Cyberbullying and Digital Privacy

Students in my school district, like students in many other school districts, have more unsupervised time on their hands than ever before. That factor combined with the general “cooped up” feeling that many are having as a result of measures prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our community has led to an increase in cyberbullying […]

Think Like a Coder – The Final Episode!

Last spring my freshmen class enjoyed TED-Ed’s Think Like a Coder series of videos. The final episode of the series was released a few days ago. The last installment is called The World Machine.  The World Machine follows the same format as the previous nine installments of Think Like a Coder. The episode features Ethic […]

“Why Do We Have Fall?” – A Post Inspired by My Daughter

  “Why do we have fall?” That was the question that my four year old asked while we were walking in the woods yesterday.  It was a good question (she’s full of good questions these days) and I tried my best to explain that different times of the year have more or less sunlight which […]

Resources for Teaching and Learning About the Colorful Leaves of Fall

 Autumn is my favorite time of year. So much so that I wanted to name my younger daughter Autumn (vetoed by her mother). The crisp air, the smells of apple harvest, the colors of spawning brook trout, and the colors of leaves are just a few things that I enjoy about fall. All that to […]

Using a Bicycle as a Generator

This morning I welcomed my new students into my classroom. In talking with one of them I learned that he likes to tinker with old bicycles. As we were talking he mentioned trying to create a power generator with a bicycle. That conversation took us to YouTube where we started looking at videos about using […]

Common Craft Explains Disinformation

Common Craft has released a new, timely video for this fall. The new video is Disinformation Explained by Common Craft. The new video explains what a disinformation campaign is and why organizations create them. Equally importantly, the video explains traits of disinformation campaigns and how to people can try to prevent the spread of disinformation. […]

Short Lessons on the History of Labor Day

This coming Monday is Labor Day in the U.S. For most of us it is a three day weekend. It is the traditional “end of summer” in the minds of many of us. If you’re planning to answer questions about Labor Day or teach any lessons about it, here are some short videos to add […]

Watch You Watched in August

My YouTube channel has nothing but short screencast videos on it (mostly made with Screencast-o-matic) but it keeps growing. More than 28,0000 people now subscribe to it. In August those 28,000 people watched nearly 15,000 hours of my videos. These were the ten most-watched videos on my YouTube channel in August. Zoom Tip – How […]

Every U.S. Presidential Election Through 2012 Explained

Last week I featured a couple of videos about the Electoral College that Keith Hughes produced. Keith has many other excellent videos for U.S. Government and U.S. History students. One set of those videos is Presidential Elections Explained. In that set of videos Keith explains the outcomes and significance of every U.S. Presidential Election through […]

How to Increase the Chances of Your Students Actually Watching Your Instructional Videos

On Friday I gave a couple of presentations at my school about ways to improve the chances that students actually watch the entirety of the videos that we share with them. Some of the ideas that I shared apply to videos that you make and some of the ideas apply to videos that you find […]

The Science of Cycling and the Tour de France

The Tour de France begins tomorrow, about two months after it was scheduled to begin. As an avid cyclist I enjoy watching it and I find that it provides some neat opportunities for science, health, and physical education lessons. Here are some of my go-to resources for teaching and learning about the Tour de France. […]

How to Make a Whiteboard Video in Flipgrid

Last week Flipgrid introduced a bunch of updates and changes. If you haven’t logged into your Flipgrid account since the end of the last school year, you might find some things have changed since you last used Flipgrid. The updates and changes made last week didn’t eliminate any features. The updates and changes did move […]

SciShow Kids Returns Next Week!

A little over a year ago SciShow Kids, one of my favorite YouTube channels, announced a hiatus. I thought that was going to be then end of the channel. Much to my surprise this afternoon I saw an update from the channel announcing its return. SciShow Kids returns next week with new videos for elementary […]

A Few Short Lessons About Sharks for Shark Week

This week is Discovery’s annual Shark Week. All week long the Discovery Channel and it’s affiliated channels will broadcast all kinds of shows about sharks. Those shows will range from serious and educational to ridiculous (Mike Tyson “fighting” a shark). If you find yourself looking from some short, educational videos about sharks to share with […]

Three Lessons on the Chemistry of Coffee

One of the things that I’ve missed the most over the last few months is going to my local coffee shop (Cafe Nomad) and having some of the excellent coffee that they brew. Try as I might, the coffee I brew at home just isn’t the same quality of what they make at the cafe. […]

A Dozen Lessons About Inventions That “Changed the World”

It was a hot and humid afternoon here in Maine. In fact, the weather app on my phone said that it was “oppressively humid.” I’d say that was right. The only good thing about the heat and humidity is that it provides the perfect reason to enjoy a popsicle with my toddlers. Having that popsicle […]

50 National Geographic 360 Videos

Watching 360 degree videos is probably my favorite thing to do with my Google Cardboard viewer. A lot of people don’t realize that a Cardboard viewer can be used for more than just Google Expeditions. For example, National Geographic’s YouTube channel contains fifty 360 videos featuring things like Mount Everest, glaciers in Iceland, elephants, sea […]

TED-Ed Has Released Episode 9 of Think Like a Coder

Think Like a Coder is a TED-Ed series of videos that my freshmen loved this this past year. The latest installment in the series was released yesterday. Episode 9 is titled The Factory. Episode 9 continues to follow the main characters Ethic and Hedge having to solve a puzzle using the logic that a coder […]

Video: The Solar System to Scale

I guess I’ve been a bit of a space kick lately as over the weekend I shared an augmented reality app about spacecraft and yesterday I featured the NASA selfies app. This morning I found an interesting video about creating a true-to-scale model of the solar system. The video is titled To Scale: The Solar […]

Short Lessons About the Longest Day of the Year

It is going to be over 90F here in Maine today. That temperature will make it feel like summer a few days before the summer solstice. Many refer to the summer solstice as the “longest day of the year” when they really mean “longest period of daylight in a day.” But that’s beside the point […]

A Few Basic Settings to Know When Uploading to YouTube

This past semester I created and uploaded to YouTube more videos for students than I ever have before. Based on the number of questions that I answered on that topic, I know I’m not the only one. And depending on how school starts in the fall, there may be many more teachers tan ever before […]

Why Should You Read Moby Dick – A New TED-Ed Lesson

A couple of years ago TED-Ed started producing a series of video lessons titled Why Should You Read… The videos in the series feature classic works of literature explained in about five minutes. The videos are more high level overviews of the books than they are book trailers. What I like best about the videos […]

A Handful of Video Lessons About Memorial Day

This is Memorial Day weekend here in the United States. Monday is actually Memorial Day. Students often confuse the origin and purpose of Memorial Day with those of Veterans Day. The following videos can help students understand the origins and meanings of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a two […]

What’s Inside Your Computer – Three Introductory Lessons from TED-Ed

Much like cars, many of us use computers without knowing what really makes them go. And much like cars you don’t have to know what makes your computer run, but it can certainly be helpful to know the basics in order to make informed decisions about them. Of course, if you want to attempt to […]

A Few Short Lessons and Reminders About Email

Earlier this week I Tweeted a plea to try to remember to use basic niceties when sending emails seeking help from me or anyone else who is providing remote tech support right now. This morning I got a request from a friend on Instagram to re-post some of the videos and tips about email etiquette […]

A Great Series for Introducing or Reviewing Arduino Programming Concepts

Arduino programming was one of the things that we were really starting to get rolling on just before school closed. Now that my school is closed and we’re doing remote teaching and learning, I’m using EDpuzzle to create review activities for my students. This week I used EDpuzzle to create lessons based on a great […]

Ugh! It’s Time to Spring Forward – Here’s Why We Do It

As I Tweeted earlier today, it’s a deflating feeling when you realize that you have to move your clocks forward this weekend. That’s especially true of you’re the parent of toddlers who have been on a sleep strike for a few weeks. If you or your students are wondering why we (most of us in […]

Sweet Lessons on the Making of Maple Syrup

This week we had a couple of relatively warm days here in Maine. In fact it was so warm (40F) that I rode my bike outside on Thursday. It was on that ride that I noticed sap buckets and hoses on some maple trees. That reminded me of some videos about making maple syrup that […]

The Tower of Epiphany – A New “Think Like a Coder” Lesson

A month ago I wrote about how much my freshmen computer science students are enjoying TED-Ed’s Think Like a Coder series. The latest installment in the series was published last week and my students watched it on Friday morning. They enjoyed it as much as the previous installments. Like the previous episodes of Think Like […]

Four Videos Explaining Leap Year

This year is a Leap Year and Leap Day is just a week away. Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo I recently learned about this new video from Homeschool Pop that explains Leap Year to kids. Here are three other video explanations of Leap Year. These were all featured on this blog for the last Leap Year.

Volcanoes 101 – Updated

A few years ago National Geographic published a video titled Volcanoes 101. Last month they published a new video with the same name. The new Volcanoes 101 explains the types of volcanoes, their shapes, common locations, and what causes volcanoes to erupt. On a related note, The BBC has a series of interactive guides that explain how […]

DNS & IP Explained

One of the things that quickly became clear when I started teaching an introduction to computer science course for high school freshmen was that while they are happy to use the Internet, they don’t really understand how the Internet works. I suppose the same can be said for lots of adults too. The Domain Name […]

Local vs. Online Documents

I’ve been a Google Docs user longer than most middle schoolers have been alive. I don’t need convincing that online documents are great. But not everyone is convinced. In fact, just last week I had a conversation with a teacher in my school who wasn’t convinced that there could be any benefit to moving away […]

Kissing, Love, and Math – Three Valentine’s Day Lessons

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It is also day of the Winter Carnival Dance at my school. In short, love and hormones will be flying all around the hallways of my school tomorrow. Perhaps the same will be happening in your middle school or high school. If you’re looking to work a little Valentine’s Day themed […]

The Electoral College Explained by Common Craft

We still have a long way to go in the party primary and caucuses before the Democratic nominee for President will be chosen. And then we have even longer until we go to the polls to choose a President of the United States. And a President is finally elected through the Electoral College. How the […]

Do Politics Make Us Irrational? – A TED-Ed Lesson

As the 2020 Presidential primaries and caucuses roll on more there is no avoiding political advertising unless you shut off your television, your radio, and never go on YouTube. Politics stir up all kinds of feelings in us. People who are otherwise very even-keeled sometimes get very passionate and perhaps irrational when it comes to […]

Short Lessons on Colds and Flu

Well it’s that time of year when classrooms aren’t full because kids have a cold or the flu. 25% of my students were out today. I’ve been running a fever all afternoon. The only upside to this for me is that I am reminded of a few short video lessons about colds and flu. Colds, […]

What’s the Difference Between a Caucus and a Primary

When I turned on the news this morning I was greeted with the news that the results of the Iowa caucuses would be delayed. That made me realize that I haven’t posted any resources that can be used to help students understand how a president is chosen in the United States. The first step in […]

Think Like a Coder – My Freshmen Love These Videos!

Think Like a Coder is a series that TED-Ed started publishing last September. They’re cartoons that present a riddle or puzzle that is solved by using the logic that one would use to create a computer program. The basic premise of the series is that the main characters Ethic and Hedge have to collect artifacts […]

A Great Set of Videos for Teaching Networking and Computer Hardware Concepts

As some of you know, I took over a computer science program at my local vocational/ technical high school this year. It has been fun and, at times, has made me feel like a brand new teacher again. When I took the job I told my director that I’d be fine with the programming side […]

Algorithms Explained by Common Craft

This week in my ninth grade computer science principles class we started talking about big data and algorithms. One of the resources that I used in introducing this topic was Common Craft’s explanation of algorithms. The two and a half minute video explains what an algorithm is and the roles that algorithms can play in […]

Four Interesting Lessons About Winter Weather

When I got up to let my dogs out yesterday morning it was a brisk -10f with the windchill. When I got in my car an hour later the thermometer had reached a balmy 4f. The chill in the air prompted me to look back at some of my favorite videos for learning about winter […]

Why Should You Read Lord of the Flies – A New TED-Ed Lesson

Why You Should Read Lord of the Flies is the latest video added to TED-Ed’s “why should you read…” series. There are now more than thirty videos in that series. Why You Should Read Lord of the Flies follows the same pattern as the other videos in the series. The video covers the major plot […]

Why the Moon Seems Brighter in Winter

During lunch today one of my colleagues mentioned that he had trouble falling asleep a couple of nights ago because the moon was exceptionally bright. His comment reminded me of a great Minute Physics video that I found years ago. Why the Full Moon is Better in Winter explains how the combination of the position […]

The History of Corn – A TED-Ed Lesson

Pictures of corn like the one in this blog post have become symbols of fall harvest and Thanksgiving. Corn and many products made with it are a staple of the diets of many of us today. How did corn become a staple of our diets? What has enabled it to become one of the most […]

Three Videos for Thanksgiving Lessons

Thanksgiving is just a few days away. If you find yourself looking for a quick, Thanksgiving-themed video lesson to use this week, take a look at the following three options. The Chemistry of Thanksgiving The Thanksgiving Turkey Compilation from the Reactions YouTube channel explains two concepts related to the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. First, it explains how the deep-frying process […]

Thanksgiving Chemistry

The Thanksgiving Turkey Compilation from the Reactions YouTube channel explains two concepts related to the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. First, it explains how the deep-frying process works and how it helps to make a turkey more flavorful. Second, the video explains why turkey isn’t the primary culprit in making you drowsy after devouring your Thanksgiving meal. Applications for Education This […]

The History of Thermometers and Barometers

Many moons ago when I was an undergrad I took a meteorology course. It was my favorite course outside of my major. I’m still fascinated by weather and weather forecasting. In fact, for my next career I might become a meteorologist. All that to say, I was naturally interested when I came across a Met […]

Plagiarism Explained by Common Craft – Updated

Plagiarism and issues around copyright are topics that I am passionate about. That’s why I was happy to see my friends at Common Craft release an updated version of their video explanation of plagiarism. Plagiarism Explained by Common Craft does a good job explaining what plagiarism is and how to avoid unintentionally plagiarizing a work. To […]

What Causes a Recession?

The U.S. stock market has been on a historic bull run over the last decade. That has a lot of people asking and a lot of talking heads on CNBC speculating about when the next recession will hit. Fittingly, TED-Ed has a new lesson titled What Causes an Economic Recession? By watching What Causes an […]

Canadian vs. American Thanksgiving

Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada. If you’re curious about the differences and similarities between American and Canadian Thanksgiving, watch the following videos. Both of the following humorous videos that explain the differences between Thanksgiving in Canada and Thanksgiving in the United States. Just a reminder, you should always preview videos before showing them in your […]

Poe Animations and Lessons

It wouldn’t be October without language arts that mention Edgar Allan Poe. It seems that October is the time that a lot of students are introduced to the work of Edgar Allan Poe. If that describes your classroom and you’re looking for a few Poe resources, take a look at the following three videos. In […]

What’s in Pumpkin Spice?

Walk into a Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, or Tim Horton’s at this time of year and you’re bombarded with offerings for pumpkin spice this and pumpkin spice that! According to this CNBC report pumpkin spice is a $600 million flavor. What’s in the pumpkin spice that so many people love? That question is in this SciShow […]

Common Craft Explains Incognito or Private Browser Windows

Common Craft has been producing unique explanatory videos for more than a decade. I’ve been using them in my classroom and workshops for nearly as long. Common Craft videos provide clear and concise explanations of nuanced topics ranging from the Electoral College to copyright to digital citizenship. Their latest video explains incognito or “private” mode […]

TeachPhysEd- A Great Library of Videos Demonstrating Phys Ed Lessons

TeachPhysEd is a website and YouTube channel maintained by Coach Benjamin Pirillo. On his YouTube channel Coach Pirillo demonstrates and explains activities for physical education teachers to use in their classrooms. I’ve watched half a dozen of the videos and have been impressed by his explanations of the rationale for the formatting of the activities […]

2019 Fall Foliage Map – And Why Leaves Change Color

The 2019 Fall Foliage Prediction Map is a feature of the SmokyMountains.com website. The map displays a week-by-week prediction of when leaves in the continental United States will be changing colors from now through the end of November. You can see the predictions change by moving the timeline at the bottom of the map. On […]

Email 101 – And Some Time-saving Tips

We’re all busy. And the new school year can feel exceptionally busy. That’s not an excuse to ignore basic email etiquette like addressing a person by name when sending him or her a message for the first time or for the first time in a while. Here are a few videos that offer good advice […]

Using Mindfulness to Break a Bad Habit

In this week’s Ed Tech Fitness Challenge newsletter I included the video of a TED Talk given by Dr. Judson Brewer. His talk is titled A Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit. My big take-away from Dr. Brewer’s talk was the idea of thinking about why we engage in a bad habit while we’re doing […]

ClassHook Adds Live Discussions for Video Lessons

Last Friday on the Practical Ed Tech Podcast I mentioned that ClassHook has a new feature for facilitating discussions about the videos that you show to your students. The new feature is called Live Discussions and it builds upon the popular Pause Prompts feature that ClassHook introduced earlier this year. Pause Prompts are timestamped questions […]

It’s That Time Again – Why Leaves Change Color in the Fall

There are some trees in my neighborhood whose leaves always start to change color earlier than the rest. I noticed them this morning as I drove down my road. And when I got home I noticed one in my backyard was starting to develop some red leaves too. That means it’s time for my annual […]

Try This! – A Series of Hands-on Science Lessons for Kids

Try This! is a series of videos produced by National Geographic Kids. Each of the videos in the series presents a hands-on science lesson or experiment that elementary school and middle school kids will enjoy. Middle school students can probably do all of the experiments in the Try This! series on their own. Elementary school […]

27 Birds, 27 States – A Good Nat Geo Series for Kids

A few years ago National Geographic Kids started publishing a series of videos called 50 Birds, 50 States. For some reason they never got beyond 27 states. The 27 videos that were released do present a fun way for students to learn some basic facts about each state. The videos are presented as animated rap […]

The Cost of Owning a Car – Free Lesson Plan

The cover image on my personal Facebook page is currently a picture of my first car. I’m pretty sure I paid $1500 for it which was a hefty sum for me back in the fall of 1996. That car needed a little bit of brake work to pass the state’s safety inspection and then needed […]

ClassHook Gets a New Look

ClassHook is a service that I recommend trying when you’re looking for video clips to illustrate a concept and don’t want just another “how to” video. ClassHook provides a search tool for finding clips from well-known television shows and movies to be used in your lessons. You can search according to topic, standard, grade level, […]

Why Do Whales Sing? – A Lesson Prompted by My Daughters

As you may know, I have two toddler-age daughters. So as you might guess, our bathtub is full of bath toys. One of those toys is a water scoop that is made to look like a whale. Tonight, during bath time my oldest asked, “what’s a whale say?” Not being able to make a whale […]

Three Good Resources for Shark Week

This Sunday is the start of Discovery’s annual Shark Week. A couple of weeks ago I shared SciShow Kids’ Super Sharks lesson. That’s a nice lesson for elementary school students. If you’re looking for something for older students, take a look at the following resources. The Global Fishing Watch map includes an animated layer that displays the […]

Ginger Ale, Stomach Aches, and Placebos

Over the weekend and through the first part of this week I was stricken with a flu-like bug that had me doing nothing more than sleeping and occasionally throwing up. As you might guess, I ate a lot of saltines and drank a lot of ginger ale to settle my stomach. It worked, but it […]

The 6,000 Calorie Challenge – A Lesson in Sports Nutrition

At the end of June I completed a double century bike ride and in the process ate as much as I possibly could without feeling sick. What I ate was nothing compared to what a professional cyclist consumes during the Tour de France which I’ve been watching every morning for the last couple of weeks. […]

Common Craft Explains How to Craft Clear Email Communication

Love it or hate it, email is a part of our daily work lives. And for our students of middle school age or older it’s a part of their daily lives too. If you’re like me, the emails that you reply to the fastest are the shortest emails that get right to the point. Brevity […]

A Super Shark Lesson for Kids for Shark Week

Every summer Discovery runs a week of programming all about sharks. They call it Shark Week and it usually has some interesting content even if it is a bit sensationalized. That said, my daughters won’t be watching it with me and I don’t recommend it for other young children. But if you are looking for […]

The Science of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Like most toddlers, my daughters love grilled cheese sandwiches. I enjoy a good one too. My daughters prefer the ones mommy makes to the ones that I make. Again, I do too. She just seems to have a better grasp of the art and science of making a good grilled cheese. While the art of […]

Nine Lessons About Recognizing Logical Fallacies

In today’s social media and online news environments it is as important as ever to teach students how to recognize bias, propaganda, and logical fallacies. Here are two good resources that I like that can help students understand logical fallacies. The Guide to Common Fallacies is a series of nine short videos from the PBS Idea […]

Eight TED-Ed Lessons for Music Appreciation

One of my favorite extra-curricular activities in elementary school was learning to play the violin and the trumpet. Three+ decades later I can still read music. I’m looking forward to my daughters being old enough to learn to read and play music too. Thinking about that reminded me of a TED-Ed lesson that I found […]

Lessons on the Science of Fireworks

The Fourth of July is Independence Day here in the United States. And nothing says, “Happy Fourth of July” like a fireworks display. Watching Fourth of July fireworks displays is a quintessential part of the American experience in the summer. I’m looking forward to the day when my daughters will be old enough to stay […]

Three Short Lessons About American Independence Day

American Independence Day, the Fourth of July, is this week. I realize that most of you reading this aren’t in school right now, but I thought I’d share a few video lessons about the Declaration of Independence the celebration of Independence Day. Bookmark these for your lessons when school resumes in the fall. History offers […]

Why Should You Read Hamlet – A New TED-Ed Lesson

Last year TED-Ed started publishing a series of video lessons titled Why Should You Read…? Each lesson is about a classic work of literature that many of us have read and have made our students read. When making our students read those classics we’ve all been asked, “why do we have to read this?” This […]

Two Lessons About Invasive Species and the Threats They Pose

My favorite bike training ride goes through a portion of the White Mountains National Forest on the Maine-New Hampshire border. As you enter the forest you’ll see reminders about not bringing in firewood from outside of the area. The reason for the reminders is to prevent the spread of invasive insects that can damage the […]

66 Lessons on the Chemistry of Food and Beverages

Reactions is a YouTube channel that I’ve mentioned in a handful of posts in the past. The channel is produced by PBS Digital Studios and the American Chemical Society. All of the videos on the channel include chemistry lessons based on ordinary, everyday parts of life like food and beverages. In fact, Reactions has a […]

This is Clickbait – A Lesson on Being a Discerning News Consumer

A couple of weeks ago TED-Ed released a video about spotting misleading headlines. I quickly added that lesson to my list of resources for helping students become discerning news consumers. This week TED-Ed released another video that I’m adding to that list of resources. This One Weird Trick Will Help You Spot Clickbait is a […]

ClassHook Adds Pause Prompts to Personal Clips

ClassHook is one of my favorite alternatives to searching on YouTube for educational videos. A few months ago ClassHook added a feature called Pause Prompts that enables you to add discussion questions to the videos that you find through their site. Then last month ClassHook added a new playlist feature called Personal Clips. As of […]

Educational and Moving Memorial Day Videos

Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the United States. Students often confuse the origin and purpose of Memorial Day with those of Veterans Day. The following videos can help students understand the origins and meanings of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a two minute video covering the origins of […]

Common Craft Explains URLs

We enter URLs into our web browsers every day, but have you ever wondered what all the parts of those URLs mean? The URL can give us information about the type of website we’re visiting, the security of the site, when a page was created, and much more. What’s in a URL is the topic […]

Lots of New Videos Added to One of My Favorite Alternatives to YouTube

Back in January I learned about a great alternative to YouTube called BoClips. BoClips offers millions of educational videos from well-known producers. In the last five months it has quickly become one of my top five alternatives to searching on YouTube for educational videos. This week BoClips announced the addition of more great video content. […]

ClassHook Offers a New Way to Organize Educational Videos

ClassHook is quickly becoming one my favorite tools for teaching with video clips. In fact, I recently included ClassHook’s Pause Prompts feature in my Best of the Web presentation at the Texas Library Association’s annual conference. ClassHook recently added another convenient feature for teachers. ClassHook’s latest feature is one they’re calling Personal Clips. Personal Clips […]

What Is Turbulence? – A Physics Lesson You Can Feel

At the end of 2018 I shared a half-dozen resources for learning about the science of flight. This morning I watched a new TED-Ed lesson that will make a nice addition to my list of resources about aviation. Turbulence: One of the Great Unsolved Mysteries of Physics is a new TED-Ed lesson that explains what […]

A Few Resources for Learning About Income Taxes

Tomorrow is the deadline to file income taxes in the United States. If you have high school students, some of them may be filing taxes (or having parents do it on their behalf) for the first time. That may lead to all kinds of questions about why we have taxes, the way taxes are calculated, […]

Pictures of the American Revolution – And Other Resources for Patriots’ Day

Tomorrow is Patriots’ Day in Maine and Massachusetts. The day commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord. As a New Englander this is a good day to review some good resources for teaching and learning about the American Revolution. History Animated has an entire section called Revolutionary War Animated. That is a great place to find […]

Five Resources for Teaching & Learning About Mount Everest

April and May is the peak of the climbing season in the Himalaya Mountains. In May many mountaineers will be making their summit attempts on Mount Everest. Long-time readers of this blog may recall, one of my bucket list items is seeing Mount Everest in person. Until then I have to entertain myself with books, […]

How to Create Video-based Lessons

Earlier today I answering a question about uploading videos to EDpuzzle when I realized that I haven’t made a complete tutorial video on how to use EDpuzzle since its design was updated. My previous videos about the service are all a few years old and while the functions are largely the same, the layout has […]

What Makes Birds Different Colors? – A Nice Lesson for Spring

The birds are starting to return here in northern New England. It’s always nice to hear the first birds of the spring chirping away early in the morning after a long winter of silence early in the morning. I always like seeing orioles return. Orioles bring a nice splash of color to what is otherwise […]

How to Use BoClips to Find and Share Great Educational Videos

Back in January I discovered BoClips while walking around the BETT Show in London. It’s an educational video hosting site that has quickly become one of my go-to resources. In fact, I like it so much that I now include it in my Best of the Web presentation. BoClips offers more than two million videos […]

Lessons About the Making of Maple Syrup

Today is Maple Syrup Sunday here in Maine. This is always a welcome sign of spring. The method of collecting sap from maple trees has changed a bit over the years, but the concept of boiling sap to make syrup remains unchanged. In the following videos you’ll see the traditional collection method and the modern […]

Short Lessons for the Arrival of Spring

The first chickadees and ducks of the spring have started to arrive in my neighborhood. Aside from the calendar, hearing the birds reminds us all that spring is almost here. If you’re tired of winter and looking for some spring-themed lesson ideas, take a look at the following resources. Last year The New York Times published an animated […]

Three Pi Day Video Lessons

Today is Pi Day! March 14 or 3/14. Six years ago Numberphile published a couple of good videos about Pi. I shared them then and I think it’s time to share them again. Pi with real pies is a three minutes and fourteen seconds video that explains Pi and how it can be calculated. After showing the […]

A Great Series of Cyber Safety Videos for Students

This morning someone asked me for a recommendation for some good resources to help students learn cyber safety lessons. The first thing that came to mind was Planet Nutshell’s Net Safe series. Planet Nutshell’s Net Safe series has eighteen episodes covering topics like protecting personal information, responsible posting of pictures, and mobile location privacy. The videos are […]

A Lesson About Milk

With two growing toddlers we go through a lot of milk at my house. Whole milk for my daughters and 1% or skim for me. That’s my lead in to a little lesson that students can take with them to the grocery store. That lesson is the differences in the types of milk that they […]

Tom Richey Explains Tariffs

Tom Richey’s YouTube channel is a must-subscribe for AP history (European and U.S.) students and their teachers. He regularly posts engaging lectures about a wide variety of topics in that are integral to developing an advanced understanding of European and U.S. History. He also hosts live review sessions on his YouTube channel. Tom’s latest video […]

Spring Forward This Weekend!

This weekend those of us in North America who observe Daylight Saving Time have to move our clocks forward by one hour. This time around it is especially annoying for me because I have an early morning flight on Sunday. And, of course, my dogs and my toddlers don’t observe Daylight Saving Time. If you […]

What Makes It Windy? – Lessons for Kids

The wind has been howling here in Maine for the last two days. As my daughter says, “it’s soooo windy.” She asked me this morning why it was so windy outside. That’s a hard concept for a two year old to grasp, but I tried my best to explain it to her. If you have […]

How to Use ClassHook’s New Pause Prompts Feature

ClassHook recently added a great feature to their educational video service. That feature is called Pause Prompts. Pause Prompts are short questions or discussion prompts that you build into the video clips that you plan to display in your classroom. When you play a video in your classroom the video will automatically pause and display […]

ClassHook’s Pause Prompts Let You Add Questions to Existing Videos

ClassHook is a great service for finding video clips to use in your classroom. ClassHook clips come from well-known movies and television shows. You can search for those clips according to subject area and topic. Earlier this month ClassHook introduced a new feature called Pause Prompts. Pause Prompts are questions that pop-up and pause a […]

How Ocean Currents Work – And 24 Other Lessons About Oceans

How Do Ocean Currents Work? is a TED-Ed lesson that makes a fantastic addition to TED-Ed’s list of lessons about oceans. The list now has 25 lessons covering a range of ocean-related topics including how waves are formed, the depths of oceans, and lessons about marine life. In How Do Ocean Currents Work? viewers learn […]

Two More Lessons in TED-Ed’s “Why Should You Read…” Series

Last fall TED-Ed started publishing a series of lessons titled “Why Should You Read…” The series features TED-Ed lessons that explain the significance of classic works of literature. When I last wrote about the series it contained seven lessons. The series is now up to nine lessons. The latest lessons are about Fahrenheit 451 and […]

Six Educational Activities That Have a Super Bowl Theme

The Super Bowl is this weekend. My prediction is that the Patriots will win. I’m guessing that my American readers have a student or two who has an interest in the game too. Try one of the following resources to turn your students’ enthusiasm for the Super Bowl into a fun lesson. NBC’s Science of […]

Common Craft Explains Podcasting

The development of easy-to-use podcast production tools like Anchor and Synth have contributed to the proliferation of podcasts in the last few years. The ways that we can find and listen to podcasts has also increased substantially in the last few years. That’s why Common Craft has released a new version of their popular video, […]

What’s the Difference Between England, Great Britain, and United Kingdom?

Since I’ve just returned from a trip to London, I figure it’s a good time to revisit one of my favorite geography videos. That video is The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained. The video explains name refers to, the differences between the three, and why some people incorrectly use them […]

Boclips – Millions of Ad-free Educational Videos

Today at the BETT Show Bethany Beaudrie introduced me to a new educational video provider called Boclips for Teachers. Boclips hosts more than two million educational videos from more than 100 vetted video producers. You’ll probably recognize many of the names in the list of videos producers. Two of the producers that I noticed right […]

Colds, Flu, and Boogie Wipes – Timely Science Lessons

As anyone who has heard me speak this week can attest, I’m getting over a miserable cold. I’m not the only one as this cold has affected my kids and many others in our community. We’re going through a lot of boogie wipes in our house. Thankfully, none of us have had the flu. But […]

The History of Science

The History of Science is a Crash Course series that just came to my attention when I stumbled onto The Atomic Bomb: Crash Course History of Science #33. The entire series features videos hosted by Hank Green in which he explains how big questions in science were answered and how big breakthroughs were made. Like […]

Sun, Moon, and Planets 101

National Geographic’s YouTube channel has an excellent playlist that is titled National Geographic 101. As you might guess, the playlist is full of short overviews of the basics of a wide variety of topics in science and geography. In National Geographic 101 you will find short videos about Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Earth, Mercury, Mars, Pluto, […]

What’s Inside of Buckingham Palace and the White House?

Yesterday, while looking for something completely unrelated I stumbled upon two excellent videos produced by Jared Owen. The videos, What’s Inside of Buckingham Palace? and What’s Inside the White House? use CGI models of both buildings to take viewers inside each building. As you can see in the videos above, viewers are taken beyond what one […]

The Science of Snow and Ice

How to Survive the Snow and Ice is a new compilation video published on the Reactions YouTube channel. The video features segments about how snow (both natural and man-made) is formed, how ice is made, why saltwater takes longer to freeze than freshwater, and why kitty litter is better than regular sand for getting traction […]

Vacation Project – Build the Coolest Machine Ever!

I know that the vast majority of you are on vacation right now. I also know that many of you have children who will be looking for fun things to do during vacation days. SciShow Kids has a couple of videos about hands-on science projects that kids can do at home. The first video is […]

Terrible Passwords, Password Security, and Protecting Your Online Account

Last week Splash Data revealed their annual list of worst passwords of the year. Many of those passwords will not be a surprise. Using “123456” and common words or names as your password is always a terrible idea. We all know that it is a terrible idea yet we all know someone who uses terrible […]

Five Short Lessons About the Shortest Day of the Year

The winter solstice is about a week away. I always like to go outside to snowshoe or ski on the solstice just to say to the world that a lack of daylight isn’t going to ruin my fun. Not everyone feels the same way about the shortest day of the year. And if you’re looking […]

Math is Visual – Videos Demonstrations and Illustrations

Math is Visual is a website that features videos and images that are designed to help students understand mathematics concepts. There’s more to the site than just some videos and pictures. With every video you will find written directions for using the visual aids in a lesson. You can find videos on Math is Visual […]

How to Handle Stage Fright

The winter concert season is upon us in many schools. For some students the experience of being on stage is truly frightening. For others it isn’t so scary. This is a good time to bring up this TED-Ed lesson that explains why people get stage fright and how to deal with it. Applications for Education […]

This TED-Ed Lesson Explains What Causes Heartburn – No, It’s Not Your Kids

At one time or another we’ve all suffered from a bout of heartburn. It usually happens to me if I drink soda pop (sometime the allure of a cold can of Coke on a hot day is too strong to resist). What else can cause heartburn? And what is actually happening in your body when […]

TED-Ed Adds More Videos to the “Why Should You Read…” Series

About six weeks ago I published a post about TED-Ed’s series of videos that explain why students should read the classics. When I published that post there were five videos in the series. The series is now up to seven videos. Those videos are listed and embedded below. Why Should You Read MacBeth? Why Should […]

Federal Land vs. State Land

As I write this What is Federal Land? is the #49 trending video on YouTube. It’s nice to see an educational video trending that high on YouTube. The video was produced by CGP Grey who has produced some other fantastic educational videos over the years. Through What is Federal Land? viewers can learn how land in […]

How Frost Appears on Plants – A Science Lesson

Here in Maine we’re way past worrying about frost in the morning. That’s because we’ve already had a few snow storms. But some of you may have frost on plants in the morning. SciShow Kids has a new video all about what causes frost to appear on plants in the fall. By watching It’s Time […]

What If You Stopped Sleeping? – Video Lesson

As the parent of a two year old and a one year old I know a thing or two about operating on little sleep. There are times when I wonder if I’ll ever get a full night’s sleep again. Which begs the question, “what if I stopped sleeping?” That question is the focus of an […]

The Chemistry of Thanksgiving or “Why It’s Not the Turkey Making You Sleepy”

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the United States. Just like I did last year, on this Thanksgiving Eve I found a video that would have made for a nice Thanksgiving-themed lesson. So even though it is too late to use it this year, bookmark the Thanksgiving Turkey Compilation from the Reactions YouTube channel. The video […]

Free Webinar – How to Make Your Own Common Craft-style Videos

If you have followed this blog for more than a few weeks, you’ve probably seen me make references to Common Craft videos. More than ten years ago Common Craft pioneered a unique style of online video that has since been imitated, but never quite duplicated by others. That style uses paper cut-outs on blank white […]

An Interactive Timeline of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade is a tradition that millions of Americans share. This year will be the 92nd edition of the parade. What started out as a relatively simple affair has grown into an hours-long production. You and your students can see how the parade has evolved through the decades by exploring the interactive […]

This Is What an Astronaut’s Camera Sees

What an Astronaut’s Camera Sees is an impressive narrated video of images of Earth as captured from space. The video is narrated by Dr. Justin Wilkinson from NASA. The video includes images of deserts in Africa, Sicily, the Kamchatka Peninsula, China, the Zagros Mountains, Australia, the Great Salt Lake, and the Andes Mountains. The video […]

What are Spices and Herbs? – And What is Pumpkin Spice?

We are in full-blown pumpkin spice season here in New England. Everywhere you look stores are selling pumpkin spice coffee, donuts, cakes, candles, and anything else that spice can be crammed into. This, of course, begs the question “what is pumpkin spice?” That’s the question that is addressed in the latest episode of SciShow Kids. […]

It’s Time to Change the Clocks

I’m one of those rare people who actually likes turning the clocks back in the fall. Sure, it means that it gets dark earlier, but I’m an early riser and like seeing the sun in the morning. This weekend we’re changing our clocks and if you are too, your students might have some questions about […]

Two Good Video Explanations of Fair Use

Less than an hour after I posted this chart of alternatives to Google Image search I had two emails and one Facebook message with questions about fair use. One asked about music, the others asked about exceptions to copyright. But really all three messages were essentially asking the same theme of “what about fair use?” […]

11 Halloween Lesson Resources

Halloween is just two days away. If you’re looking for some Halloween-themed lessons, take a look at the following resources that I featured earlier this month. All About Poe In Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe? students can learn about Poe’s guiding principles for writing, the recurring themes of his work, and the personal factors in […]

TED-Ed Explains Why Students Should Read Classics

A few weeks ago TED-Ed published a lesson titled Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe? It now appears that lesson was the first in a series of lessons designed to explain and encourage students to read some classics. Since the Poe lesson was published TED-Ed has published similar lessons about Don Quixote, Waiting for […]

Common Craft Releases Its 101st Explainer Video

This week Common Craft published their 101st explainer video. The latest video is about understanding terms of service agreements on websites and apps. Like nearly all Common Craft videos Terms of Service Agreements begins with an analog example before transitioning to the digital application of that example. In this case the analog example is signing […]

Why You Need a Flu Shot Every Year – A TED-Ed Science Lesson

This morning Lifehacker ran an article encouraging people to get a flu shot (the title of the article is not school-appropriate so I won’t link to it). The point of the article was to remind people that getting the flu shot isn’t just about them, it’s also about helping to keep your community healthy. Reading […]

60 Second Adventures in Religion – Animated Explanations

Some days I scroll through Feedly or Facebook and come across things that immediately make me think of a current or former colleague. That is exactly what happened when I saw the Open University’s 60 Second Adventures in Religion videos. I’m quite sure that my former colleague Bree will be interested in using these videos as […]

Good Reminders About Password Security

The mot recent Facebook hoax making its rounds has prompted me to remind everyone about the importance of using strong and varied passwords (don’t use the same password for Facebook as you do for your bank account). Creating a strong password is a just the first step in protecting your email and social media accounts […]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in Canada. As an American I was relatively ignorant of this holiday until about six years ago. If you’re an American or your just generally curious about the differences and similarities between American and Canadian Thanksgiving, watch the following videos. Both of the following humorous videos that explain the differences between Thanksgiving […]

Ten Tools for Teaching With YouTube Videos

If you can get past the distraction of cute animal videos, video game highlights, and other nonsense, you can find excellent educational videos on YouTube. But even then it’s not enough to just share the video with your students either in your classroom or online. When sharing videos with students in an online format, add […]

Frostbite Theater – 87 Science Experiment Video Lessons

Jefferson Lab’s YouTube channel includes a playlist titled Frostbite Theater. The first time I looked at the playlist a few years ago it had about fifty videos. The playlist has now expanded to 87 videos. The playlist features videos of science demonstrations and experiments. Many of the demonstrations involve the use of liquid nitrogen. You’ll also find […]

A Good Resource for Learning About the Science of Food

Foodskey is a site produced by The University of Nottingham who also produces the Periodic Table of Videos. Foodskey is a set of fourteen videos about the science of food. The videos cover topics like nutrition, food security, and crop technology. I’ve embedded the video about broccoli below. Applications for Education Foodskey isn’t terribly in-depth […]

Three Lessons About Why Leaves Change Color

Every autumn people tour Maine just to see the leaves changing color. Seeing the leaves change is one of my favorite things about the fall too. Here are three good videos that explain why leaves change color in the fall. Untamed Science offers a good, partially animated, explanation of why leaves change colors, what produces the colors, and […]

Math in Real Life – Why Airlines Overbook Flights

I’m currently flying home the ESC-20 Library Resource Roundup in San Antonio, Texas. Before I boarded the flight the gate agent was looking for volunteers to take an alternate flight due to overbooking. This seems like a good time to share the TED-Ed lesson Why Do Airlines Sell Too Many Tickets? In Why Do Airlines […]

Making Sense of Spelling – A TED-Ed Lesson

The Vox video about why we say “OK” raises the question of whether you should write “OK,” “okay,” or “O.K.” That’s just one of many tricky aspects of spelling in English. The TED-Ed video Making Sense of Spelling explains why some words are spelled the way they are and why some words have multiple spellings. […]

Why We Say “OK” – And Other Lessons on the Origins of Words

A few days ago Vox published a short video that explains the origins of “OK” and how it came to be something that we say, read, and click everyday. By watching the video you can learn where OK originated and the roles of a presidential campaign, the telegraph, and railroads in spreading the use of […]

Video Resources for Constitution Day

Constitution Day in the United States is on this coming Monday. By law all schools receiving federal funds have to offer some type of instruction about the Constitution. Yesterday, I shared a couple of interactive resources that can help students learn about the U.S. Constitution. Here are a couple of video resources for teaching and […]

The Process of Plastic Bottle Recycling

I have t-shirts made from recycled plastic bottles and I bet that your students do too. How did those bottles become the material for t-shirts? Why didn’t the recycling company just make more bottles out of the recycled bottles? And why are those numbers on the bottom of the bottle important? Those questions and more […]

18 Great Cartoons That Teach Cyber Safety Lessons

Planet Nutshell is a video production company that produces short, animated videos to explain products, services, and concepts. Within their education section you will find videos addressing topics in  mathematics, physics, climate science, and cyber safety. Their series of videos about Internet safety consists of eighteen videos for K-12 students. The series is called NetSafe and it has eighteen episodes […]

Three Short Lessons About the Origins of Labor Day

This weekend, Labor Day weekend, is the unofficial end of summer. After this weekend nearly all students and teachers will be back in school. If you’re already back in school, you and your students are probably looking forward to the three day weekend. Before you start the three day weekend, take a few minutes to […]

A Science Lesson for Dog Owners

As regular readers of this blog know, I love dogs. But as much as I love them there is one habit that I wish “man’s best friend” would kick. That habit is eating poop. Whether its from a deer, a moose, a horse, or any other mammal, my dogs have had time not scooping up […]

A Couple of Reminders About Email Etiquette

Two things prompted this post. First, this week I have received a dozen or more emails from teachers who didn’t bother to write anything like, “Hi Richard” or any other greeting. Instead they just jumped right into a request. I like to help people, but I like to help polite people more. Second, as school […]

How Submarines Work

SciShow Kids is one of my favorite YouTube channels for kids. SciShow Kids publishes a steady stream of science lessons for elementary school students. The latest video lesson from SciShow Kids is all about how submarines work. The video does a nice job of covering the basics of how submarines are sunk and how they […]

5 Ways to Display YouTube in Class Without “Related” Content

One of the questions that I’m frequently asked at the beginning of the school year goes something like this, “do you know how I can download videos from YouTube?” I do know how to do that, but I won’t teach you how to do that because it is a violation of YouTube’s terms of service. […]

Great Tips & Reminders for Securing Your Mobile Phone

Many students use their smartphones more often than their laptops to browse the web, shop, and access important files. That’s why we need to teach students to protect their mobile phones with the same level diligence used to protect their laptops. Common Craft recently published a good video about mobile phone safety and security. The […]

How Does Air Conditioning Work? – A Lesson for the Dog Days of Summer

Here in northern New England we don’t handle hot and humid weather well. The first heat wave of the summer always sends people scrambling to buy the few air conditioners that are in stock at Home Depot or Walmart. In fact, I was one of those scramblers a couple of weeks ago. This leads me […]

SciShow Kids Answers “Why Do Animals Have Tails?”

My daughters and my dogs’ tails have a close relationship. Sometimes that relationship is tested by a quick grab of a tail and sometimes tested by a swishing tail to the face. But no matter what, my dogs always wag their tails when we come home. That, of course, begs the question, “why do animals […]

Three Ways to Record and Share Video Notes in Real-time

Tools like EDpuzzle and TED-Ed are good for creating questions that you want your students to answer about videos that you share with them. But if you want students to share their own questions or notes with you, you’ll have to try some tools that were designed for that purpose. Here are three tools that […]

7 TED-Ed Food Science Lessons

Like many people, I probably drink more coffee and eat a few more carbs than I should. That combination can lead to some serious swings in my energy levels during the day. Caffeine and carbohydrates are just a couple of the topics covered in TED-Ed lessons about the science of food. Here are seven TED-Ed […]

13 Great Drawing Lessons for Students

ShowMe is a popular app for creating whiteboard style instructional videos on iPads, Android tablets, and Chromebooks. ShowMe users have the option to publish their videos for inclusion in a public gallery of instructional videos. It was in that gallery that I found thirteen videos published by an art teacher named Nikkie Milner. The topics […]

A 360° Video That Shows You How to Find the Summer Constellations

NPR’s Skunk Bear YouTube channel has recently become one of my favorite YouTube channels. The latest video published on the channel is a 360° video that explains how to find the constellations that are visible in the summer night sky over North America. Because the video is a 360° video you can pan through the […]

Soft Fruit, Mold, and Sour Milk – A Lesson on Food Safety

At one time or another we’ve all opened a milk container and noticed that something wasn’t quite right or picked up a piece of fruit that was just a little too soft. Reactions, one of my favorite YouTube channels, has a video that answers whether or not you can eat that soft fruit, moldy bread, […]

Videos for Learning About the Tour de France and the Science of Bicycling

The Tour de France begins on Saturday. What started out as a promotion to boost the sales of newspapers in France is now one of the biggest sporting events in the world (and a big business). On Tuesday I shared a couple of ideas for making virtual tours of the Tour de France. Here are some other […]

A Crash Course on Independence Day

Tomorrow, July 4th, is Independence Day in the U.S.  In the video below John Green offers a short overview of the history of Independence Day and the ways in which Americans have celebrated the holiday since 1776. As always, Green includes plenty of sarcastic comments throughout the video so if your students have trouble recognizing […]

The Chemistry of Fireworks

Tomorrow is Independence Day in the United States. Cities and towns all over the country will feature fireworks displays to celebrate the day. I’m sure that many of you will be enjoying a fireworks display tomorrow. (My kids are too young and my dogs too are too skittish to enjoy fireworks). If after watching a […]

110 Videos About Careers

For nearly a decade I have been referring folks to Next Vista for Learning as a place to find and to share educational videos made by students and teachers. The Light Bulbs section of Next Vista is where you will find most of the videos on the site. The videos within the Light Bulbs section […]

82 Math in Real Life Lessons

Years ago TED-Ed started a playlist of video lessons called Math in Real Life. That playlist that started out with just a couple dozen lessons has now grown to include 82 lessons. The “real life” context in these lessons isn’t things like “how calculating percentages helps you be a frugal shopper.” The “real life” context […]

Why Sheep Don’t Shrink in the Rain

It’s a rainy day here in Maine and after a little trail run with my dogs, my feet were soaked! My Smartwool socks keep my feet relatively warm, but do nothing to keep them dry. This scenario always makes we wonder about two things. First, why don’t my Smartwool socks shrink when I wash and […]

A Soccer Physics Lesson

If you watch the World Cup or any other professional soccer game you’re bound to see some incredible kicks that make the ball curve through the air. Football Physics: The “Impossible” Free Kick is a TED-Ed lesson that illustrates and explains how soccer players make the ball curve when they kick it on a free […]

4 Fun Summer Science Activities

Now that summer is here in the northern hemisphere it’s a great time to go outside for a science lesson. SciShow Kids has four suggestions for outdoor science lessons. In Fun Summer Science adults and children can learn about the science of bubbles, kites, ice cream, and solar energy. Each segment includes an explanation of […]

The Myth of the Giant’s Causeway Explained

The Giant’s Causeway is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites that I have had the privilege to see in person. It can be seen in Google Maps Street View too. It’s a unique geological site created by molten basalt. That’s interesting but not as interesting as the myth of its creation. The myth of […]

Short Lessons on the Longest Day of the Year

The summer solstice is just a couple of days away. Many refer to this as the “longest day of the year” when they really mean “longest period of daylight in a day.” But that’s beside the point of this post which is to share a few handy resources that can help kids understand the summer […]

Turning Milk Into Cheese – A Science Lesson

Reactions is a fantastic YouTube channel that science teachers should bookmark. Reactions is produced by PBS Digital Studios and the American Chemical Society. The purpose of the channel is to teach viewers about the role of chemistry in the things they may see in everyday life. For example, earlier this year they produced a video […]

Why Do We Itch? – A Science Lesson

Summer here in northern New England brings long and sunny days that make us forget about the short and frigid days of winter. Those sunny days come with a catch. That catch is blooming poison ivy and biting insects that make us itch. But what really makes us itch? Is there any way to avoid […]

New Common Craft Video – Digital Footprints Explained

As adults we know that everything we do online is a part of our digital footprints. Even those things that you post on your “private” Facebook or Instagram account are public because they’re just a screenshot away from being shared outside of your private circle. This is a lesson that every student should learn without […]

11,000 People Get Their Ed Tech Tips Here

A few times a week I create new how-to videos on a wide range of tools and topics related to educational technology. Some recent topics include making animated videos, making virtual reality tours, and time-saving tips for Google Forms users. All of my videos are published to my YouTube channel which now has more than […]

A Few Good Videos for Learning About Memorial Day

Memorial Day in the United States is ten days away. Many students associate the day with with barbecues, parades, and a day off from school. But that’s not what Memorial Day is about. As we know it’s a day to honor those who died in service to our country. Some students may confuse the day […]

The Life of a City – Early Silent Films of New York City

The Library of Congress has some neat playlists on YouTube that history teachers should explore. One of those playlists is titled The Life of a City: Early Films of New York. This playlist includes 24 silent film clips of events like the opening of the East River bridge, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Parade, and the […]

The Science of Cookies

I love cookies! In fact, I just had two warm chocolate chip cookies for dessert tonight. I bet that you have a student or twenty that enjoys cookies too. TED-Ed has a fun lesson that you can use to teach some science concepts through cookies. In the TED-Ed lesson about the chemistry of cookies students learn why you […]

How Coffee Affects Your Brain

Like millions of people, I start my day by brewing coffee. On those rare days when I discover we’re out of coffee at home, it can totally throw my morning out of wack. Heck, I even pick hotel rooms based on whether or not they have in-room coffee makers. In other words, I’m addicted to […]

New TED-Ed Lesson – What Causes Constipation?

In late March TED-Ed answered “why isn’t the world covered in poop?” Last week they published a lesson answering the related question, “what causes constipation?“ What Causes Constipation? teaches viewers about the roles of the large intestine and pelvic floor muscles in the process of expelling stool. The lesson also teaches viewers about the dietary […]

Video Guides to Common Fallacies

The Guide to Common Fallacies is a resource that I wish I had back when I was teaching ninth grade students to recognize bias, propaganda, and logical fallacies. The Guide to Common Fallacies is a series of nine short videos from the PBS Idea Channel. Each video covers a different common fallacy. Some of the fallacies explained in […]

Glue vs. tape – A TED-Ed Science Lesson

The back windshield in my truck is currently being held in place by some clear packaging tape. There’s a big crack in it and my local glass shop can’t fix it until Tuesday. Tape was my “fix” because super glue would not only make a mess, but that mess could end up dripping onto the […]

The Science of Spring!

Here in Maine it finally has felt like spring for the entire week. We’ve had hot and sunny days as well as warm and rainy days. In other words, lawns are starting to look green. This is a great time to share a new SciShow Kids video that covers a handful of topics related to […]

MOOO – Museum of Obsolete Objects

Do you remember using the end of a pencil to dial your rotary phone? Did you have an answering machines that used cassette tapes? Do you remember the annoyance of having your mouse connected to your computer? If you said yes to any of those questions, you should take a look at a YouTube channel […]

Watch Live – Bison Calves in Yellowstone

A few minutes ago I was browsing Facebook when I noticed that the Yellowstone National Park page was livestreaming images of bison and their new calves. You can view the stream here right now. If you’re not able to view the stream because of restrictions on your school filters or you want more information about […]

TED-Ed Lessons About Every Element on the Periodic Table

For years I have referred readers to the University of Nottingham’s Periodic Table of Videos. That table provides a video about every element that is in the Periodic Table. Recently, via Lifehacker, I learned that the producers of the Periodic Table of Videos partnered with TED-Ed to create lessons about every element in the Periodic […]

The Origins of the London Underground

Fun fact: I once got terribly lost in London when the Tube line that I was on unexpectedly (to me, anyway) went out of service and I had to find an alternate route back to my hotel. I’m telling you that only as a way to introduce a new TED-Ed lesson about the world’s first […]

DIY Solar Updraft Tower – A Hands-on Elementary Science Lesson

SciShow Kids has a playlist of videos titled Super Simple Machines. The videos in that playlist feature explanations and demonstrations of simple machines that students could make in your classroom. One of those videos is Spin a Wheel With Sunlight. By watching Spin a Wheel With Sunlight students can learn how solar energy can be […]

Tube – A Distraction-free Way to Search and Watch YouTube

Tube is a new tool providing a minimalist view of YouTube. When you go to Tube all you will see is “Tube,” a disclaimer, a link to the developer’s Twitter account, and a search box. Enter your search terms into the Tube search box and a list of results appears below it without showing any […]

A Crash Course in Taxes

The deadline to file income tax returns here in the U.S. is less than one week away. If you have high school students, some of them may be filing taxes (or having parents do it on their behalf) for the first time. That may lead to all kinds of questions about why we have taxes, […]

What Causes Body Odor? – A TED-Ed Lesson

What Causes Body Odor? is a new TED-Ed lesson that every middle school health teacher will want to bookmark. The lesson explains where body odor comes from, the processes that and contribute to body odor, and how antiperspirants work. What Causes Body Odor? is part of TED-Ed playlist called Gross Science. Gross Science includes video […]

The Lives of Teenagers and Soldiers in Ancient Rome

One of the earliest TED-Ed lessons was about teenage life in Ancient Rome.The video and its associated questions feature the story of seventeen year old Lucius Popidius Secundus. Last week TED-Ed published a new lesson about life in Ancient Rome. In A Day In the Life of a Roman Soldier students learn about a soldier […]

Seven Good Resources to Help Students Learn the Periodic Table

Learning the periodic table of the elements is not one of my fondest memories of high school, but it was a necessary experience to get through chemistry. My classmates and I memorized  all of the elements, at least temporarily, by using flashcards to drill each other. Today, students have more options at their disposal. Here are […]

This TED-Ed Lesson Is Full of …!

Why Isn’t the World Covered In Poop? is the latest video lesson published by TED-Ed. With a title like that, how could you not be curious enough to spend five minutes watching the video? And that’s exactly what I just did. Why Isn’t the World Covered In Poop? is really a lesson about dung beetles […]

Making and Understanding Paper Airplanes

Making and Understanding Paper Planes is a short video that was produced by students for Next Vista’s Creative Flight video contest. Like a lot of the videos hosted on Next Vista, this video is a good example of students producing a video to teach a short lesson. In the video the students demonstrate how to […]

5 TED-Ed Lessons About How the Food We Eat Affects Our Bodies

This morning while my daughter was napping I went down the rabbit hole of YouTube related videos. It started out as a simple search for some new cycling workout videos and ended up with this TED-Ed lesson about carbohydrates. That lesson goes nicely with some other TED-Ed lessons that I have bookmarked about how the […]

Stop Making Videos While Driving

YouTube and Facebook are filled with people publishing selfie videos that were recorded while driving. I don’t know why this type of video is popular. I do know that every time I see one I think about how dangerous that is. Tom Scott visited the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driving Simulator to find out […]

A Hands-on Science Lesson for the Spring

When I was in Kindergarten we grew marigolds in Styrofoam cups and took them home in spring (probably for Mother’s Day, but my mother will have to confirm that detail). I was reminded of that little project when I watched a new SciShow Kids video. Earlier today SciShow Kids published a video titled Grow Your […]

How Do Trees Survive Winter

It has been a long, cold winter here in Maine. Some of the snow storms have taken their toll on the trees including the one that had my daughter’s swing in it. But many trees are making it through the winter just fine. It makes you wonder why some trees survive the winter and others […]

Spring?! – Three Short Lessons About Seasons

It might not feel like it to many of us, but tomorrow is the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. If you’re looking for some quick video lessons about the seasons, take a look at the following three options. Time has just released a new video that features images and text about the […]

Take a Look at This Year’s Explore.org Wildlife Cams

Explore.org offers a fantastic collection of live nature webcam feeds. In the gallery of live webcams you will find video feeds featuring owls in their nests, ospreys in their nests, and bald eagles in nests, and video feeds featuring puffins. Spring is almost here in the northern hemisphere and the bird videos feeds are the best […]

Tips for Creating Strong Passwords – And Don’t Forget to Change Them

This afternoon I was in a little knick-knack shop when I came across a little notebook that had a cover page titled “online organizer.” Inside the notebook there were pages for writing your passwords for the websites that you use. Looking at that notebook reminded me of some resources that I have saved regarding creating […]

Timelinely – Annotate Videos With Text and Pictures

Timelinely is a new tool for annotating videos that are hosted on YouTube. I learned about Timelinely through one of Larry Ferlazzo’s recent blog posts. I tried Timelinely for myself this afternoon. Timelinely makes it easy to get started. You just have to copy a YouTube URL into the Timelinely homepage to get started. Once […]

How Inventions Change History

This evening I was looking back at some resources that I have for teaching about Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. Included in that list was a YouTube video that demonstrated how the cotton gin worked. Next to that video I found a TED-Ed lesson titled How Inventions Change History (For Better or Worse). The […]

Snap vs. Scratch

Yesterday, I shared a student-produced video from Next Vista for Learning. This morning I have a good example of a teacher-produced video found on Next Vista. In the following video Brian Ellis explains what the Snap programming language is, demonstrates how it works, and explains the differences between Snap and Scratch. Take a look at […]

It’s Time to Change the Clocks – Here’s Why

It’s that time of year again when most of us in North America have to move our clocks forward by one hour. That’s right, Daylight Saving Time starts on Sunday! That means that on Monday morning you may have some students may come to class complaining about their lost hour of sleep. They may also […]

The Quote Sandwich – A Student Explains How to Use Quotes

Next Vista for Learning is a great place to find examples of students making videos to teach concepts to other students. Earlier this week I was just browsing the site when I came across a nice video about how to integrate quotes into an essay. In the video the student, an anonymous student at Lynbrook […]

Quit Social Media – Do Deep Work

Last night I watched Dr. Cal Newport‘s TEDx Talk titled Quit Social Media. In this thought-provoking talk Dr. Newport presents the case for quitting social media. He presents the case from the standpoint that social media fragments our attention and prevents us from doing deep work. To help people come to grips with the idea […]

Making Maple Syrup – A Science and Math Lesson

The days are getting warmer here in Maine, the sun is shining a bit longer each day, and the snow is starting to melt. That means that two of a Mainer’s favorite seasons are starting; mud season and maple syrup season. My friend Gardner Waldeier AKA Bus Huxley on YouTube collects maple sap to make maple […]

ViewPure Now Offers Curated Playlists

ViewPure, a great tool for distraction-free YouTube viewing, has relatively new collections of videos for teachers. The collections are organized according to grade level and topic. Start here by choosing either high school, middle school, upper elementary, or pre-K through lower elementary. After choosing the grade range you can choose a subject area and then […]

This Is Why I Share Interesting Videos

I share interesting videos on this blog on a regular basis because I always found that a good, short video can be an good lead-in to a lesson or discussion. This morning I woke up to this nice Tweet from Vilma Manahan that confirmed for me that other teachers feel the same way. Thank you […]

Squirrels!!! Why Are You Digging In My Lawn?

Along with the birds returning my yard, the squirrels and chipmunks are starting to dig around in my lawn. The same thing might be happening in your students’ yards too. SciShow Kids has a new video that explains why squirrels are dormant for much of the winter and why they dig in the spring and […]

The Role of Bird Migration in the Ecosystem

When I let my dogs out this morning I heard some birds chirping that I hadn’t heard in a few months. That’s a sure sign that spring can’t be too far away. The sounds of the birds this morning reminded me of a TED-Ed lesson that was published a few years ago. Bird Migration, A […]

Why February is Shorter Than Every Other Month

Tomorrow is the last day of February. Some students may wonder why February is only 28 days while all other months are 30 or 31 days. It’s Okay To Be Smart has the answer to that question in the following video. Of course, every four years February has 29 days. The following videos can help […]

Common Craft Explains Flipped Classrooms

The flipped classroom concept, in the right setting, can be an effective way to maximize classroom time. Perhaps you’ve tried it yourself and have been looking for a way to explain it to parents or colleagues. Common Craft recently released a good video that could help you do just that. Flipped Classroom Explained by Common […]

ReClipped Adds New Features for Recording & Sharing Video Notes

ReClipped is a video annotation tool that I first tried back in November. I was impressed by how ReClipped lets you not only clip or highlight sections of videos, but also lets you write time-stamped notes about those clipped sections. Watch the video here to see ReClipped in action. Recently, ReClipped added some new features […]

79 Math In “Real Life” Lessons

Math in Real Life is a series of 79 TED-Ed lessons and TED Talks. The “real life” context in these lessons isn’t things like “how calculating percentages helps you be a frugal shopper.” The “real life” context found in the videos in the Math in Real Life series is broad in nature. For example, you will […]

The Chemistry of Gluten

My local grocery store has a whole section of gluten-free bread. I’d wager that your local grocery store has the same. What is gluten? What’s its role in your favorite loaf of bread? Those questions and more are answered in a recently released Reactions video titled The Only Video You’ll Ever Need to Watch About […]

Common Craft Explains Blockchain

Turn on any of the 24/7 cable news networks today and you’re likely to hear about Bitcoin and or blockchain. Bitcoin is in the news because of its wild fluctuations in value over the last year. Blockchain is what makes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin possible. If that seems clear as mud, you should watch Common Craft’s […]

How Snow Is Made Naturally and by Humans

Every skier knows that natural snow is better than man-made snow. But there will be plenty of both at the Winter Olympics. So what is the difference? And how is snow made? Those questions are answered in the following videos. How to Make Snow (If You’re Not Elsa) is a short video produced by SciShow […]

10 More Videos About the Science of the Winter Olympics

On Tuesday I shared a playlist of 16 videos about the science of the Winter Olympics. Those videos were created by the National Science Foundation to coincide with the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2014 the NSF released another batch of videos about the science of the Winter Olympics. Some of the things that viewers can […]

16 Videos About the Science of Winter Olympics Sports

The Winter Olympics begin this week. I’m looking forward to the skiing events and the bobsled events. The start of the Winter Olympics presents an opportunity to incorporate some science lessons into your students’ interest in a current event that they may be following at home. The National Science Foundation offers a YouTube playlist of […]

ClassHook Adds a New Feature for Using Videos in Your Classroom

ClassHook is a free service that helps you locate video clips to use in your classroom. ClassHook’s best feature is being able to search for video clips according to subject and topic. Most of the video clips that you’ll find on ClassHook come from well-known television shows and movies. Over the weekend ClassHook introduced a […]

The Math and Science of Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is less than two weeks away. In middle schools and high schools everywhere there will be students who are excited about it, some who dread it, and others who are indifferent. I always fell into the indifferent category. Wherever your students stand on Valentine’s Day, the following two videos make for interesting lessons […]

7 Ways to Create Screencasts on Chromebooks – Updated for 2018

This week’s news about Screencast-o-matic has prompted me to update my list of tools for creating screencast videos on Chromebooks. All of these tools can be used by you or your students to create demonstrations of how a tool works, to create a simple video lesson in which you talk over a slideshow, or to […]

Five Good Educational Resources to Use Before the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. Just like last year, I predict that the Patriots will win. The odds are good that you have some students who are also interested in the game. Try one of the following resources to turn your students’ enthusiasm for the Super Bowl into a fun lesson. The Superb […]

What is Groundhog Day?

Today is Groundhog Day. Today is the day that, according to legend, a groundhog will predict how much longer winter will last in the northern hemisphere. Your students might be wondering where this tradition originated. The following two videos provide brief explanations of Groundhog Day’s origins. This video from Storm Shield explains a bit of […]

The History of the State of the Union Address

Tonight, President Trump delivered the State of the Union Address. This post is not about what he said or didn’t say tonight. Instead, it is intended to share some resources that could help you teach your students about the history of the State of the Union Address. The following two videos from CNN and Fox […]

Cold and Flu Season Lessons

As anyone who has been in a webinar with me in the last week can confirm, I’ve been fighting a cold. Like a lot of people, I seem to get a cold or the flu around this time every year. Fortunately, it’s just a cold and not the flu. But what’s the difference between the […]

Sundials and Snowflakes – How to Make Your Own

SciShow Kids recently published a new video that explains to students how a sundial works and how they can make their own sundials. The video could be the basis for a fun, hands-on lesson about learning to tell time. For those in cold, northern climates creating and taking sundials outside with your students might not […]

Citations and Citing Your Work – New Common Craft Video

What needs to be cited and what doesn’t need to be cited in a paper is a question that has confounded many students over the years. Common Craft has a new video that addresses that question and more. Citations and Citing Your Work teaches students about the differences between in-text and full citations and how […]

300+ Free Economics Lessons, Videos, and Educational Games

Econ Ed Link hosts hundreds of lesson plans and interactive games for teaching students about a wide range of topics in economics. Teachers can search the lesson plan index by grade level, concept, standard, or length of lesson (one class period vs. multiple class periods). Most of the lessons attempt to provide “real world” context. The interactive section of […]

Midterm Elections – 5 Things You Should Know

2018 is a midterm election year in the United States. What’s that mean? In short, it is the Congressional elections that happen in the middle of a president’s term in office. But to find out what midterm elections really mean, students should watch 5 Things You Should Know About Midterm Elections. In this video produced […]

10,000 People Get Their Ed Tech Tips This Way

A few years back I decided to try to include more screencast videos in my blog posts. Initially, I hosted the videos on Vimeo and Wistia before realizing that I’d help more people by putting them on my YouTube channel. Those videos have been viewed more than 2,000,000 times and as of this morning the […]

Videos and Google Earth File for Learning About Glaciers

SciShow Kids recently published a new video that explains to children how glaciers are formed and how they change over time. SciShow Kids is intended for early elementary school grades and this video about glaciers not an exception to that pattern. For older students you might want to take a look at How Do Glaciers […]

What is a Red Herring? – And Other Lessons on Critical Thinking

In today’s age of clickbait headlines and increasingly polarized news reporting, it is more important than ever to teach students to be critical thinkers. One of the ways that we can do that is to teach them about logical fallacies and how they are used to try to win an argument. Wireless Philosophy offers 35 […]

An Alternative to New Year’s Resolutions

It’s the first day of 2018 (second day for some of you) and the time when many of us create goals and make resolutions for the 365 days ahead. A year, 365 days can seem like a long time to do anything consistently let alone do something new for that long. Matt Cutts, formerly Google’s […]

Don’t Tell People About Your New Year’s Resolution

Happy New Year! I hope that 2018 is a great year for you and that you accomplish all of the goals that you set for yourself in 2018. Just don’t tell me or anyone else what those goals are unless you’re asking for an accountability partner. It’s not that I don’t care about your goals, […]

33 Lessons on Critical Thinking – Best of 2017

As I do during this week every year, I am taking some time off to relax and prepare for the new year. Every day this week I will be featuring the most popular blog posts of the year. This was one of the most popular posts in April. From analyzing a persuasive essay to dissecting […]

22 Videos That Can Help Students Improve Their Writing – Best of 2017

As I do during this week every year, I am taking some time off to relax and prepare for the new year. Every day this week I will be featuring the most popular blog posts of the year. This was one of the most popular posts in March. The Writer’s Workshop is a playlist of twenty-two TED-Ed lessons. […]

Ancient Egypt 101 – A Six Minute Primer

Ancient Egypt 101 is a new video produced by National Geographic. The video doesn’t reveal any new information or go into any great detail. What it does provide is a concise overview of the history of ancient Egypt and how some aspects of ancient Egyptian culture are still present today. Applications for Education One of […]

What is a Grand Jury?

One of the topics that some of my civics students struggled with was understanding the court system in the United States. Keith Hughes recently published a video that I wish he had made about 10 years ago because some of those students would have benefited from watching What is a Grand Jury? In What is […]

The Shortest Day of the Year

Good morning from chilly Paris Hill, Maine where my thermometer reads 11F, but it feels more like 0F. Not only is it going to be cold all day, it’s also going to be the day that we have the least sunlight all year. That is because today is the winter solstice. Here’s a small collection […]

Three Ways to Collaboratively Create Video Playlists

From cats doing tricks to documentaries about cats in Egyptian art, we watch more videos today than we ever have before. The challenge is weeding through all of the ridiculous cat videos to find the good stuff that you can share with your students. And once you find the good videos, you’ll want to organize […]

How Your Digestive System Works – A TED-Ed Lesson

How Your Digestive System Works is a new TED-Ed lesson. Like all TED-Ed lessons the graphics in the video are great. The content itself is rather basic and best suited for a middle school science classroom. If you want to extend the lesson I would recommend taking a look at Sponge Lab Biology’s Interactive Build […]

The Physics of Skiing

It’s a snow day here in western Maine. For a skier like me, that means it’s time to enjoy the snow with some time on the slopes. If you live in an area that has skiing, you might have some students that feel the same way that I do about snow. New snow equals a […]

The Science of Snowflakes

Here in western Maine we’re expecting our second real snowstorm of the winter to arrive tonight. This has reminded me of a couple of educational videos that explain the science of snowflakes. The Science of Snowflakes is a TED-Ed video lesson that explains how snowflakes are formed, why they’re all different, and why seem to […]

How to Create a Distraction-free Video Playlist

A couple of weeks ago I shared a few ways to display videos without the distraction of sidebar content on YouTube and Vimeo. Another way to display videos without the sidebar distractions is to play them through Padlet. In Padlet you can use the “playlist” template to make a list of videos and then display […]

Chemistry in Slow Motion

The Periodic Table of Videos produced by The University of Nottingham features a video demonstration of the characteristics of each element in the Periodic Table of Elements. Each element in the Periodic Table displayed on the home page is linked to a corresponding YouTube video. The Periodic Table of Videos YouTube channel contains some additional features that teachers […]

Distraction-free YouTube Viewing

On Monday night, during How to Teach With Video, someone asked, “what do you do about all the yucky ads on YouTube?” A couple of members of the class suggested ad blocker extensions. I suggested trying Quietube. Quietube is a convenient tool that you can add to your browser’s bookmarks bar. Quietube will remove all the […]

Why You Should Get a Flu Shot Every Year

I was at my local pharmacy yesterday and they had a sign encouraging people to get a flu shot. The small print on the sign pointed that you should get a flu shot every year. Your students might be wondering, “why do I have to get a flu vaccine shot again this year?” If that’s […]

Online Basics – Three New Videos from Common Craft

For those of us who use social media on a daily basis and who do most of our shopping online, it can be easy to falsely assume that everyone else is equally comfortable online. That’s why I was happy to see Common Craft’s new videos about online basics. Common Craft’s new online basics series contains […]

Create Great Video Lessons on iSL Collective

iSL Collective offers a huge gallery of video-based lessons designed to help students learn English. It also offers a fantastic tool for teachers to use to create their own video-based lessons. iSL Collective’s video lesson creator lets you build questions into videos found on YouTube and on Vimeo. The lesson creator allows you to add […]

Go To Sleep or Cram? – The Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep

With two children under 16 months old, in my house we’re well aware of the value of a good night’s sleep. That’s why I favor getting up early before the kids to work on projects than to try work late after they go to bed. As this TED-Ed lesson explains, students could benefit from adopting […]

A Health and Science Lesson – What Is Fat?

Now that we’re into the holiday season, many of us may be concerned about our intake of fats through our favorite holiday treats. But, as students can learn in What is Fat? not all fats are the same. What is Fat? is a TED-Ed lesson that explores the differences between the types of fats that we find […]

Four Tools for Recording Time-stamped Notes While Watching Videos

This post was updated on December 10, 2021 to remove links to services that no longer exist.  There are many tools for creating video-based lessons and quizzes in which students answer the questions that you create for them. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. I’ve done that myself. However, there are times when I […]

ReClipped – Take Notes and Share Notes on Educational Videos

ReClipped is a neat tool that lets you take notes, share notes, and share clips from educational videos. ReClipped blends the best aspects of TurboNote, VideoNot.es, and Pinterest into one slick system. With a ReClipped account you can clip sections of videos that you find on YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Coursera, and TED. In addition to […]

Intro to U.S. Involvement in WWI – And What Kids Say About Tom Richey’s Videos

Tom Richey recently released a new video for students in U.S. history courses. The United States in World War I is a video in which Tom provides students with an overview of why the United States got involved in the war, why U.S. involvement was significant, and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. It’s hard to provide […]

93 Years of Parades

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade turns 93 this year. For many Americans watching the parade is as much of Thanksgiving tradition as eating Turkey is. The parade has change quite a bit over the years. You can view those changes through Macy’s Parade History which offers an interactive timeline of the parade’s history. You can select any decade […]

Implied Powers – American Government Review

Keith Hughes recently published a new video for students of U.S. History and U.S. Government. The video is titled What Are Implied Powers? The video features an overview of the debate between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson over the interpretation of the Elastic Clause and General Welfare Clause. Check out the video as embedded below. […]

Canadian Thanksgiving vs. American Thanksgiving

This coming Monday in the United States is generally referred to as Columbus Day. In Canada this coming Monday is Thanksgiving. Start your Saturday morning on a lighter note by watching one or both of the following humorous videos that explain the differences between Thanksgiving in Canada and Thanksgiving in the United States. You should […]

How Deep Is the Ocean? – This Video Puts It Into Perspective

Understanding the scale of something like depth of the ocean or distance to the moon is best done with visuals that are familiar to students. That’s why I am excited to share this video from Tech Insider about the depth of the ocean. It does a great job of helping viewers understand the depths of […]

Advertising and What YouTube Knows About You

We’ve all had the annoying experience of going to show a YouTube video in a classroom or to a friend only to have an advertisement play for five, ten, or thirty seconds before you can actually watch the video. How does YouTube know which ads to show to you? That’s partly based on your viewing […]

The Science of Autumn

This Friday is the Autumnal Equinox in the northern hemisphere. The changing leaves, the cooler air, and the earlier sunsets are just part of science of autumn. Here are some resources for teaching and learning about the sights and sounds of autumn. To help students understand why the leaves change colors in the fall, the […]

Citations for Beginners

EasyBib, the popular citation creation and management tool for students, recently published a new video that could help some students understand why they need to cite the sources of their information. The short video seems to be designed for an elementary school audience although some of the points in the video will require you to […]

YouTube Management Options for Schools

YouTube can be a great source of educational videos to share with your students. I recently read a blog post in which Chris Brogan claimed that his kids go to YouTube to search before they go to Google. The chances are good that you have students who do the same. But for all of the […]

The Harvest Moon Explained by NASA

The astronomical start of autumn is less than two weeks away. But this year the Harvest Moon that is typically associated with Fall is occurring a little later than usual. What is the Harvest Moon? Do other full moons have names too? Those questions and others are answered in NASA Sciencecasts: The Harvest Moon.

How to Collaborate to Create YouTube Playlists

Last fall I published a video in which I demonstrated how to collaboratively create a YouTube playlist. The concepts in that video are still valid, but the layout of YouTube has recently changed a bit. Therefore, it I made an updated video that demonstrates how to collaboratively create a YouTube playlist. Applications for Education There […]

National Geographic 101

National Geographic 101 is a nice series of videos produced by National Geographic. The videos in the series provide short (2-5 minutes) explanations of an array of science topics including space science, geology, and weather. The sample that I have embedded below is Volcanoes 101. Applications for Education All of the videos in this series […]

Practical Ed Tech Live – Episode #17

Yesterday afternoon I recorded a new episode of Practical Ed Tech Live. This is my (usually) weekly live stream in which I answer questions that were sent to me during the previous week. I also answer questions that are submitted on the fly. I’ll host another episode next Tuesday afternoon. Subscribe to my YouTube channel […]

Why Americans and Canadians Celebrate Labor Day

Next Monday is Labor Day. For most of us in the U.S. and Canada this marks the unofficial end of summer. If your students are wondering why they don’t have school on Monday, consider having them complete the TED-Ed lesson Why do Americans and Canadians Celebrate Labor Day? Through this lesson students can learn about the […]

Email Etiquette Reminders for Students

The start of the new school year is a great time to review email etiquette with students. Doing some basic things like adding a proper opening and using spell check can improve the emails that students send and improve how you feel when you’re responding to a students’ emails. Emailing Your Teacher, With Captain Communicator is […]

Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads? Why Do They Pant?

My old dog Morrison used to tilt is head to his right whenever I would ask him if he wanted to play stick. He wasn’t the only dog to do this. Perhaps you or one of your students have a dog that does the same. If you’ve ever wondered why dogs tilt their heads in […]

Ask for Fascinating

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of my favorite educational video site, Next Vista for Learning. If your term is kicking into gear, then it’s likely that batches of assignments will soon be a part of your time. One way to quickly decide you need to thrust something sharp […]

The Berlin Job – And the Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall is a TED-Ed lesson that was released last week. It’s a fine primer on the basics of the Berlin Wall, but it is not anything that on its own is going to wow a history teacher. After watching the TED-Ed video I went back into my archives to […]

Phrasal Verbs Friends – Fun Phrasal Verb Videos

One of the challenges that ELL students face is understanding the meanings of phrasal verbs. In the past I have featured a couple of apps that are designed to help students understand phrasal verbs. A newer resource worth bookmarking is the YouTube channel Phrasal Verbs Friends. Phrasal Verbs Friends videos are cartoons featuring cats explaining […]

TimelinesTV – Good, Short History Lessons

I was recently looking through some of my older posts about timelines when I was reminded of TimelinesTV. TimelinesTV was originally built as a site that featured video lessons displayed on a timeline. Today, the timelines don’t function well (the site hasn’t been updated in a few years), but the videos are still available through […]

One More Round-up of Solar Eclipse Resources

Throughout the last month I have shared some resources for teaching and learning about the solar eclipse that is passing over the United States this coming Monday. Here’s one last round-up of resources related to the solar eclipse. The Solar Eclipse Computer is a free tool from the Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval […]

Three Good Resources for Learning About Careers

One of my favorite things about working and living in a small community is that I get to see what many of my former students are doing after high school and college. Some of my former students have joined the teaching profession themselves. Some of always knew that they wanted to become teachers and others […]

417 History and Civics Lessons In One Place

On Friday I featured Tom Richey’s YouTube channel which is full of great content for Advanced Placement U.S. and European History students. Today, I want to point out or remind you about the excellent videos that Keith Hughes produces. Keith has at least 417 video lessons about a wide range of topics in U.S. and […]

How Do Glaciers Move?

Five years ago my old pal Morrison (RIP) and I traveled down the Columbia Icefields Parkway. It was a great way to experience part of the Canadian Rockies including seeing the glaciers that melt and feed tributaries of rivers that will eventually reach the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans. That begged the questions of how […]

What Happens to Your Brain When You Get a Concussion

As the return of football season approaches we hear more stories about professional and student athletes dealing with concussions. TED-Ed recently published a timely lesson about what happens to our brains when we have concussions. The six minute video explains what a concussion is, the short-term and long-term effects of concussions, and myths about concussions. […]

All About Cookies

Here’s a good video from Explania that clearly explains a part of our daily computer uses that we often don’t think about at all. In How Can Cookies Make Your Surfing Experience Convenient? we learn what browser cookies do for us. It’s not the most comprehensive explanation you’ll find, but it is a good primer […]

Free Solar Eclipse Glasses in Your Community

In 15 days a solar eclipse will cover a large portion of the United States. Star Net, a production of Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning, has partnered with American Library Association, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the Afterschool Alliance to provide more than 2 million free eclipse glasses to public libraries […]

Federal vs. Private Student Loans

For many students and their parents figuring out how to pay for college is a huge and stressful part of the college selection process. Planet Nutshell recently released two videos that can help students and their parents understand student loans. Those videos are embedded below. Learn more about student loans at Borrow Wisely. Understanding Federal […]

Three Good Videos About Solar Eclipses

On August 21st a solar eclipse will cover a large portion of the United States. If you’re in an area that the eclipse will cover, you may want to have your students build solar eclipse viewing boxes. But before doing that, you may want to have your students review how eclipses happen. The following three […]

Short Lessons About Fireworks

Over the weekend fireworks starting popping around my house. To my dog the sounds of fireworks are the sounds of the sky falling. To many people the sounds of fireworks is the sound of summer and celebration. If you or your children are wondering how the fireworks actually work, take a look at the following […]

The Tour de France Begins Tomorrow – Resources for Learning More About It

The Tour de France begins tomorrow. What started out as a promotion to boost the sales of newspapers in France is now one of the biggest sporting events in the world (and a big business). Here are some resources for learning more about the Tour de France. Check out this animated video to learn all […]

Get Inspired By These Videos

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something Special.  I love an inspiring video. While I think it’s inspiring that there are over two thousand short videos created by and for teachers and students everywhere on NextVista.org, we also have a […]

Turbulence Explained – #BigMetalBird

Big Metal Bird is a series of videos about aviation and the aviation industry. The videos were produced by United Airlines and some of the episodes are clearly done for marketing purposes, but the episode about air turbulence is useful to anyone who is nervous about flying or is just curious about what causes turbulence. […]

Public Domain Explained by Common Craft

Public Domain Explained by Common Craft is a new video that answers some common questions about the differences between works that are in the public domain and those that are copyrighted. The video also teaches how works end up in the public domain and some tips for finding media that is in the public domain. […]

A Convenient New Way to Search for Educational Videos

ClassHook is a free service that can help you find video clips to support your lessons. The clips that you’ll find in ClassHook come from well-known television shows and movies. You can find video clips on ClassHook by selecting a topic and browsing through the collection. ClassHook also has a search tool that allows you to […]

Shuck 400 Oysters…Bus Huxley Shows You Can Learn Anything Online

Gardner Waldeier is one of the most interesting people that I know. We first met when he showed up to a cycling club group ride with a 20+ year old steel bike and a borrowed helmet while wearing cotton pants and sneakers. He then proceeded to crush almost everyone on the climbs and held his […]

12 Lessons About Inventions That Kind of Changed the World

TED-Ed has a series of twelve video lessons called Moments of Vision. The videos in the series teach short lessons about inventions that may or may not have changed the world. For example, the invention of the stethoscope did change health care. The invention of the Popsicle, however, just makes summer days a little more […]

The Kid’s Guide To How the Internet Works

Our students have never known a world without the Internet. Before they use the Internet, it’s a good idea to teach them what the Internet is and how it works. The Kid’s Guide To How the Internet Works is a free ebook designed for early elementary school students. The book is not comprehensive, but could […]

The Origin of Memorial Day

Due to an injury and some pressing personal matters requiring my attention, posts for the rest of the week will be favorites from the archive. Memorial Day is on Monday. Here are a couple of quick resources that you may want to include in a lesson about Memorial Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a […]

The History of Mother’s Day

Happy 1st Mother’s Day to Jess. Isla’s awesome mom! Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms reading my blog today! Hi Mom! (Yes, my mom reads my blog). Until today I never really wondered about the origin of Mother’s Day. So I did what most people do when they wonder about something now, I […]

7 Good Resources for Learning About Mount Everest

Next week many mountaineers will be making their summit attempts on Mount Everest. As long-time readers of this blog may recall, one of my bucket list items is seeing Mount Everest in person. Until then I have to entertain myself with books, videos, and imagery of the mountain. Here are some of the resources that […]

How the Popsicle Was Invented – A Tasty TED-Ed Lesson

How the Popsicle Was Invented is the title of a recently released TED-Ed video. The short video explains the origin of the tasty treat itself as well as the name “Popsicle.” This TED-Ed lesson doesn’t include any multiple choice or discussion questions. It’s just a fun little lesson for students to think about as the […]

Check123 – A Video Encyclopedia

Check123 is a website that aims to help teachers and students find educational videos. The “123” aspect of the name Check123 refers to the length of the videos on the site. All of the videos are either one, two, or three minutes long. You can refine your search results according to length of video, subject, […]

Like Dogs? Have Kids That Like Dogs? – Watch This Video

If you have followed this blog for long, you’ve probably picked up on my love for dogs. You might have also noticed that I’m passionate about shelter dogs. That’s why I’m excited to this story from Lifehacker. How to Introduce Yourself to a Dog is a fantastic article outlining the best procedure for meeting a […]

The History of the Zamboni

The Stanley Cup playoffs are in full swing. And even though the Bruins are now eliminated and my childhood team, the Whalers, abandoned me like a bad prom date long ago one thing remains the same, the Zamboni cheers for no one. The Zamboni company produced a poster on the evolution of the Zamboni and some […]

10 Math Tutorial YouTube Channels Not Named Khan Academy

One of the most popular posts of all time on this blog featured math tutorial YouTube channels for high school and college students. That post was originally created as a response to an email from a reader who was seeking suggestions for math videos that were not on Khan Academy. This evening I took some […]

Find Inspiration for Video Projects While Judging a Video Contest

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something Special.  Every year, Next Vista for Learning challenges students at schools around the world to create videos telling about the efforts of those who work to make life better for others. Could you […]

A Crash Course on the History of Movies

Thanks to Open Culture I learned about a new Crash Course that should be fun to follow for the next sixteen weeks. Crash Course Film History promises to take viewers through the evolution of movies from a technical perspective as well as the cultural evolution of movies. The first episode in the series goes back […]

Words of the World – Learn the Origin of Words

Words of the World is another excellent set of videos from the same people that brought us the popular Periodic Table of Videos. Words of the World is a collection of videos featuring historians and linguists explaining the origins of and history of the use of words in the English language. The videos attempt to put the […]

A Concise Explanation of Augmented Reality

On Friday I shared a post about an augmented reality app from PBS Kids. That app lets students take pictures of animated characters in outdoor settings. That post prompted a question from a reader who wanted an explanation of augmented reality. My recommendation was to take a look at Common Craft’s video on the topic. […]

The PeriodicTable of Videos – An Update from the Archive

Earlier this week an email from a reader prompted me to take a look back through my archives for chemistry-related resources. The Periodic Table of Videos is one that popped-up that I hadn’t thought about in years. In fact, it has been nine years since I wrote about it. In that time a lot of […]

A Student With Autism Explains Autism

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something Special. This particular post features a video that I have featured many times in my own video workshops.  April is National Autism Awareness Month in the USA. Several years ago, […]

Cyberbullying Explained by Common Craft

Lee and Sachi at Common Craft have released a new video that tackles a topic that every student, teacher, and parent should understand; cyberbullying. By watching Cyberbullying Explained by Common Craft viewers can learn how what cyberbullying is, how it happens, and the actions that students and adults can take to stop cyberbullying. Applications for […]

33 Lessons on Critical Thinking

From analyzing a persuasive essay to dissecting research findings to determining the cause of an outcome in a science lab, having sharp critical thinking skills serves students well. Wireless Philosophy has a series of 33 video lessons about critical thinking. The most recent lesson explains the difference between causation and correlation. Take a look at […]

5 Good Resources for National Poetry Month

April is Poetry Month. Whether you’re trying to help students understand and interpret the meaning of poems or you’re trying to help them write their own poems, the following five resources are worth exploring. (By the way, I always wonder who gets to declare the something is “national X month?” That might be a good, […]

Students Evaluating Student Work

This is a guest post from my friend Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something Special. At the recent #CUE17 conference, I ran a workshop on getting a digital video project going. While a good chunk of the session was devoted to exploring […]

What Makes a Poem?

April is Poetry Month. As you start to plan poetry lessons, consider that many students will first wonder, “what makes a poem?” A new TED-Ed lesson addresses that question. In watching What Makes a Poem? students can learn the origins of poetry, the characteristics traditionally associated with poems, and the format of a haiku. The […]

A Couple of Short Lessons About Changing Seasons

Today is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Although the five foot tall snowbanks around my house make that hard to believe. Why do we have seasons? What causes the changes in weather patterns throughout the seasons? The answers to those questions and more are found in the following SciShow Kids video […]

Piracy Online Explained by Common Craft

Piracy Online is the most recent addition to Common Craft’s library of excellent explanatory videos. The video teaches viewers what online piracy is, how it violates copyright laws, and how online piracy impacts artists, software developers, and consumers. Applications for Education Understanding why using pirated music, videos, and software is illegal is part of helping […]

McCarthyism Explained In a New TED-Ed Video

Earlier this week TED-Ed published a new video lesson that explains McCarthyism. In What is McCarthyism? And How Did It Happen? students can learn the origins of McCarthyism and the actions of HUAC. Students can also learn how some people were ensnared in the actions of McCarthy and HUAC. Take a look at this CommonLit […]

Spring Forward! – Lessons on Daylight Saving Time

Most of us in North America moved our clocks forward by one hour last night or this morning. In doing so we will feel like or may actually have lost an hour of sleep. This is what happens every year when you live in a place that uses Daylight Saving Time. Your students may come […]

Why Do We Get Sick? – A Lesson for Little Kids

My daughter and I have colds right now. While she’s still too young to understand why she has a cold, it won’t be that long before she does. When she’s older, I might show her this SciShow Kids video that explains to kids why we get sick and how to prevent getting sick. Applications for […]

22 Videos That Can Help Students Improve Their Writing

The Writer’s Workshop is a playlist of twenty-two TED-Ed lessons. The The Writer’s Workshop contains lessons on basic topics like how to use punctuation and videos on more complex topics like how to make your writing humorous. The Writer’s Workshop playlist is embedded below. Applications for Education TED-Ed’s The Writer’s Workshop is a good place for students to find some […]

Two Fun Videos for High School Grammar Lessons

The resources that I shared in the post previous to this one offer games that help students learn and remember the rules of grammar. At the high school level, the following two videos offer fun introductions to grammar lessons. In Glove and Boots Fix Your Grammar the popular puppets Glove and Boots use fun examples from the web […]

Planning Your Video Project – A Guide for Students

Earlier today I published Rushton Hurley’s blog post about using video to capture your current students’ knowledge to be shared with your future students. Rushton included a sample video from a student explaining and illustrating onomatopoeia. While the final video is short, creating a good video requires planning. Over the years I’ve refined video planning […]

All About American Bison

There is a chilling scene in Dances With Wolves in which Kevin Costner’s character and the Lakota Indians come over a hill to see hundreds of bison carcasses left to rot on the plains. I have, on occasion, shown that scene to students. It’s a good illustration of what Americans did to the bison herds […]

How to Make a Terrarium

Build a Tiny Plant World! is the title of a new SciShow Kids video. The video explains how plants stay alive inside of terrariums and what you need to create your own plant terrarium. The video does a good job of explaining what students will need to create a terrarium and the elements within the […]

Valentine’s Day Math, Science, and Philosophy Lessons

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Whether you buy into the “holiday” or not, your students probably do. Here are three short video lessons related to Valentine’s Day. The following video from It’s Okay To Be Smart (produced by PBS Digital Studios) explains why humans kiss, the history of symbols associated with kissing, and some cultural views […]

Videos With Little (and Not So Little) Kiddos

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley, the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something Special. For many of us, student videos call to mind secondary, or perhaps upper elementary students putting together some creative thought about their learning. Art teacher Tricia Fuglestad worked with her kindergartners to come up […]

The Superb Owl – A Science Lesson With a Super Bowl Theme

Earlier this week I shared a few Super Bowl-themed lesson ideas. Here’s one more to close out the week before the Super Bowl. The Superb Owl is a cute video about owls. The video presents interesting facts about four types of owls. The whole four minute video is presented as if it is an NFL […]

Identity Theft and How to Prevent It – A New Common Craft Video

Not every attempt at identity theft is as obvious as the Nigerian Prince scam. Attempts at identity theft come in the forms of emails that look like they might be from your bank and phone calls from people asking you to give away “confirm” your account information. I once had someone attempt to get me […]

How Not To…

This is a guest post from Ruston Hurley, the founder of Next Vista for Learning and the author of Making Your School Something Special. It can be work getting students (and ourselves, truth be told) to remember what we should do. Getting our charges to make a video explaining what to do can be helpful, […]

40 Years of Snow Data

The Snow Guardian is an interesting short film featured on National Geographic’s YouTube channel. The film features billy barr (he chooses not to capitalize his name) who has lived alone on Gothic Mountain in Colorado for more than 40 years. For all but one of those years he has kept detailed, daily records of the […]

How to Record Video Notes With MoocNote

MoocNote is a free tool for taking notes while watching a YouTube or Vimeo video. All of your notes are timestamped and all of your notes can be shared with other MoocNote users. In the short video embedded below I demonstrate how to take notes while watching videos through MoocNote. Applications for Education MoocNote can […]

The Fun of Remembering Something Important

This is a guest post from Ruston Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning. Can explaining something abstract be interesting and fun? Can students more easily memorize something through a clever video? Whatever you need a student to remember, students may have a fun take on how to make it happen! In […]

A Short Lesson About the Great Lakes

In the fall of 2012 I crisscrossed my way across Michigan’s upper peninsula. In doing so I was able to experience some of the magnitude of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron. I was along the shore of Lake Superior during a storm that created waves the size of those we see on Maine’s […]

Next Vista’s Video Contests Show Great Examples of Student Productions

This is a guest post from Ruston Hurley, the founder of Next Vista for Learning. Imagine that your students are thinking of ways to explain challenging concepts to their peers or younger students. Can they put “Think of it this way…” into short videos that would help others for years to come? Getting an idea […]

18 Cartoon Videos About Cyber Safety for Students

Planet Nutshell produces short animated videos to explain products, services, and concepts. One of their series of videos is all about Internet safety for K-12 students. The series is called NetSafe and it has eighteen episodes covering topics like protecting personal information, responsible posting of pictures, and mobile location privacy. The videos are labeled with grade levels […]

Tips for Setting Up AP History DBQ Essays

Tom Richey has a great YouTube channel for history students and teachers. In addition to lessons on a wide variety of topics in U.S. and World History, he also offers videos on strategies for studying and writing. One of his recent strategy videos is Setting Up Your AP History DBQ. Setting Up Your AP History […]

How Igloos Can Keep You Warm – And Winter Phys Ed Activities

How an Igloo Keeps You Warm is a new video from It’s Okay To Be Smart. The video does a great job of explaining how an igloo provides insulation and stays relatively warm when people are inside it. The video also explains the engineering concepts used in the creation of a strong and warm igloo. […]

Colds, the Flu, and You – Lessons on Staying Healthy

I am just getting over a cold that had me sniffling, sneezing, and coughing for about ten days. Fortunately, it was just a cold and not the flu. What’s the difference between the two? How can you avoid catching either? Those questions and more are answered in the following videos. Colds, the Flu, and You […]

Learn English With Next Vista for Learning – Or Help Others Learn

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley, the founder of the non-profit Next Vista for Learning. Are you trying to learn another language? It can be hard to find good videos that are available for free to help, particularly if you’re trying to learn English, as businesses know there is a huge opportunity with […]

Why We Feel Attached to Our Stuff – A TED-Ed Lesson

A few years ago I realized that somewhere along the line I started to collect coffee mugs. I never set out to collect coffee mugs, it just kind of happened. Now I have a few favorite mugs that I won’t part with even as I start packing my house (I sold it last month) and […]

Student Videos Celebrating Service – Cool Projects

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley, the founder of Next Vista for Learning. Teachers have a love-hate relationship with cool projects. They often find the extra time one requires a burden, but love seeing what the students do when given room to see that they’re capable of taking their talents to another level. […]

A Cute Video About Email Etiquette for Students – Best of 2016

As I usually do during this week, I’m taking some time off to relax, ski, and work on some long-term projects for the next year. This week I will be re-publishing the most popular posts of 2016. Next Vista for Learning is a unique video sharing website because it focuses on sharing videos made by […]

More Than 40 Alternatives to YouTube – Best of 2016

As I usually do during this week, I’m taking some time off to relax, ski, and work on some long-term projects for the next year. This week I will be re-publishing the most popular posts of 2016.  3 Tips for Using YouTube Videos in Your Classroom was one of the most popular posts of the week […]

Three Tools Students Can Use to Add Annotations to Videos – Best of 2016

As I usually do during this week, I’m taking some time off to relax, ski, and work on some long-term projects for the next year. This week I will be re-publishing the most popular posts of 2016.  When we talk about flipped lessons it often involves a lot of heavy lifting on a teacher’s part. […]

Quick Lessons About the Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is today in the northern hemisphere. Should you need some short explanations of solstices to share with your children or students, take a look at the following resources. On National Geographic’s Education page you will find this hands-on activity designed to help students understand the changes in intensity and duration of sunlight on their […]

How Trees Survive The Winter

It was a crisp -10F at my house this morning. When it’s that cold everything seems crisp, brittle, and well…frozen. It makes you wonder how anything survives for long outside. I know that I’m always amazed when my lilac and blueberry bushes bounce back to life every spring. How do they do that? The answer […]

Brrr…Lessons on Winter Weather

The weather forecast for my town calls for a temperature of -5F and a wind chill of -33F tonight. I’ll be bundling up when my dogs need to go out tonight. The cold forecast made me think about some resources for teaching lessons about winter weather. The following video explains how wind chill is calculated. […]

Snot, Poop, Puke, and the Lessons They Teach

This post was inspired by my daughter whose snot, poop, and puke have been on me at various points in the last few days. Who Pooped? is one of the most Pinned resources of all time on this blog. Who Pooped? is an interactive site in which students learn about various animals by guessing which animal created […]

What’s in Dry-Erase Markers? – How Do They Work?

Even in the most tech-laden schools you can still walk into almost any classroom and find a dry-erase marker and whiteboard. Whether it’s to write a reminder for your students or to spell out a key term, it’s quick and easy to scribble on whiteboard. But what is in those dry-erase markers we use? And […]

4 Fun Facts About Reindeer

Thanks in part to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer some children don’t believe that reindeer (caribou) are real animals. SciShow Kids seeks to remedy that in their latest video 4 Facts to Know About Reindeer. Through the video kids can learn why reindeer are called caribou in North America. The lesson also teaches students how reindeer […]

Use Stories to Help Students See Possibilities for Helping Others

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley. Rushton is the founder of Next Vista for Learning and an all-around great guy. Some of your students may doubt their hopes can make a difference for themselves and for others. This is the time of year, though, to use stories to help them see their possibilities. […]

Five Lessons On How Computers Work

We use them every day. Our students do the same. But do we ever stop and wonder how computers work? The latest Sci Show Kids episode explains in simple terms how computers work. The video contains fine explanations for elementary school students albeit a bit too fast-paced for my liking. Watching the video sent me […]

Two YouTube Search Methods You Might Be Overlooking

YouTube can be a great source of educational videos to share with your students. It can also be a great source of frustration to weed through all of the content on YouTube to find the best videos to share with your students. There are couple of easy things that you can do to find better […]

Showing Learning at a Higher Level Through Vocabulary

This is a guest post from Rushton Hurley, founder of Next Vista for Learning. Can exploring a single vocabulary word show learning at a higher level? One teacher in California decided to have students try focusing on a single idea from her English course, and one student decided to work with how language develops: A […]

What Are Owl Pellets? – Learn by Watching and Doing

One of the cool things about living where I do, essentially the middle of nowhere by most standards, is getting to see lots of cool wildlife on a regular basis. That includes occasionally seeing owls when I’m walking my dogs at dawn and dusk. With owls come owl pellets that are fun to pick up […]

7 Lessons About Electricity

One of my most memorable elementary school science lessons included all of us creating working circuits with multiple switches to illuminate light bulbs. Our power source was 120 volt standard outlet. I don’t think that would be allowed in most classrooms today, but our teacher, Mrs. Carlson, was young and fearless. I was reminded of […]

A Brief History of Timezones

When I signed into Facebook this morning I was greeted by a notice that on this day in 1883 the railroad industry in North America began using the four timezones that are still in use today. Upon reading that notice I immediately remembered a TED-Ed lesson on the topic. Where did timezones come from? What […]

How to Collaboratively Create YouTube Playlists – Updated

Last year I published a video about how to collaboratively create YouTube playlists. Since then the steps for doing that have changed a little bit. Also this week I had someone ask if I could make a video about making YouTube playlists. To address both items I created the new tutorial video, How to Collaboratively […]

Protagonist vs. Antagonist – A Student Video

Throughout the year Next Vista for Learning hosts student video contests. All of the contests ask students to create short lessons about a wide variety of topics. The latest contest winner was announced earlier this week. The winning video was Protagonist vs. Antagonist. The 86 second video provides students with a clear explanation of the […]

The Origins of Thanksgiving Foods

On Tuesday I shared ten resources for Thanksgiving-themed lesson plans. This afternoon I discovered another good resource for a Thanksgiving lesson. The Surprising Origins of Thanksgiving Foods is a new video from It’s Okay to be Smart (a PBS production). Through the video students can learn how the most common, traditional Thanksgiving foods originated and […]

Resources for Teaching About Veterans Day

This coming Friday is Veterans Day and schools across the US will be closed. Try one or more of the following resources to help students understand the origins and meaning of Veterans Day. Bet You Didn’t Know: Veterans Day. The video explains the origins of the holiday and why its date of celebration has twice […]

A Lesson on the First U.S. Presidential Election

In my previous post I shared a video from Keith Hughes in which he explains the origins of the Electoral College. It’s a great explanation of the original arguments for and against the creation of the Electoral College which has chosen every President beginning with George Washington. Keith offers a lesson about that first election. In three […]

5 Videos to Help Students Understand the Electoral College

A new President of the United States will be chosen tomorrow, kind of. The popular vote which in most states determines how the electors in the Electoral College will vote in December. If that sentence baffles your students, they could benefit from one of the following short video explanations of the Electoral College. This TED-Ed […]

A Clear Explanation of Gamification

Gamification is one of the trendy words in education right now. In most education conference programs I find at least a couple of workshops or presentations about gamification. You’ve probably seen those too. What is gamification? Common Craft’s latest video explains gamification in clear and concise terms. Gamification is something that I had to experience […]

3 Short Lessons About Daylight Saving Time

Where I live there are two clear reminders that winter is coming soon. First, we’ve had a little bit of snow twice in the last five days. Second, this weekend we’re setting our clocks back by one hour. If your state or province practices Daylight Saving Time, you’ll be rolling back your clocks before bed […]

A Thorough Video Overview of the French Revolution

In my previous post I shared the new TED-Ed lesson about the French Revolution. That video lesson is fine as an introduction in a middle school classroom. For a much more in-depth video lesson on the French Revolution students should turn to Tom Richey. Tom offers a thirteen part series on the French Revolution. The […]

A Short Introduction to the French Revolution

What Caused the French Revolution? is the title and topic of a new TED-Ed lesson. Like most TED-Ed lessons, the video provides a brief overview of the key points you’d find in a typical middle school or high school history textbook. The lesson introduces students to the three Estates of pre-revolution France, the National Assembly, […]

One More Halloween-themed Lesson – 4 Fun Facts About Ravens

A couple of weeks ago I shared four Halloween-themed video lessons from SciShow Kids. This morning I discovered another SciShow Kids video that falls into the same category. In 4 Things You Didn’t Know About Ravens students can learn that crows and ravens are not the same bird and how to tell the difference. The […]

How Sea Turtles Find Their Way Home

A few years ago I had the privilege to witness sea turtles nesting in Costa Rica. Since then I have been fascinated by how they are able to find their way back to their birthplaces years later. So when It’s Okay To Be Smart published a video about sea turtles, I stopped what I was […]

Four Halloween-themed Lessons from SciShow Kids

SciShow Kids is a YouTube channel produced by the same folks behind the massively popular SciShow. SciShow Kids offers short video lessons on a variety of topics from animals, to space, to fun science experiments that could be done with a parent or teacher. Recently, SciShow Kids organized a playlist of videos covering topics that […]

Ingredients – A New Series About the “Stuff Inside Your Stuff”

Ingredients is the title of a new National Geographic video series about the ingredients that go into creating common products like toothpaste, nail polish, and chewing gum. The videos feature George Zaidan examining and explaining the functions of the ingredients. After the explanation of the ingredients George attempts to create the product himself in a […]

Three Lessons About the Sound of the Human Voice

“I hate the way my voice sounds,” is often said by students and teachers the first time they hear their own voices on a podcast or video. This is because most people aren’t accustomed to hearing their own voices the way that others hear it. Why does your voice sound different to you when you […]

Electoral Decoder Shows Students the Math of Presidential Elections

Throughout 2016 PBS has been steadily adding more features to their Election Central website for students. Electoral Decoder is one of the recent additions to the site that I discovered through an ad on Facebook. Electoral Decoder uses cartograms to show students the math of the Electoral College. In other words, it shows them that […]

Differences Between American & Canadian Thanksgiving

This coming Monday in the United States is generally referred to as Columbus Day. In Canada this coming Monday is Thanksgiving. Start your Friday morning on a lighter note by watching one or both of the following humorous videos that explain the differences between Thanksgiving in Canada and Thanksgiving in the United States. Definitely preview […]

A Cute Video About Email Etiquette for Students

Next Vista for Learning is a unique video sharing website because it focuses on sharing videos made by students to help other students (you will also find some videos made by teachers). One good example of this can be found in Emailing Your Teacher, With Captain Communicator. The short video features two students demonstrating how […]

TurboNote Adds New Features for Syncing Notes to Videos

TurboNote is a great Chrome extension that lets you take time-stamped notes while watching videos on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and many other video sharing sites. I was immediately impressed by TurboNote when I reviewed it last month. This week TurboNote released two great updates. Those updates feature transcript search and synced viewing. In the updated […]

ClassDojo Launches a New Series of Videos About Empathy

Earlier this year ClassDojo launched a new video series that they called Big Ideas. The first videos in the series were all about growth mindset. The videos proved to be extremely popular as they were all viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Next week ClassDojo is releasing some new videos in their Big Ideas series. […]

A Brief History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

No unit of study about the Cold War is complete without including the Cuban Missile Crisis. The latest TED-Ed lesson provides students with a five minute overview of the moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The History of the Cuban Missile Crisis explains why the Soviet Union wanted to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, the […]

The Evolution of Presidential Campaign Commercials

As the campaign for the White House continues to heat up, tonight’s debate should make that clear, it might be a good idea to take a look back at how campaigns have evolved over the last sixty years. The Living Room Candidate is a great website shows visitors how political campaigns have evolved. The Living […]

MIT + K12 = Science Videos for K-12 Students

MIT + K12 is an MIT project that features MIT students explaining math and science concepts for K-12 students. The website isn’t a collection of Khan Academy-style videos, it’s a place where you will find videos featuring real MIT students explaining concepts while showing them as hands-on demonstrations or experiments. Watch one of the featured […]

A New TED-Ed Lesson Explains Why There Are So Many Types of Apples

It is apple picking season here in New England. Take a stroll through a local orchard and you’re likely to see a bunch of different types of apples. In fact, you might even find a type of apple that you haven’t previously seen. The reason for this is explained in a new TED-Ed lesson titled […]

Which Parts of the Brain Do What?

Which Parts of the Brain Do What? is the title of a new MinuteEarth video. In the short video students can learn a bit about the origins of brain studies, how FRMIs changed the way brain function is studied, and why correlation does not always equal causation. The video also introduces students to the terms […]

You Choose 2016 Teaches Kids About the Presidential Election Process

Last month I featured the classroom debate kits from PBS Election Central. This week PBS published another good resource for helping students learn about the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. PBS Kids You Choose is designed to help elementary school students understand some of the key points of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. The site features […]

Short Lessons on the Autumnal Equinox

The autumnal equinox occurs today in the northern hemisphere. If you’re looking for some resources for teaching about the equinox and the change of seasons, I have a small collection of resources for you. On National Geographic’s Education page there is a hands-on lesson that is worth noting. This hands-on activity is designed to help students understand the […]

Fun and Short Smithsonian Videos

Ask Smithsonian is a fun video series featured on the Smithsonian Magazine website. All of the videos in the series are less than two minutes long. Each video tackles a fun topic in science. Some of the videos address questions that are less serious topics than others. For example, on the first page of Ask Smithsonian […]

IP Addresses Explained by Common Craft

You may have heard the techie people in your life use the term “IP address” while explaining a problem regarding your computer connecting to the Internet. And if you’re like a lot of people who don’t work in networking, you probably wondered what the heck an IP address is and why it matters. Common Craft, […]

The Sights, Sounds, and Science of Autumn

This morning I woke up to a chill in the air. As I walked my dogs I spotted a bunch of fallen, red leaves. In just over a week from now the autumnal equinox will be here in the northern hemisphere. Here are some resources for teaching and learning about the sights and sounds of […]

Two Crash Courses on Classic Literature

A few years ago John Green started a Crash Course series on classic literature. The early episodes featured Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, and The Odyssey amongst about a dozen other works. That series is embedded below. This summer John Green began publishing a new set of Crash Course literature videos. The new series includes videos […]

How to Include Video Feedback in Google Forms

Google Forms is a great platform for creating all kinds of simple quiz and review activities. One of the features of Google Forms that is often overlooked is the “go to section based on answer” setting. When you use that setting correctly you can send students to watch a review video when they answer a […]

21 TED-Ed Lessons About Animals

Writing yesterday’s post about how animals see in the dark inspired me to look through the TED-Ed catalog for more interesting lessons about animals. As I browsed through the catalog I found lessons about how dogs “see” with their noses, why blue whales are so big, how ant colonies work, and eighteen other interesting lessons […]

Time Is Money – And Other Short Lessons on Money

The majority of the high school students that I’ve had over the years has been engaged by personal finance lessons. This is probably due in large part to the fact that high school age is when many students get their first real jobs. For many students that first pay check comes with excitement followed by […]

How Do Animals See In the Dark?

How Do Animals See In the Dark? is a TED-Ed lesson that can help your students understand why their pet cats and other animals are more active at night than during the day. In the video students learn how the eyes of various animals have adapted to provide them with night vision that is far […]

Smarthistory Offers a Crash Course in Art History

Smarthistory offers is a free online alternative to expensive art history textbooks. Smarthistory features more than just images of notable works of art. The combination of video lessons, text articles, and audio lessons about eras and themes in art history is what makes Smarthistory a valuable resource. Students can browse all of the resources of Smarthistory by […]

A Couple of Short Lessons About Labor Day

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer in North America. Schools that started in August had a long weekend and the rest will start this week. If you’re looking for a short explanation of Labor Day to share with students, take a look at the two videos below. History of the Holidays is a […]

A Variety of Ways for Students to Explore National Parks Online

Last week the edublog-o-sphere was buzzing with the news of Google’s publication of new National Parks virtual tours available in the Google Arts & Culture apps for Android and iOS. At the same time Google also published new Expeditions virtual tours of the “hidden treasures” of National Parks. Both of those releases do provide students […]

TurboNote – Take & Share Notes While Watching Videos

TurboNote is a great Chrome extension that enables you to take notes while watching a video in the same web browser window. Unlike some similar extensions, TurboNote isn’t limited to working with YouTube videos. TurboNote can be used on Vimeo, Netflix, and Facebook videos. With the TurboNote extension installed you can take notes while watching […]

Remember to Sleep – A Lesson for Students

As the new school year gets going there will be plenty of students and teachers who are adjusting to a new sleeping schedule. It can be tempting to stay up late to get “just one more thing” done. We’re actually better off going to bed and getting up early than we are if stay up […]

The Four Things Students Need to Create Good Book Trailers

Creating book trailer videos is a great alternative to a traditional written book report assignment. In a book trailer video students highlight their favorite elements of a story and try to entice viewers to read the book themselves. Much like a movie trailer that tries to get viewers to watch the full movie, a book […]

The Threat of Invasive Species

When you drive into my home state of Maine two of the first signs you’ll notice are a sign to watch for moose and a sign banning the importation of firewood. The reason for the moose crossing sign is fairly self-explanatory. The reason for the ban on importing firewood may not be so obvious. Importing […]

A Good Lesson on Hurricanes

The Atlantic hurricane season season is here and It’s Okay To Be Smart (produced by PBS) has a new video lesson about hurricanes. By watching Hurricanes: Engines of Destruction you can learn how the Coriolis effect influences the direction in which hurricanes rotate, the role of heat in hurricane formation, and the origin of the […]

Next Vista Launches New Selection of ELL Videos

Next Vista for Learning is a video sharing that I’ve featured dozens of times over the years. Next Vista for Learning is different from other educational video sharing sites because all videos are reviewed before publication and all videos have to teach some kind of short lesson. Students and teachers can submit videos for publication […]

HipHughes History Celebrates 300 Video Lessons

This week Keith Hughes celebrated the publication of the 300th video on his massively popular HipHughes History channel. His latest video is a short explanation of the flipped classroom model and how it uses it. That video is embedded below. Along with his 300th video, this week Keith published a Google Document that lists all […]

Searching the Deep Web as Explained by Common Craft

When students conduct research on a public search engine like Google or Bing they are only scratching the surface of what could be found on the Internet. The rest of what students could find is in what’s often called the “deep web” or the “hidden web.” The latest addition to the Common Craft library explains […]

Stacked Ball Drop – A Physics Lesson

The Physics Girl is a great YouTube channel that recently appeared as a suggestion while I was browsing the ASAP Science channel. The Physics Girl is Dianna Cowern who produces short physics lessons for students of all ages. Stacked Ball Drop is one of the videos that caught my attention while I was browsing her […]

Why Are Olympic Records Always Broken? – And Other Olympics Resources

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games are just one week away now. From archery to rowing to track and field, over the course of the games many world and Olympic records will be broken. That raises the question, why are records almost always broken? ASAP Science tackled that question just before the 2014 Winter Olympics and […]

How Does a Canyon Become Grand? – And Other Lessons on the Shaping of North America

Earlier this month TED-Ed published a new lesson about how the physical geography of North America has changed over time. The lesson, titled How North America Got Its Shape, includes brief explanations of the roles of shifting tectonic plates, erosion, and volcanic activity in shaping North America. The lesson includes the Grand Canyon as an […]

How Much Does It Cost to Run for President?

Now that the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign is in full swing it’s a good time to take a look at how much it costs to run for President. In the video below the folks at Brain Stuff have done a nice job of explaining the cost of running a campaign. More resources for teaching and […]

Why the Metric System Matters – And How It Confounds Americans

Why the Metric System Matters is the title of the latest TED-Ed lesson. The lesson explains how measurement systems evolved through history including the historical event that hastened the adoption of the metric system throughout most of the world. The lesson also explains why the United States doesn’t use the metric system. As is noted […]

Lessons on Critical Thinking & Logical Fallacies

Many of the students in my social studies classes over the years have enjoyed a good classroom debate. I am sure that as the 2016 campaign for President of the United States heats up in the fall many classrooms will be having their own little debates. Many social studies classes will also watch portions of […]

How Playing Sports Benefits the Brain and Body

How Playing Sports Benefits Your Body and Your Brain is the title of a recently released TED-Ed lesson. The video in the lesson teaches viewers about the psychology benefits of teamwork and overcoming defeat. Students watching the video can also learn how playing sports can help a person avoid or overcome feelings of depression. The […]

How Fireworks Work

Fireworks are popping around my little town of Woodstock, Maine this evening. To my dogs the sounds of fireworks are the sounds of the sky falling. The upside of hearing the amateur fireworks displays is that it reminded me of a couple of videos about the science of fireworks. If you or your children are […]

Educational Resources About the Tour de France

My local cycling club. (We won’t be challenging for the Yellow Jersey). The Tour de France begins on Saturday. Check out this animated video to learn all about the tactics of the race, the logistics of the race, the physiology of riding in the race, and many other interesting facts about the world’s most famous […]

A TED-Ed Lesson on the Bill of Rights

The latest lesson published by TED-Ed explains to students why the Bill of Rights was added to the US Constitution. In the lesson students learn about the positions of Federalists and Anti-Federalists, which states pushed for a Bill of Rights, and why the Bill of Rights was added as a set of amendments to the […]

Ten Good Video Channels for Science Students – Best of 2015-16 School Year

All of this week I am on the road working with teachers in Texas, Kansas, and Arizona. Rather than scrambling to write blog posts at the end of each day, I’m taking this time to feature some of the most popular posts and new tools of the 2015-2016 school year. On Sunday evening I shared […]

Open Source Software Explained by @CommonCraft

Open source software powers many of things that we see and do on the Internet and on our computers every day. In fact, if you’re reading this on an Android device right now, you can thank the people who have contributed to the open source code making that happen. What is open source software? How […]

A Great Video Explanation of Onomatopoeia

Next Vista for Learning recently wrapped-up a student video contest. One of the winning videos was Demonstrating Onomatopoeia. The video does a fantastic job of explaining what onomatopoeia is while also demonstrating how its proper use can enhance your writing. The video is embedded below. The video can be downloaded on Next Vista for Learning. […]

The Origin and Meaning of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is on Monday. Here are a couple of quick resources that you may want to include in a lesson about Memorial Day. The Meaning of Memorial Day is a two minute video covering the origins of the holiday in the United States. The video is embedded below. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offers […]

Listening Effectively – Tips from a Student

The head tilt says, “I’m listening.” Last week I stumbled upon an older Life Hacker article about how to improve your listening skills. It’s a good article that students should read. After reading the article I did a YouTube search for videos on the topic. I found plenty, but none that I thought were worth […]

Why We Make Irrational Decisions

The Psychology Behind Irrational Decisions is the title of a relatively new TED-Ed lesson that I watched over the weekend. The lesson focuses on the role of heuristics in our decision making processes. Of course, to understand the role of heuristics in making decisions students first need to understand heuristics. The lesson does a good […]

How to Make a Good Explanatory Video – Research, Planning, Editing

MinuteEarth is a popular YouTube channel whose videos I’ve featured a handful of times on this blog. Their short videos provide explanations of interesting science topics like why rivers curve and why it is hot underground. Last week MinuteEarth published a video about the process their team uses to produce their videos. Applications for Education […]

The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever

Two years ago NPR  published a database of the best commencement speeches ever given (how they determine “best” is unclear). The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever has an index of 354 commencement speeches. The speeches are listed alphabetically by speaker’s first name. Instead of searching by speaker’s name you can search according to theme, school, or […]

A Great Explanation of Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

On Monday evening I hosted the first meeting of the spring section of Teaching History With Technology. One of the topics that I covered was using technology to support students as the read and work with primary sources. Before a student can search for, read, or cite a primary source he or she needs to […]

How Much Energy is Consuming by Watching a Video?

There are a lot of things that we do every day that consume more energy than we realize. One of those things is watching videos on the Internet. I did not know that until last week when I watched a Minute Earth video titled, This Video Has Consumed “X Amount” of Energy. The “x amount” […]

Resources for Reviewing for AP US History Exam

The AP exam for US History is just a week away now. Tom Richey has put together a great page of resources for students who are reviewing for that exam. Tom’s AP US History review page includes short strategy guides for each part of the exam. Those guides include PDFs and videos with strategy hints. […]

STEM in 30 – A Smithsonian Webcast for Middle School Students

STEM in 30 is a neat webcast produced by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The series featured 30 minute live webcasts about a variety of topics related to air and space travel and science. During the live webcasts students can submit questions to the show’s hosts. Students can also submit questions in advance […]

Nearly 100 TED-Ed Lessons About Nature

In recent weeks I have featured some neat National Geographic videos about cool things in nature like birds that eat dirt and animal migrations in Yellowstone. While those videos are great, they are a bit short. For longer lessons about interesting things in nature, take a look at the TED-ED playlist called Awesome Nature. 96 […]

Why Do Price Tags End In .99? – A Psychology and Consumer Education Lesson

Take a stroll through any supermarket or browse your favorite online retailer and you’ll see prices ending in .99 more often than not. Why is that? What’s the psychology behind that kind of pricing? BrainStuff has the answers to those questions and more in a new video Why Do Price Tags End in .99? The […]

Why Do Some Birds Eat Dirt? – National Geographic Explains

National Geographic’s YouTube channel includes a fun playlist of short videos about interesting science facts. The playlist is called Today I Learned or TIL for short. In the playlist you will find videos that answer questions like “why is the ocean salty?” and “why do some birds eat dirt?” The answer to “why do some […]

Try Watchkin for Distraction-free YouTube Viewing

Watchkin is a free service that allows you to watch and project YouTube videos without seeing the related sidebar content typically seen on YouTube.com. Watchkin can be used in a few ways. You can enter the direct URL of a video into Watchkin to have the sidebar content removed. You can search for videos through […]

10 Educational Resources About the American Revolution

Today is Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts and Maine. The day commemorates the anniversary of the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, The Battles of Lexington and Concord. As a New Englander this is a good day to review some good resources for teaching and learning about the American Revolution. Revolutionary War Animated is a great place to […]

20 Videos and a Poster Explaining Logical Fallacies

Last November I featured a series of videos from PBS Learning Channel that contained eight concise explanations of logical fallacies. This morning, thanks to Larry Ferlazzo, I learned about another series of video explanations of logical fallacies. Wireless Philosophy offers a playlist of twelve videos on logical fallacies. The playlist is embedded below. The fallacies […]

Why Are Airplane Engines So Big? – How Jet Engines Work #STEM

Minute Physics recently published a great new video about jet engines. In Why Are Airplane Engines So Big? viewers can learn why jet engines have gotten larger over time, why they biggest engines don’t always go on the biggest or fastest airplanes, and the basic principles of jet propulsion. The video briefly explains the mathematics […]

Animal Migrations in Yellowstone National Park

National Geographic recently published a great video containing remarkable footage of elk, pronghorn antelope, and mule deer migrations in Yellowstone National Park. The short video describes the length and direction of the migrations made by these beautiful animals. Make sure you turn up the volume to hear the sounds of the elk, mule deer, and […]

Another Great Resource for Learning About Mount Everest

On Wednesday I shared my list of resources for teaching and learning about Mount Everest. This afternoon, thanks to Larry Ferlazzo, I learned about another good resource for learning about Mount Everest. Why is Mount Everest so Tall? is a new TED-Ed lesson in which students learn why the peak of Everest is so high, […]

Riddle Me This – 7 TED-Ed Lessons Based on Riddles

Earlier this week I shared a playlist of TED-Ed lessons about how the human body works. In responses to that playlist Lisa Winer sent me the suggestion to check out a TED-Ed lesson that she contributed to creating. That lesson is the Locker Riddle. In that lesson students have to use mathematics and logical reasoning […]

What Would Happen if You Didn’t Drink Water? – And 12 Other TED-Ed Lessons About the Human Body

What Would Happen if You Didn’t Drink Water? is the title of latest TED-Ed lesson. The lesson addresses items like how much water should a person drink, how much water a body loses during an average day, and the effects of dehydration. The lesson also addresses what can happen when you consume too much water. […]

XtraMath Helps Teachers Help Students Learn Math in ASL

XtraMath is a free service designed to help teachers and parents help their students learn basic mathematics skills. The service provides an online environment in which students complete practice activities that are recorded and shared with their teachers and parents. The lessons provided by XtraMath come in video format. Recently, XtraMath added support for ASL. […]

Three TED-Ed Lessons About Stress

The weekend is here and hopefully you have some relaxing things planned for yourself. Taking time to reduce stress has many benefits to our health. From zits to headaches to colds TED-Ed has three lessons about how stress can affect your body. How stress can make you sick. Does stress cause pimples? How stress affects […]

Vibby – Annotate YouTube & Vimeo Videos on Your Own Site

Last fall I wrote a couple of posts about a new video annotation tool called Vibby. Over the last few months the Vibby developers have been hard at work to add some useful new features for teachers. You can now use Vibby to annotate Vimeo videos as well as YouTube videos. To annotate a YouTube […]

More Than 40 Alternatives to YouTube

3 Tips for Using YouTube Videos in Your Classroom was one of the most popular posts of the week on FreeTech4Teachers.com. Those tips are all well and good if you can access YouTube in your classroom. If you cannot access YouTube in your classroom then you will want to consult my list of more than […]

Three Tips for Planning Video Projects

I love video projects because the entire process of developing project ideas, creating the video, and sharing the video engages almost all students. Over the years I have helped hundreds (maybe thousands) of students and teachers create videos in their classrooms. If you haven’t tried making videos with your students or you have and it […]

Who Owns Antarctica? – A Political Geography Lesson

Who owns Antarctica? That’s an interesting question that many of my geography students wondered and asked over the years. The answer to that question is a clear and simple one. As more people, countries, and companies explore the continent it will become more and more important to define what can or cannot be done in […]

Mushing Explained – Out on the Iditarod Trail

The Iditarod concluded this week with Dallas Seavey winning for the fourth time in five years. Before the race started I shared some resources for following along on the trail and for learning about the dogs and people on the race. Yesterday, through The Adventure Blog I learned about another good resource for learning about […]

Origo One – One Minute Math Lessons

Origo One is a new YouTube channel offering one minute math lessons for teachers and students. The first few videos in the series seem to be aimed at elementary school teachers. In the first video that I watched Origo One explains why teaching the “use ten” strategy is better than having students count on their […]

5 Tips to Improve Critical Thinking Skills – A TED-Ed Lesson

5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking is the latest TED-Ed lesson. The introduction to the lesson is a bit long for my liking but once you get past that the tips are solid. The lesson presents critical thinking as a process of five steps. The last step is the one that students will probably […]

Best Job Ever – Short Stories About Outdoor Jobs #bestjobever

National Geographic’s YouTube channel has a relatively new playlist called #bestjobever.  The playlist features short stories about people who have interesting jobs that are primarily in the outdoors. These are primarily jobs incorporating some kind of conservation and or awareness missions. The playlist is embedded below. The first video in the series is about photographing […]

3 Tips for Using YouTube Videos In Your Classroom

In my workshop YouTube, It’s Not Just Cats & Khan Academy I share a lot of tips and tricks for safely using YouTube in your classroom. One of the topics that I always talk about is how to share and display videos. Here are three of the more popular tips from that workshop. 1. Remove […]

Pindex – Another “Pinterest for Education” Site

Pindex is a new site that like many before it is attempting to position itself as “Pinterest for education.” On Pindex (still in private beta) users will be able to pin and share educational videos and infographics. Where Pindex seems to be attempting to separate itself from similar platforms is in offering digital badges for […]

AC/DC and Other Lessons on Electricity

This evening I watched another episode of American Genius on Netflix. The episode that I watched tonight was about the work of Thomas Edison to develop systems to deliver direct current and Nikola Tesla’s work to develop alternating current power distribution. After watching the episode I headed to YouTube to find a short video about […]

60 Second Adventures in Thought – An Open University Course

60 Second Adventures in Thought is a series of videos produced by The Open University in which six famous thought experiments are explained. The entire playlist is embedded below.

A Crash Course on Foreign Policy

Last fall PBS Digital Studios and Crash Course launched a series on government and politics. The 50th and last installment in the series is about foreign policy. The from trade to human rights to environmental concerns the video covers most facets of what foreign policy is and how governments interact with each other. The video […]

Change Your Clock, Have a Heart Attack? – Daylight Saving Lessons

In most of North America this weekend we will be moving our clocks forward by one hour for Daylight Saving Time. Last night’s edition of NBC Nightly News had an interesting story about the correlation between moving clocks forward by one hour and an increase in cases of heart attacks. The video of the story […]

Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality Explained by Common Craft

Bit by bit artificial intelligence (AI) is working its way into our lives. If you have seen IBM’s Watson in action, you’ve seen AI at work. Some of the seating chart programs available online today include a small bit of artificial intelligence. See ClassCharts.com for an example of that. But what is AI? And where is […]

Lessons on Colds & Flu

I jinxed myself last week by saying aloud, “this is the first winter in a few years that I haven’t gotten sick.” Less than a week after saying that I caught an annoying cold. What is a cold? What is the flu? And what are the differences between the two? Those questions and more are […]

Three Tools Students Can Use to Add Annotations to Videos

When we talk about flipped lessons it often involves a lot of heavy lifting on a teacher’s part. From finding a video to adding questions to the video, it is a time-consuming process and in the end we’re still not always sure if the students actually watched the video or they just guessed at the […]

Five Tools for Sharing Portions of Videos

Online videos can be quite useful for reiterating a lesson to your students, for inspiring thought and conversation, and for introducing a new concept to your students. The struggle we have sometimes is finding a video that gets to the point quickly. And sometimes we don’t need students to watch all of a TED Talk […]

PowerPoint Playbook – Animating Numbered Lists

Last fall I featured Tom Richey’s free PowerPoint and video collection for AP US History and AP European History students. Tom’s YouTube channel is full of excellent tutorials for history students. In many of those videos you see Tom’s face in the corner of the screen while PowerPoint slides support his points. Now Tom has […]

Two Last Minute Lessons on Leap Year

Today is February 29th. My friend Rod’s son is turning sixteen or four depending upon how you look at it. Why? Because there won’t be another February 29 for four years. If you have students wondering why February 29th occurs only once every four years, share the following short videos. The first video addresses the […]

How Big Is The Sun? – And Five Other Lessons on the Size of the Universe

We had a beautiful winter sunset here in Woodstock, Maine tonight. It was a nice ending to a relaxing weekend. Watching the sunset while I was thinking about the week ahead prompted this post about the size of the sun and the scale of the universe. How Big Is The Sun? is a short video […]

Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads? – And Two Other Interesting Dog Lessons

My dog Max, like a lot of other dogs, tilts his head whenever I ask him a question like “do you want to go for a ride?” or “do you want a treat?” I assume that Max does this because he’s excited. But there may be other reasons why Max and other dogs tilt their […]

A Crash Course on Philosophy

Last fall I shared more than 100 animated lessons about philosophy. This week, through Open Culture, I learned about a new Crash Course in philosophy. The new video course stars Hank Green talking about the origins of philosophical thinking. As I’ve come to expect with Hank and John Green there is a fair amount of […]

Growth Mindset – Big Ideas for the Classroom

Last month ClassDojo launched a new video series that they are calling Big Ideas. The series is all about growth mindset as it pertains to classrooms. The series introduces students, parents, and teachers to big ideas or trends in education. ClassDojo’s Big Ideas does this through the use of videos and accompanying discussion guides. The […]

4 Videos That Help Students & Parents Understand Financial Aid

The FAFSA and financial aid packages offered by universities can be difficult for the first-time college student to navigate. And if you’re a first generation college student it can be even more difficult because you may not know who to turn to for advice. Fortunately, a lot of high school guidance departments are doing more […]

The Electoral College Explained

We’re choosing a new President of the United States this year. We’re still in the primary and caucus phase of picking candidates. Once that’s done we’ll be moving toward the general election in the fall. But unlike other elections in which popular vote decides the winner, the president is chosen based on the outcome of […]

Rate Some Educational Videos and Inspire Your Students

Next Vista for Learning is my favorite place for students and teachers to share the educational videos that they create. Throughout the year Next Vista hosts a number of video creation contests for students and teachers. The latest contest just wrapped-up and now Next Vista is looking for a little help in picking the winners. […]

Why Do We Love? – One More Valentine’s Day Lesson

Earlier this week I shared some resources for teaching about science and statistics related to Valentine’s Day. This morning I noticed a new TED-Ed lesson that is appropriate for the last school day before Valentine’s Day, 2016. Why Do We Love? is a TED-Ed lesson that explores some philosophies on why people love. The lesson […]

How to Make Your Writing Funnier – And 21 Other Writing Lessons

The Writer’s Workshop is a TED-Ed playlist featuring short lessons on writing. Some of the lessons are on basic things like When to Use Me, Myself, or I while other lessons are of a more conceptual nature like How to Build a Fictional World. The latest lesson added to The Writer’s Workshop is How to […]

Valentine’s Day Science and Statistics

With Valentine’s Day coming up this weekend it’s a good time looking for at science and statistics related to the day. The following video from It’s Okay To Be Smart (produced by PBS Digital Studios) explains why humans kiss, the history of symbols associated with kissing, and some cultural views of kissing. When I saw […]

Today I Learned – Fun Facts Featured in National Geographic Videos

National Geographic’s YouTube channel includes a fun playlist of short videos about interesting science facts. The playlist, called Today I Learned or TIL for short, is comprised of 60 to 90 second videos on things like “why is the ocean salty?” and “how chameleons change color.” The playlist is embedded below. Applications for Education The […]

Groundhog Day Explained

Next Tuesday is Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day is the day that, according to legend, a groundhog will predict how much longer winter will last in the northern hemisphere. Your students might be wondering where this tradition originated. The following two videos provide brief explanations of Groundhog Day’s origins. This video from Storm Shield explains a […]

Leap Year Explained

2016 is a leap year which means that February will have 29 days this year. You may have students wondering why there is an extra day added to the calendar this year. You may also find yourself explaining, as I did one year, that leap year doesn’t mean they go to school for an extra […]

Presentation Planning Explained by Common Craft

Planning a presentation of any length can feel like a daunting task. For some people the difficulty is in figuring out what to say. For others the trouble is thinking about standing in front of an audience. Either way, having a solid plan for your presentation can make things easier. In their latest video, Presentation […]

How Does the Electoral College Work? – And Election Outcomes Explained

The United States will choose a new president this year. Students often ask why the process is not as simple just having everyone show up to vote on a given day in November, counting the votes, and declaring a winner. Here are some resources to help students understand the process of choosing a new President […]

ClassDojo’s Big Ideas Teaches Kids About Growth Mindset

ClassDojo has launched a new initiative that they are calling Big Ideas. The purpose of Big Ideas is to introduce students, parents, and teachers to big ideas or trends in education. ClassDojo’s Big Ideas does this through the use of videos and accompanying discussion guides. The first series in ClassDojo’s Big Ideas series is all […]

Numberock – Math Music Videos for Kids

Last month I shared ten good YouTube channels for math students. This week I learned about about another good math video channel. Numberock is a YouTube channel that features quick music videos that teach and or reinforce elementary school math lessons. The videos were developed by an elementary teacher for elementary students. Take a look […]

12 Lessons on How the Human Body Works

Last winter I started a playlist of TED-Ed video lessons about how the human body works. I started the playlist because I wanted a list that was a bit more refined than what I was finding on the TED-Ed website. The playlist started with five videos and with today’s addition of the lesson on carbohydrates […]

What Are Carbohydrates and How Do They Impact Your Health? – TED-Ed Lesson

How Do Carbohydrates Impact Your Health? is the focus of the latest TED-Ed lesson added to my playlist of TED-Ed Lessons about the human body. How Do Carbohydrates Impact Your Health? explains what carbohydrates are, common food sources of carbohydrates, and how are bodies use carbohydrates. The lesson also explains what can happen to our […]

The Difference Between Stocks and Bonds

Last night I watched The Big Short starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, and Brad Pitt. I enjoyed the movie. For those who aren’t familiar with The Big Short, it is a movie about how the housing and stock markets crashed in 2008 and how a few shrewd investors benefited from the crash. Watching […]

Dog Detective – Do You Speak Dog?

If you have followed this blog for more than a month or two, you’ve probably figured out that I am passionate about dogs and animal rescue. My personal Facebook feed is littered with updates from the various shelters and rescue groups that I support. Yesterday, a neat resource came through my feed that I think […]

PBS World Explorers – The Lives & Journeys of Famous Explorers

PBS World Explorers is a new collection of videos from PBS Learning Media. The PBS World Explorers collection includes sixteen short videos about famous explorers throughout history. Some of the explorers featured in PBS World Explorers include Leif Ericson, John Cabot, and Zheng He. You’ll also find the usual suspects in the collection including Marco […]

Ten Good Video Sources for Science Teachers and Students

On Sunday evening I shared a list of ten good sources of social studies videos. To keep the video source series going I’ve created a list of sources for educational science videos. Here are ten good sources of science videos for students and teachers. On his website and YouTube channel Montana’s 2011 Teacher of the […]