It continues to be time for mid-year “Best” lists.

Now it’s time for the Best Videos For Educators.

You can see all my previous “Best” lists related to videos and movies (and there are a lot since I’ve doing this since 2007) here. Note that they’re also continually revised and updated.

Here are my picks from the first half of 2021:

Google Doodle celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week earlier this month. You can see the actual Doodle here. It’s not embeddable, but the five animated teacher stories (From StoryCorps) that it includes are available as separate videos, and they’re all embedded below. I’ve added them to The Best Resources To Learn About World Teachers Day.

 

Facing History, the incredible Social Studies resource site, released three great videos onthe importance of facing our history so that we can face ourselves, make history, never forget and not repeat the injustices of the past.” I added them to The Best Videos For Learning Why It’s Important To Study History:

 

Stacey Abrams gave the commencement address to the graduates of Teachers College, Columbia University. I think every teacher could benefit from watching it – as I did! I’ve added it to:

Here Are Resources For Learning About The Work Of Stacey Abrams & Her Colleagues

The Best Resources To Learn About World Teachers Day

The Best Commencement Speeches

 

Though I’m certainly no scholar of John Dewey, this animated video seems to me to give a pretty good overview of his work:

 

This is a great interview with Amanda Gorman. I especially liked how she turned a speech impediment she had into an asset – a story and message many of our students could benefit from hearing. I’ve added it to THE BEST TEACHING & LEARNING RESOURCES ABOUT AMANDA GORMAN’S POETRY.

 

I’ve added this TED-Ed lesson and video to The Best Resources On Different Types Of Map Projections:

 

This video was made by medical practitioners just down the road from us. I’ve added it to The Best Teaching/Learning Resources On The Musical, “Hamilton”

 

I’ve shared countless videos from Playing For Change, particularly their “Around The World” performances. In these music videos, performers from around the world sing and play popular songs with powerful messages.  Playing For Change also does music education in many of the countries where these videos are taped. A recent one is a cover of Stevie Wonder’s song, “Higher Ground”:

 

Here’s a new TED-Ed video and lesson is on “Can loud music damage your hearing?” I’ve added it to The Best Resources On Teens & Hearing Loss.

 

“Engineering the text” is what teachers can do to make text more accessible – we can create sections of the article that have headings and white space, add vocabulary definitions and do a whole lot more.. If you can’t get an editable version of the assessment, you could take a picture using the Genius Scan app and then edit it. You can see an example here (scroll down). Edutopia has released a video offering design guidelines for teachers when we create our own materials.  It offers good advice, and shows that making text more accessible helps all students. Good ELL teaching is good teaching for everybody!

 

I’ve added this new BBC video to The Best Resources On Teaching & Learning Critical Thinking In The Classroom:

 

I’m adding this new and great interview on the Daily Show to The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change:

 

I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Learning About The 10,000 Hour Rule & Deliberate Practice:

 

TIME Magazine has begun an interesting video series. Here’s how they describe it:

‘Tis the season for a much-deserved holiday school break. In recent years, there have been efforts to rethink how American History is taught to K-12 students. While President Trump’s call for “patriotic education” earlier this fall reflects the resistance to such initiatives, it’s clear from ongoing racial justice protests that there’s a lot more to teach about the roots of systemic racism and inequality, especially as the U.S. is becoming more diverse.

To help fill in those gaps, TIME has begun a series of videos entitled The History You Didn’t Learn, on a moment in history or a historical figure that’s often misrepresented in K-12 classes. The project is the brainchild of TIME Video Producer Arpita Aneja, and the inaugural video explored the history of the 1964 NYC schools boycott , which sheds light on segregated schools in northern cities. Over the past few weeks, we’ve spotlighted the labor movement’s lesser-known Latina activists; the roots of Black voting rights activism that predate the famous 1848 women’s rights meeting at Seneca Falls; and Helen Keller’s career, to show how young students may not learn all that she accomplished as an adult, such as her role in co-founding the American Civil Liberties Union.

Only one of the videos so far is on YouTube, but you can access the others on TIME’s site by clicking the links in their explanation of the series.

 

 

Nsé Ufot, the CEO of The New Georgia Project, was interviewed by CBS News, and the entire interview is embedded below. She begins the interview with a description of the essence of effective community organizing (having had a nineteen-year career as an organizer prior to becoming a teacher allows me to make that judgment).

Changing the word “organizers” to “teachers”  and then “act of voting” to “lessons” will also give you the essence of effective classroom instruction (having taught- so far – for the past sixteen years allows me to make that judgment).

I wish most teacher credentialing programs and professional development programs shared that perspective.

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change.

I’m also adding this post to HERE ARE RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE WORK OF STACEY ABRAMS & HER COLLEAGUES and to The “Best” Lists Of Recommendations About What “Effective” Teachers Do.

 

Check out this video from – of all places – The Cartoon Network.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Teach About African-American History.

 

This is a great interview with Elizabeth Acevedo.

I’m adding it to The Best World Poetry Day Resources – Help Me Find More.

 

This is a good video synopsis of the book, The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. It has lots of relevance for teachers.  In fact, it has so much relevance that Mr. Duhigg wrote a guest post at my Education Week Teacher blog titled Several Ways We Can Help Students Develop Good Habits.

 

I’m adding this new video from Edutopia to Best Posts On Classroom Management:

 

I’m adding this new BBC video to HENRIETTA LACKS WOULD HAVE BEEN 100 YEARS OLD TODAY – HERE ARE TEACHING & LEARNING RESOURCES:

 

I’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures:

 

I’m adding this USA Today video to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS:

 

I’m adding this new video to The Best Videos Documenting The History Of The English Language:

 

Let me know what I’ve missed!