All-Time Best Videos For Educators (2023 Edition)

I created a series of “All-Time” Best lists seven years ago (you can see them all here), and have now begun publishing new-and-revised versions.

You can also see all sixteen year’s worth of “Best” lists related to videos here.

Here’s the latest one:

I know this may sound self-serving, but I truly believe that the animated videos that Katie Hull and I have done with Education Week on student motivation, differentiated instruction, and learning transfer are exceptionally helpful. You can see them all here (and look for new ones next month!).

Also, we’ve had some pretty extraordinary professional development sessions led by our students. Check out those videos here:

A New Student Panel Of ELLs Is Presenting At Our Staff Training Tomorrow – Here Are Videos Of Last Year’s Presentations

Video Of Our ELL Student Panel & Downloadable Hand-Out They Used For Preparation

I’m adding this Edutopia video to THE BEST RESOURCES SHARING RECOMMENDATIONS ABOUT “TEACHER TALK”:

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

Thanks to Renee Moore, I learned about the video of a 1967 address Martin Luther King, Jr. gave to junior high school students in Philadelphia.

It’s titled “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” Here is the transcript.

I’ve shared several interviews with Nikole Hannah-Jones, and I’ve shared several tweets by her about this particular interview (see NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES ON THE ROLE OF PARENTS IN DECIDING CURRICULUM). I recently got around to watching this entire video, and it’s amazing. I certainly plan on having students in my IB Theory of Knowledge class watch it when we study history. I’m adding it to:

USEFUL RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF BRINGING ENSLAVED AFRICANS TO AMERICA

THE BEST – & MOST INTERESTING – RESOURCES FOR STUDYING HISTORY

ELL teacher Valentina Gonzalez created this video.

Here’s how she describes it:

This video demonstrates instruction that is made comprehensible and instruction that is not comprehensible. The demo uses a different language so viewers can feel what an EL may experience in the classroom.

I think any teacher who has an English Language Learner in his/her class can benefit from watching it.

I’m adding it to The Best Videos For Content Teachers With ELLs In Their Classes – Please Suggest More.

I’ve added this video to The Best Resources About “Culturally Responsive Teaching” & “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy” – Please Share More!:

There are so many good things to say about this next video and how it provides a glimpse into the challenges facing our English Language Learners. It’s a little longer than most other videos on this list, but it’s well worth the extra few minutes. I’ve added it to The Best Videos For Content Teachers With ELLs In Their Classes – Please Suggest More:

I’m adding this BBC video to The Best Resources For Showing Students That They Make Their Brain Stronger By Learning:

Last year, after reading an Edutopia article about “classroom dedications,” I wrote a popular post titled I THINK THIS IS A BRILLIANT IDEA FOR AN OPENING CLASS RITUAL – HERE’S HOW I’M MODIFYING IT FOR DISTANCE LEARNING. I have continued the practice this year. Now, Edutopia has created a video about the idea, building on its original article:

Of course, the “graphic notetaking” video of Daniel Pink’s speech about his book, Drive, has got to be on this list:

The PBS News Hour produced these segments on self control and young people.

Thanks to an excellent post by Jennifer Brokofsky, I learned about this short video of Sir Ken Robinson. He makes an excellent point about the importance of helping students motivate themselves (and I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students):

“Farmers and gardeners know you cannot make a plant grow….The plant grows itself. What you do is provide the conditions for growth. And great farmers know what the conditions are and bad ones don’t. Great teachers know what the conditions for growth are and bad ones don’t.”

In this video, some ducklings were able to get over the curb on their own. However, several found that it was just too high. Look at how someone provides assistance to those having trouble, and how he doesn’t tell them what to do. Instead, he offers it as an option, as a choice they can make. It’s an example of an old community organizing axiom, “If you don’t give people the opportunity to say no, you don’t give them the opportunity to say yes, either.”