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 2024:

I’ve written and shared a fair amount about the “Peak End Rule.” Here’s a new animated video explaining it.
I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Finish The School Year Strong.

I’m adding this BBC video to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual:

I’m adding this video to THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING HOW TO USE PROJECT-BASED LEARNING & PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN YOUR CLASSROOM:

Katie Hull and I worked with Education Week to create these animated videos on using Artificial Intelligence in education. I’m adding them to my video page, which includes nearly thirty videos I’ve done, including several other animated ones we did with Ed Week. I’m also adding it to my collection of resources on Artificial Intelligence in education.

I’m adding this video to The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History:

I’m adding this TED-Ed video and lesson to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS. I started that list at the beginning of the pandemic.  You’ll find many videos and accessible articles there on previous and potential future ones:

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is an annual staple in my IB Theory of Knowledge classroom. This new video is far too long for me to use in school, but I’m still adding it to The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave:

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

I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Teaching Students About The Dangers Of Procrastination:

I’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Walking In Someone Else’s Shoes:

The American Museum of Natural History previously put out a version of this video, which can be found at The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History. They’ve now published this updated version:

“Genocide” is a word and charge being used quite a bit in the context of the Israel/Gaza War.The PBS NewsHour did this segment that could be useful in high school classes. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Genocide. You might also be interested in The “Best” Resources For Learning About The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

“Explain it to me like I’m five” is a popular online genre, and it’s also a very useful teaching/learning concept.

I regularly have my IB Theory of Knowledge classes create videos or slideshows where they have to teach complex concepts in a way that is accessible to a five-year-old. You can see my lesson plan and a student-created example here. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson just had a segment on this very subject on her late-night talk show, and it’s pretty good (at least the first two people did great jobs).  You can watch it during the first four minutes on this clip:

I’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Learning About Voyager 1 & Its Departure From Our Solar System:

The trailer came out for Inside Out 2, and it looks pretty good. Even though the IB Theory of Knowledge curriculum no longer officially requires teaching “Emotion” as a “Way of Knowing,” I’m sure I’ll still be able to fit in using clips from this movie when it comes out. Here are a couple of posts where I talk about using the “Inside Out 1”:

LEARNING ABOUT EMOTION THROUGH “INSIDE OUT”

VIDEOS: “INSIDE OUT” CLIPS THAT COULD BE USEFUL WHEN TEACHING ABOUT RETRIEVAL PRACTICE

I’m adding this video to The Best Resources On The Value Of Positive “Self-Talk”:

As I’ve previously shared, my IB Theory of Knowledge students mentor ninth-graders and my ELL Newcomers once-a-week, and we’ve been doing this for many years (see The Best Resources On The Value & Practice Of Having Older Students Mentoring Younger Ones).It’s been going very well.

Each week, I give the mentors “focus” questions to ask their mentors (see MORE “FOCUS QUESTIONS” FOR PEER MENTORS).  However, I think they could use more support on how to deepen their conversations.

I previously shared an interesting interview with journalist Charles Duhigg about his new book (see QUOTE OF THE DAY: “SUPERCOMMUNICATORS” ASK MORE QUESTIONS).

He also did a short video for the PBS NewsHour, which offers some excellent and simple advice for how to…deepen conversations. I think it’s perfect to show to my TOK classes, then review some of the focus questions, and next follow-up ones:

Thanks to this tweet, I learned about this amazing short film:

Many of our ELL students (and non-ELL students) are language “brokers” for their families.

I’ll definitely be showing this film to my class.  You can watch it for free here (I can’t seem to find it on YouTube or on another site that provides embedding options).

However, I was able to find the trailer for the film, along with news interviews where you can hear more from the film’s creators.  Those videos are embedded below.

You might also be interested in another film – A LOOK BACK: EVERY TEACHER WHO HAS AN ELL IN THEIR CLASS SHOULD WATCH THIS “IMMERSION” FILM