Saturday 18 August 2012

GOOD NEWS: YouTube For Schools

I LOVE good news, and I have some for you, in case you haven't already heard!

I was frustrated near the end of my classroom career, because I knew that great resources were available on YouTube, but teachers couldn't access it at school. This was, of course, due to inappropriate content on the huge video site.

For a year or two, I would download at home videos such as Eric Carle himself reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, take my laptop back to school, and share it with my kiddos. Then my school system subscribed to Gaggle, which gave us access to filtered YouTube. We were thrilled, and used it well.

Some teachers, however, were still left out because their systems didn't subscribe to Gaggle. But YouTube came through, launching a new portal in December called YouTube for Schools, and it's FREE!

If your school hasn't already set up a Google account to allow you access to this great resource, you can do it here. Your students will be able to watch only content from YouTube EDU or videos added by your school. And you? YouTube Teachers has playlists ready for you to access by grade band and subject area, and many are already aligned to the Common Core State Standards!

You are SO welcome for this good news flash! Hope you enjoy this great resource, and that your kiddos do, too!