The school where I
work has a video distribution system (CCTV). It
has two channels available for showing audiovisual material, and one channel
that is dedicated to the morning announcements and a "scrolling screen" of
information throughout the day. The two
channels dedicated to movies are easily accessible within the
broadcast/announcement room, and it is the media center clerk’s responsibility
to play movies when they’re asked for from the grade levels or classroom
teachers. There are no forms or approval that is required, teachers just discuss the timing with the clerk. Movies are supposed to be
curriculum related, but are sometimes used as a reward or used during a rainy
recess period. Probably on an average, two-four CCTV movies are played a week (750 students/30 classrooms). The
morning announcements are run every a.m. by a fifth grade team, all
classes/students have an opportunity to participate. If I happen to walk down a hallway during
announcements, and see a class not paying attention, it drives me crazy! There is a lot of work, time, and effort that
goes into putting them on live each day!
My school does not utilize the GPB
education area that I’m aware of, but I don’t know if individual teachers do. When I registered to use and see clips, my
individual school is not listed, even though the county name is available. I was astounded by the availability of
wonderful material on this site. The
small video clips remind me a lot of BrainPop, a program that my school pays to
use. These videos are very similar and
are a great way to introduce material. I
know that the media specialist at my school is a Discovery Education
participant, but I rarely see it used.
We are not permitted to stream live during the school day, and must
download onto our computers to use it in the classroom. But I know too that it has wonderful material
available, and should be utilized more within our location. I feel like both of these wonderful areas are
VERY underutilized, and I’m making the assumption that it’s due to teachers
being unaware of the material. I’ve
already written it all down to take to school tomorrow! I see a wonderful professional development
area here.
We have a similar set up at my school with the video distribution system. There are also two channels. Our main channel is for the morning news, run also by the fifth graders, and then the other channel is used to stream videos for multiple classes at a time. My school uses Brainpop also. It is a great site, but I do like all of the short video clips on GPB Education. It has a lot of educational material. There is always an option to watch a whole video, but I mostly use it for short video clips I want the students to see. It really helps with Science and Social Studies concepts. I agree that sometimes some of this technology is not used by teachers. We often have so much to do in one day it can be overwhelming. I think a staff development would be a great idea to make teachers aware of the video resources available. Maybe a link could be included on the media center website for teachers.
ReplyDeleteHaving three different channels available to the classrooms is great for your school. We work off of one channel so either everyone watches the same program or movie or they have to stream different ones. As a media specialist, I am not sure I like that the teachers do not submit any forms for viewing movies; this could lead to abuse. I feel your pain on teachers not watching the news. When we first started a morning news program 15 years ago we would offer prizes and rewards for classes tuning in. We would specifically target grade levels or classrooms we had heard were not watching and draw they names for viewer prizes, but they must tune in to win. They would have only five minutes to retrieve their prize.
ReplyDeleteYou mention the use (or lack of use) of GPB, BrainPop, and Discovery Education. I understand that is a problem. Our school has subscriptions to five different online databases and I print out a usage report each month to share at administration meetings. When I talk to homeroom teachers they tell me that they are just so overwhelmed with everything that is out there and all the new programs that are being introduced or required to use or train like RTI, Race to the Top, Easy CBM, STEM, Reading Counts or Accelerated Reader, etc. Sometimes we don’t stop to think about the reality of the position teachers are in, every new program down the line gets dumped on them and no one seems to take anything off their plate.
How do you stop the madness? As a media specialist you can show through media lessons how new programs available will help meet curriculum needs and demonstrate how engaging many of these programs can be. We can model the use of technology within our media time integrating different resources like GPB and Discovery Education. I have built pathfinders for teachers to use since our media center opened with one third the normal budget (our nonfiction section is not well stocked) and a variety of resources are included. As teachers are required to differentiate their lessons you can show them the easiest way to differentiate a lesson is through the different level of resources that are available.
My former middle school also had a “scrolling screen” of information which posted announcements throughout the day. Another channel was available for showing other videos for classroom use. The elementary school where I have been temporarily working only has one channel available for closed circuit television. It is used for the morning news show and to show movies at other times. Movies for the lower grades were often for rainy/cold day recess. Another channel had been available but was not working.
ReplyDeleteAs a science teacher, I enjoyed using GPB/Discovery Education in the classroom. For a couple of years I used the school’s login, but I was later told that teachers could establish their own accounts. I then began saving clips and resources to “My Content.” I liked being able to search by specific elements of GPS. Having the account eliminated the need to search for a selected clip each time I wanted to show it. The videos offer an additional way to teach and explain concepts and often enable students to grasp difficult concepts. Many video clips also have other lesson resources. One set of clips that I enjoyed using had teacher guides, anticipation guides, video quizzes, word splashes, discussion questions and post tests. Other clips had science demonstrations and experiments which could easily be conducted in the classroom. Discovery Education is a great resource available with Georgia Public Broadcasting.