Video in the Classroom

Video is definitely a powerful tool that both teachers and students can use. As a student, I used video for some projects. In middle school, I created a weather broadcast when we were conducting our unit on meteorology. I was the meteorologist, and I reported on the weather in different parts of the nation. I also made my video creative by including some funny commercials in between the weather reports. For my high school Spanish class, I created a Spanish fashion show. I had my sister and her friends model, as I announced what they were wearing in Spanish. Each student had to make a creative video in Spanish as a project, and toward the end of the semester we watched the videos in class. In social studies and language arts classes, we used video by watching different films in class. In social studies class, we would watch documentaries. In language arts, we would watch film adaptations of the literature we were reading at that time.

As a teacher, I can use video in my English classes like my teachers did and show film adaptations of the literature. However, I can also be more creative and have students use video. I can have students work in groups and act out scenes from a play we are reading; this will be done outside of school. We can watch and critique the videos in class. I can have students write their own screenplays, and then they have to act as director and create the video. It English classes it also interesting to watch videos about the author or the time period in which a piece of literature was written. This allows students to feel a connection to the literature, and it might provide them with a better understanding.

"Video is engaging, can be edited or segmented for appropriateness, and is familiar to students, but more than any other reason, the content can be managed and entertaining," said Lisa Salmonson, a teacher at Florin High School in California's Elk Grove Unified School District.