Teaching Thought #69

Teacherscribe's Teaching Thought #69

The five digital tools I can’t teach without.

Tool #3 – TED Ed

TED Ed allows you to build your own unit or lesson plan around any video on Youtube.  This is the perfect tool for flipping your classroom, developing independent work, or when you are going to have a sub.

TED Ed allows you to create a watch, think, discuss, . . . And Finally.  What that all means is it is a site that students can watch a video, take a quiz on it, have a discussion about it, and then do supplement work . . . all that you design.

This is one of the best tools I’ve ever come across.  It’s perfect for deepening a student’s understanding of a concept that you’ve read about and discussed in class but you want them to do some independent practice on it.  This is your tool.

How I use it –

If I’m going to be gone, I developed a TED Ed video around a TED Talk or other video.  It’s a self-contained lesson. I love it. Here is an example – Aime Mullins: It’s Not Fair Having 12 Paris of Legs. In this unit, students will watch the video, answer a quiz as they watch, join in a discussion (which I didn’t set up for this particular video, though), and then be asked to find another TED Talk of their choosing and share it with me.

Here I use TED Ed as a way to introduce students to a topic we will be looking at quite in depth.

I use this Thomas Friedman video as a way to supplement the students’ understanding of passion and why it’s important in your career.  This is an example of how I will use TED Ed as a supplemental tool to help students see the importance of what we study in other contexts.