Week 3 Boundless Universe of Communication

 

YouTube

In my opinion, YouTube is one of the best online inventions. YouTube is an easy-to-use free video-sharing online tool that has something for pretty much everything. From how-to guides, DIY, music videos, educational videos, reviews, recipes, workout videos, fashion advice, home improvement, sports, comedy, gaming, and so much more. You do have to be careful, but you can often get free expert advice that otherwise would cost you an arm and a leg. 

YouTube, you have helped me be a strong and independent woman, and I thank you for it! Even throughout some of the most challenging times of my life, you have helped me grow and not seem weak in front of others. I am a single mom of a thirteen-year-old boy. I have been divorced for almost six years and have no family in the area, which means that my dad cannot easily come over to help me install or fix things around our house or car. We live off just my salary, so I have to be very careful with my money for us to live a comfortable life. To save money, I have been my own plumber, electrician, mechanic, among other things. Life has thrown some wrenches at me, but YouTube has had my back. 

I do not think a day goes by without me looking something up on YouTube between my personal and teaching life. Just this morning, I was trying on some dresses that I got on sale without even trying them on at the store. The dresses were tagged with my size, so I assumed they would be the perfect fit. However, when I tried them on, they fitted very loose. I opened up my YouTube app and searched no-sew dress alteration hack, and the options were endless. Two dresses that I was regretting purchasing will probably become two of my favorite wardrobe pieces. 

As a teacher, I have been using YouTube since day one. When I started teaching, I taught Kindergarten bilingual, and there were not many resources available in Spanish in the online curriculum. Now, teaching 5th grade, I find amazing videos on YouTube for pretty much every topic of every subject. Sometimes the kids just need to hear or see things from a different perspective. Many teachers around the world on YouTube have made a huge difference in my students' lives and do not even know it. Before the pandemic on Google Classroom and during the pandemic on Canvas, I would post videos I thought were helpful for my students to look at for review. I'll be honest I think I have become a better teacher with time because of YouTube. I have learned so much from watching other teachers. Also, with the lack of training our district offers sometimes before making us launch a new software or online program with students, I find myself searching on YouTube how to use it. I survived my first year using Canvas because of YouTube. Some of my favorite YouTube channels are Crash Course Kids for science and Math Antics and Math with Mr. J for math. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcoursekids

https://www.youtube.com/user/mathantics

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY-ywrKyfsSFF1tILNH1pNA

I currently have some playlists on my school district YouTube account. However, this week I learned that I could really go into more detail and organize my playlists so that it is easier to find specific videos. I am going to create my playlists based on subject and topic, and I had never thought about subscribing to a channel until this week's adventure. This way I am notified when the channel I follow adds new videos.

I am not one to be behind the creation of YouTube videos, but I definitely watch them daily. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry, and sometimes I simply learn something new. 

Something that I like to incorporate at school when I play a video is VideoLink. This free application allows me to link a YouTube video and make sure the content stays school-appropriate and safe for my students. It also allows me to customize the video presentation and crop it only to show specific sections. I like this feature because sometimes I find amazing videos, but they go into more detail as they progress that is beyond 5th-grade level. 


Twitter

Since downloading the Twitter app on my phone, I have been spending more time on it. I think that for me, it may come in handy to stay up to date with current events or share interesting findings with my students. I do not see myself Twitting a lot other than re-twitting or using it professionally for district or school events. I am just cautious about social media. It is so easy to lose our jobs over even liking a post on social media, and sometimes it is easy to click on something accidentally. 


Web 2.0 tools are changing the way students learn by providing a more flexible learning environment for our 21st-century students, granting interaction, communication, and collaboration opportunities that are not limited to the classroom walls. The Web 2.0 tools to use in class have to be thoughtfully determined, but they are not difficult to implement and use to enhance our students' learning. Whether it is YouTube, Twitter, or one of the many other readily available Web 2.0 tools, the possibilities are endless! 

My YouTube Channel

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 1 Vanity Search

I found this assignment to be enjoyable! In the past, I have done Google searches of myself. I knew it as egogoogling. However, I had never gone to such a depth. Less than two years ago, I legally changed. I only kept my middle name and my paternal last name. This made my search challenging because my previous name was very long. I had to play with it because I found multiple combinations of my name. The searching techniques learned from my previous Library Science classes came in very handy. My maternal last name, which was part of my previous name, is Fauvet which is not common. I have never met someone with that last name that is not related to me. Once I searched "Velasco Fauvet," all the results were either my sister or me. There was not much to be found that would be categorized under social media because I have those accounts set with an email that I only use for online accounts and subscriptions, and those are all linked to my nickname. I purposely did that to keep my...
Read more

Week 5 Vanity Search Take 2

Image
  https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/962466-selfie-stick Conducting an online search of ourselves is something most of us have done. I remember searching myself back in the day using my dial-up internet. The two things that I would see of myself at the top of my search were concerning my high school swim team and Myspace. I remember my sister and I trying to compare who had more search results.  Since my last vanity search, my online footprint has not changed much. What did change is how I search. Reading other classmates' blogs helped me develop more search keywords to attach to my name, which in effect filtered my results.  I think as a teacher, my instinct is to be very careful about how much of myself is out there. If I were in a different profession, I probably would want my name and picture out there. For example, doctors purposely want people to know about their practice, studies, published articles, and patient reviews. Of course, only as long as everything is positi...
Read more

Week 4 Hyperdoc Adventure

Image
  https://www.aoptech.org/michele-kiss.html What in the Hyperdoc?!?! There are many Web 2.0 tools available at the tip of our fingers. With so many out there, I am constantly learning from professors, peers, and colleagues about new online tools that I can use when planning lessons. However, this time around, I felt far from being smart. Hyperdocs have been in front of my nose this whole time, and I was unaware that they had a name or were a thing. Hyperdocs allow the teacher to provide students with an organized digital lesson plan that enables students to navigate through all of the content using web tools that empower the students to collaborate, engage, apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills, create, inquire, explain, and reflect.  This past school year, I was exposed to hyperdocs more than ever, without even knowing it. Hyperdocs were provided for most of my virtual asynchronous professional developments. In fact, I embedded hyperdocs for my asynchronous stude...
Read more