Over the years, as PeachStar staff have traveled around the state conducting trainings and presenting at conferences, we have received a great deal of helpful feedback from the teachers and media specialists we've encountered. One of the biggest issues that has been brought to our attention is educators' need for assistance in finding ways to use PeachStar's satellite-delivered video resources in the classroom setting.
In April 2001, we brought you "Using Video in the Classroom," an article that addressed three important questions about using video resources to supplement video instruction: Why Video? Which Video? How Do I Integrate Video Into My Lesson Plan? In brief, here were the answers we gave you then:
* Why Video? -
Video can enhance classroom instruction by visually demonstrating an abstract mathematics concept, bringing relevance to a lesson on conservation by giving students an opportunity to see the animals and communities that are affected, or bringing history and literature to life through dramatic reenactments. Video does not have to dominate your lesson plan; well-chosen segments can be worked into your lessons to supplement and enrich the resources you already have.
* Which Video? -
It's important that you find the right pieces of video to use in conjunction with the lessons that you teach, and traditionally the responsibility for researching and selecting video resources has been left to the classroom teacher. Check Pipeline each month as well as the online program guide for descriptions about the programs PeachStar offers.
* How Do I Integrate Video Into My Lesson Plan? -
There are a few important steps you should follow to effectively integrate video into your teaching:
1. Plan your lesson first and then choose a video that supports your objective.
2. View the video BEFORE sharing it with the class to ensure it meets your needs and to determine where in the lesson plan the video should be inserted; cue the tape to the exact point you intend to show.
3. Discuss the video with your class before viewing it and go over any advanced concepts and vocabulary the video will cover. Let them know what to look for in the video by offering them a listening/viewing guide to complete as they follow along.
4. Stop the tape and explain key points and make sure that the class understands the information they are seeing in the video AND how it relates to what you are doing in the lesson.
5. Ask and answer questions about the video once it has ended to reinforce what the students have just seen and relate it to the lesson as a whole.
Since "Using Video in the Classroom" was first published, PeachStar has had an opportunity to get more feedback from Georgia educators and refine the ways in which we can assist you with this important task. The reasons WHY to use video remain the same, but we have taken steps to make the question of WHICH video to use much simpler. PeachStar understands that as teachers you have an inordinate number of demands on your time that may not allow for the addition of another task such as searching for relevant video materials to integrate into your teaching, so we've taken care of that for you!
PeachStar staff, in conjunction with teachers, media specialists, and curriculum directors, have identified programming that meets the core standards for courses that are taught in Georgia schools. Rather than trying to identify whole series that meet course objectives, PeachStar has concentrated on the narrower level of episodes, choosing episodes across a number of series that may be used together to support academic courses. PeachStar's new programming listings by course may be found online at www.gpb.org/peachstar under Teacher Toolbox. Simply click on the name of the course you teach, for example drama, and this will bring up a screen with a sequenced listing of all of the episodes across series that are related to that course. That means that the episodes from various series will be listed in the order in which the topics they cover are taught in Georgia classrooms rather than in the order they appear in the series. This will allow you to know exactly which episodes you need to record for use in your course.
Once you've gotten the list of episodes that pertain to the course you teach, you can rely on Pipeline to find the broadcast dates and times for each. We will continue to arrange the listings in Pipeline by series and will air series in blockfeed format to make planning and recording easier for you. Once you have the complete series in your video library, simply select the specific episodes that relate to your course for use in the classroom. We at PeachStar hope that this latest effort to facilitate your use of educational video really makes a difference in your classroom. Email us and let us know what you think!
