Videocasts

Today I watched a very interesting videocast that is provided by WGBH's Teacher's Domain, a free digital library that has many videos that could be used as great teaching tools. The video that I chose to watch was called "A Night in the Coral Reef". The whole video was dedicated to explaining what sea life is like at night and how the creatures interact with each other. One of the fish that it examined was the squirrel fish, which uses its huge eyes to see better at night. It also talked about the carnivorous squid, bottom dwelling sea urchin, and the prickly porcupine fish.

The video states that the nighttime is a time for the day fish to hide so that they are not killed by night predators. It is also a time for nocturnal fish to come out to play. One of the things that I really enjoyed learning about was the actual coral and how it functions at night. As the night and darkness arrives, the coral has little extensions called coral polyps which start to protrude once it gets dark. The polyps sway back and forth with the water, feeding on plankton with its extended tentacles. I just thought that was such an interesting bit of information, and I know that younger students would love to learn about it too.

These videos are such a great resource for teachers, especially when it comes to teaching certain topics. One way that I would love to use this video in my classroom is by allowing my students to view it and then allowing them to make their own personal sea creatures using crafts. Since I plan on being a kindergarten teacher, crafts are a good way to engage the children in learning about the ocean and having fun at the same time. They could also create their own made-up sea creature if they would like, since I know that young children have very active imaginations!

Another way that I could use this video is by actually teaching the students about the individual fish. They could learn the colors and shape of each fish, and maybe I could squeeze in a little detailed information about how the fish live. I think that carrying on the "fish" theme would also be very helpful when teaching other topics, such as counting. I could refer back to the video and use little fish figures to help my students learn numbers, counting, and even adding. It is videos like these that open up a lot of other areas that could be explored by teachers for students. I think that these videos are great tools and I will definitely use them when I start my teaching career!