Go To Sleep or Cram? - The Benefits of a Good Night's Sleep

With two children under 16 months old, in my house we're well aware of the value of a good night's sleep. That's why I favor getting up early before the kids to work on projects than to try work late after they go to bed. As this TED-Ed lesson explains, students could benefit from adopting the same pattern of getting up early instead of cramming. In The Benefits of a Good Night's Sleep embedded below, students can learn how sleep "resets" the brain. The video also explains how memories are formed and retained by our brains.

A Health and Science Lesson - What Is Fat?

Now that we're into the holiday season, many of us may be concerned about our intake of fats through our favorite holiday treats. But, as students can learn in What is Fat? not all fats are the same. What is Fat? is a TED-Ed lesson that explores the differences between the types of fats that we find in food. The video lesson goes on to explain how hydrogenated fats are created, what the term "partially hydrogenated" means when it is on a nutrition label, and how different fats affect our health. Overall, it's a nice little lesson to use as a flipped lesson in a health class.

5 FAQs About How to Teach With Video

This coming Monday night is the first night of How To Teach With Video hosted by me with special guests Tom Richey and Keith Hughes. I've answered a lot of emails about the course. Here are the most frequently asked questions and their answers.

1. What is the format of the course?
This is a live course delivered through GoToWebinar. Each webinar will run from 7pm to 8pm Eastern Time (or later if there are a lot of questions). The webinars will be recorded for folks who cannot attend all of the live sessions. You'll have unlimited access to the recordings. You can ask questions throughout the live webinars, via email, and through a Facebook group.

2. Do I need prior experience or special equipment?
No, you do not need to have any prior experience making videos. Likewise, you don't need any special equipment in order to participate.

3. Can I earn graduate credits?
Unfortunately, I can’t grant graduate credits for this course. However, I will give you a certificate for three hours of professional development time.

4. Who is Tom Richey? Who is Keith Hughes?
Tom and Keith are teachers who have created massively popular YouTube channels that teach all kinds of history and government lessons. Through their respective channels they have helped hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. See Keith here and Tom here.

5. What does it cost?
The price for this course is $97. That includes the live sessions, unlimited access to recordings, and a professional development certificate.

Register here for How to Teach With Video. 

Four Tools for Recording Time-stamped Notes While Watching Videos

This post was updated on December 10, 2021 to remove links to services that no longer exist. 

There are many tools for creating video-based lessons and quizzes in which students answer the questions that you create for them. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. I've done that myself. However, there are times when I want students to watch an educational video and record notes of their own. Those notes could be questions that they want to ask me or they could be simple notes about an important point made in a video. The following four tools enable students to record time-stamped notes while watching educational videos on YouTube, Vimeo, and other video hosting services.

Vialogues is a website that is designed to enable users to host conversations around a video. Users can upload videos to Vialogues or use YouTube videos as the centerpieces of their conversations. After you have selected a video from YouTube or uploaded a video of your own, you can post poll questions and add comments that are tied to points in the video. Your Vialogue can be made public or private. Public Vialogue's can be embedded into your blog or website. Watch the video below to learn how to use Vialogues.



With the TurboNote Chrome extension installed your students can take notes while watching any video. To take notes students just need to click the TurboNote extension icon in their browsers and start writing notes in the menu that appears on the right side of the screen. Any notes that studetns type are automatically time-stamped. Notes can be edited while the video is playing or while the video is stopped. All notes can be shared via social media and email.



VideoNot.es is a great tool to connect to your Google Drive account. With VideoNot.es you can take notes on one side of your screen while watching a video on the other side. Your notes are automatically synchronized with the timestamps in the video. You can share your notes just like you share any other file within Google Drive. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how VideoNot.es works.



ReClipped is a neat tool that lets you take notes, share notes, and share clips from educational videos. With a ReClipped account you can clip sections of videos that you find on YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Coursera, and TED. In addition to clipping you can create time-stamped notes about the videos that you clip. A Pinterest-like aspect of ReClipped appears if you choose to share your clips and notes on a board. ReClipped boards can be shared publicly or kept private.

Three Ways to Broadcast Review Sessions for Students

Today, instead of having to stay after school or come back to school for an extra review session, students can tune-in to a broadcast that you host. Of course, you can still have students come to you after school for a review session, but you can help even more students if you broadcast that review session. Here are three ways that you can broadcast a review session for your students.

YouTube Live
YouTube Live makes it possible to broadcast from your computer's webcam or from your phone (you'll need the YouTube app for Android or iOS). Students can type questions while watching your broadcast and you'll see those questions appear on your screen. YouTube Live broadcasts are automatically recorded and added to your YouTube channel for students who missed the live broadcast to view later. Click here to read about how Tom Richey used YouTube live to help more than 2,500 students prepare for the AP European History exam. Directions for how to create a YouTube Live broadcast can be found here.

Know Lounge
Know Lounge is a free service that I started using about ten months ago. It will let you create a live broadcast from your laptop. Know Lounge includes a whiteboard that you can draw on and share with your audience. Students can ask you question by writing them into a chat box. Additionally, you can allow students to use their webcams to ask you questions during your broadcast. Directions for using Know Lounge can be watched here.

Facebook Live
If you have a Facebook page for your class or for your school, you can use it to host a Facebook Live broadcast. Students can ask questions by typing them into the comments below or next to your video (placement depends upon how they view the broadcast). The questions are time-stamped which is helpful to students who watch the recording of the broadcast. You could also put your own notes into the comments to have them time-stamped for viewers.