So, my computer all of a sudden wouldn't play YouTube videos. Just a black screen came up where the player should have been. I use YouTube to watch clips in my class - for instance last week, we watched President Johnson sign the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. I had told students that president's sign a little bit then give away the pen - I could tell that they couldn't picture what I was saying. So to demonstrate how president's give away pens, I quickly pulled up a video of Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act. It was neat for kids to see this - how Congressional leaders get pens first (a young Newt Gingrich were among the first to receive pens) then Civil Rights leaders received pens. The video added a much richer discussion than I ever could have just through notes. Another example is playing a video of US Congress vs British Parliament. Students can not believe the difference between these two legislative bodies! This particular example arose from a question a student asked. I think it was something to the effect of, "Does anyone in Congress ever battle?" :)
On a personal level, my 15 month old has recently become fascinated with the Hotdog Song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on YouTube. Now I am a parent who does not believe in "screen time" before the age of two but have had to loosen this ideal a bit with my 2nd daughter (since my 1st daughter who is almost 4 watches TV sometimes - my 2nd daughter is inevitably going to get some screen time). The past two nights at my house has been horrible! I've been trying to work on hw, and Abby (the 15 mo. old) is crying for "Mickey." Before now, I could pacify her with watching Mickey once or twice put her down to let her play and she would let me work on my homework. She could not understand why I wouldn't let her watch Mickey! (I couldn't explain that Flash player wasn't working correctly on YouTube :))
Long story to get to this point...YouTube videos all of a sudden would not work! I had searched forums, Googled for an answer, uninstalled/reinstalled Flash, unchecked a hardware acceleration box, disabled Toshiba Media Controller, and on and on and on. But today, one of my students fixed it in three seconds! This is a student who is not motivated at all in school but is a good kid. As it turns out, he is also pretty exceptional with computers (Thank you God for sending him to me!!!) I just wanted to blog about this really cool experience. I do not mind at all when students know more than I do. It is really awesome that they are so willing to help! I thanked him over and over and told him I was going to blog about it - you could tell he was proud. This is an example of how students and teachers are in this together!
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