Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

When I grow up, I want to be a YouTuber, or I want to be a TikToker. Do you ever hear this from your students? More often than not. Okay, so I am a little bit biased about this topic because, yes, here on the Elementary STEM Coach podcast, I am also a YouTuber per se, where I do record the video of my podcast episodes and make other video content as well to share with all of you to help you with STEM education. So again, I definitely believe in this topic and see the power of it, and I know that students creating videos is really important. Being a YouTuber isn't that far-fetched of a dream. In fact, YouTube is the number two search engine compared to Google. We, as humans, like watching videos. We like watching other people.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:00]:

Whether it is a how-to video on how to fix your microwave, I definitely watched one of those in the past couple of weeks, or even how to cook something. Video can bring so much content to life, and you actually get to see what is happening, whether our students become YouTubers or TikTokers. In this episode, I'm going to be sharing with you the benefits of students creating videos and different ways that you can get started. You are here listening to this episode, and I already completed my live virtual workshop when it comes to setting up your pre-recorded schoolwide video news.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:10]:

Now, if you're sitting here, you're like, oh man, I wish I should have signed up. Don't worry, I recorded the whole experience, so you didn't have to miss out. So you don't have the opportunity to chat with me live. But inside, you get the whole workshop, all of the templates to get started, and all the tips and tricks to be on your way. So, in 2 hours, I know that you can be successful with your video schoolwide news. You can jump in on that at naomimeredith.com/newsworkshop. Okay, I have a confession to make. When I was a kid, I was a lot like my students.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:50]:

I always wanted to be a teacher when I grew up, and I actually made that dream possible, which is pretty cool. I always wanted to be a teacher. But on the side, there are a couple of things. I always wanted my own business, and I always wanted to be on camera, which is super funny. All three things have actually come true. I haven't changed much, apparently, since I was a kid, but I always wanted to be on camera. It first started when I was watching the Barney show, and I got really jealous of the kids that they got to make all of these cool crafts on camera and show all of us how to make them. And then it moved on to Bill Nye, the Science Guy, again, he's super entertaining.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:39]:

It's a dream to have him on my podcast, go tag him and tell him I would love to have him on here. But I started with Bill Nye, then went to Bill Nye the Science Guy, and then I went to Disney Channel, and I loved just seeing other kids on camera. But my favorite parts again were the ones when kids were teaching you how to do something, so they're like, here's this science activity, or here's how to do this. And I really loved that. So when I wasn't playing school and messing with my siblings and trying to teach them how to read, only one of them listened to me, and I did teach them how to read. We were actually making a lot of videos with our camcorder and had the little cassette tapes in there. So, making videos has been something that I've been doing for a long time. I'm definitely not shy when it comes to the camera, whether it's pictures or video, which here I am today, making my dreams come true.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:35]:

And I do make a lot of videos on how to do things, whether it's here in the STEM classroom, elementary STEM, or even if it's recorded videos, which is pretty funny. So super jealous of Selena Gomez. She was a Disney Channel kid and Barney kid, so I definitely knew the wrong people growing up, but we'll see. Everybody has their own journey. The more that I was thinking about this, though, I asked myself the question, did I ever make any videos when I was at school? And the answer is no. I personally did not make one video during the school day. And not to say the technology wasn't there, it was, but I just didn't really ever have the opportunity to ever make a video. I was in a photography class, but I never made any videos, and so it was harder again to get that technology.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:32]:

But think about your students, think about your teaching career. Have you ever had students make a video with you? Even if you've taught within the past ten years, you've had the technology in your back pocket. And our students shouldn't be going through school K through twelve and say, yeah, I never made a video at school. They should never, ever be able to say that. Videos can be super polished, like having a video school wide news, or they can be super simple, like recording what they did on their work. In Seesaw again, video is not going away. Video is super important, and even as little as pre k students should be making videos to share their ideas. So let's talk about this more.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:25]:

What are the benefits of students making videos? Why should they be doing this? Why should they be in front of the camera and behind the camera? Why does this even matter? They're not all going to be YouTubers, let's face it. But they all need these video skills. So let's get into it. The first benefit of students making videos is it brings the content to life. Everything doesn't have to be a video. I mean, it can be, but it doesn't all have to be. And you're probably sitting there like, yeah. Naomi, you were a STEM teacher.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:59]:

Of course your kids made videos in your class. Yes, they did. But when I was a classroom teacher, they also made videos in my class. And when I was co teaching with teachers, I showed them to have students make videos in their class. The big project that I remember is when I taught third grade, we did a rocks and minerals museum. And so students kept bringing in these beautiful minerals that they got from all these places. They had so many of them. I said, you know what, we're going to create a whole project and we're going to create a rocks and minerals museum, and you are going to study about one of these minerals and create a presentation that when they come into our museum, they can learn all about it.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:42]:

But the part of this museum is we aren't there to present when we go to a museum. There are people helping out, but there's videos and other things that we can watch so we can have the project come to life. So I did have students create a video clip, and that was part of their presentation that had QR codes and different things. But I had them create a video to share part of the information about their rock and mineral. Same thing when I was co teaching second grade, was learning about weather. And so we did a whole weather report that they could present. And then I modified the same kind of thing when it came to third grade, which you can actually grab that lesson in the show notes when it comes to a whole green screen, worldwide weather report, there are so many different ways that content can be brought to life. So when you're thinking about ways for students can share the information, think about does it have to be a poster that is stagnant and they're standing next to it talking about it, or are there ways that they can share that same information and put it in a video format? When you do that, watch the engagement rise.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:57]:

The second benefit of students being able to create videos is it's teaching them the skills to be able to explain things clearly to others. This is an important life skill. Now, the top tier of this, being able to explain the information to others is when I did my schoolwide prerecorded video news. And if you missed out on a bit, I have the workshop at Naomi Meredith.com Newsworkshop. And every day we shared news that was happening in our building, like the lunch, the birthdays, after school clubs, and other big events that were coming up. But students had to be very clear in how they were presenting the information. So everybody can understand what is going on. But you can even do this really simply with having things that aren't as pre planned.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:52]:

So even going into things like Seesaw, Flipgrid, and WeVideo, students can either record their screen or record their face explaining more about a topic. It can be as polished as you want, or it could be as easy as hitting record and talking about what was their favorite thing that they learned today. So the more kids have practiced being on camera, the more comfortable they are going to be. You're going to have little kids who say, I don't like being on camera, and I say to them, that's fine, but this is a skill that we need to get better at. And the only people as of now who are saying this are me, you, your classmates, maybe your parents. We're not putting it anywhere else. And so again, it's a very important skill. But not only that, in the elementary space, it's a skill for when they get to be an adult.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:45]:

Think about how did you feel teaching online during COVID. Now, for me, personally, I didn't mind whatsoever. I was very comfortable being on video calls, and that was something that I was doing regularly anyway. So teaching on camera was actually really fun and I really enjoyed it. But not every teacher had that same experience. There was a lot of teachers who had never made a video for their class before. So me transitioning online was very easy because I had that video experience. But teaching isn't the only thing that needs video experience. More and more and more employers are looking for people who are confident on camera, who can speak to others.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:33]:

And we want to prepare students for their real world. In fact, I'm going to be working on the side with a company who was looking for people who can do STEM presentations well on camera and who is comfortable doing things on camera. And if I hadn't had this experience before, there's no way I would have even applied or they wouldn't have given me the time of day. So just think about that for your students. Again, they might not all be YouTubers, but everybody needs experience being confident on camera so that they can present the information clearly for others to understand. And the third benefit of students creating videos is they're going to appreciate the whole process of creating higher quality projects. You know, when you give students a project, they're moaning and groaning, oh, we have to do this again. Well, you want kids to be excited about what you are doing and when it comes to a higher quality video, so still do those little quick videos, having them check in, having them explain their ideas, but also balance it when it comes to producing a video from start to finish.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:48]:

So you have the idea, you have the script, you record, you edit, you make some changes and then you're ready to publish. So there are benefits to both types of videos. So you definitely want to do both. I tell the kids, anybody can just hit record and make a TikTok video, whatever, it goes viral. Woohoo. Good for you. But if you have the skills to create high quality videos, you're going to have the skills for that longevity of where you can actually do more with your videos just like this podcast. Honestly.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:19]:

So when we did our school video news, the kids were actually amazed and shocked how much work it was behind the scenes to get a five minute video out there. They were so surprised that IDIS didn't let them show up and just start talking to the camera. They actually had a script that they had to read and practice and perform so that they sounded good on camera. Likewise, my editing team was so shocked and they loved editing their friends news. They loved seeing all the mistakes, but they were surprised too. They're all, oh wow, the actual video is seven minutes, but when I took out all the extra parts, it turned it down to four. I know. And they also appreciated students who practiced more and they didn't have to edit as much.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:12]:

So there's definitely times when there's a lot of editing in my episodes for my podcast manager and a lot not of editing so that can happen as well. But they definitely appreciated the whole process and they were really proud of their work because it is work behind the scenes to get higher quality videos. Now it doesn't just have to be your school wide news. You could even do projects in class when it comes to using research, writing a script and doing all of that similar process. I did this with students where they were learning about space junk and why space junk is a problem and even figuring out what space junk is. And students created a video to teach others about it and possible solutions. So they did go through a whole similar process and instead of their face being on camera, they added an audio narration. But they did add some pictures and video clips on top.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:08]:

Another lesson that I tested out with first grade is that we were learning about the four seasons and why they work, how long the days are, and students created little props where they would use the props to help them explain the different parts of the seasons and how they worked. And then they helped each other film the videos. That was a lot of fun. They did have a script in first grade. So that is something that I will definitely work on and refine and get that lesson out to you. But you can still use scripts and a whole process of video making, even with younger students. And another fun way to create videos when it really comes to storytelling, every type of video can have storytelling. But a big thing I really like to do this is with stop motion animation.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:56]:

So that is when students take a ton, a ton, a ton of pictures, and they're played really fast where it creates a whole video through it. So one of my favorites is when students were researching about fossils and they picked a fossil and they had some information about it, but then they had to tell a story of how that living thing in the past turned into a fossil. What was its story? How did that happen? Because not every living thing becomes a fossil has to be in the right time and place. So that was a really cool way to use stop motion storytelling to add in that element of videography. So that lesson I do have and we will link in the show notes. As you can see, I am so passionate about video creation and teaching students proper ways to do this when they're young so that they can be confident on camera and use these skills for things even outside of school. So when it comes to those benefits of students making videos, here's what we talked about. First is that it can bring content to life.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:03]:

Next is students will be able to explain things clearly to others. And third, this helps students, when they create videos, appreciate the process of higher quality projects. Hopefully, after listening to this episode, you're going to start at least one way for students to create videos consistently in your classroom. Whether that is doing quick little videos, explaining their work, or even starting your schoolwide video news, there are so many benefits to it. And your students are going to love this opportunity to practice something they're already passionate about in a structured way. Thank you again for being here and I will see you in the next episode.