Kristen Cuthrell

YouTube: Educational Potentials and Pitfalls

The instructional potential of video technology in the classroom is promising, especially in light of the 21st Century Learning Framework (Siegle, 2009). Studies show positive gains in student outcomes as a result of the integration of video technology in instruction. This article explores potential uses of YouTube as an instructional aid in lessons and in planning. Emphasis is placed on using YouTube directly in social studies instruction and as a teaching resource in elementary classrooms. Attention is also given to the evaluation of YouTube videos. This article discusses the potential challenges of using YouTube in the classroom and offers suggestions for overcoming those challenges.

Out of the Room and into the Hall: Making Content Word Walls Work

Abstract The purpose of this article is to share one middle schools approach to using content area word walls in the classroom, as well as in the hall, to enhance the comprehension and retention of content area vocabulary. Eighth grade teachers and students designed and maintained classroom content word walls, as well as an interactive multi-content word wall in the eighth grade hall. It visually displayed the vocabulary aligned with the eighth grade state curriculum and the annual state assessment. State assessment scores showed an increase in the area of reading, math, and science after students and teachers engaged in these two types of word walls.

From the Green Mile to the Yellow Brick Road: Using a Practical Model to Fill in the Social Studies Content Gaps

Since the inception of mandated testing in reading and mathematics, social studies instruction has been marginalized in elementary and middle schools. After the genesis of several state-mandated testing programs and nearly a decade after the launch of the No Child Left Behind legislation, the effects of limited K–8 social studies instruction are being recognized at the high school level, specifically in high school test score data. This article reveals the obstacles generated by marginalizing social studies in the elementary and middle schools and offers a model for helping teachers understand their role in offsetting the problems associated with early social studies marginalization. The article also provides a way to help teachers collaboratively fill the social studies content gaps.

Empty Tissue Boxes considering Poverty in Diversity Discourse

A preservice teacher doing her internship overhears some of her students asking a classmate why he regularly takes home empty tissue boxes. The boy replies that he builds cities and bridges with his empty boxes. His classmates then ask why he does not just build a city with Legos or building blocks. The preservice teacher listens intently as the little boy explains, matteroffactly, that he does not have any Legos or building blocks; what he does have are the empty tissue boxes his teacher saves for him. The preservice teacher begins saving empty tissue boxes to give to the child. When she gives him the tissue boxes, the child reacts as if it were the best gift in the world. A few weeks later, the clinical teacher learns that the child will be moving. The child solemnly asks his teacher to please write a letter to his new teacher, asking his new teacher to save empty tissue boxes for him. This child is not going to accept any deficit as a limitation. He is willing and able to create his own resources. For the preservice teacher, this was a lesson in the resiliency of children and the importance of knowing and understanding her students‘ diverse needs.

Developing Expertise: Using Video to Hone Teacher Candidates' Classroom Observation Skills.

ABSTRACT This article explores the impact of a video observation model developed for teacher candidates in an early experiences course. Video Grand Rounds (VGR) combines a structured observation protocol, videos, and directed debriefing to enhance teacher candidates’ observations skills within nonstructured and field-based observations. A comparative research design was employed for this VGR study, and both quantitative and qualitative data inform the results. Findings indicate that VGR teacher candidates demonstrated significantly greater growth than non-VGR teacher candidates in their abilities to focus on salient features of classroom interactions to identify the complexity of classroom interactions and to readily transfer observation skills from a video platform to an in-school platform.