Teacher Tube

I just found out about an interesting resource: "TeacherTube."
http://www.teachertube.com/
It's a YouTube channel, but everything is for and from teachers. There are a variety of foreign-language and ESL-related videos as well.

Here are some pros and cons:

PRO:
The sheer quantity of videos is impressive, and is likely to have something related to whatever you are looking for. The majority of the videos seem to be videos of students performing different activities, skits, etc. It's good to see what students/kids are capable of doing, and it gives you ideas for things to do in your own classroom.

CON:
As with YouTube, the site is rather chaotic. Yes, you can use search terms to reduce the number of videos to look at, but in the end, much like doing a regular Google search, it is very possible to look at a dozen videos and never really find what you are looking for. It would also be nice if there were more videos directed specifically to other teachers, as resources.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
If nothing else, teachers who post videos to TeacherTube should somehow give a narration in the beginning or at least write a description of what the video is demonstrating, so the viewer can decide quickly if it is what she wants or not without wasting a lot of time.

WARNING:
While I think it's a great idea for teachers to share their successful activities with each other in this way, I DO worry about the legality of having all these children's faces online. Do their parents know that their teacher has put the video on the web? Did they sign a consent form? A warning and recommendation to anyone considering posting a classroom video: PLEASE get permission slips signed by the parents of any student who is not legally considered to be an adult. Then you are safe, and can just blot out the fact and/or voice of any student whose parent does not consent to their child's image being on the web.

Happy viewing!