Fantastic Finds – Teachers TV

When I was working toward my MA in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England, one of my first courses as an international education student was The English Education and Educare System. It was during that course that I discovered Teachers TV.

Videos for Teachers

We Americans tend to overlook some of the amazing educational resources available to us from around the world. Teachers TV has some of the best educational ideas from English education in the form of archived videos.

UPDATE: Sadly, Teachers TV closed. Happily, a few sites offer the Teachers TV videos! Right now, TeachFind has the videos available along with a great search engine. The videos are available worldwide! (If you have difficulty accessing any videos, just switch browsers … Firefox and Google Chrome worked best for me.) TES Connect has the Teachers TV videos available for viewing worldwide along with many printables and other teaching resources. SchoolsWorldTV has a couple of videos and plans to offer the entire Teachers TV video library worldwide soon.

Videos are available in each of the basic stages of English education: Early Years, Primary, and Secondary. The subject areas are English, ICT (Information and Communications Technology), Maths, and Science. There are also videos on assessment, behaviour, bullying, and SEN (Special Educational Needs).

Teachers TV has a number of interesting series, like Early Years in Action. For example, there’s an video that would be helpful for anyone looking for role-playing ideas: Early Years in Action – The Learning Environment. There’s even a video on The Montessori Method.

For primary teachers, there’s a Great Primary Lesson Ideas series with many videos and printable lesson plans. For secondary teachers, there’s a Great Secondary Lesson Ideas series with 32 videos and printable lesson plans. For teachers with older students, Phil Beadle’s Masterclass about Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is very interesting for both teachers and students. If I weren’t already a Charles Dickens fan, I think I’d become one after a half hour of watching Phil Beadle Teaching Great Expectations. (He even has actors bring the book to life.) Here’s the link to more masterclasses with lots of fascinating content.

I really love having a different perspective, and English education has a lot to offer in many areas. Even though the videos are from a school perspective, many of the ideas can be used in homeschools as well.

Check out the Homeschool Village for other homeschoolers’ fantastic finds.