Screencastify: Creating Personalized Videos (Part 1)

So you made yourself a teacher YouTube Channel! (I mean, after my convincing blog post two weeks ago, why wouldn't you?) Congratulations! Now, start filling it with awesome educational videos! YouTube is a great place to find useful videos that other people have created. But what if you need a specific video to meet your students' language learning needs and you just can't find it on YouTube? You're in luck! Screencastify is a simple tool that you can use to create quick and easy videos for your students without too much work.

I know, I know. It may not be "too much work"... but it's still work. More work for you. Being an immersion teacher is great, but there are times where it requires WAY more work than the average teacher. There are tons of resources available for English (and even Spanish) speaking classrooms, but zip for the Frenchies. Alas, this is just the life we lead. There are not as many resources for (French) immersion teachers, so we just have to make our own. But look on the bright side:

1. Once you make your video, you'll never have to make it again! (Unless you of course change your curriculum, but by that time you'll be a tech pro and making a screencast won't be such a daunting task.)
2. You have 2+ months of summer coming up! Perhaps you'll have some free time during June or July where you can sit down and churn out some videos so you are ready for next year!
3. By making your own personalized videos, you are targeting the exact needs of your students and providing them with useful resources to further their learning at home. Cookie-cutter English YouTube videos will look dull in comparison to your awesome French video differentiation!
4. The tool I am about to show you is EASY and QUICK. You can do it! I promise!
5. Ryan Gosling appreciates your extra work.

So, are you ready to learn about an awesome video creation tool? Here we go!

A "screencast" is a recording of your computer screen (meaning whatever you see on your computer is recorded into a video). You can also talk during a screencast and record your voice. This is a VERY simple way to take a video and record some vocabulary to help students at home. There are many screencasting tools out there, but the two I hear most about is Screencast-o-matic and Screencastify. I prefer Screencastify, so that's what I'll show you how to use today!

First things first, you need to go to the Chrome Web Store and download the Screencastify Extension. Once you have it downloaded, a tiny "film strip" icon will appear in the upper corner of your Google Chrome web browser.

Now, instead of wasting my time writing a lengthy explanation of what buttons to press and what you can do with the tool... why don't I just use Screencastify to show you?! Below is a screencast that demonstrates how to make a screencast using Screencastify. (It's Screencast Inception!) Enjoy!

Now, for my textual learners that need to read written text to internalize knowledge, here are the boiled down steps:

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Hit the Screencastify icon on the upper right of your Google Chrome web browser.
3. Set your recording settings however you'd like (capture area, webcam or no webcam, etc.).
4. Click "Start Recording."
5. Do your thing. Press "Pause" if you need to.
6. When done, click the Screencastify icon again and click "End Recording."
7. Click "Share" to put it on YouTube or Google Drive, or click "Save to Disk" to download it onto you computer.
8. Pat yourself on the back. You just made a screencast!

As you can see, Screencastify is a super simple tool to make quick videos to assist students and parents with learning at home. And remember, you can record ANYTHING on your desktop: websites, documents, PDFs, PowerPoints, slideshows, and even your iPad via Reflector. Think of all the differentiating possibilities! You can make videos for...

• Sight Words Lists (with pronunciation, sample sentences, corresponding images, etc.)
• Spelling Word Lists (how to say each word so parents can help out with practice tests at home)
• Homework Instructions (What does this say? What does this mean? What do I do?!)
• French Phonetic Help (think "M avec un A, ca fait MA MA MA")
• French Book Read-a-longs (using a slideshow of book page pictures, a PDF of a paper book, or a Powerpoint "book" that you created yourself)
• iPad App Tutorials (showing how to use a certain app so students can watch the video and know what to do at independent centers)
• Professional Development Presentations (like I did in my last blog post "The SAMR Model: What Is It & Why Should I Use It?")
• Professional Development How-To Videos (so you can assist staff in understanding and using more technology without having to show everyone individually how to do simple tasks)
• MORE!!!

Overall, Screencastify is a great QUICK tool to make a video. However, if you would like a little more "wow" factor to your videos so that they look more professional and perhaps more engaging to students, iMovie may be the tool for you. I will talk about how to use iMovie to make personalized videos in my next blog post. Until then, try making a few screencasts and see if you like it.

Happy screencasting!