Recording Read Alouds

Now, admittedly, I am not expert when it comes to video recording.  Generally, I take small snippets of my classroom or whatever on Instagram and am done with it all.  But with this "distance learning" thing upon us, and in my efforts to keep the love of reading alive for my students, I have been forced to learn how to use some basic video recording technology.

Daily, I read a book aloud to my students.  There have been many authors who have given permission during this shut down to read books aloud to students via video as long as those read alouds are locked down to some extent (meaning, not just free and clear on youtube for anyone to see.)  So each day, I choose a book that I know has been cleared.

Then, I sit down with my computer and open QuickTime.  This application was already loaded on my Mac when I bought it.  It is a super easy video recording method.  I press "New Movie Recording" and the little box pops up.  I press record and I am off to the races.

Now, I am sure there are editing apps I can use (I do know that you can trim your video in QuickTime itself, as I have done that to cut off unnecessary stuff on the end) but I really haven't ventured that far.  Mostly, I press record, read the book, press end record and I am done.  Easy peezy.  

Now, originally, I was just uploading these directly to Google Classroom (which is the platform I am using to keep my students organized and connected to their work through this shut down) but the videos stopped processing for some reason.  So I needed a backup plan.  I set up a private YouTube channel that no one can access.  When I upload videos there, they are locked down so only I can see them.

Next, I take the url of the video I uploaded to that private channel, and place it in Safe YouTube.  Thank you to Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files for this tip!  This site makes my video accessible to my class through a secure link.  What is great about it, too, is that once I get the secure link, the kids ONLY can watch the video.  No adds or "next video" pops up.  (you can see the side bar of the video I uploaded in the picture.  There are no adds or anything.)   It keeps everything kid-friendly for them and makes sure that they are only seeing what I want them to see.

After the secure link is generated, I paste that onto my Google Classroom feed and the kids are able to watch the video.  

This has worked out well for us so far.  I know that there are video services out there that offer more in the way of editing and stuff, but for the purposes of reading a story aloud to my kids, QuickTime is working just fine.....and it is free and already available on my Mac.  

What video services have you use to video yourself for the kids during this time of distance learning?