Overview
The massively popular education seminar series, TEDTalks, seeks to answer some of life’s most interesting questions. These seminars, which you can either attend in person or view online via the TED website, begin with either a speaker or a video. Each seminar is passionate, thought-provoking, and generally easy-to-understand (even for students).
Because TEDTalks are so popular amongst teachers, TEDEd was launched several years ago to make it even easier to bring thought-provoking content into the classroom. In this blog, we’ll discover some great ways to get started using TedEd lessons and content in your music classroom. The best part about it? It’s free!
Pre-Made TedEd Lessons
TedEd offers a range of pre-made lessons for all different subjects. Inside their library, music teachers can find lessons listed under, “The Arts”, and then “Performing Arts.” There are several great pre-made lessons for music teachers. Here are just a few of my favorites:
- How playing an instrument benefits your brain
- What’s a squillo, and why do opera singers need it?
- What a conductor actually does on stage
- The secrets of Mozart’s “Magic Flute”
- Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head
There are dozens of TedEd lessons that any music teacher can use in their classroom. Each lesson is subdivided into four primary sections: Watch, Think, Dig Deeper, & Discuss.
Watch: Where students will view the video and read a quick synopsis
Think: A pre-made, multiple-choice quiz to assess students’ understanding of the video
Dig Deeper: Lists different online resources for students to view to further understand the topic.
Discuss: An online forum where students can participate in answering a question & responding to other ideas.
How to Customize a Premade Ted-Ed Lesson
If you like the basis of a lesson, but want to change some of the content, you can do so by clicking, “Customize this Lesson.” Note: to customize a lesson, you’ll need to sign up for a free educator account (or sign-in if you already have one).
Once inside the lesson customization panel, you can edit anything within the lesson (even cropping the video playback to highlight a certain portion of the TedEd video.
You can also customize your settings to either require students to sign up for a TedEd account with their email (follow your local privacy guidelines) or with a nickname.
*Note: if you want to be able to use discussion forums, students must sign-in to a TedEd account and be 13 years or older. If you would like to host a forum for students without signing into TedEd, consider hosting a discussion through your course’s Schoology/Google Classroom page.
Finally, once your edited lesson is ready for students, you can publish your lesson. Publishing your lesson does not allow the lesson to be viewable by anyone except those with the link. Here is a note from TedEd about publishing a lesson with edits for your students.
Once students click on the link, they will sign in (or create a nickname) and complete the video and questions. On your teacher dashboard, you will be able to review student work individually for grading purposes.
Create a Lesson Using Your Own Video
You can also use the TedEd platform to design encapsulated lessons from ANY Youtube video. You can even record your own video, put it on Youtube, and design a lesson around it. To create your own lesson from a new Youtube video:
- Log into TedEd
- Click on “Create” and then “A Lesson”
- Search for the Youtube video you would like to use.
- Remember to always preview a video before assigning it to your students.
- Once linked, you can then design every bit of the lesson you’d like your students to follow including:
- Title
- Introduction
- Multiple Choice or Short Answer Questions (Multiple Choice Questions are Self-Grading)
- Dig Deeper for more information or other links you’d like your students to check out.
- Discussion (for students over 13 with TedEd accounts).
- Closing Thoughts
Final Thoughts
The ways to use the TedEd platform are endless. Consider using TedEd premade lessons to deliver content to your students during an unexpected absence, to teach material in stations, as a quick homework assignment, or even as a reward activity!
If you have additional questions on how to use the TedEd platform, you can view the FAQ’s here or contact TedEd to ask a specific question.
I hope you enjoy getting to know this completely free resource & you find it helpful when designing your virtual or in-person lessons!
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Looking for More Resources for Music Teachers?
Hello! I’m Katie Argyle – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music.
I’m a qualified teacher but no, I don’t currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development space – the Midnight Music Community – where there are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.
I like to focus on easy ways to incorporate technology into what you are already doing in your music curriculum through a range of creative projects. I also run live workshops and have presented at countless conferences and other music education events.
If you want simple, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would LOVE to help you inside the Midnight Music Community.