How to use video for home, school, work: Tips From 5 Fab Kid Lit Video Creators - Part 1

Part 1 of 2: With 300 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube every minute and 4 billion video streams daily posted to Facebook,* video is moving to the head of the class as an important learning tool educators, librarians, and creatives can use to reach children.
 
In the first of  two parts, you'll meet three Kid Lit video creators, who  demonstrate how they use video to engage young minds.  They also inspire grown-ups who want to harness the power of video to support literacy.

* SOURCE: bufferblog.app

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​K. Lamb 
Virtual Author Visits
Books are like ice cream.  There's a flavor for everyone. ~ K. Lamb
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Author K. Lamb has published three children’s books for beginning readers in her Dani P. Mystery Series. An advocate of children’s literacy, she believes reading is a gift that should be shared everywhere with today’s youth.  Lamb encourages children by answering letters, scheduling in-person school visits, AND connecting with classrooms, no matter where they’re located, through Skype.
 
Before her visit, children read her books, complete skill-building extension activities, and brainstorm questions they’d like to ask an author. 

Watch Lamb in action during a Skype visit to a classroom thousands of miles from her home.  Then find out how she transforms her Skype calls into short videos to share with students.  What a great way to reinforce excitement about books and talking with an author!

K. Lamb: Making Videos of skype Calls

Lamb is also involved in Kid Lit Parade, an online community of family members, educators, authors, and artists who champion childhood literacy.  A simple video helps K. model the importance of reading aloud.

​Connect with K. Lamb
 Twitter  |  Blog  |  Pinterest  |  Facebook

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Christine Maziarz
20-Second Videos with MC
Remember, you are awesome! ~ Christine Maziarz
 
Christine Maziarz, a home-school parent and former software programmer, runs her own YouTube Channel, 20 Seconds with MC.  I don’t know how she does it, but Christine packs great content into 20 seconds.
 
She features short videos for upper-elementary and middle graders that mash up Minecraft and literacy.

​For instance, she partners with a local school district to produce the Word of The Week (WOW) for elementary graders.  Christine also invites literacy advocates to submit a 20-second clip defining an assigned vocabulary word.  WOW, indeed!

The first real video I created was for WOW.  It was a short, snappy piece that didn't stress me out at all.  Plus, Christine encouraged me and helped when I got stuck.
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​I encourage you to try your hand at making a 20-second WOW clip.  Just contact Christine, and ask her how.
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​Christine is generous in sharing her knowledge.  I learn so much from her tips for content creators.  Check out her tip about how to create a YouTube Channel in the video below.

​Connect with Christine Maziarz
Twitter  |  Email   |  YouTube

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Katie Davis
Video Idiot Boot Camp and Brain Burps
Videos are not hard to create. ~ Katie Davis
 
Kid Lit author, illustrator and writerpreneur Katie Davis won the School Library Journal Trailee Award for having the best book trailer.  It’s not surprising that she launchedVideo Idiot Boot Camp (VIBC): for People Who Think Videos Are Hard to Create, an online training program to help children’s writers produce videos and book trailers.  

In fact, I enrolled in VIBC because I wanted help with my video-making skills.  I had never even heard of a "channel trailer" (a welcome video for your YouTube channel) until I signed up for VIBC. Katie's course is fantastic, and her Facebook community for VIBC users is beyond helpful for receiving support, networking with other creatives, and finding answers to your video questions.  Katie also shares an abundance of free and low-cost video-making tricks and resources from her toolkit.

After taking Katie’s course, I produced a video as a guest on digiwriting.com. Instead of writing my answers about being a Kid Lit author, I had the confidence and competence to produce a vlog.

​Katie also moderates Brain Burps, a weekly podcast focusing on social media tips that help Kid Lit authors and illustrators market their books.

 Connect with Katie Davis
Twitter  |  YouTube  | Website  |  Facebook  |  Pinterest  |  VIBC

NEXT UP: Part 2
Catch the final half of this 2-part series next week and find more video inspiration.  You'll also discover three free mobile apps to help YOU create videos for school, home or work in a snap.  (Don't shake your head.  You CAN do it!)

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Please join the conversation in the comment section.
How do these video ideas work for you?
What additional suggestions or resources can you add?

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