Types of Creative Communication: Video Messages

I’ve been on the job for about two months with the staff and have realized one thing:

email is dead.

I get little to no response when I send a text email to my staff, so I’ve started to play with important messages for my teachers.

For instance, I needed them to complete a survey and reminded them with this Bollywood themed message from Bombay TV. It hooked half of the MIA teachers with a good laugh. The staff stopped me for days to talk about it.

When I received a run of emails concerning computers were not working, I created a reminder featuring a very young Bob Dylan (previous). The emails subsided, and now many of my teachers are quick to tell me that they have restarted a couple times when their computers are acting up. They just seem to listen better when I can get it across in an entertaining way.

I guess some things never change. I know your students tune out the same way we do when something is visually monotonous. We are children of an instant, entertaining culture. So, here’s a suggestion: Think of that one rule in your classroom your kids are still having trouble with the second month of school. Are they standing up to sharpen their pencil while you are leading the class? Do they continue to forget to put their name, date, and class in the top right corner of a document? You might consider playing with these customizable video messages and presenting them to your classes. We’d love to hear the results, and if you’ve found other customizable video message sites, please share them in the comments! Having an arsenal of these will definitely come in handy.

Here are a few more possibilities:

Sprint Sweets
Blabberize
Hairy Mail
Fuzzwich