Copyright Free Media Sources to Use in Your Classroom

        Today I want to share with you a number of resources I rely on for copyright free media.  I use these sources for everything from mood music in the classroom to sources for creating videos.  You can direct your students to these websites as well in order to prevent plagiarism and foster creativity.

Bottledvideo.com - I LOVE this website.  It provides completely free stock footage you can use in your projects or presentations and it has a huge variety of videos.  Some of the video quality is not so great but sometimes you can find some high definition videos.  If you use their videos, you just have to be sure to add, "Additional Footage provided by Bottledvideo.com" in the credits.  Here is a short video I put together with Civil War Reenactment video clips:

FootageFirm.com has some high quality music and videos but it is going to cost you after a one-week trial.  They typically have deals going on that allow you to pay a reduced membership fee so definitely put in your email address to catch these deals.  The Footage Firm's sister sites, StockFootageforFree.com and StockPhotosforFree.com offer a small amount of free media (with no hidden fees) that come from the original Footage Firm website.

Videoblocks.com also has some high quality videos but just like Footage Firm, it will cost you after a one-week trial.  This website also offers music, sound effects, After Effects templates, and green screen effects.

If you are into green screen/chroma key video editing, there is a great YouTube channel created by a user called FootageIsland.  There are all kinds of free green screen clips.  This channel gets updated regularly.  I have already used many of the clips found on this channel and they work great if you do not have the time or resources to create your own green screen animations.  Your students will love it too.

Digital History is where I found my music for the Civil War video above.  It is a really neat website with teaching tools and era music that can be used in projects.  However, the website is going through some design changes so not everything may be available right now.  Be patient!

I hope you will also check out my YouTube channel!  I create many green screen videos and have a few tutorials as well.  I will be updating it with more social studies related material as time goes by.