SWANK can be accessed via the CWHS Staff Links shortcut
Swank includes hundreds of movies that are already available to stream instantly, but our district also has 300 slots each year to request additional titles that are in the catalog. If you plan to watch a movie in class, please try to make that request at least a day in advance to allow me or the other district librarians time to view and approve those requests and then time for SWANK's approval. Preference will be given to titles that are being used for academic reasons or to support the curriculum. (Please include a note about why you are requesting it!)
Two features that might be helpful as you use Swank:
Bookmarks
To bookmark a movie, click the movie, click "bookmarks," then click "create bookmark"
You can bookmark the entire film OR you can set a start and end time for each bookmark.
This is a great way to save certain scenes or clips that you plan to highlight and will reuse again and again
Bookmarks also allow collaborating teachers/grade level teams to share specific clips or scenes that they want to all use. Whoever creates the bookmark can share the link with anyone within our district.
SWANK Movie TA
The link to this is in the top bar on the website. It opens a custom AI portal.
Allows teachers to search by standards and find movies that correspond, search for movies and find standards that could align with it, create suggested activities, and find suggested clips or scenes.
See the attachment to this email: 25 ChatGPT Prompts to Help You Teach with the Movies
One important FAQ:
If Swank doesn't have a movie to stream, can I show the DVD?
The movie needs to be listed on the website Movie Licensing USA: K-12 Schools | Swank Motion Pictures, even if it is not available for streaming. This secures us the rights to legally show the movie in class. Thankfully, all the movies that we have needed to show have been covered.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or need any help with Swank! Thanks!