By day, Doug Valentine is an elementary school librarian.

Online he is Dr. Loopy, a goofy scientist sporting a neon wig and lab coat who teaches kids about everything from igneous rocks to the water cycle.

Just as YouTube gave regular people a stage to become famous, teachers such as Valentine are now sharing videos and gaining attention beyond the confines of their classrooms.

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Melissa ISD Superintendent Jason Smith (left) and brother Adam created the video site Teacher Tube.

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"Once I put my videos online, I started getting e-mails from people all over the world," said Valentine. "People are using it in class. Kids even find me."

Thousands of teachers are sharing videos on a Web site called Teacher Tube, started in March 2007 by Jason Smith, 39, the superintendent of Melissa ISD in rural Collin County, and his brother Adam, 29, an engineer.

Teacher Tube now has about 220,000 regular users and more than 54,000 videos, and is averaging about 800,000 visitors to the site every month. Dr. Loopy's numerous videos have received more than 341,000 hits. It's a long reach from Smith's tiny school district of only 1,100 students.

The site's headquarters are Jason Smith's home, down a winding country road in a loft above his garage. Future plans are sketched out in marker on a white board.

"I am employee 001," said Brian Jeffreys, the site's only full-time employee.

Jason Smith said they wanted to create a place for teachers to model their lessons.

"It is allowing teachers from all over the world to share with each other and learn from one another," he said. "We want to create a grassroots movement in transforming how teachers teach and students learn."

Adam Smith said several teachers, such as a rapping math teacher from North Carolina, have become the "rock stars" of the site. Videos that incorporate songs, visual aids, and math and science tend to be popular on the site.

Teachers from across the country are sharing instructional videos for kids, raps and jokes on the Web site often shown at teacher training sessions. Many teachers use the videos in class. Though most school districts block access to sites such as YouTube, they don't tend to block Teacher Tube.

The videos vary in quality. Valentine and his wife, an elementary teacher, film at their Plano home. Their dog, Murphy, also appears in the videos.

Users can comment on videos and flag those that are deemed inappropriate. Sometimes they can be tough critics, the founding brothers said. Viewers can rate videos from one to five apples.

"Once you upload a video, you will be reviewed by other teachers," Jason Smith said. "If you put up something that's not engaging, you're putting yourself out there for other teachers to say that wasn't done very well."

Teacher Tube is just one example of how technology, and particularly social networking Web sites, are changing education. Other sites include School Tube, which is aimed more at kids producing videos, and Curriki, where teachers share lesson plans.

"It used to be if you wanted to show a movie, you had to first check if it was available and get a projector," Valentine said. "Now you go to your computer and there it is. It changes the way you plan for the kids."

On Teacher Tube, the most popular videos include lessons from a teacher rapping about the math concept of perimeter, which received 355,000 hits, and a top 10 list of "things you do not learn about teaching in college," with 227,000 hits.

The most popular video on the site, "Pay Attention," with 820,000 hits, tells teachers they need to embrace technology to educate kids.

Some educators, however, are critical and wary of such an open site, since videos are not necessarily vetted for accuracy, quality may be poor or they may not fit a school district's curriculum. Many school districts, such as Plano, have developed an internal online curriculum that officials have approved.

The Smiths said they are working on a variation of their site that would be internal and could be used in a specific school or district.

Jim Hirsch, associate superintendent for academic and technology services in Plano ISD, said the district encourages use of its own curriculum and streaming videos.

"It's difficult to create high quality unless you've got expensive equipment and highly trained people," he said. "It may not be the quality we want used in the classroom."

However, he said such sites are open to Plano's teachers.

"The technology has gotten to a point where it's much easier for a teacher to contribute than it has been in the past," he said. "Any effort for collaboration is worthwhile."