We use video to help prospective teachers learn to think about children and their own teaching.  Our technology, Video Interactions for Thinking and Learning (VITAL) allows education students to examine videos illustrating key aspects of children’s mathematical thinking and the teaching of early mathematics, and to embed selected segments of the videos into their written work.  We pose questions that require the students to analyze the videos, citing evidence for assertions and also linking them to the psychological and educational literature required for the course.  Our goal is to promote learning in which students make meaningful connections among different areas of their experience—what they see, what they assert, and what they read.  The hope is that that this kind of rich, critical analysis of children and teaching will transfer to and form a sound basis for classroom practice.  VITAL is intended to enrich teachers’ minds.