Who Knew?!--Google Slides: Format Video Playback

Google Slides allows you to embed video content directly into your presentations. But there may be times where you want students to view a short clip rather than an entire video.

Did you know you can set specific start/stop times on videos you insert into Google Slides?

Learn how below.

Who Knew?!--Google Slides: Format Video Playback

Who Knew?!--YouTube: Playback Speed

Previewing videos (teacher role) and watching them for assignments (student role) can be time consuming. 

Did you know you and your students can adjust the playback speed of a YouTube video to speed up the pace and shorten the view time? Pro Tip: The same is true of videos shared via Google Drive.

Learn how below.

Who Knew?!--YouTube Playback Speed

Who Knew?!--YouTube: No Ads

If I see one more Grammarly ad on YouTube, I'm going to scream!

Did you know you can modify a YouTube URL to remove ads?

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--YouTube: No Ads

Summer Professional Learning for Post-Covid Classrooms

Before you know it, summer will be here...and that means it will be time for Summer Workshops! This summer's slate of professional learning workshops offers us a chance to take the lessons learned from teaching during a pandemic and re-imagine our pedagogy when we return in the fall. For each of the workshops, you will learn how to design and deliver technology-rich student-centered lessons. Workshop time will be spent in the following ways:

• Hour 1: Overview & Instruction
• Hour 2: Independent & Guided Practice
• Hour 3: Lesson Transformation

By the end of each workshop, you will have produced a ready-to-use lesson plan that integrates technology in meaningful ways. Be prepared to work collaboratively and independently to learn how to use specific tools of your choosing, transform a lesson, and present your work to the group for constructive feedback. Consider working on a lesson or unit for the first few days/weeks of school!

The Summer Professional Learning Website contains all workshop descriptions and registration links in MyLearningPlan. 

Workshops at a Glance (refer to the link above for descriptions and registration links)

Freckle for Teachers in Grades 2-5
Tuesday, July 27, 8:45 - 11:45, WGHS LGI

Amplify Reading for Teachers in Grades 2-5

Wednesday, July 28, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Reading Eggs and Math Seeds for Teachers in Grades K-1

Thursday, July 29, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Hook  'Em with Tech: Strategies to Inspire Curiosity, Activate Prior Knowledge, and Build Excitement

Tuesday, August 3, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Soar with Seesaw for Teachers in Grades K-4

Wednesday, August 4, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Delivering Direct Instruction in the Post-Covid Classroom

Thursday, August 5, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Show What You Know: Tools That Support Student Voice and Choice to Demonstrate Learning

Tuesday, August 10, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Classlink Launchpad

Wednesday, August 11, 8:30 - 10:00, WGHS LGI

It's All Fun and Games: Tools for Creating Engaging Formative Assessments

Thursday, August 12, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Lights, Camera, Interaction: Designing Interactive Student-Centered Lessons

Thursday, August 19, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Who Knew?!--Screencastify: Zoom

Did you know you can "zoom in" at a given point on your Screencastify videos to focus the viewer's attention

Screencastify makes it easy to add a "zoom" effect to a video recording in the Screencastify Editor. This is really helpful for showing elements like:

• typing in a web address
• clicking on a specific part of the screen
• not displaying sensitive information by zooming into a different part of the video instead

Learn how below.

Who Knew?!--Screencastify: Zoom

Who Knew?!--Screencastify: Text

Did you know you can add text overlays to your Screencastify videos? 

This comes in handy if you want to add a title to your video, create quick notes, clarify/correct something, and more.

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Screencastify: Text

Who Knew?!--Screencastify: Blur

When you create a screencast, it is important to be cognizant of what is on your screen when you are recording so that you don't violate anyone's privacy. Fortunately, Screencastify's editor allows you to tidy up your videos with their editing tools. 

Did you know you can "blur" content in your Screencastify videos to obscure sensitive information and/or images?

Learn how in the video below.

Who Knew?!--Screencastify: Blur

Who Knew?!---Screencastify: Crop

When you create a screencast, there may be some instances in which you would like to remove extraneous elements like the tabs you have open so that the focus of your video can be exclusively set to the most important content. 

Did you know you can crop a Screencastify video to focus on a specific part of your screen?

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Screencastify: Crop

Who Knew?!--Google Slides: Explore

Let's face it...we are educators, not graphic designers. It takes a lot of time to set up our presentations with the appropriate content we want to share with students and aesthetics oftentimes takes a back seat. Nonetheless, visual aids can help explain information more coherently for students as well as increase their engagement with the content we are sharing. 

Did you know Google Slides' "Explore" tool provides suggested layouts for individual slides with the click of a button?

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Google Slides: Explore

Who Knew?!--Google Slides: Mask Image

Now that you know how to use remove.bg to remove a background on an image, it's time to level up by using Google Slides to create a shape for your image.

Did you know you can not only crop images in Google Slides, but also "mask" them to create a shape? 

Learn how below. 

Who Knew?!--Google Slides: Mask Image

Who Knew?!--Remove Background

Looking for a way to spice up your presentations? Look no further than Remove BG! Remove BG is a web-based tool that allows you to remove the background from images you use to design Slides, Sites, etc.

Did you know you can copy an image URL and paste it into Remove BG to quickly remove the background of an image?

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Remove BG

Who Knew?!--Google Forms Tips

Google Forms is a great data collection tool with which you can survey your class or set up self-grading quizzes. 

• Did you know you can use "response validation" to solicit a specific response on a Google Form? Great for making review activities as well as digital escape rooms!
• Did you know you can use Google Forms to collect documents and other types of files from respondents?
• Did you know you can set up notification rules in Google Sheets to receive an email whenever someone submits a response to a Google Form?
• Did you know you use Google Sheets to sort the data you collect on Google Forms?
• Coming Soon: Users will have the ability to save their progress in a Google Form as a draft for up to 30 days (I signed up our domain to beta-test this feature and am waiting to hear back from Google).

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Google Forms Response Validation

Who Knew?!--Google Forms: Upload File

Who Knew?!--Google Forms & Google Sheets: Notification Rules

Who Knew?!--Google Forms & Google Sheets: Sort Data

Who Knew?!--Google Doc Tips

People often ask me what courses I took to become an Instructional Technologist. The answer is none! I learned how to effectively integrate technology with the support of my innovative 10th grade students. "Mr. Leo, you should try this..." That was my introduction to Google Docs back in 2007. Back then, every teacher everywhere could be overheard telling students in a computer lab to "MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR WORK!" We used Microsoft Office back then. Times have certainly changed, but Google Docs is still at the cutting edge of cloud-based collaboration. While the commands are much simpler than Microsoft Word, there are some cool features that can be effective for teachers of all subject areas.

• Did you know you can upload and convert Word documents to Google Docs directly within Google Drive?
• Did you know you can insert and edit Google Drawings directly into Google Docs to make your own custom graphics and interactive activities for students?
• Did you know you can click "view" from the Google Docs menu and opt to "show equation toolbar" to type math equations directly into Google Docs?
• Did you know you can convert PDFs to Google Docs within Google Drive?

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Save Word Docs as Google Docs

Who Knew?!--Insert and Edit Google Drawings

Who Knew?!--Google Docs: Show Equation Toolbar

Who Knew?!--Convert PDFs to Google Docs

Who Knew?!--Google Drive Tips for Organizing Files

Have you ever said this?

"He said there isn't a document attached to his Google Classroom assignment."

Or how about this?

"She shared it with me but I can't find it."

Or this?

"Why does it say 'request access'? I thought I shared that with you." 

 

• Did you know that you can locate all Google Classroom student assignments in the Class Drive Folder in Google Drive?
• Did you know you can add shortcuts to items in your Google Drive? Shortcuts link to the original, allowing an item to appear in more than one location.
• Did you know that if you share a "parent" folder in Google Drive so that "anyone with the link can view", all of the "children" files within the folder will adopt the same setting?

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Google Classroom Class Drive Folder

Who Knew?!--Google Drive: Add Shortcut to Drive

Who Knew?!--Google Drive: Shared Folder Settings

Who Knew?!--Google Classroom: Grading Tips

For those of you who assign written work via Google Classroom, you most likely already know how to provide feedback using comments within Google Docs or using private comments in Google Classroom. Candidly, grading digital work can be more cumbersome than using your trusty red pen to mark up paper submissions. There are some tips, however, that you might find useful when grading work in Google Classroom.

• Did you know you can show the full document menu when grading Google Classroom assignments with a simple click? 
• Did you know you can create and reuse custom rubrics for Google Classroom assignments to provide targeted feedback for students?
• Did you know you can provide students with handwritten feedback on the files they submit using the Google Classroom mobile app for iOS and/or Android?

Learn how below:

Who Knew?!--Google Classroom: Show Document Menus

Who Knew?!--Google Classroom: Rubrics

Who Knew?!--Google Classroom Mobile App: Handwritten Feedback

Who Knew?!--Google Classroom: Emojis

Ahhhh! We are half-way through the school year and my list of Google Classroom Assignments and Topics is OVERWHELMING! How can my students find the Assignments I want them to complete?!

Did you know you can use emojis when adding titles to Google Classroom Topics and Assignments to help organize Classwork?

Who Knew: Google Classroom--Emojis

Who Knew?!--Zoom Tips

While Google Meet is convenient as it is integrated within Google Classroom, Zoom has more features that foster collaboration like "breakout rooms." In this week's blog post, I'll be sharing some of the finer nuances of Zoom to help you be more efficient in your remote teaching sessions.

Authentication:

Afraid of getting Zoom Bombed by students who are not enrolled in your class? Did you know you can require students to "authenticate" (i.e. log in) on Zoom with a WG email address? 

Split Screen:

Ready to fire up Kahoot and play a review game during a Zoom call? Did you know you can split your screen to see two applications or windows simultaneously on your monitor with a simple keyboard shortcut? 

HP Optimize Microphone Pickup

Ugh..that banner that appears at the top of the Zoom window and blocks a bunch of your tabs. Did you know you can use the Windows Task Manager to remove the "HP Optimize Microphone Pickup" banner on your Zoom meetings? You can also click on the banner and use the keyboard shortcut, alt + F4 to remove the banner even faster. Who knew?!

Share Computer Audio

Want to show a video during a Zoom call? Did you know you can share your computer's audio when sharing your screen on Zoom?

Usage Reports

Did you forget to take attendance during a Zoom meeting? Did you know you can track attendance in your virtual meetings by reviewing Zoom's usage reports?

Google Calendar Integration

Do you live and die by your Google Calendar like I do? Did you know you can schedule Zoom meetings and invite guests directly within Google Calendar?

Who Knew?!--Pin Extensions

Am I losing my mind or did I actually install that Chrome extension? Why don't I see the icon for it on my browser? 

Did you know you can pin your Chrome extensions to make them visible on your toolbar?

Who Knew: Pin Extensions

Who Knew?!--Organize Bookmarks

Whenever I come across a website that I want to review in more depth at a later time, I am quick to bookmark it. Unfortunately, I bookmark a lot of stuff and struggle to find the site I bookmarked in the first place! 

Did you know you can rename bookmarks and organize them in folders on the Chrome browser? 

Who Knew: Google Chrome--Organize Bookmarks

Who Knew?!--Google Chrome Tab Groups

 Hi, everyone. I've been working on a new series of instructional technology support videos based on some of the questions I receive from teachers. I'm calling it "Who Knew?" and it will showcase some simple ways to maximize your productivity with common the tools you most likely already use. 

For example, we all use the Chrome browser to access the Internet. If you are anything like me, you probably have dozens of tabs open simultaneously. For remote teachers in particular, it is essential to have all of the tabs you intend to showcase in your lesson ready to go. Did you know you can organize your tabs into groups to maximize your productivity on the Web?

Who Knew: Google Chrome--Tab Groups