Your Google Account + Your YouTube Account

Your Google Account + Your YouTube Account

Google tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 1-25-2015

“Google Apps for Education” and “Google Classroom” have been our popular workshops this past year. It has been exciting to watch the changes and for us, it has been a challenge to keep our training current. Every time we meet with teachers, we add new features to our presentations, and it’s motivating to visualize the ever increasing options for teachers and students.

One of the features that is often missed, and sometimes one that teachers are not aware of, is their YouTube account. Google acquired YouTube in 2006, and if you have a Google account, you have a YouTube account. “Your Google account + your YouTube account” can be paired to create powerful lessons, and for your students, YouTube is a creative venue to showcase what they have learned.

One of the tips we offer is that whenever you are viewing YouTube videos on your computer, log into your account. As you find clips that you can use in your curriculum, add them to a playlist for quick and easy access.

YouTube Playlist

Under each video, you will find a “+ Add to” link. Clicking on this link will give you options to add the video to your “Favorites”, to create a new playlist, or to add the video to an existing playlist.

Sometime this week, take some time to log into your YouTube account, and begin building playlists that match your curriculum. A starting point might be:

YouTubeEducation
YouTube.com/education

 

Browse through the videos on this channel to add some multimedia pieces to a Monday lesson. Don’t forget to add it to your first YouTube playlist.

[Tweet “Your Google Account + Your YouTube Account. As an educator, you can use YouTube more efficiently when you are logged in…”]

YouTube Safety Mode

YouTube Safety Mode

Google tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 1-18-2015

At our last workshop, our teachers asked about YouTube and how they could make the viewing experience safer for their students. We offered several suggestions, such as SafeShare.tv. In the past, we enabled the Chrome Extension for Clea.nr, but that extension no longer exists. The easiest and quickest “fix” to remove comments is to enable the YouTube Safety mode. Make sure you are logged into your YouTube account so the Safety Mode will be locked, regardless of the browser you are using.

The video below explains best how to set your YouTube viewing preferences to safety mode.

YouTube Safety Mode

(Note: We generally use the Chrome browser since it works best with Google and YouTube.)

We hope this helps ease your minds and gives you a little more control, while giving your students a little more freedom.

[Tweet “YouTube safety mode can be set in your viewing preferences allowing safe access without comments/suggested videos.”]

Google Cultural Institute

Google Cultural Institute

Google tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 11-23-2014

We promised to share from IETC (Illinois Education & Technology Conference), and this is another gem we picked up from one of our attendees. Natalie Young, an instructor from Northern Illinois University, sat with us all day in our “Google for Education” session, and approached us as we were packing up. She had a few questions, but most of all, Ms. Young wanted to ask us if we knew anything about the “Google Cultural Institute”. As she described it, we realized that this was new to us. Once again, it reinforced that we “don’t know what we don’t know.”

I started my teaching career as an art teacher, and Natalie had me with “galleries”. Google Cultural Institute has “partnered with hundreds of museums, cultural institutions, and archives to host the world’s cultural treasures online.” You can learn about this project on the “About Page” for the Google Cultural Institute. And of course, they have a channel on YouTube. We invite you to watch this video to see the powerful potential this project possesses to add dynamic “multimedia” to the lessons you bring to your students.

You can take your students on a virtual tour of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or The Art Institute of Chicago.

Google Cultural Institute 2

Google Cultural Institute 1

Once you have signed into your Google account, you and your students can personalize your own gallery. Collections of relative resources, including videos, documents, art pieces, and artifacts, can be grouped to use with specific lessons, or your students can collect what they need for research projects.

Google Cultural Institute 3

One you have added “pieces” to your collection, you can add personal notes as captions, or a YouTube video.

Google Cultural Institute 5

So on this rainy day, take some time to visit the Google Cultural Institute and browse through the museums and galleries.

New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

[Tweet “Learn how to build personal collections with hundreds of rich cultural resources using Google Cultural Institute.”]

TeacherTipster.com

TeacherTipster.com

classroom management tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 11-2-2014

This is a tip about tips.
A lot of tips.

“Hey, guys. Mr. Smith here…”

Dustin Smith is a first grade teacher at Woodrow Cummins Elementary School in Conway, Arkansas with over ten years of teaching experience.
He comes from a family of teachers,
but started out working towards a degree in telecommunications.
Teaching wasn’t the original plan.
We know how that goes.

But what we don’t know is how “Mr. Smith” has escaped us all these years,
We promise there is something here for everyone.
We are the latest fans of his YouTube channel, TeacherTipster.comTeacherTipster.com

We know.
He teaches First Grade.
And you might be thinking, “How is this going to help me, the high school calculus teacher?”

Again, we promise you, there is something here for everyone.
You will find tips that will add, not only fun, but some practical and motivating management tools to your classroom.
Don’t skip the comments.
His fans often share their own ideas and tips.
One of  the best comments on one such video was, “Are you married?”
Yes, he is married to Miss Suzy, as you will learn in “Fruit for You”.

And the “technology” part?
Mr. Smith’s TeacherTipster.com videos are great examples of what you can do to enhance your curriculum, share your lessons, and hopefully motivate you and your students to produce your own instructional videos.

He has a website with even more tips,
and if you scroll down to the bottom of his home page, you’ll see that he has developed several apps.
There is a Teacher Tipster Pinterest Page,
and you can follow TeacherTipster.com and Mr. Smith on Twitter,

If nothing else, just watch Mr. Smith’s videos for pure entertainment.
His love of kids and teaching is contagious.
And it doesn’t hurt to catch some of that love before you head back to your classroom on Monday morning.
He is a teacher few kids could ever forget…

[Tweet “We are the latest fans of the YouTube channel, TeacherTipster.com.”]

 

International Dot Day 2014

International Dot Day 2014

tips writing

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 8-31-2014


So excited! It is almost here.
That time of year again. International Dot Day.
September “15ish”. The very first time we wrote about
FableVision and the teacher resources this company provides
was in a “Back-to-School” post three years ago. For links to classroom
resources, we encourage you to revisit that post. It’s been a year since our
post detailing “International Dot Day”. This event was founded by our good friend,
T. J. Shay, and it has grown exponentially. We had the good fortune of meeting up with
him at ISTE this past July when we were invited to a FableVision event. We were so excited
to also finally meet Peter H. Reynolds, the author and illustrator of “The Dot”. He presented
both of us with a signed copy of “Going Places”, the latest book written with his brother, Paul
Reynolds. This book describes “maker children”, a little girl and boy with big imaginations. Follow
the link to learn more about this book and its classroom resources. And now it’s, once again, time
for “International Dot Day”. A week ago, the count was up to over a million participants from 64
countries. Every year the number grows and the message is spread. This year, Terry Shay has added
“Celibri-dots” with inspired “dots” from authors. The first post was on March 9, 2012 and features
the dot submitted by Sharon Creech. This little blog is an endless source of inspiration with dots
that reflect the special talents and personalities of their creators. It’s the perfect stage to share
ideas and inspiration. But first, where to begin? Begin at the beginning. Begin with “The Dot”
written and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. Read the story of Vashti and her reluctance to
share herself on paper. With the encouragement of her teacher, she finds her inner
creativity and enthusiastically fills page after page with her mark. Then use your
imagination to help your students make their marks. We have listed many
resources below to help you and your students celebrate International
Dot Day with us. We are looking forward to seeing what your
students create and hearing your voice on #DotDay.
Only 15 days left! Let the planning begin,
and join us in and make your mark.

 

 

Listen to Shannon as she shares her own version of “The Dot” and the colorful “Marks” of Tuscola CUSD #301 students…

Format Free

Format Free

tips writing

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 8-24-2014

Many times our textbooks have online resources that we would like to use as hard copy.

In the case of an online quiz, it might be more appropriate than your printed resource material,
and you would like to use scheduled computer lab time for more creative assessments than multiple-choice tests or quizzes.

We’ve made a quick video tutorial to show you how to copy online material quickly and easily into a Microsoft Word® document.

If you have a website or blog, you might want to use Microsoft Word® to write your draft using spell and grammar check. It is always best to avoid copying directly from Microsoft Word® since it also contains formatting that might conflict with your website’s or blog’s settings. Copying it into a plain text document before your website will remove that formatting.

We hope this makes your life a little easier.
Wishing you a wonderful Sunday and a great week!

tubechop.com

tubechop.com

tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 8-17-2014

Last week we featured a post to help you download a small portion of a YouTube video to use with lessons.

What if you only want to embed a portion of a video into your blog or website?
The YouTube website will allow you set a “start time”, but does not allow you to adjust the “end time”.

Here is a free online tool that will give you, not only that “adjusted” embed code,
but a link for just that piece, as well.
And it’s FREE!

Below is a “chopped” video tutorial that will explain exactly what you need to do to use this tool efficiently.

tubechop.com

This tool will generate both an embed code
(which is what we used to add this video)
and a link.

Have a fabulous Sunday and a great week!
Many of you have met your students and we have thoroughly enjoyed the “First Day of School” pictures!

For those of you who are still waiting for your students to cross your classroom threshold,
we extend our best wishes for a great “First Day”.

One of the best things about teaching is the fresh start we get every single year!

clipconverter.cc

clipconverter.cc

tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 8-10-2014

You only want to download a small portion of a YouTube video for a lesson.
You would like to skip the introduction and most of the ending.

Now there is a handy online tool that will allow you to do just that.
And it’s FREE!

If a picture is worth a thousand words,
a video will make it even easier.
Watch as we explain how this tool works and get ready to put more excitement into your lessons!

clipconverter.cc

Remember, follow the steps that are in the video,
and don’t click on anything else.

Have a fabulous Sunday,
and we hope you find time for yourself!
The countdown has started for most of you.
We can feel the excitement in the air!

“Pop Out” YouTubes

tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 4-7-2013

“Make everything as simple as possible,
but not simpler.

  ~~Albert Einstein

Finding the “Pop out” option for YouTube videos was easier when they were located on a “pull-down” or “drop” menu.
We thought, when that disappeared, that the “Pop out” option was eliminated, as well.

We are happy to discover that it is still an option, and it can be found with a simple “right click”.
The “Pop out” link is our choice to share.
It protects our viewers from comments, suggested videos, and it provides a more pleasant viewing experience.

The two images below will guide you through the two simple steps.

PopOut_1

PopOut_2

This one was short hoping that you will take some time for yourself today.
In our neighborhood, the rain has been delayed and there is the promise of a sunny day with warm temperatures.
I have a fence to paint before the spring plants grow.
We hope you have some “outside time” in your future, as well…

A Cleaner Internet

tips

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Sync” ~ 2-3-2013

On September 12, 2011, I wrote about “Safe Share TV”.
Since then, we have found another site that allows you to not only share YouTube videos safely, but to search them safely.

Filters to YouTube continue to be lifted in schools,
and for teachers, it requires us to be responsible and handle this site with care.

To keep our students safe from “trolls”, inappropriate site “suggestions”, and comments, we can use sites like “Safe Share TV” or A Cleaner Internet.

CleanerInternet2A Cleaner Internet”  is available as both an CleanerInternetiTunes app,
and an extension for Foxfire, Chrome, and Safari. Once added to your “plugins”, the extension will open YouTube in a “safe/clean” view without anything to distract your search and viewing.

I have added the extension to all of my browsers, and I have downloaded the app.
They all work great and I would recommend them to anyone who wishes a “protected view”.

As I finish writing this post, the sun is trying to shine through the clouds, and I see some patches of blue sky.

I hope everyone finds some “outside” time before the “game”,
followed by a great week!