The Quote Sandwich - A Student Explains How to Use Quotes

Next Vista for Learning is a great place to find examples of students making videos to teach concepts to other students. Earlier this week I was just browsing the site when I came across a nice video about how to integrate quotes into an essay. In the video the student, an anonymous student at Lynbrook High School, tells viewers to think of using quotes in a paper like building a sandwich. Watch the video and share it with your students to help them build their own "three step quote sandwiches."



Join me next week for a webinar in which I'll show you how your students can create videos like this one.

The Library of Congress Seeks a Teacher-in-Residence

The Library of Congress has a great opportunity for a performing arts or visual arts teacher in the 2018-19 school year. The LOC is seeking a performing arts or visual arts teacher to be a teacher-in-residence at the LOC in Washington, DC. The selected teacher will be able to do some or all of the following: lead professional development workshops, conduct original research, developed teaching materials, lead and support projects to reach a diverse audience of educators. Complete details and the application can be found here.

This sounds like a great opportunity for a teacher who meets the requirements and can spend the school year in Washington, DC. According to the application page, the LOC will reimburse your school district for your salary and benefits for the year (meaning, you'll get your same salary throughout the year) and will provide a housing stipend if you are from outside of the Washington, DC area.

Applications are due by April 9th. The application requires two letters of reference, three essays, and a project plan. So if this is something you're interested in, get started ASAP.

8 Changes to Google Docs & Slides Menus

If you're a regular Google Docs and Google Slides user you may have already noticed some changes to your menus and toolbars. If you haven't seen anything change, you will see some changes soon. Yesterday, Google announced eight changes to the Docs and Slides drop-down menus and toolbars. None of the changes will impact the functionality of either tool. Google says that the changes are being made to make it easier to find certain functions.

Google Docs drop-down menu and toolbar changes:

• Text formatting options will move to a new sub-menu in the Format drop-down menu.
• Separate controls for text highlighting and text color choices in the toolbar.
• New "insert image" option in the toolbar.
• Table insertion and formatting options will only be in the Format drop-down menu.

Google Slides drop-down menu and toolbar changes:

• In the "Slide" menu you will find four new options in a new "Move" sub-menu.
• Table insertion and formatting options will only be in the Format drop-down menu.
• The options to align horizontally and vertically will be placed in a new "Align" sub-menu.
• The "Insert" menu will have items displayed in a new order (this change will also apply to Google Docs and Sheets). 

How to Find Public Domain Videos on Flickr

Flickr is known for hosting millions of images, but it also hosts lots of videos. The advanced search tools within Flickr make it easy to find videos that have Creative Commons licenses or have a public domain designation. With just one click those videos can be downloaded to your computer. Watch my video embedded below to learn how to find public domain videos on Flickr.


Applications for Education
If your students need video clips to use in slideshows or in video creation projects, Flickr can be a good place to find clips that they can reuse. If you're worried about students downloading too many files or downloading files that aren't appropriate for a classroom project, I recommend using a shared Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive folder as a gallery of pre-screened media. Put some files into one of those services that your students can then access to download public domain video clips.