Time to Fall Back - Short Lessons About Daylight Saving Time and Timezones

This weekend we have Halloween and the end of Daylight Saving Time (in most of the U.S. and Canada). Hopefully, my kids will take advantage of the "extra" hour of time for sleeping. 

As I do almost every time Daylight Saving Time begins or ends, I have gathered together a handful of short video explanations about why we have Daylight Saving Time. Take a look and see if there is one that can help you explain Daylight Saving Time to your students. 

National Geographic has two videos titled Daylight Saving Time 101. The first one, published in 2015, is a bit more upbeat than the second one that was published in 2019. Both versions are embedded below. 

The Telegraph has a 90 second explanation of Daylight Saving Time. The video doesn't have any narration so it can be watched without sound.



CGP Grey's video explanation of Daylight Saving Time is still a good one even if it isn't as succinct as the videos above.



TED-Ed has two lessons that aren't specifically about Daylight Saving Time but are related to the topic. First, The History of Keeping Time explains sundials, hourglasses, and the development of timezones. Second, How Did Trains Standardize Time in the United States? explains the role of railroads in the development of the timezones used in the United States (and most of Canada) today.

How to Edit the Captions in Your YouTube Videos - Fall 2020 Update

Last spring I published a video about how to adjust the captions that are automatically generated for the videos that you upload to your YouTube account. Recently, YouTube made some changes to the way that the caption editing process works. Those changes are for the better as they've made it easier to adjust the correlation between timestamps and your edited captions. In the following video I demonstrate how to edit the captions and adjust the timing of the captions on your YouTube videos. 

On the topic of video editing, take a look at my Practical Ed Tech course titled A Crash Course in Making & Teaching With Video. 

Vimeo Record - Another Screencasting Tool

Vimeo is one of my top alternatives to using YouTube to host instructional videos. Now you can use it to record as well as host your videos. 

Today, Vimeo launched a new screen recording tool. The new tool is simply called Vimeo Record. Vimeo Record is available as a free Chrome extension that you can get right here. 

Once you've installed Vimeo Record in Chrome it works just like the dozens of other screencasting tools available to Chrome users. Just click the extension's icon in Chrome then choose whether you want to record your screen with or without your webcam turned on. (I recommend turning your webcam on because it helps to make a better connection with students when they can see your face). When you're done recording your video will save into your Vimeo account. 

Vimeo offers free and paid accounts. The free plan limits you to 500Mb of uploads in a week and 5GB total storage. In the free account you can make your video private or public. The free plan also lets you restrict embedding of your video. 

Applications for Education
Unless you're already using Vimeo to host your instructional videos, I don't see a compelling reason to switch to using Vimeo Record as your screen recording tool in place of Loom, Screencast-o-matic, or Screencastify. If you are using Vimeo to host your instructional videos then Vimeo Record might streamline your recording and publishing process.

Five Last Minute Resources for Teaching About the Electoral College

We're one week away from the U.S. Presidential election. While citizens cast their votes next week, the final selection happens in the Electoral College in December. That's a concept that can be tricky for some students to understand. If you're looking for some last minute resources for teaching about the Electoral College, take a look at this small collection. (Related note, I think I need this Electoral College tee shirt). 

DocsTeach is one of my favorite sites for history teachers. It contains tons of online activities built upon primary sources. The activity about the Electoral College asks students to evaluate six primary sources and put them into the correct sequence. The purpose of the lesson is to help students understand the steps taken in the Electoral College process of choosing a President. 

Does Your Vote Counts? is a TED-Ed lesson that offers a short explanation of the Electoral College by answering the question, "does your vote count?" The video for the lesson is embedded below.


How the Electoral College Works from C.G.P. Grey gives a nice overview of the Electoral College. The video isn't perfect, I wish the producer had included that the number of Electoral votes a state receives is tied to the number of Senators and Representative it has. Instead the video simply stated that the number of Electoral votes is tied to population. Overall, it's not a bad summary of the Electoral College.


Electing a US President produced by Common Craft provides a concise overview of the election process. The version embedded below is an update to the original that Common Craft released and I used in my classroom during the 2008 election.


Keith Hughes produced two videos about how the Electoral College was developed and how it works. The first video below is just one minute long. The second video, The Electoral College for Dummies, goes into much more depth.



Disclosure: I have a long-standing, in-kind relationship with Common Craft.

The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good morning from Maine where it is still an hour before sunrise as I compose this blog post. Next weekend we'll change the clocks and we'll be back to at least seeing some sunshine before school begins. Of course, that will also mean an earlier sunset. Such is life in northern New England. 

To the category of "things I've learned during this pandemic" this week I discovered that if I haven't shaved for a week my face gets extra itchy behind the masks that I have to wear all day in my classroom. I'll be back to the clean-shaven-but-covered-with-mask look on Monday. Before Monday gets here I plan to play outside with my kids and rake more leaves. I hope that you also have something fun to do this weekend. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. How to Create Your Own Online Board Game
2. How to Create Self-grading, Timed Quizzes in Google Classroom
3. Tools for Scheduling Parent-Teacher Conferences and Other Meetings
4. 13 Google Forms Tutorials for Beginners and Experienced Users
5. How to Change Google Classroom Mobile Notifications
6. A New Microsoft Teams Feature That I Wish Google Classroom Had
7. Two Ways to Create Your Own Online Memory Games


Thank you for your support! 

• More than 300 of you have participated in a Practical Ed Tech course or webinar this year. Those registrations help keep Free Technology for Teachers and Practical Ed Tech going. I couldn't do it without you!
• Pixton EDU is a great tool for creating comics and storyboards. 
• Cloud Stop Motion makes it easy to create a stop motion video in your web browser. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
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• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for thirteen years. 
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
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