Digital Empowerment Journals for Students

A few weeks ago I shared a collection of resources for fun physical education activities. That collection featured free resources for National Field Day organized by OPEN PhysEd. OPEN is a public service funded by Varsity Brands who also offers some excellent free resources for teachers and students. One of those resources is a program called the  Believe In You Empowerment Program. 

The Believe In You Empowerment Program is available in versions for elementary school, middle school, and high school settings. Each version of the program includes journals for students to keep. Those journals are organized around themes of grit and enthusiasm. The full program has contains activities for forty weeks of short lessons. A grid of the SEL concepts covered in the forty works can be seen in this PDF. 

In addition to the journals and thought-based activities, the Believe In You Empowerment Program has some physical activities for students to do. These include fun group activities like a leadership dance party and charades. 

Applications for Education
While the Believe In You Empowerment Program comes from an organization that is focused on phys ed, the program could be used by just about any teacher who is interested in using it.

How to Download and Reuse Google Drive Files

Yesterday I published a post about using Google Takeout to download the contents of your Google Workspace account before leaving a job. If you only want or need a handful of files, there is an easier option than using Google Takeout. That option is to simply download the individual files in your Google Drive account that you want to save. 

In this short video I demonstrate how to download documents and slides from your Google Drive, store them on a computer, and then reuse them in a different Google account. 

How I Dubbed My Video About Creating a Professional Development Series

If you're subscribed to my YouTube channel, you probably noticed that my latest video was dubbed into Spanish. No, I didn't suddenly become fluent in Spanish (Clinton was in office during my last attempts at speaking in Spanish). I was able to dub the video into Spanish by using a new service called Aloud. 

Aloud is a new Google service that is still in development. I was selected for early access to it. The video that you saw appear on my YouTube channel was the first of three that I'm going to dub. The video is embedded below for your review. 

The process of using Aloud was very easy. I simply uploaded a video for dubbing and within about 24 hours I got an email saying that a translated transcript was ready for my review. I reviewed it and made some adjustments then resubmitted for dubbing. The dubbed version of the video was delivered in about 48 hours. Along with the dubbed video I received a translated title and description to use when I published the video on my YouTube channel.

Applications for Education
Once it leaves the closed beta period, Aloud could be a great tool for teachers who are creating video lessons and need or want them to be available in other languages.



I realize that this post is light on details regarding how the transcription and dubbing take place. Unfortunately, while I know some of those details, I'm not able to share them publicly at this time.

Changing Schools After This Year? Use Google Takeout Before You Go

In the last week I've had a couple of people reach out to me for advice on what to do with their Google Drive files when they leave their current jobs at the end of the school year. My answer was to use Google Takeout to create zip files that they can re-use when they go to their new school districts. 

Through Google Takeout you can download the data and files that you have in your Google account. This information can include things in your Google Drive, Google Keep, Google Earth, and all of the other Google services you may have used with a school-issued Google account. In this new video I demonstrate how to use Google Takeout. 

It should be noted that when you use Google Takeout you should be mindful of what information you're downloading regarding students or other confidential information that isn't intended to leave your school district. Furthermore, depending on the settings within your Google Workspace domain, you may not be able to use all of the options that I showed in the video above.

How to Use Calendly and Zoom Together

A few days ago I published a blog post about how I was able to streamline my appointment scheduling process. In that post I wrote about using Calendly's free appointment booking tool and its integration with Zoom. A long-time reader of my blog asked if I could make a video about that process. I was happy to oblige. 

In this new video I demonstrate how to create a Calendly account, create a booking page, and how to connect Zoom to Calendly. In the video I also show you how someone can book a meeting through Calendly and what that reservation looks like in your Calendly account.