Video Projects for Almost Every Classroom

This summer I'm hosting a handful of professional development webinars on Practical Ed Tech. The next one is a two-part series called Video Projects for Almost Every Classroom. 

Video Projects for Almost Every Classroom will be held live on July 11th and 12th. In this two-part event you will learn how to create and complete five video projects that can be done in almost any classroom. We’ll start with one-take video assignments before moving into showing you how your students can make animated videos, create green screen videos, make documentary-style videos, and craft instructional videos. In addition to the how-to element of the webinar we’ll cover planning, assessment, and privacy concerns.

Register Here!

Recordings and certificates will be available!
Everyone who registers in advance will be able to attend the live sessions and will have access to the recordings! You'll also receive a certificate for attending the webinars.

Best of 2022 So Far - Dropdowns in Docs

I'm taking the rest of the week off. While I'm gone I'll be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year so far. 

A couple of weeks ago I shared some information about the new project planning templates in Google Docs that include dropdown menus. Today, I'd like to share how you can also insert dropdown menus into any part of a Google Document without using a template. 

It is possible to add a dropdown menu into any sentence in a Google Document. To do that simply write a sentence as you normally would until you get to the place where you want to insert a dropdown menu. You will then want to use the Insert menu in Google Docs to select "dropdown." Once you've selected "dropdown" you can customize the options that appear in the menu that you insert into your document. Watch my new video to learn how to add dropdown menus into Google Documents. 

Applications for Education
As I mentioned in the video above, adding dropdown menus into Google Documents could be a good way to create Mad Libs-style writing activities for your students or to create activities in which students practice identifying past, present, and future tenses of words.

Best of 2022 So Far - Image Background Removers

With the exception of the webinar I'm hosting later this morning, I'm taking the rest of the week off. While I'm gone I'll be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year so far. 

Removing the background from an image is a good way to protect your privacy and that of people who might unintentionally be in the background of your pictures. Remove image backgrounds is also a good way to get a stand-alone image of yourself to then place in front of a different background. For example, I could take a picture of myself at my local ski mountain then replace the background so that I look like I'm climbing Mount Everest. 

In the following video I provide demonstrations of four quick and easy ways to remove the background from your images. One way to use this with students is to have them place themselves in front of landmarks of the world then write about their virtual visit to those landmarks.

In the video above I demonstrated how to remove image backgrounds with the following free tools:

• PowerPoint
• Remove.bg
• Adobe Creative Cloud Express
• Canva

Best of 2022 So Far - PhET

With the exception of the webinar I'm hosting today, I'm taking the rest of the week off. While I'm gone I'll be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year so far. 

PhET is a great resource that I've shared a bunch of times over the years. Recently, I was looking through the site when I noticed that its activity search tool now includes a filter for remote activities. Through this search tool you can locate lesson plans designed for remote instruction and learning. You can combine the remote search filter with any of the other subject, level, and language search filters. Watch this short video to see how it works. 

More About PhET
In the following video I demonstrate how to include PhET's science and math simulations in your Google Site. Those of you who watch the video will also notice that the simulations can also be shared via a direct Google Classroom integration.

Dozens of the PhET simulations are available to insert into PowerPoint presentations through the use of PhET's free PowerPoint Add-in. With the Add-in installed you can browse the available simulations and insert them into your slides. The simulations work in your slide just as they do on the PhET website.

Best of 2022 So Far - Mote

With the exception of the webinar I'm hosting tomorrow, I'm taking the rest of the week off. While I'm gone I'll be republishing some of the most popular posts of the year so far. 

One of my absolute favorite new tools in 2021 was a Chrome extension called Mote. With Mote installed you can add audio comments to Google Docs, Google Classroom, and Google Slides. You can also use Mote to add audio to Google Forms and insert audio into Google Slides with just one click. Mote also lets you record audio messages to share directly in Gmail and or via QR codes. All of those things are featured in this Mote compilation video that I put together earlier this week. 

Applications for Education

As I've been saying since the first day that I tried Mote, the thing that I like the best about it is ability to give students feedback in your own voice. There's a comfort in hearing feedback instead of just reading it that a lot of students benefit from. That's especially true when the feedback is being provided to students who might struggle to understand your feedback when they're just reading it instead of hearing it.