5 Tips for YouTube

 

YouTube is a great resource for teachers. There are tons of videos that relate to almost anything you are teaching. In previous blog posts I have given very basic tips like use shorter videos to keep students engaged, and make sure to preview any video you show to your students so you don’t end up in an embarrassing situation. In this blog post I am going to give you 5 more tips to get more out of YouTube. 

 

1 Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts allow you to perform functions in YouTube super fast. Below are some that I like to use, but if you want more shortcuts go to YouTube and click shift and question mark to see all the keyboard shortcuts. 

 

Shortcut	Function
Spacebar	Play/Pause
m	Mute/ unmute video
Numbers 1 to 9 on the seek bar (not on the numeric pad)	Seek to the 10% to 90% of the video.
0	Seek to the beginning of the video
i	Mini player
f	Full screen

 

2 Playlists 

The best way to save videos you want to show later is to create playlists. What playlists you create is up to you but one suggestion is to create a playlist for every standard you teach. When you find a video that relates to a standard go ahead and save it to a playlist. If you haven’t created a playlist, you can do it by following the steps below. 

Click Save at the bottom of the video you want to save

 

Click + Create New Playlist 

 

Give it a name and decide if you want it to be public or private. 

 

Click create

3 Share from a specific point 

I think every teacher has found a video that has a few minutes that would be perfect for class, but those precious minutes come in the middle of the video. If this happens you can right click on the video and “Copy Video URL at Current Time.” You can then share the video with student with Google Classroom or on a Google Doc by pasting the URL as a link. The link will take you or your students to the exact moment you want to show them. Remember to tell your students where to stop if the video goes on past where you want them to see. 

4 Loop 

Sometimes you want to show a video more than once. Maybe you are playing relaxing music for you students to work by, or maybe you have a video with instructions you want students to follow. No matter your reason, you can right click on a video and click “Loop.”  When the video reaches the end it will automatically restart at the beginning. 

 

5. Transcripts 

As stated many times before you should watch videos before you show them to your students. The problem is it can take a lot of time to go through a video just to find out it doesn’t even cover the content you were hoping to share. One way to quickly find out if a video covers the content you are looking for is to use transcripts and find. To turn on transcripts for a video click on the three dots next to the save option at the bottom of the video, and then click Open Transcript.

 

A transcript window will open to the right of the video. Next type Ctrl and F on your keyboard to pull up the find window. Type in a keyword for the content for which you are looking. If the word doesn’t appear, try another keyword. If it doesn’t show up after a few keyword searches, it probably isn’t in the video. If it does show up, click on it and it will take you right to that part of the video. 

Finding Help

 

For many teachers, the transition back to virtual learning has been pretty stressful. Sure, you may have done a pretty good job with it last year, but that was a while ago and there have been a few technology changes. If you are having trouble with technology or need a refresher on how to do something, don’t worry, you are not alone. Below are a few ways you can find help. 

1. When you need a quick “how to” try YouTube. This is something that even the most tech savvy users do. Chances are that someone has made a video about the most recent Google update or a step by step guide on how to do something in Classroom. Bonus Tip: When you first do your search, use the filter and search for videos made "This Year." This will keep you from wasting time on videos that were made a long time ago. If you can’t find a video with the filter on, you can always just turn it off. 

2. When something isn’t working or you need additional training contact the IT Department. If something isn’t working, submit a work order (located on the staff page). You can also request a one-on-one session to have your specific technology questions answered, or you can sign up for a session just to get a few tips that might make your job a little easier. 

3. When you need ideas for instruction or assignments, try finding a podcast that deals with educational technology. There are a lot of great ones out there, but below are some good ones to start with: 

• The Cult of Pedagogy

• Easy Ed Tech Podcast

• Shake Up Learning Show

• The Chromebook Classroom Podcast

Without support, teaching virtually or trying to add technology in the traditional classroom can be overwhelming. If you find yourself feeling this way, try one of the suggestions above, reach out to a colleague, or join a teacher group on Facebook or Twitter. You might be surprised at how much help you can find. 

3 Things to do for the New Year

 

1. Archive old classes in Google Classroom and GoGuardian

There was a sigh of relief when the 2020-2021 school year came to an end, and now that it is a distant memory, it’s time to archive those old Classes. If you are unsure how to do this, take a few minutes to watch the following videos.

 

2. Confirm your settings in Google Classroom. 

Chances are you changed some of the settings for Google Classroom last year. Your new classes will use Google’s default settings, so make sure you review the settings in your Classrooms and make any needed changes. Most settings are left up to each teacher, but if you are unsure ask your administrator if they want your classroom set up in a specific way. 

Here are some of the settings I use: 

Stream: Only teachers can post and comment. I like to start with this so students can’t randomly post things that don’t need to show up on the stream. If I want students to comment on something I would change it to students can only comment. There is nothing wrong with Students can post and comment, but you will need to regularly monitor your stream if you use this setting because it will allow students to post comments at anytime.

Classwork on the stream: Hide Notifications. I use this because I want my announcements to stand out and because the stream can become cluttered when all your classwork is posted there. Students can always get the classwork from the classwork tab which is more organized than the stream, and students also get email notifications unless they have turned that feature off. Classwork also shows up in the calendar and the to-do list if the assignment has a due date, so leaving classwork off the stream shouldn’t be problem for students. 

Show deleted items: Off. There was a reason you deleted posts from the stream, so why would you want someone to see them?

Guardian Summaries: On. Not only should this be on but if you have a verified guardian email, invite them to see what your students are doing. Guardians will be able to decide how often they want summaries, so this could keep you from getting the “how is my child doing” phone call or email. 

Grade Calculation: No overall Grade. For our district a student’s official grade can be found on PowerSchool. Students can still see the grade for each assignment without seeing an overall grade in Google Classroom. 

You should check with your administrator before you change this setting. 

Check out this video if you are still unsure about settings. 

3. Organize your Google Drive. 

This is something most people, including myself, struggle with. If your Google Drive has hundreds of documents and half of them are named “copy of” or “untitled,” then it’s time to organize. The video below has some good suggestions on how to organize your drive, but you don’t have to do it all at once. Start by creating folders for your current classes and make sure everything you make moving forward is given a descriptive name that you will be able to find whenever you need it. As time permits, go through older documents, and delete or move old files until your Drive is the embodiment of organization. Remember you should NEVER DELETE YOUR CLASSROOM FOLDER. This is where Google Classroom keeps all student files and assignment templates. 

Google Meets Update

 

Throughout this school year, Google has already made a lot of updates to Meet, and they don't show any signs of slowing down. Google has announced more updates and have already started rolling them out. While these updates improve the remote learning experience for teachers and students, getting use to these tools can be frustrating. Watch the video below to get an early look at some of the changes coming to Meet. Teachers should start seeing these changes in the upcoming weeks. 

 

Google Classroom Update

 It has been a while since the last blog post, but this update was too good not to tell teachers about. Finally, Google Classroom is offering Rich Text Format in Assignments. In non-geek speak that means you can make text bold, underlined, italic, or bulleted. Many teachers have been asking for this for a long time, and now you can actually do it. Some of you may have already noticed this, but if you haven't, you can see the video below for more details.