Friday, June 30, 2017

How to download your own YouTube videos

If you would like to download a YouTube video that you created, I will be sharing two ways to do so - as well as a GIF and YouTube video.





1st Way

  •  Make sure you are logged on to your account 
  • Select My Channel
  • Select video manager
  • Next to edit you will see a triangle - select the triangle
  • Select Download MP4
2nd Way

  • go into the URL of the YouTube video
  • after the www. and before where youtube starts enter in these letters
    • ss
  • from there select download video in browser
  • choose your quality (I choose medium)
There you have it - two ways to download your YouTube videos. If the videos are not created by you - it is against Google's privacy policy, "You shall not download any Content unless you see a 'download' or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content."

Any questions please let me know!
Brad

Thursday, June 29, 2017

How to download a Google Drive file to your computer

If you would like to download a file to your computer from your Google Dive, simply find the file, right click on it, and select download. You will then see the file downloaded to your computer in the bottom left corner of your screen.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 30 second YouTube video.




Take care,
Brad

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Want quick access to shortcuts in Google Drive files? Try CTRL /

If you want  quick access to shortcuts in your Google Drive files try CTRL /.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 26 second YouTube tutorial.





Take care,
Brad

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Have a passion or ideas you want to write about? Try a Blog!

One of the best pieces of advice I received was to take videos I was creating and put them somewhere accessible for others to find easily (I was just sending them out in emails). Fast forward from that moment and I have created over 400 blog posts. What has been great is when people have questions that I know I have created a post about, I simply refer them to the post.

While there are a number of sites to write your blog - I use Blogger.com. You will see a GIF followed by a 2 minute and 14 second YouTube tutorial below.




Take care,
Brad




Monday, June 26, 2017

Want to take download a copy of info on your Google Drive or other Google services? Use Google Takeout

Google Takeout allows you to create an offline archive of the information in your Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Blogger, Bookmarks, etc Simply go to Google Takeout and select the service(s) you want to copy/ archive. The site creates a ZIP file for you and will take a bit of time to create You will receive an email when your data is ready.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 55 second YouTube tutorial.




Take care,
Brad

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Need to know definitions of Tech Terms - try Techterms.com

If you have ever found yourself hearing tech terms being tossed about and not sure what they mean - try Techterms.com.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 37 second YouTube tutorial.




Take care,
Brad

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Scan anything into a PDF with your mobile device with Adobe Scan

Adobe Scan is a very easy to use app on your device that makes scanning a document into a PDF a snap.

Simply download the app from the link above, add the app, sign-up for a free account, and scan away! You can then email the PDF right from your phone.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 37 second YouTube tutorial.

Another option to scan documents is the Scannable app by Evernote - I created a short blog post about it before.




Take care,
Brad

Friday, June 23, 2017

Insert exact date in Google Sheets or Excel

If you want to insert the exact date in an Excel Sheet or Google Sheet simply enter in

CTRL SHIFT

You will instantly see the exact time entered in.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 17 second YouTube video I created.




Take care,
Brad

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Insert exact time in Excel and or Google Sheet

If you want to insert the exact time in an Excel Sheet or Google Sheet simply enter in

CTRL SHIFT ;

You will instantly see the exact time entered in.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 16 second YouTube video I created.





Take care!
Brad


Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Summer Solstice article - there is a baseball game in Alaska that starts at 10:30 pm

June 21st marks the longest day of the year and if you click here you will see an article from the National Geographic 2015 as well as as article from 2013

In the article are some fun facts as well as one about a tradition in Fairbanks Alaska, which has been commemorating the summer solstice with a late-night baseball game for 109 years. I remember reading about this when I was in 5th grade and thought how cool it was!



Happy Summer!
Brad

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Looking for a reading news platform for students of all abilities? Try Newsinlevels.com

Newsinlevels is a free site that has three levels of stories available to you. The site does a nice job of providing a short story and providing the ability for the story to be read aloud for the user.

The site looks great for young readers as well as English Langue Learners (ELLs).

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 2 minute and 35 second YouTube video I created.





Take care,
Brad


Monday, June 19, 2017

Use your Bitmoji in your Google Classroom Header

Alice Keeler created a template for making a Google Classroom Header using your Bitmoji (add the extension for Chrome here).

Click here for Alice Keeler's post.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 1 minute and 44 second YouTube video.



Take care,
Brad

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Make a Father's Day video in seconds with Google Photos

Google Photos makes it easy to create a short Father's Day video. If you use Google Photos to store your photos and videos - simply click on the assistant and scroll down until you see the picture below.

Then, select the father, children (and anyone else you would like to include in the "movie"). Once finished, wait for about 2 minutes and check back to the assistant to see your "movie".






Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 30 second YouTube tutorial I created.

Take care and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
Brad

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Want to level a book? Try Scholastic's Book Wizard website and free app

Scholastic's Book Wizard  allows the user to find books at just the right level for students with Book Wizard. You can search by:

  1. Guided Reading Level
  2. DRA
  3. Lexile Measure
  4. Grade Level Equivalent
  5. Genre
  6. Subject
  7. Grade

There is also an iOS app and Android app as well.

Another app to quickly level a book is Lit Leveler. I created a blog post back in October.

Embedded below is a GIF that shows the ways you can search as well as a 1 minute and 17 second YouTube tutorial I created.




Take care,
Brad



Friday, June 16, 2017

Looking for a guided reading leveling chart? Try Scholastic's grid

If you are in need of DRA (Development Reading Assessment) and Lexile levels - give Scholastic's leveling chart a try.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 20 second YouTube tutorial.



Take care,
Brad

Thursday, June 15, 2017

ABCYA.com's Random Name Picker

Lately I have shared a number of Random Name Picker's to use at school - this example from ABCYA.com is a simple one that kids can use to quickly and easily choose a name.

All they will need to do is type (or paste) in the names and select the arrow. Once the name has been selected there will be an option to remove that name for the next "pick".

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 49 second YouTube tutorial.





Take care,
Brad

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Choose a name with Name Picker Ninja

If you would like a fun way to choose a name randomly - try using Name Picker Ninja.

1. Select add names
2. Highlight the default names and add your own
3. Click Go
4. Remove the name from the list if you would like to continue

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 44 second YouTube tutorial I created.





Take care,
Brad

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Easily create a Word Search on Randomnamepicker.net

If you would like a very easy to use site to create a word search, try using Randomnamepicker.net's name search puzzle.

The site is very easy to use.

Make sure you select name sets and then either type in names, or use a set from the past.
Be sure to double click on the set you want to use and
The puzzle is created and you will see options dealing with the size of the puzzle, difficulty level, and solution.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 48 second YouTube tutorial I created.





Take care,
Brad

Monday, June 12, 2017

Create teams of 2, 3, 4, etc on Randomnamepicker

If you would like a simple and quick way to create teams - try using Randomnamepicker.net's Team Generator.

You can store names without having to go back each day and type them all in again (you do not need an account either).

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 39 second YouTube video.





Take care
Brad

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Slot Machine on Randomnamepicker - fun way to choose a name randomly

If you are looking for a fun and easy way to choose a name randomly - try using Randomnamepicker's Slot Machine.

The ease of this site and the fact that you do not need to sign up on the site to save your names is a great feature.

Embedded below is a 18 second GIF followed by a 39 second YouTube tutorial I created.




Take care,
Brad

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Be Internet Awesome - Google's Internet Safety Curriculum

Be Internet Awesome: a new way to encourage digital safety and citizenship. The Be Internet Awesome site features a game called Interland. In this imaginary world of four lands, kids combat hackers, phishers, oversharers and bullies, practicing the skills they need to be good digital citizens.

Be Internet Awesome focuses on five key lessons to help kids navigate the online world with confidence:

Be Internet Smart: Share with care
Be Internet Alert: Don’t fall for fake
Be Internet Strong: Secure your secrets
Be Internet Kind: It's cool to be kind
Be Internet Brave: When in doubt, talk it out

Within Interland there are 4 Kingdoms:

1. Kind Kingdom - It's Cool to be Kind
2. Reality River - Don't Fall for Fake
3. Mindful Mountain - Share With Care
4. Tower of Treasure - Secure Your Secrets

Embedded below are 4 GIFs

  1. Kind Kingdom in which the user must collect hearts and share with others (Positive Influence), block bully behavior (Bully Blocker), and speak up against bullying (Righteous Reporter)
  2. Reality River in which the user is presented with 10 scenarios (questions) to answer properly.
  3. Tower of Treasure where you must collect lower case, numbers, and upper-case letters to create a secure password.
  4. Mindful Mountain where you must share properly. Basically there are mirrors placed throughout a game board and you must aim properly so items are shared with just who you should share with.


The game took me each about 5 minutes to complete. A few items to point out - you need to press the space bar to send "hearts", the bullies can "get you" and you lose some points, to move around use your arrows to go left and right and to jump press the up arrow.

Kind Kingdom

Reality River

Tower of Treasure - 


Mindful Mountain




Take care,
Brad




Friday, June 9, 2017

URL Trick to Switch User Accounts in Google

In the upper-right in your Google account you will see your Avatar (picture) showing what Google account is currently logged on. However, if for like shortcuts - you can go to your URL and change between “0”, “1”, “2” to switch to the account you want.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 29 second YouTube tutorial.




Take care,
Brad

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Want to choose a name randomly - try Randomnamepicker.net

While there are a lot of name pickers out there - a very simple one is Random Name Picker's Spin Wheel.

A few main points are:

  1. You can have up to 10 sets of names (and these names are saved - you do not need to sign-up).
  2. You can choose normal or fast for speed.
  3. Once a name is chosen - you have the option to remove that name from the set.
Embedded below is a GIF (due to trying to make the GIF short I cut the wheel spinning to a minimum) followed by a 42 second YouTube tutorial I created.




Take care,
Brad

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Learn Gmail shortcuts with this Google Extension

The extension KeyRocket is a simple to use extension. Example - click on compose and KeyRocket will pop up  note stating Press C to compose a message.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 42 second YouTube tutorial.




Take that shortcut!

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

How to hide/archive photos in Google Photos - without deleting

Google Photos is a great way to store all your digital photos and videos for free - all you need is a Google account.

Every once in awhile we have some photos that we may want to delete - or in this case, hide. You can now easily do this by selecting the photo(s) or video(s) and selecting the more options button (3 dots upper right corner.

Google Photos is one of my favorite sites due to the ease of use and how it even "talks" to Shutterfly. Last year (one of my first ever posts dealt with Google Photos) - click here for a tutorial.

Embedded below is a GIF of how to archive your photos as well as a 54 second YouTube tutorial I created.




Take care,
Brad

Monday, June 5, 2017

How to download all announcements from your Remind Account to a PDF

Remind is a site that I used for years to keep families informed about tests, projects, field trips, etc. I highly recommend it for teachers to use due to the ease of use, but more importantly for the information it provides for families.

I created a blog post about Remind back in June of 2016 - click here to see the post.

If you have used Remind in the past and would like to download all announcements you have sent out - it is really quite simple.

In the upper left of the site click on your name --- account ---- download records --- select time frame --- Export --- check email.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 59 second YouTube tutorial.

A big thank you to my wife who saw this. Also just saw this on Richard Byrne's Twitter account.





Take care,
Brad

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Create labels in Google Docs

I was asked earlier this week how to create labels in Google Docs (using Avery Labels). In order for this to happen, you need to complete a few steps:

1. Create the information you would like in your label in a Google Sheet (make sure to make titles for each category).

2. In your Doc select Add-ons and add on the Avery Label Merge.

From there - follow the GIF and/or YouTube video below.




Take care
Brad

Saturday, June 3, 2017

How to create a new popup window for composing your email in Gmail

One of the frustrations that has come up lately is that users of Gmail do not like the fact that the pop-up window when composing emails is stationary. The quick and easy solution is to do one of two things...

1. Select Shift and Compose
or
2. Select Shift C

This will create a movable popup window for composing your e-mail.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 32 second YouTube tutorial,





Take care,
Brad

Friday, June 2, 2017

How to remove email threads (conversations in Outlook)

The previous two days I have posted about removing grouped emails in Google as well as removing threads on your iPhone. Today we are taking a look at how to remove threads in Microsoft Outlook as numerous people have asked how this can be done.

The steps are as follows - select view --- uncheck show as conversation. That's it!

Embedded below is a GIF as well as a 27 second YouTube tutorial.




Take care,
Brad

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Google Expeditions - easy to search site

Last week I shared a list of all Google Expeditions that are available. Today I am sharing with you a site, Aquila Education that provides you with an easy to search site for all Expeditions. You can search by grade, subject, location, as well as search on the world map for all Expeditions that are available to you. The site provides you with the name of the expedition, scene title, location, description, grade, and subject.

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 1 minute and 44 second YouTube tutorial.




Take care,
Brad