How to use group maker in Classroomscreen.com

 Classroomscreen is an amazing online tool that allows you to "display the instructions for your lesson in a clear and visual way. Choose from over 13 widgets to support your class activities and help students get to work."

A new tool available to you is Group Maker (you can make 3 lists for free). Each list has the ability to have up to 100 names.

When you select Group Maker and choose your list you can then adjust how many groups or how many students in each group. 

Once your groups are created you have the option to move student names from one group to another as well as the ability to create exclusions in which certain students will not be grouped with other ones.

Embedded below is a 2 minute and 12 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to create captions for any video (using Google Chrome)

 If you are playing a video and would like to see captions appear on your device you can now enable that with a solution already built into Chrome.

If you are playing a video, look into the upper right of your screen (next to extensions) and you will see something that looks like the image below (looks like a musical note with three lines).

Once selected you will see a snip of the video you are watching and at the bottom you will see Live Caption. Make sure to toggle icon to the right of it.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 13 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to remove news and interests on Windows-based machine

 If you have the news and interests popup keep coming up (especially teachers) and would like to remove it - simply right click on the weather and remove.

Embedded below is a 23 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to add a Watermark in Microsoft Word

With Google recently adding the Watermark feature to Google Docs - click here for tutorial  - I thought it would be a nice reminder on how to add a watermark in Microsoft Word. 

This is a nice feature as you can send home a document to families with a watermark of your choice, you can send docs to others with your watermark on it, etc.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 15 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to add a Watermark to a Google Doc

Google recently added the Watermark feature to Google Docs. This is a nice feature as you can send home a document to families with a watermark of your choice, you can send docs to others with your watermark on it, etc.

Embedded below is a 2 minute and 23 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to change the size of the cursor if you use the extension - Custom Cursor

 If you / your child / your students would like to adjust the size of the cursor when using the extension Custom Cursor - simply choose the extension and top right choose cursor size (looks like a paper airplane). My friend's daughter showed me this yesterday. Thank you Felicity!!! 😃

Embedded below is a 49 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

To learn more about your Chromebook, try the step by step interactive tutorials on Chromebook Simulator.

 If you would like to learn more about a Chromebook or a few tips, check out Google Chromebook Simulator.  This is a great tool if you are thinking about purchasing a Chromebook or have a few questions about a Chromebook.

You can see the different categories in the embedded picture below.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 39 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Office 365 email OWA - how to remove emails from being sorted into Focused and Other.

 In the district where I work we have recently moved to Office 365. One of the most commonly asked questions is how to remove emails from being sorted into Focused and Other.

While there are other ways to solve the issue at hand - here is one.

• enter into the settings gear (upper right)
• in the screen scroll down and choose View All Outlook Settings 
• you will now see all the settings
• make sure you have selected Mail (on the left) then Layout - then under Focused Inbox
• choose Don't sort my messages
• Choose save 

Embedded below is a 42 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

In Slides, PowerPoint, or Keynote how to pause your presentation & show a black or white screen.

 Tony Vincent shared the other day about pausing your presentation and having the screen show black or white.

In the middle of your presentation 

• select the B key on your keyboard to pause the presentation and have the screen go to black. 
• select the W key on your keyboard to pause the presentation and have the screen go to white

Embedded below is a 53 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Office 365 email cursive font displaying for users on their phone

 Ever have people telling you that an email you sent from OWA (Office 365) is coming up in cursive font when they view on their phone? Try changing your default font style to something other than Comic Sans.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 34 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to print a Google Doc with comments included.

If you use Google Docs and would like to print out the comments that exist on the document try the following steps.

Make sure to go to file,

• choose Download
• make sure to download as a Microsoft Doc (make sure to know where you doc saved - in my case it is the desktop)
• open the file and then choose to print.
• You will now see the document as well as the comments. ** If you use OpenOffice Write, be sure to choose that program from the “Open With” menu.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 14 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to adjust the PDFs you open from Drive so they do or do not always open in Kami.

 A number of people have reached out recently about the fact that anytime they try to open a PDF directly from Google Drive, it opens in Kami.

This can be a little frustrating, especially if all you want to do is download it to your computer. Conversely, you may also want to force Kami to open from Drive. In order to accomplish either one simply enter into Google Drive

• in the upper right select the settings gear
• select settings
• Manage Apps
• make sure the check is removed from the "Use by default" box if you do not want Kami to open your PDFs
• check the box if you do want Kami to open your PDFs from Drive

Embedded below is a 48 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

You can now block people in Google Drive.

A nice new feature in Google Drive is the ability to block specific users. This prevents people from sharing unwanted files with you. If you use Drive for work or school, you can not block them if they are in your domain.

In order to prevent them simply right-click a file they shared with you, and choose Block.

If you blocked them by mistake, or would like to see the users you have blocked...

• enter into myaccount.google.com 
• choose People & Sharing
• scroll down and under contacts you will see a Stop sign and Blocked
• When you choose Blocked - you will then see a list of blocked users.
• To unblock, simply select the X to the right of their name.

Embedded below is a 55 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Google Forms finally has an autosave feature. You can now save work in progress.

The requested autosave feature in Google Forms is now available (if it is not yet available - it will be rolled out soon - latest is September 15th). Basically, this default feature will save respondents' work in progress when they are completing a form. Users will just need to make sure they are signed into their Google account.

To see if this feature is available for you:

• select the settings gear
• Presentation
• At the bottom you will see Restrictions.
• Please note that this feature is on by default.
• You can disable the autosave feature by selecting the checkbox.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 8 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Dark Mode enabled on your computer? Here are a few possible solutions.

 If you have ever been frustrated because Dark Mode was somehow enabled on your computer here are a few possible solutions.

1. I am on a Windows based device. If you go into your settings, then select personalization, colors, scroll down and choose your default app mode to be light.

2. It is possible you enabled a Chrome Flag (an experiment). It is worth a look. Go into chrome://flags/ and see what experiments have been enabled. The one you may have enabled is "Force Dark Mode for Web Contents". Simply select the blue enabled bar and choose to disable. Then, relaunch the Chrome browser.

Embedded below is 1 minute and 11 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care, Brad

Google Maps - how to change your vehicle and add reports.

In Google Maps it is very simple to change your vehicle. Simply select the blue circle with the white triangle and you will see three three options (red, green, and yellow vehicles).

Also, if you would like to add a report, simply select the circle with a plus on the right-hand side. There you will see options to add a report for the following: crash, speed trap, slowdown, construction, lane closure, stalled vehicle, and object on road.

Embedded below is a 41 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care, Brad

How to adjust the compass in Google Maps.

 Ever use Google Maps and find the compass is showing you the actual cardinal directions, but you want it easier to see what driving direction to go? If so - simply look on the right hand side for the compass (on my phone it was the second from the bottom). 😀

Embedded below is a 23 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Use bookmarks in Google Docs to send readers to an exact point in your document that you would like them to see.

Bookmarks in Docs are just like a bookmark that you would use to mark your place in a book. You use bookmarks to mark a location in a document so that you can quickly find and jump back to it. This is quite helpful, especially when you may have lots of documents to read/edit.

Another use would be to allow you or your readers to jump to a specific part in the doc itself. To do this:

• Insert a bookmark at the specific part of your doc

• Click on the bookmark

• Right click where it says link

• Copy the URL and place it in your document.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 45 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to see a Live Photo on your Lock Screen on an iPhone.

 The other day I noticed that if I took a Live Photo from my photos and set it on my Lock Screen, I could still see the movable photo. Pretty cool!

The whole process is pretty simple.

• Take a live photo
• When selecting the photo share it and Use as Wallpaper
• Press on the photo to make sure it "moves"
• select Set
• choose Lock Screen

Nest time you open your phone - press on the photo and see it Live!

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 9 second video.

Take care,

Brad

Have a song stuck in your head that you can hum but can't think of the name of? Try a Google search.

If you can't think of the name of the song, but you can hum it - try opening up a Google search, tap the mic and then tap search a song and hum the song.

Embedded below is a 48 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Icons all on 2nd monitor? Here is one way to bring them back to the screen you want.

If you are using multiple screens, odds are your icons may someday end up on the wrong screen. One way to get them back is to click your mouse on the screen with all icons and select Ctrl A. This will select all icons and you can drag them to your main screen.

Embedded below is a 35 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

3 Ways to take a picture/screenshot on your Windows 10 device Windows Key Shift S is the quickest

 If you want to take a screenshot on your Windows 10 device, I have three ways below.

1. You can select Alt + Print Screen - this will create a full screenshot where you can place the image in Paint or anywhere you would like your screenshot.
2. Snipping tool
1. Has a number of options under the mode that allows you to Snip as a Free-Form, Rectangular, Window, or Full-Screen.
1. You can also delay the Snip from No delay to 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 seconds

     3. The quickest and easiest way is to hold down The Windows Key, Shift, and S. You can then place 

          the image in something like Paint or a Google Doc, etc.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 7 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to change the font size and font style quickly in Microsoft Outlook

 If you would like to change the font size and font style in Microsoft Outlook try the following:

• Select View
• Change view
• Manage view
• Modify
• Other settings
• Change column and row font

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 4 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Turn Your iPhone or iPad Into a Document Camera in Zoom using the Overviewer app

The ability to have a document camera by your side during remote learning has been extremely beneficial. However, a number of teachers still come up asking if they know where I can find a cheap one or if I know anyone who has one "lying around".

Well, if you have an iPhone or iPad and use Zoom - the Overviewer app is a great and free alternative. What I really like about this app is the ability to rotate your screen easily to landscape and zoom in and out. 

Click here for the app.

Once you start Zoom and screen share you then have options at the bottom of the screen (see embedded picture below). 

    

select the three dots for settings (see picture below)

flashlight

orientation

depending on type of iPhone the far right deals with different lenses

Embedded below is a followed by a 2 minute and 7 second YouTube tutorial followed by a tutorial that the creator made (very informative and easy to follow).

Good follow as well on Twitter to stay up-to-date - https://twitter.com/OverviewerApp.

Take care,

Brad

How to make the most of Tab Groups in Google Chrome

The ability to add a tab to a new group is finally available for all users in Google Chrome. This is a nice feature (has been an experiment) and allows users to group tabs together.

If you would like to take those tabs to the next level try adding a few "Tab Group" experiments in Chrome's chrome://flags/.

• When in experiments type in Tab Groups and enable the experiments you see in the screenshot below and relaunch Chrome when prompted.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 47 second YouTube tutorial.

If you would like your Tabs to come up the next time be sure to select the three dots (upper right in Chrome) and either choose history>recently closed or.... settings> scroll down to on startup> continue where you left off.

Take care,

Brad

How to change the default font style, size, and line spacing in Google Docs

 If you would like to adjust the default font style, size, and line spacing in Google Docs here are the steps:

• Make sure to highlight the text you have typed
• Select the font style drop down menu and choose your desired font (Times New Roman is what is in the example video below.
• Select the font size drop down menu and choose your desired font size (in the video I chose 12)
• Select the line spacing drop down menu and choose your desired line spacing (in the video I chose Double
• Select the Normal Text drop down menu
• Choose the arrow next to Normal Text and select update Normal Text to match
• Select the Normal Text drop down menu
• Choose the options menu
• Choose Save as my default styles.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 7 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Google now has a native screen recorder on your Chromebook - try it out now in Experiments

Google developers have created a native solution to your Chromebook's Chrome operating system. In order to try out this feature enter into Chrome's Experiments by clicking chrome://flags/  and then typing in screen capture and enable the experiment. You will then need to relaunch Chrome.

In order to bring up the ability to screen record you can either click on the "Screen capture" button on the shelf quick settings or press the Ctrl, Shift, and Overview keys. You will then see floating bar at the bottom of your Chromebook's screen.

You will then see the ability to take a screen shot, either full or partial. You can then find the screenshot in the files of your Chromebook and choose images.

But for the fun part is the new screen recorder. Once you select the screen recorder you have the same option to record either a certain section of your screen or the whole screen. 

There is a 3 second countdown and then the recording starts. To end the recording you simple need to select the option to stop recording at the bottom right of the toolbar. The video is now stored in the video section of your files.

Embedded below is a 3 minute and 9 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

QR code generator automatically built into search bar in newest version of Chrome.

 Nice new feature in Google Chrome's desktop browser - the ability to automatically create a QR code of the particular site you are using.

Simply update your browser to the newest version. As of the date of this post (2/6/21) it is Version 88.0.4324.150.

• To update your browser select the three dots in the upper right of Chrome
• Select settings
• Select About Chrome
• Chrome will now update

Embedded below is a GIF followed by a 1 minute video on how to update to newest version and what the QR code generator looks like.

Take care,

Brad

How to change the default font size or style in Microsoft Word

 If you would like to customize the default font size or character options you can simply select (Ctrl + D) - or choose the icon in the bottom right under font.

Embedded below is a 46 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

How to take a quick screenshot on your Windows based device - Windows Key + Shift + s

 Today I was working with a teacher who mentioned how she would love if there was a shortcut to take a snip of an image on her screen (other than using the Snipping Tool). 

Well, there is. Simply use the (Windows Key) + (Shift) + (S).

Embedded below is a 37 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad  

ChromeVox - Chromebook's screen reader - how to toggle on or off

 Ever have your Chromebook reading a page for you? It is possible that you (or someone) has enabled ChromeVox. ChromeVox is Google's screen reader.

There are a few ways to enable or disable this feature.

You can turn ChromeVox on or off from any page by pressing Ctrl + Alt + z. On tablets: Press and hold the Volume down + Volume up buttons for 5 seconds. While holding the buttons, you’ll hear a sound to indicate it’s working. Keep holding the buttons, then ChromeVox will start speaking.

It is possible that it was turned on by selecting the system menu (bottom right corner where you see volume) and then choosing accessibility and turn off ChromeVox.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 39 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Wakelet Spaces - Amazing Organization and Collaboration feature built directly into Wakelet

 Wakelet's Spaces is an amazing organizational and collaboration feature that allows you to create a “space” for adding collections, organizing your current collections and inviting others to join and collaborate.

In the YouTube tutorial below I show an example of what a Space looks like. My wife and I were just talking about possible future snow storms and how the districts in which we both work are making "snow days" asynchronous days. 

For more ideas on how you can use Wakelet Spaces click on one of the links below:

• The Merrils - 12 Ways to Use Wakelet Spaces!
• Jake Miller - 19 Ways to use Wakelet Spaces in Your School or Class!
• How to use Wakelet Spaces! (Wakelet Webinar)

Take care,

Brad

Headspace - Headspace Guide to Meditation is now streaming on Netflix + How to sign up for Headspace for Educators

Headspace and Headspace now offer a new series called Guide to Meditation. In this animated series you will learn more about the tools to build a meditation practice as well as the science behind it.

Personally, Andy Puddicombe's (co-founder) work with the Headspace app as well as his work with Chris Bennett on the Nike+ Running App has been a revelation. I handle situations differently than I did in the past, think differently, and feel much more grounded. 

Last night, my family and I watched the first episode together and really enjoyed it. We will watch the 2nd episode tonight!

A reminder for teachers - you can start your free subscription to Headspace by clicking on this link https://www.headspace.com/educators and filling in the necessary information. 

• I also created a blog post about it in August of 2019.

Click below for the Official Netflix Trailer.

The new year is here...which means Headspace Guide to Meditation is now streaming on @netflix. Be kind to your mind in 2021! #HappyNewYear pic.twitter.com/S2W1zXGy7O

— Andy Puddicombe (@andypuddicombe) January 1, 2021

Take care,

Brad

 

How to grab text from a photo and upload just the text directly to your computer.

 I am in the process of converting a hardbound family cookbook to an E-Book using Google Slides. It is a project that will take some time, but in the long run I hope people will enjoy it and add on to it.

The biggest issue of course is time and typing all the information from the original cookbook to the Slide. Well, Google Photos can help out a ton. 

Here are the steps:

• Take your photo(s) and upload to Google Photos
• Using Google Photos on your mobile device, open the image and select Copy text from image
• Your device will then search for any text in the image
• Choose Select  all
• Choose Copy text or Copy to computer
• If you select Copy text this allows you to copy the text on your device and use it as you like
• We want to choose Copy to computer
• You will then see your choices of what computer to copy the text to
• Make sure you are signed in on your computer's Chrome browser under the same sign in as your Google Photos
• Choose the computer you wish to use
• You can now paste the text where you would like to 
• Pretty cool huh?

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 35 second YouTube tutorial I created showing the process.

Take care,

Brad

Flipgrid update Import your Google Classroom Roster

 Happy New Year everyone!

Flipgrid recently announced an update that allows educators to import their Google Classroom roster to their Flipgrid discussions.

This is amazing because users will have the option to log in via Google and those are the only ones that will have access.

To enable this feature simply choose Google Classroom when setting (or changing Group permissions).

Click here for Flipgrid's blog about Google Classroom.

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 46 second YouTube tutorial.

Take care,

Brad

Flipgrid update Mic only mode. Amazing for podcasts, camera shy, sending positive audio messages, directions and much more.

Hello everyone and Happy 2021!

In case you missed it, Flipgrid now has Mic only mode. This mic only mode includes all the other effects such as emojis, inking, styles, etc - just no video.

Of course the impact this has on those that are camera shy (like I would have been in elementary school) is huge. 

Other ideas include:

• Podcasting
• Audio messages to students in Google Classroom or your LMS
• Audio messages to cheer up students
• Audio messages for instructions on a QR code throughout your classroom
• Positive audio messages to display around the school (again QR code)
• Orchestra, band, and chorus audio files for students and others to listen to
• Mixtapes of multiple audio files to share with others

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 47 second YouTube tutorial I created. as well as Flipgrid's Tweet.

Introducing Mic Only mode 🎙

Whether learners are podcasting or simply a bit camera shy, they can now record using only audio while still accessing the full @Flipgrid creative suite of boards, live inking, styles and emojis!#FlipgridForAll 💚 pic.twitter.com/1ZCX1ZjM0P

— Flipgrid (@Flipgrid) December 8, 2020

Take care,

Brad