Better Bookmarks

The Internet abounds with great resources and materials for teachers.  Thus, bookmarks have become a teacher's very close, if not best, friend.  However, teachers end up having lots and lots of these friends, and they can only fit so many on the always-visible bookmarks bar that runs under the URL bar in the browser.  Once that bookmarks bar fills up, anything you subsequently bookmark will be added to a drop-down menu at the end of the bar.  People have come to me asking where their new bookmarks went.  Here is where you need to look:

Click on that double arrow to bring up the list of bookmarks.  That's where new bookmarks will go when the bar is full.  You can drag and drop them into the bookmarks bar.  Also, you can drag and drop the ones already in your bookmarks bar to rearrange them.  Still, this doesn't solve the problem of running out of room for bookmarks in the bar.  Here is a solution.

Much like with icons on your computer desktop, smartphone, or tablet, you really don't need the text next to a bookmark to know what it is.  Almost every website uses favicons (a portmanteau of favorite and icon), which are the icons you see in the bookmarks bar.  Most are instantaneously recognizable, such as the one I'll use for an example:  IXL.  You can edit the bookmark to delete the text, so all you have is only the favicon.  This will allow you to store many more bookmarks in the readily accessible bar.  Here's how to do it.

1.  Right click on the bookmark.

2.  Click "Edit..."

3.  Delete the text in the "Name" box.

4.  Click "Save" at the bottom of that window.  This is what IXL will look like without text next to it.  QwertyTown would just have the QT favicon if you did the same for that one.

Voila!  Now, you can keep more of your bookmarks right where they're easy to see and access!

Sharing is Caring with the Google Classroom Extension

Almost any teacher understands the struggle of trying to get all the students in a class onto a specific website or other Internet resource at the same time.  Students may type the website address incorrectly.  They may accidentally close it and don't know how to get back to it.  They may just not even go to it in the first place.  We have high speed Internet now, but trying to share Internet content with students in the classroom in real time can take a long time.  Alas, there is a better way!

Meet the Share to Google Classroom Chrome Extension.  With this extension, you can push (send) something on the Internet to each of your students' screens instantly.  If you want them to see a specific website or video on the Internet, then simply use this extension to push it to their screen.  No hassle, no struggle, no time wasted.  Here's what it looks like:

Once the extension is installed in Chrome, click on its icon (looks like Google Classroom logo).  The above will appear, and you can push whatever website you're currently on to your students.  That website will open in a new window on their computers.  There are also other options available under the extension you can explore.  Students should have this extension installed on their computers as well.  Students can also push Internet content to the teacher too.

Here's how to install it in Chrome:
1.  Open Chrome and click this link.
2.  Click the blue "Add to Chrome" button in the upper right.
3.  The extension will install, and you'll be good to go!

Now, you can instantly share anything on the Internet with your students in real time without any hassle because, as we all know, sharing is caring!

Customizing YouTube Videos

Having your students watch and interact (note-taking, annotating, researching, analyzing, etc.) with YouTube videos is a great instructional tool to add a dynamic and engaging layer to any lesson.  Some students learn better with visuals, and all students can enjoy the ability to pause and/or playback certain parts to help them understand the content.  However, YouTube has its faults when used in a classroom.  Almost any teacher has experienced the following things on YouTube that are inappropriate, distracting, and disruptive:

• Inappropriate suggested video thumbnails after the video ends
• Distracting "Up next" videos on the right side of the screen
• Crazy comments below the video
• Not being able to automatically start and end a video at a certain time

Here comes ViewPure to the rescue!  ViewPure is a free website that will solve all those problems and more.  It will remove the suggested videos after the YouTube video.  It will hide the "Up next" videos on the right side of the screen.  It vanishes the comments.  And it allows you to set a custom start and end time for the video, so you don't have to worry about wasting any class time to show the relevant ten minutes out of the hour-long video.  After using ViewPure, you get a ViewPure web link to the video you want to show.  Going to that link shows the video and only the video - no video thumbnails, no comments, no distraction.

Here's how to use it:

1.  Copy the web address of the YouTube video you want to show.

2.  Go to viewpure.com.  Click the gear icon.  This is what you'll see.

3.  Paste the web address of the YouTube video in the "Enter YouTube URL" box.

4.  ViewPure will create a custom link for the video automatically once you click "Purify".  However, you can create your own custom link in the "Enter custom URL" box if you want.  To make the link easy to remember, you can name it viewpure.com/hailstorm if it's a video about hail storms.  This step isn't required.

5.  You can create a password for the video, so only those who have the password can watch it.  This step isn't required.

6.  If you want, set a start and/or end time to show the specific portion that is relevant.  This step isn't required.

7.  Finally, click "Purify".  You'll be redirected to a webpage with the video.  Copy the web address for that page, and then use it for your class.  The web address will be live until it has fewer than ten views in a six-month period.

But, wait, there's more!  You can use the Purify button bookmark on the ViewPure website to purify any YouTube video in one click.  Go to viewpure.com, and look for this:

Click and drag the orange Purify button to your bookmarks bar.  Then, when you're on a YouTube video you want to purify, just click that Purify button in your bookmarks bar, and you'll be brought to the webpage with the purified video.  Use this only if you don't want to do any of the customization in the above steps.

Now, you and your students can watch YouTube videos in peace!

Super Shortcuts for Chromebooks

This Tech Tip is about using shortcuts to be more effective.  I'm not talking about cutting corners or taking the easy way out.  This is a blog about technology after all.  I'm talking about keyboard shortcuts.  And since this blog is geared toward technology in education, I'll be explaining keyboard shortcuts for Chromebooks, which are being increasingly used by teachers and students every year.

Allow me to digress for a moment to offer some interesting statistics about Chromebook usage in American classrooms.  According to a 2016 survey conducted by Front Row Education of over 2,500 teachers and administrators in the United States, over 60% of classrooms have access to Chromebooks, which is up 15% from the previous year.  Even 54% of Kindergarten through Grade 2 classrooms use Chromebooks.  Finally, 67% of teachers on the West Coast have access to Chromebooks while 62% of East Coast teachers have access to them.

Using keyboard shortcuts is an easy way to be more productive and efficient.  I created a PDF with the top ten keyboard shortcuts for Chromebooks, which you can download below.  Or you can use the Save to Google Drive Chrome Extension I wrote about earlier to save it directly to your Drive.

In the PDF, you'll find the classics of copy, cut, and paste.  You'll also find some other interesting shortcuts you may not have known.  To search for a word, phrase, or any other text, press Ctrl and f to open the find bar in the upper right.  From there, you can quickly find what you're looking for, which is very helpful when researching something.  If something you find on the Internet is too small or too large to comfortably see, press Ctrl + or Ctrl - to zoom in and out.  The percentage of the zoom will appear in the upper right when you do so.

You can quickly open a new tab without having to use the mouse by pressing Ctrl and t.  If you accidentally close a tab you still want, press Ctrl, Shift, and t to reopen the last closed tab.  Taking screenshots has many great uses from creating instructions to presentations.  To take a whole screenshot, press Ctrl and the screenshot key.  To take a screenshot of only a particular area of the screen, press Ctrl, Shift, and the screenshot key.  The screenshot key looks like this:

Here is the PDF with the top ten keyboard shortcuts for Chromebooks.  With these, you and your students will be productivity pros in no time!

An Extension to Extend Vocabulary

Learning and understanding words are essential life skills that help both children and adults.  In the past, if we came across words we didn't understand, we had to interrupt our reading flow by finding a dictionary, looking up the word, reading the definition, figuring out how to pronounce it, checking synonyms to gain context, and then go back to whatever we were reading.  Now, there is a tool that doesn't interrupt reading flow and provides comprehensive information about a word instantaneously.

Meet the Google Dictionary Chrome Extension.  Once it is installed, if you double-click on any word while browsing in Chrome, a bubble appears above the word with its definition and an audio file with its proper pronunciation.  If you click the "More" link in that bubble, a new tab in Chrome opens with more information about the word, including part of speech, other forms, alternate definitions, and more.

Finally, you can store words to your own personal dictionary to study later by clicking the Google Dictionary extension icon (a red book) in the upper right of Chrome.  Click "Options", and then check the box next to "Store words I look up, including definitions."  You can return to this "Options" screen to download a history of your stored words.  This is an effective tool to help both children and adults learn and understand any word they come across in Chrome as it makes almost anything they read accessible.  Here's how to install it in Chrome:

1.  Open Chrome and click this link.
2.  Click the blue "Add to Chrome" button in the upper right.
3.  The extension will install, and you'll be good to go!

Now, you'll be able to understand this sentence:  In a few days, I can't wait to be absolutely farctate!  Thank goodness for Thanksgiving!