Teachers Organize YouTube Videos for the Classroom by using Google Slides

08/16/201508/16/20151 Comment

Teachers Google Slides offers a way to organize YouTube Videos and minimize the possibility of students viewing something inappropriate. It is very easy to embed a YouTube video into a slide deck. Below this Google Slide Deck sample is a list of reason why to use a slide deck as an organized way to share YouTube Videos.

CLICK HERE TO COPY THIS TEMPLATE

The slides can be reorganized easily from year to year by simply dragging the slide and placing it in a new position.
You can use speaker notes to type reminders for sections of the movie you’d like to point out.
Individual Slides can be shared with students who are absent. Each slide has its own unique web address.
A Google Form can be linked to the slide as a student assessment tool.
Eliminates distractions.

HOW TO INSERT A YOUTUBE INTO A GOOGLE SLIDE

In the toolbar click insert
Click on video
Go to YouTube and copy video URL
Follow directions in the window for paste YouTube URL here

Resolve YouTube Buffering Issues within the Classroom

07/31/201507/31/2015Leave a comment

My position as a K-12 Teaching Assistant has taken me into many different grade level classrooms. One common issue I’ve seen over and over again is the teachers frustration when a YouTube video is stuck in buffering mode. Many times this problem is caused due to a bandwidth issue. One simple way to resolve this issue is by pre-loading the video beforehand. This is done by immediately pressing the pause video button.

You will notice a gray bar continuing to move as it loads the video. Depending upon the bandwidth issue this may or may not work. You may notice only a partial video load by using this process.

A better choice is to show the video in a lesser quality format. If you would like to do this go to the gear symbol in on the video a drop down menu will open, and chose the word quality. Choose a lower quality video such as 360p or lower instead of HD (High Definition).

Final Touches for the Google Slide ELA Elementary Interactive Activity

07/26/201508/16/2015Leave a comment

Time to wrap up and assemble the Google Slide for the ELA Elementary Interactive Activity. One thing I’d like to point out is when creating clipart it is good to save as one file where the layers are merged. This prevents the clipart from falling apart when dragged. Using the shape tool made creating the clipart easier because it allows you to add border and words as one layer. Here are the steps I used to create the letter “g” with Google Drawings.

Insert shape
Change color
Used 12px for the border size
Change border color
Click center of shape to choose font style
Then type the letter & change font color
Download & Save as PNG to insert into slide

NOTE: I like saving my clipart files as PNG for several reasons.

A PNG has a transparent background
When clipart is saved as a PNG all layers are merged into one

Once everything is inserted into the Google Slide the Interactive Activity will look like this:

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO TRY THE ACTIVITY ~ NOTE IT WILL OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW

ASSEMBLING THE INTERACTIVE ACTIVITY with GOOGLE SLIDE

Open Google Slide
Add a Title to the Slide

Insert clipart

Embed YouTube for sound
- Go to your YouTube Dashboard

1. Select Video

2. Click Share

3. Copy URL

OPEN GOOGLE SLIDE

4. Click Insert

5. Click Video

6. Paste URL to YouTube Video

7. Click the YouTube Video

8. Then Click Select

9. Resize Video on the Google Slide

CLICK HERE TO COPY TEMPLATE

NOTES:

In this Google Slide Activity the YouTube Video is used as a Sound File.
When using Video as Sound it is best to reduce video to a very small size.
1. You don’t want the video to become a distraction.
This activity was created to provide support for successful completion of the activity.