A Collection of FIT Tips shared in the Principals' Bulletins

Unscreen (Week of 5/10)

You know you can remove image backgrounds (if not, look at the FIT tip for 10/26: remove.bg!), but did you know you can also remove video backgrounds too?! With Unscreen, you can make your own gifs and personalized stickers by uploading a short video clip, and Unscreen will remove the background. This allows you to add fun colors, images and graphics behind your video or leave it transparent Here's a quick video on how to use this tool. 

National Geographic Resource Library (Week of 5/3)

Images often help tell a story no matter what subject we are teaching. National Geographic Education has a free resource library of photos, infographics, videos, activities, lessons, and more that can easily be searched by grade, subject, and content type.    

Easy Color Palettes (Week of 4/26)

If you ever want to freshen up your slides or just have trouble picking appealing colors, I have some easy options for you! Palette is a chrome extension that shows you several adjustable color schemes. Coolors.co is a more extensive website where you can explore trending palettes and save them to keep track. 

Google Lens (Week of 4/19)

Google Lens is an app in the play store, a feature in Google Photos, or a feature in the Google App on iPhone. Open the app or click on the lens icon in the Photos or Google app. It allows you to search photos or take a photo to learn more about the object. Not sure what kind of bug is in your classroom? Take a picture with Google Lens! See a really keen backpack? Take a picture and search for it with Google Lens. In the lens app, you can also translate signs, etc that are in other languages or search menu items for popularity while out to eat! 

Choice Eliminator 2 for Google Forms (Week of 4/12)

Choice Eliminator 2 is an add on for Google Forms. This add-on, when configured on Google Forms, allows you to make options on multiple choice or drop-down questions disappear when selected. This would be great for an office hours sign-up form or project topic selector, as each student would receive their own slot or topic. 

Google Updates (Week of 4/05)

You can now schedule break out rooms in advance in Google Meet through your Google Calendar. See how 

Google Classroom has added Rich Text Formatting so you can bold, underline, italicize and add bullet points to your posts in stream or classwork! 

Share a YouTube Video at a Precise Point (Week of 3/29)

Have you ever wanted to share part of a YouTube video cued up to the point you want to share? Click the Share button below the video. Look for a checkbox below the link. It will automatically display the time at which you currently have the video stopped. You can stick with this time or choose a different time. Copy the link and share it. When someone views the link, the YouTube video will automatically skip right to the point you chose. Here's an example. 

Zoom Ease Attendance (Week of 3/22)

Using Zoom for your remote student connection? Zoom Ease Attendance lets you keep track of who is present and when they leave the meeting. Once you get the tool set up (feel free to reach out to Robin McLean if you need help), it will run each time you open a Zoom meeting and generate a report. https://www.easeattendance.com/ 

Slide Object Order (Week of 3/15)

Slide Object Order is a very simple add on for Google Slides. If you have ever dealt with many images, text boxes, etc. on a slide, you know how challenging it can be to reorder it so that items overlap the way you want them to. Slide Object Order creates a sidebar that shows every text box, image, and item on the slide in its current order and allows you to drag to reorder them easily! A very simple but very useful tool! 

Share full sized YouTube videos with your class (Week of 3/08)

If you want to share a youtube video with your students that is JUST the video and none of the other stuff like comments or suggested videos, here is the tip for you! Open the video you want and go to the url at the top. After the word "watch" add _popup. Here is an example of what your url should look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=dqONk48l5vY  Click this link to see the result :) 

Fun Google Chrome Extensions  (Week of 3/01)

Looking to spice up your virtual meetings? These two extensions will certainly help with that! Confetti Cannon allows you to celebrate any occasion on any screen with the click of a button! This airhorn sound effect is equally fun for a celebration or to bring attention to an important announcement. 

Knowt  (Week of 2/22)

Knowt is a free service for turning documents into flashcards, quizzes, and other review activities. Simply import your Google Classroom rosters and Knowt will be able to generate flashcards and quizzes (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, true/false, and sequencing) based on the documents that you create or import. Quizzes can be graded or ungraded activities. Richard Byrne has a great tutorial here. 

Downdetector  (Week of 2/15)

Wondering if Google Classroom is down? Feeling like Nearpod is a little laggy? Downdetector lets you check on the working status of webbased and communcation platforms. You can also report issues. It is available online and as an app. 

Form Limiter  (Week of 2/8)

Form limiter is an add on for google forms that allows you to limit how many times someone can respond OR a date and time that the form closes and will no longer accept responses. I find this very helpful for virtual quizzes and tests. You can allow them to do one or more retakes and close the form at the end of the day. Just click the link and add it to your forms. When you go to your form you will see a puzzle piece at the top right with your add ons! 

Form Notifications  (Week of 1/25)

Tired of constantly checking back to your Google Form to see if a student submitted that test or quiz? Form Notifications is an add on that will send you an email when new responses are submitted to your Google Form. After installing the add on in Google Forms, you can specify when you want to receive notifications, after each new response or after a certain amount has been submitted. To install the add on, open a Google Form, select the 3 vertical dots, and click Add Ons. Search for "Form Notifications" and click install! 

Thinglink  (Week of 1/18)

ThingLink is a web tool that helps you create interactive content to drive student engagement. You can use ThingLink tags in images and videos as well as 360° images and 360° videos! These may be used to enhance your infographics and maps,  create narrated 360° tours and more. Thinglink works on virtually any device so it's great for sharing with your students. Here is an example of something you can do with Thinklink 

Custom Cursor  (Week of 1/11)

Custom Cursor is a chrome extension that allows you to easily change the cursor you are using. With its many themes, it could help create fun content connections while using your cursor in a shared screen. This short video shows some of its easy to use features. There's a whole help section on it if you want to dig deeper. 

Web Paint   (Week of 1/4)

Webpaint is an a chrome extension that allows you to type, paint, and draw on your screen. The best thing is, both your in person and remote students will be able to see it! You can even save your screen for future reference. You have to clear your drawings before you go to a new page, but it is still a great option to quickly annotate and draw to emphasize your point. 

Dualless   (Week of 12/14)

Dualless is an extension that allows you to split your screen easily. You can choose different ratios/sizes for each part of the screen, too. If you are struggling with presenting while also viewing your students, this little tool easily separates your meeting attendees from your presentation screen. For more info, contact a FIT or view this short video. 

Group Tabs in Google Chrome   (Week of 12/07)

Do you like having a million different tabs open at one time? Google Chrome has a new feature to help you organize your tabs. Right click on any tab and select the option to "Add Tab to New Group." From here, you are able to group tabs based on their purpose or the project you are working on, name the grouping, and collapse it if it is not currently in use. Click here for a video tutorial! 

Insert Learning & Page Marker   (Week of 11/30)

Both of these tools allow you to annotate and save input on almost any website. Insert Learning has more features but only offers 5 free lessons stored at a time. See the video to learn about its features. Page Marker is very basic, but it allows you to annotate on any website (which includes Google Docs, etc). You can download your annotation as a screenshot. The annotation goes away when you close/refresh the page. 

Text Giraffe  (Week of 11/16)

Tired of plain text? Text Giraffe gives you the chance to enter a phase then choose from a variety of styles to have it automatically formatted and colored. The output will be an image you can save or copy. 

Link to Assignments in Google Classroom  (Week of 11/09)

Google has added a link feature to all classroom assignments. Have a student that has been absent for multiple days or weeks? Or students who claim they can never find assignments? You can now give them a link that will take them directly to the assignment. Watch this video for more information on how it's done. 

Remove.bg (Week of 10/26)

Remove.bg is a site (or app) that quickly removes the background from an image. Just upload an image and get a downloadable image with the background removed and made transparent. There are paid options for power users, but small resolution photos are quick and free. 

Jazz Up Your Google Slides!(Week of 10/19)

Jazz up your Google Slides or PowerPoint presentations with free slides templates from Slides Carnival, SlidesGo, or SlidesMania! Simply select the template you want to use, select whether you want it as a Google Slides or PPT template, and download! For Google Slides, you will be prompted to "Make a Copy" and add the template to your Google Drive. 

Click to Remove Element (Week of 10/12)

Click to Remove Element is an extension that allows you to remove elements from a website that you want gone (temporarily or permanently). It is great for when you are screencasting and want certain elements removed, like annoying ads or a comment thread. For help, contact a FIT or view this short video.

Picture in Picture (Week of 9/28)

Do you ever need to watch a video while creating other materials? Picture in picture pops out whatever video you're watching and allows it to float in the corner of your screen. This way you can continue working while you watch! 

Move It (Week of 9/21)

Find yourself sitting WAY more than you used to in the hybrid learning environment, try Move It if you haven't already. Move it is a Chrome extension that will prompt you to move! Click on it to set the time interval, and when time is up, Move It takes over your screen with a prompt to complete an activity. For example: While sitting, pretend to complete the backstroke for 30 seconds. For even more fun, have your students participate in the activity with you. It gives a quick brain break and gets you moving. 

Scheduling Office Hours with Calendly (Week of 9/14)

Calendly is a great tool for scheduling one-on-one or small group meetings with students during office hours. You are able to customize your office hours as well as many other features. There is a Google Extension and an app in addition to the web-based version. One of the best features of Calendly is it generates meeting links for you so that you do not need to send out individual Zoom or Google Meet links to your students. For a tutorial on how to setup your Calendly, click this link.