At Governor’s Ranch Elementary, the Digital Teacher Librarian, Rachel McKenzie has been using WeVideo with several groups of students.  Recently, Ms. McKenzie had her 2nd grade WIN group use WeVideo to explain their understanding of severe weather.

They started with hurricane research, coming up with some guiding questions together about what they would need to know to do a weather broadcast (wind speed, common locations, etc) and then she had the kids look through library books and resources she sent them in Google Classroom to research. They organized with thinking maps.  ​They used the research to build their script for the video, trying  to put realistic facts into the video that were inspired by their research. They watched weather forecasts on YouTube so that they could try and use similar vernacular, such as "back to you in the studio!"

After filming, students were able to collaborate on the video and decide what they wanted their post production video to look like. Ms. McKenzie, with student input, edited the video, added transitions and captions and then had the students give their critiques.  Once the students chimed in, the video was completed.  Finally, the group showed it to their classmates and community so they could see their learning.  This lesson was a great way to show how WeVideo can be used to help synthesize learning and allow students to show their understanding through their own creations.  The students stated that they loved having choice in their project.  They got to decide what to research and how to create the video.  They said it was fun, engaging, and even though it was a lot of work, they really learned a great deal.  One student said that it was really cool to come to WIN and ​they were so excited to share with friends and family.

Google has developed an email subscription to a series of bite-sized videos that support educators in learning how to use the G Suite for Education. For those that subscribe, you will receive 8 weeks of short videos, delivered to your inbox. These video-based tutorials cover Drive, Docs, Classroom, Forms, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, and Gmail and should take less than 15 minutes to complete each week. To sign up for these videos, please visit the Google Teacher Center.

Would you like access to bite-sized videos without having to sign up for the 8-week email subscription? Three times a month, the Google for Education YouTube Channel publishes a 90-second video to their Edu in 90 playlist. If you choose to subscribe to the playlist, you will get an email notification when a new video is created. Each episode will focus on an important topic for educators, administrators, and school leaders - things like product updates, new programs, and helpful resources for the classroom.

Last year, Classic Hangouts broke apart into two new products: Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet. Hangouts Meet is a video conferencing tool that allows participants to create virtual meeting spaces. Although Hangouts Meet is not available for Jeffco students, it is available for all Jeffco staff. This product has had a few changes over the past month that might support your work! 

1. You can now invite up to 150 people to participate in your Hangout Meet! These participants will all have screen sharing and speaking capabilities. 
2. Hangouts Meet now supports a closed-captioning feature. This is excellent for those needing additional hearing support or for those that need to  listen into a meeting with the sound turned off or down.

A few people have requested the ability to remove the Read and Write extensions from their pinned app bar at the bottom of Chromebooks. We have removed forced pinning of these extensions, but you will need to physically remove them from your app launcher. To un-pin, right-click in the tab and select "Unpin tab." There is no keyboard shortcut for pinning or unpinning a tab.