Tag: GSuite for Education

Paint Roller Tool in Google Slides

One of the more underutilized tools within Google Docs, Slides, Drawings & Sheets is the Paint Roller (Paint Format) Tool.  It’s purpose is simple – when you want some text or an object to be formatted just like another set of text or an object, the Paint Roller is the tool that you need.  Click once on the already-formatted object/text, then on the Paint Roller and then on the to-be-formatted object/text.

I’ve posted before about how it works in Google Docs, but I wanted to share an animated GIF about how it works in Google Slides!  Notice that it works on text boxes, as well as on shapes, lines and images!  With text boxes, you can even apply it to certain words in the box rather than the entire box.

Paint Roller in Google Slides Animation

Use Preview in Docs for a Quick Whole Class Progress Check

In a blended classroom, it can be tough to see who is on and off task and know who is behind on their work.  One trick that I often used in my STEM classes was to open the Google Drive folder that all of my students’ work was in and click through the previews of their docs.  The previews weren’t always the most current version (it’s likely the status of the file when you most recently opened up Drive), but I could easily identify students who may be behind (or off task) and then open up their docs to check for sure.  It was much faster than opening all of the docs would have been!  I also used this occasionally when assigning some pretty simple grades, especially if they were completion grades.

Use Preview for Quick Progress Check Animation

Top 5 Posts of 2017

Happy New Year! Before we look forward to all of the awesome learning that 2018 holds for us, I’m going to get all nostalgic for a quick sec…. here are my 5 most viewed posts from 2017:

  1. Adding Captions to Images in Google Docs
  2. Recreating Pop Hits as Content-Related Lyrics Videos 
  3. Change Your Default Font in Google Docs 
  4. Screencastify to FlipGrid 
  5. Adding Audio in Google Slides (hack)

Tips for Creating Stop-Motion Slides

I’ve posted about #StopMotionSlides before and there are others out there (I think that Eric Curts’ and Matt Miller’s are both pretty definitive), but as usual – I like to encapsulate all good Googley stuff in GIF format. So here we go . . . some GIF-style tips for making really rad #StopMotionSlides projects.

Continue reading Tips for Creating Stop-Motion Slides

Comparing GIF Creation Options

**Originally posted in December 2017, edited in August 2018 and then editing again in October 2019 to reflect new options that have become available or that I have discovered.  Also in October 2019, I added the new table format below.**

In February of 2017, I found my niche in the online #edtech world – and a new passion – creating #eduGIFs.  In the time since then, I’ve been asked dozens, if not hundreds, of times how I create them.  Here I’ll dive into 1) a little background on what I do & why I use the tool I use, 2) other options to consider and 3) my advice on what to use (feel free to skip to there). Continue reading Comparing GIF Creation Options

Skip Slides in Google Slides

Have a Google Slides-deck that you sometimes present in 45 minutes and other times in 75 minutes?

Change up the slides that you use in each class based on formative assessment or student interests? Have a set of Slides that you use in two different classes, one with more remedial needs and the other with need for enrichment?

It might be beneficial to hide certain slides, either to simply not show certain content (in the 2nd & 3rd questions above) or in interest of time (in the 1st question above).  Using the “Skip Slide” option will help you do this.  Just right-click (or 2-finger click) on a slide on the left and select “Skip slide.”  Check it out in the animation below:

Skip Slides in Google Animation