Google Slides is one of my favourite educational technology solutions and recently I discovered another extremely useful feature. As an educator, I often want to show my classes just part of YouTube clip. That might be because only part of it is relevant, there is not enough time to show the full clip or it may contain content that might be confronting and I would rather give students the choice to view it if it is not essential for the lesson.
So I’ve messed around with a number of different solutions – none of which seemed to work effectively, much to my frustration. And then, quite by accident, I found out I could set start and end times for YouTube clips embedded in a Google Slides presentation. What a revelation!
See below for full instructions.
Instructions
Open your Google Slides presentation and insert your selected YouTube clip.
Right click the YouTube clip in your presentation.
From the pop-up menu, select “Video options…”
You will see 2 fields where you can enter where you would like the clip to start and finish.
And that’s it! Below is a short video tutorial showing you how it all works.
For this freebie, I thought I’d move beyond language arts and in to STEM (science technology engineering maths). Once again using Google Slides, I have created an interactive, digital workbook based on the scientific method. I like the flexibility of layout in Google Slides which is why it’s probably my most used app.
STEM activities lend themselves to multimedia, as do Google Slides. The workbook has been set up to encourage the inclusion of multimedia. This can either be audio, video and images found online or those created by students as they research and complete their experiment.
The digital workbook can be used as a digitised version of a traditional workbook or can be used as the springboard for a hyperdoc. A hyperdoc is a:
…carefully crafted digital lesson plan…[that is a] visually engaging and packaged learning experience…[for students to] create, collaborate, think critically and connect.
I highly recommend the above website for more ideas on utilising hyperdocs in the Google Classroom and for lots more great freebies!
What’s included in the FREE digital workbook
Created in Google Slides so you can create your own copy to modify and share
An interactive menu to navigate the workbook
A slide for each of the following areas:
Problem
Background research
Hypothesis
Health and safety
Experiment
Results
Conclusion
Instructions on what to include in each section
Links to more detailed explanations in the speaker’s notes
Placeholders for multimedia and links
The screenshot below illustrates the typical structure of each slide:
Scientific method digital workbook screenshot
Accessing the FREE digital workbook
The link below to the template is VIEW ONLY. This means you will need to create a copy IN YOUR OWN GOOGLE DRIVE to be able to edit the file and share the file with your students. To do this use the following menu path:
File > Make a copy…
FREE Google Slides scientific method digital workbook:
Best suited to middle to high school students but can be adapted to all ability and age levels – for example, for student requiring more support, create and add your own mini-YouTube video explanation.
Can be used individually or as part of collaborative projects.
Can be used across platforms including Chromebooks, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. (Not all features available on all platforms).
Use with Google Slides tablet and smartphone apps so students can capture video and photos of their own work into the digital workbook.
Take photos of experiment setups using Google Slides on tablet or smartphone and label using the desktop version (including on Chromebooks).
Encourage students to personalise the workbooks to match their own style.
Record results data in Google Sheets and insert charts into the Results page.
Use the Doctopus add-in to create a copy of the workbook for each student.
Provide teacher or peer feedback using comments.
Distribute the workbook to students via Google Classroom.
Can support science fair projects.
Can be used as evidence of learning as part of project based learning (PBL).
Embed finished workbooks in your school website to share with parents, carers and the community.
One of the most popular posts on this blog in one which shared a number of free Google Drive templates. Clearly, many educators around the world are looking for easy-to-use and flexible resources to use in the Google classroom. So I thought to myself – why not offer more free templates!?!
I did a search on Teachers Pay Teachers to see what the best sellers were. Many were around reading and writing. Whilst I wouldn’t claim that the freebie I created is of the same rigour or quality as those best sellers, I thought a writing journal with picture prompts would be a handy resource for many educators using Google Drive.
There is both a blank template and a template with picture prompts. These have been created using Google Slides because of the flexibility of the layout options.
The links below to the templates are VIEW ONLY. This means you will need to create a copy IN YOUR OWN GOOGLE DRIVE to be able to edit the file and share the file with your students. To do this use the following menu path:
These templates are in US Letter size as the overwhelming majority of users of my other templates are based in the USA. This does not mean they cannot be printed on A4 paper as most printers do a good job of scaling between US Letter and A4. It is based on the ebook template I created a while ago – click here to find out more about using Google Slides to create ebooks and to get the template.
How to use the writing journal in your classroom
You can be as structured as you like when using the writing journal. However, depending on your students, it may be helpful to just allow students to write without too many restrictions and conditions. Sometimes, too many rules can discourage students.
Use the Doctopus add-in to create a copy of the picture prompt writing journal for each student and have regular free writing sessions.
Distribute the template to students via Google Classroom.
Use the prompts to encourage students to explore a specific literary element that is being taught in class. For example, genre, adjectives, hyperbole, etc.
Provide teacher or peer feedback using comments.
A great way to document development in writing skills.
Encourage student ownership by having each student contribute a prompt in the blank template and then share with the class as their writing journal.
Customise and include other writing prompts, for example, YouTube videos, links to news items, etc.
Select each students’ best work, combine into one ebook and distribute as a PDF.
Can be used across platforms including Chromebooks, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones.
Can be adapted to be used in any language classrooms to develop written language schools.
There are lots of different ways to use Google Drive apps in the classroom. Google Slides offers many possibilities. One way of using Google Slides in the classroom is developing digital student workbooks that include different types of activities. You can take a static, paper based, black and white worksheet or workbook and make it interactive and colourful, incorporating different ways of engaging with information and demonstrating understanding.
Items you can include in your digital workbook include:
words and images (I know, obvious)
multimedia including YouTube videos
links to other resources
short answer activities
drag and drop activities
extended response activities
links to a quiz in Google Forms
links to a Google Classroom
collaborative activities
student portfolio
The ability to create drag and drop activities is particularly appealing. Below is a short video tutorial showing you how to create drag and drop activities in your workbook that prevent student from accidentally moving the wrong elements on the page. This is done by using the “Slide > Background image” feature of Google Slides.
Advantages of digital workbooks with Google Slides
Free!
Reduce paper.
Easy to distribute via your preferred method. For example, email, Google Drive sharing, Google Classroom.
Does not require G Suite for Education (just Google Drive).
Can differentiate by developing different versions for students aiming to achieve at different levels.
Ability to incorporate different learning activities.
Free sample digital workbook
Below is a link to the sample workbook shown in the video. Feel free to make a copy for yourself and use it as you like:
One thing I love as much as Google Apps for Education is freebies. And when those freebies are combined with Google Apps – oh, happy days! I like freebies so much I’ve dedicated much of one of my Pinterest boards, The Thrifty Teacher, to free educational resources that are engaging and easy to use.
So I decided to create and share three flexible, fun and easy to use templates. I’ve used these type of templates in the past so I have put them together to offer both electronic and printable options. I always find this kind of flexibility helpful as it means I have options depending on my students and the environment we’ll be in. And sharing the files with you means you can adapt them to suit the needs of you and your class.
These templates were designed to be used with the full version of Google Slides. However, I have tried them with the latest version of the Google Slides app on the iPad and they seemed to work well. I would expect the same would be the case with the Android apps. The mobile versions have the advantage of easily taking photos to add into the templates.
To use the templates, click on the links provided. This will open the document. From here, you will need to save the file to your Drive from the “File” menu so you can use it as want.
Fakebook status template
Inspired by Facebook, this authentic looking template allows students to create a “status” update and add an image.
This template allows for a short “text” exchange between, well, anyone you like! You can shrink or enlarge it based on your student needs and how you will be using it. Duplicate the slide to have an extended text exchange.
I tried to upload the templates to the Template Gallery. This has always been a hit-and-miss endeavour. This time it proved to be a…. miss! Hours after attempting to submit the templates to the Gallery, I am still being advised that my templates will be visible in the template gallery “in a moment”. Maybe they mean a Saturn moment 😉
So the links I have shared are directly from my Google Drive.
Applications for education
Suitable for most age groups and skill levels.
Can be used with many curriculum areas including History, Literature Studies, Creative Writing and Languages.
Customise the templates to suit your needs and the needs of your students.
For electronic versions of the documents, distribute using Classroom, Gmail or Google Drive.
More free Google Drive templates for educational use
Google Slides is one of my everyday go-to tools in Google Apps for Education (GAfE) and Google Drive. It is so versatile and easy to use. As an educator, it makes it easy to put together and distribute information and content. It is also a great app for students to show evidence of learning or to curate a portfolio.
One way to use Google Slides is to create mini-lessons that students can go through at their own pace. They are also useful in ‘flipped classrooms’ and other blended learning approaches.
Mini-lessons are presentations that contain content that students need to know and include some sort of navigation, like a menu, and, ideally, some sort of activity, like a quiz, for students to complete to check for understanding.
Below is a sample mini-lesson designed for illustrative purposes and below that are the 6 easy steps to creating your very own mini-lesson as well as a video tutorial. The content in this mini-lesson has been copied from Wikipedia (not recommended!)
6 Easy steps to create a mini-lesson
1. Create your Google Slides presentation
Login to Google Drive and create a new Google Slides presentation.
2. Write your content
Don’t forget to leave a menu slide so you can go back and create your menu links when you have completed your content.
As well as text, you can include images, videos and links to external content.
As this is intended as a mini-lesson designed to be consumed by an individual rather than a presentation, you can include a lot more text than you normally would in a presentation but be careful about making it look too crowded.
3. Create your menu
Once you have completed your content, go back to your blank menu page and add buttons for links to the different topics in your mini-lesson.
To make your buttons clickable go to:
Insert > Link… > Slides in this presentation > Select the slide to link to
See the video tutorial for a demonstration.
4. Add your “return to menu” button
Create your return to menu button using shapes or inserting an image into one of your content slides. Insert the link to your menu slide:
Insert > Link… > Slides in this presentation > Select the slide to link to
Copy your button to the other content slides
Note: ideally, you would add the return to menu button in the slide layout in slide master view. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, when you view the presentation normally, the link is not clickable.
See the video tutorial for a demonstration.
5. (optional) Add a link to the student activity
For example, this could be a link to a quiz created in a Google Form.
See the video tutorial for a demonstration.
6. Distribute your mini-lesson
Test your mini-lesson first to make sure all the links are doing the right thing.
There are different ways you can distribute your mini-lesson. These include:
Use the “Share” option to email a link recipients
Use the “Publish to the web” options to embed the presentation in, for example, a blog or Google Site
See the video tutorial for a demonstration.
Video tutorial: Creating interactive mini-lessons in Google Slides
I have long been a fan of the ebook and have often created and distributed them to support my training and teaching activities. I have also at different times published and sold ebooks (look me up on the iBooks store!). Google Apps for Education makes it easy for both students and teachers to create attractive ebooks that can be shared in a number of formats.
Here are 6 tips to help you (or your class) create your first ebook using Google Apps for Education. These techniques are just as useful to anyone looking to self-publish an ebook, including general users of the free Google Drive and Google Apps for Work users.
1. Why create ebooks, anyway?
Ebooks can fulfil a number of purposes including:
Creating an eportfolio of a student’s work (or a number of students’ work).
Using students to ‘crowd source’ the creation of resources and text books, created for the target audience by the target audience.
Can be used by students of all ability levels.
Developing relevant 21st century skills.
Easily show evidence of learning to a wide audience (including parents) in an environmentally friendly way.
Create your own text books and resources that you can easily update and distribute.
2. What app should I use?
The app that will provide you with maximum flexibility in terms of presentation and layout is Google Slides, particularly if you are combining text and images.
This is not the perfect book publishing solution but allows for a lot of flexibility and creativity without a steep learning curve.
3. What size should my ebook be?
There is no ‘standard’ ebook size. It’s probably a good idea, though, to set-up the pages in portrait orientation and in you standard printer size, i.e., A4 or Letter depending on what part of the world you are in.
[table id=1 /]
Here is a short tutorial showing you how to change the page size in Google Slides.
4. How can I make sure my ebook looks good?
Do your homework. Investigate websites, books, ebooks, posters, etc, that you like the look of and use them as inspiration for your style, fonts and layouts.
There are also lots of online tools to help you select colour schemes that look good together and even give you the hexadecimal colour code to be able to put in your colour choosers in Google Slides.
Whilst you can have multiple page layouts within your ebook (for example, 1 large picture, 1 large column text, 2 smaller pictures with 2 even columns of text, 1 smaller picture with 2 uneven columns of text, etc) use the same basic elements throughout:
1 font style for page headings
1 font style for subheadings
1 font style for your body text
3 to 5 colours for your colour scheme
Make sure your inside covers are blank and you have the ‘half page title‘ to make your book look authentic.
Below is a video on how to easily create page layouts for your ebook in Google Slides (note: all images used are either my own photos or public domain imaged from Pixabay):
5. What platform should I use to create my ebook?
Although you can create your ebook on mobile versions of Google Slides (e.g., iPads or Android tablets) you will get the most flexibility and creativity using the full version through Google Chrome (e.g., Windows, Linux, Mac and Chromebook).
That doesn’t mean you can’t ‘mix and match’ devices. For example, do most of your editing using a Windows computer but use the iPad version to take photos and add them straight into the pages of your ebook.
The great thing is, you don’t have to stick to just one format!
Share the actual Google Slides file (view only)
Embed the Google Slides file into a website or blog (File > Publish to the web… > Embed)
Save the file as a PDF to easily view on most devices and platforms (File > Download as > PDF document)
PDF results in the most attractive ebook (I don’t know why, try it for yourself and see!) and, depending on the size, can be emailed or made available to download from a website or blog.
More resources
Student-Made E-Books: A Beautiful Way to Demonstrate Learning:
As the Google Drive and Google Apps for Education (GAfE) suites have matured, so have the available compatible apps across mobile platforms. This means you can do more on-the-go and using whatever device available than ever before. It also puts the power of GAfE in the hands of more people as they can be accessed on devices across many price points. And, of course, the apps are free.
It is important to note that not all ‘smart’ devices can access Google Apps effectively – read the post Does Google Apps for Education play nice with BYOD? for more on this. It also has ideas on how to breathe new life into old technology.
Also, the mobile apps tend not to have all the features of the browser based versions; this can be an advantage. Fewer features can sometimes mean greater productivity, particularly for people distracted by ‘bells and whistles’ like hundreds of fonts (yep, that’s me!). You can potentially use the desktop versions through the Chrome mobile browser but I have personally found this to be a frustrating experience.
Below is a quick reference table for many Google Apps across devices. It has already changed from when I first put it together as the mobile apps have improved. Some of the mobile apps are closer to their browser based counterparts than others. You will need to do more research to find out specifically what won’t work on the mobile apps. (I tried to find the definitive Google list but I was unable to).
The great thing is most apps retain their collaborative and commenting ability.
Another great feature of Google Drive is the template gallery. In a Google Apps for Education (#gafe) or Google Apps for Business environment, you can choose to share any of your Drive creations (from the core apps) as templates within your own domain only or share them with the whole world.
That also means you have free templates available for use from around the world! Some are great and some are…well, it’s nice for people to share, anyway! Here I’m sharing some of my own templates and some templates that I have found useful. Download them, modify them, use them, enjoy them!
Social media image templates
These are templates I created to the correct image sizes (at the time of creation) to fit the respective social media platform requirements. Use for your own purposes or with students as class assignments to create ‘fake’ social media images (can be used with any subject).
These can be used across grade levels and subjects. I find a great way to distribute them to students in a GAFE environment is to save the template on my Drive and then use Google Classroom to distribute.
A picture tells a thousand words and, with the Internet, we have access to almost limitless numbers of images. However, knowing how, if and when an image can be legally used in your project can be dicey. It’s even trickier for educators who have the responsibility of educating students about copyright and responsible digital citizenship.
Of course, there are legally free images available through Creative Commons and in the public domain but quality can be variable and, like the song says, you can’t always get what you want.
The solution? Create your own images!
Okay I hear you… you can’t afford hundreds of dollars of software, the steep learning curve this software often requires and you might think you’re not artistic.
Have you tried Google Drawings? It’s part of Google Drive / Google Apps for Education. It’s:
Free for GAFE and the general public (low cost subscription for Google Apps for Business)
Easy to use and learn
Okay, so you won’t become a graphic artist but you can start by creating simple silhouette illustrations you can use in your other Google Drive projects (or anywhere else for that matter). If you can Google a picture and click a mouse, you can create your own silhouette-style illustrations in Google Drawings. Full disclosure: the mouse clicking might take a little practise to get quick and accurate (you’ll know what I mean once you get started).
Not sure how to start? This video tutorial shows you how you can get started creating your own illustrations in Google Drawings even if you don’t have a single artistic bone in your body.
mbined with Google Apps – oh, happy days! I like freebies so much I’ve dedicated much of one of my Pinterest boards, 
Google Drive. It is so versatile and easy to use. As an educator, it makes it easy to put together and distribute information and content. It is also a great app for students to show evidence of learning or to curate a portfolio.
activities. I have also at different times published and sold ebooks (
apps are free.
Education (#gafe) or Google Apps for Business environment, you can choose to share any of your Drive creations (from the core apps) as templates within your own domain only or share them with the whole world.