Top 10 |Distance Learning| TECH HOW-TO VIDEOS

Let’s Chat Tech Tips

Today I wanted to pop in and give you several quick tech tips videos! I’ve received a lot of specific tech questions because of distance learning. I wanted to offer a comprehensive blog post will all of my tech tip videos in ONE spot! I am a super visual person and need to SEE in order to understand!

In this post I will walk you through some basic tech tips but then also some very specific tech tips! These videos are universal for any of my TPT packets! I want to disclose that these tips ARE approved for ALL of my packets. However, I can only speak for my own packets. You will want to check-in with each seller for their copyright limits.

The MUST-KNOW Tool for Distance Learning

Yes. The snipping tool is MUST for distance teaching! In this video I will teach all about the snipping tool. On a PC this is an app that can be found on your computer! If you are unable to find the snipping tool on your PC follow the quick keyboard shortcut below. You will click the Windows key + S. That will open the search window. Begin typing in snipping tool.

Watch the snipping How-To video below! Ps. just a reminder if you are on a MAC you will use Shift+CMD+4 to open your screenshow window.

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view to snipping tool video.

Take a BIG PDF and Break It Into Smaller PDFs

This next tip will be used often during your distance learning but will be something you use forever and ever! I have granted access to my material being shared for your students as long as it’s “split”. This simply means that you won’t be sending or sharing an entire packet of mine cover to cover. This video will teach out how to do that— SPLIT the pdf document into smaller pieces! **Just a heads up! If you are on a MAC you might need to try opening your file in Preview and not Adobe. Check out the video below!

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the split pdf tool video.

Let’s Chat the Basics in PowerPoint

In this video I will share with you the basics in setting up a PowerPoint file. A PowerPoint file is what I create all of my programs in. You can use PowerPoint for lots of ideas in your distance learning adventures.

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the basic powerpoint set up video.

Hyperlink It

Up next is a quick video to discuss hyperlinking within your PowerPoint file or Google Slides file. If you have created a video for your students or wish to send parents to a website you will want to watch this helpful video!

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the hyperlinking video.

Let’s Create in SeeSaw

In this video I will share tips on creating in SeeSaw! SeeSaw is SO EASY to create in and is extremely kid-friendly. If you haven’t picked a platform yet I would recommend SeeSaw for sure! Be sure to see below for SeeSaw icons cheat sheet and an interactive word builder SeeSaw activity.

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the hyperlinking video.

If you are a SeeSaw teacher, you can download this freebie SeeSaw word building activity that I already created! Download the activity by clicking HERE!

In the video above I showed you how to use letter tiles for the activity! I thought it would be great to offer these to you for free! You can use my pre-made letter tiles for any of your projects! You can use these in SeeSaw, Google Slides, and/or PowerPoint! Click HERE to download the letter tiles. You will want to make sure you download these to your computer correctly! PLEASE video this quick how-to video for the freebies letters HERE.

Let’s Create in Google Slides

In this video I will share how you can take CENTERS or WORKSHEETS and make them interactive in Google Slides! There are ENDLESS ideas for this… I just wanted to offer a couple of ideas on how you can think “outside the box” for your standard TPT documents and make them into Google acceptable!

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the creating in Google Slides video.

Just like I offered for SeeSaw, I have a free Google Slides version of the Word Builder Mat! You can download this freebie HERE.

Let’s Make It an E-Reader

Really excited to get this video up for you! I have a lot of teachers emailing about getting my Interactive PowerPoint Show readers into a new e-reader format! Well… guess what? This is SUPER simple for you to do! I will walk you through it below!

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the creating E-Readers video.

This video is applicable to the following packets of mine! ALL of these packets ALREADY contain interactive readers! You just need to take them from PowerPoint Show to a PDF and/or Google Slides like I showed in the video.

• Differentiated Nonfiction Readers A-D
• Differentiated Nonfiction Readers E-H
• KinderWordFamilies Part 1
• KinderWordFamilies Part 2
• FirstieWordFamilies Part 1
• FirstieWordFamilies Part 2
• PrimaryBlendsandDigrpahs
• PrimarySightWords
• KinderSocialSkillsReaders

Here’s an additional video on getting these readers prepped for Seesaw **HERE**

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Upload the New E-Readers

If you didn’t know I have taken my post popular guided reading packets and uploaded E-Readers to the packets! This a set of PowerPoint and PDF versions of each book! Basically I took the regular PDF and I placed the book pages in order! I also split the pdf for you— so each book is its own file! You can upload these single files directly to Google Slides, SeeSaw, email, etc! You can see this in action below!

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the e-readers video.

This video is applicable to the following packets of mine! ALL of these packets ALREADY contain e-readers! They are ready for you to load them right into Google Slides, SeeSaw, etc!

• Differentaited Fiction Readers A-D
• KinderReaders Fiction A-D
• KinderReaders Nonfiction A-D
• FirstieReaders Fiction E-H
• Firstie Readers Nonfiction E-H

You can also take these new e-readers and make visual lessons for your students. Check out this SAMPLE guided reading lesson HERE or view below! In this video I use the new included e-readers and a desktop recording service (Screencast-o-matic). This type of video can be uploaded to YouTube, etc and then emailed to your parents/loaded into a platform of your choice! Ps. This book is a FREE sample! You can download it HERE.

Take It From Paper to Interactive

In this video I will show you how to take my paper reader and turn them into an e-reader version! This is for specific readers that I list below! These readers do not fall into the same category if the two prior videos!

• Kindergarten Guided Reading Mega
• 1st Grade Guided Reading Mega
• 2nd Grade Guided Reading Mega
• KinderBookKlub Readers
• KinderBookKlub 2 Readers
• FirstieReaders I-L
• KinderLifeSkills Readers

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If unable to play the video… click HERE to view the paper books to e-readers video.

Ask the Herd!

Yes, when all else fails and we just can’t get it — we ask for help! I have an amazing group of 63,000 teachers in a secure Facebook community! If you have tech questions please reach out in this community as we are more than happy to give some helpful hints! We are all in this together! You can join us at www.TeachWithTaraWest.com We would love to have you!

Speaking of asking the herd… several teachers in the group needed assistance with loading the readers into SeeSaw! If you are a SeeSaw user you will be interested in Carla assisting you in loading this reader!

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YES! Let’s learn how to add audio to your Google Slide documents! Adding audio is so, so, so easy! The website I’ll mention in the video below is called https://online-voice-recorder.com/

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If you are sending students a google link you will want to make sure you FORCE A COPY! This will make sure each student gets their own link!

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I wanted to add this additional bonus tutorial for SeeSaw! In this video I show you how to take my Google Slides and turn them into SeeSaw activities QUICKLY! I also share how to transform my PowerPoint show games into SeeSaw activities as well! Click HERE to view the video if you do not see it below!

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How about another bonus tip? In this video I show you how to take my PowerPoint Show games and turn them into Google Slide games! If the video does not load you can watch HERE!

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If you purchased any of THESE Google Ready Games you might want to combine or rearrange the slides/games! You can watch THIS video!

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How about putting all of your favorite centers, worksheets, or units to use into Google?! You can watch the tutorial below or HERE!

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Eek! I’m Still Unsure

Do you have specific questions that I can assist with? Of course you can email me here: littlemindsatworkLLC@gmail.com