Lemon Tech Tidbits

Mrs. Rufener was visiting with me a little bit about technology. She told me about how she had been hearing many people talk in her educational groups on TikTok about a way to show videos on Youtube without the ads or recommended videos showing on the side. I initially thought this was the trick that was shared earlier on Reddit where you insert a period but that it no longer is working (after it went viral on social media, Youtube took this option away). Yesterday, however, I came across another post with a different trick to do the same thing. Here is a quick video from Mr. Vacca demonstrating the trick. *This trick will work on every device but an iPad. Here are the steps: Find the video on Youtube Copy the URL at the top In a new tab, paste in the URL CHANGE the url by adding in an underscore followed by the word popup between the words watch and the question mark - like this watch_popup? Hit enter and it will now play the video without any of the ads or recommended videos. Share

NEW TECH RESOURCE I am always in awe at the many teachers out there who not only create wonderful technology resources but share them for free! The other day, I was on browsing the many Facebook professional groups when someone recommended an Instagram account to follow called #TeachersUsingTeach by Gail Felix. When I took a look, I was blown away. I soon discovered she has a website as well which you can find here: https://www.teachersusingtech.com/ Gail Felix who started to blog to share her information with others. She currently is a technology teacher for grades 1-5 so many of her resources are geared for elementary students. On her site, you will find access to many free resources such as Bitmoji classrooms ready for you to customize and share, digital scavenger hunts, math game rooms, virtual calming rooms, and more. She does have a link to where you can donate some money if you are inclined to do so (which I do because I love when teachers share for free and want them to keep

Have you heard of the new online game that is sweeping the world? It is called Among Us.  What is it? It is an online multiplayer strategy game. Anywhere from 4 to 10 players drop in on an alien starship. Each player is designated as either a crew member or an imposter. Crewmates must run around the ship and complete tasks while trying to figure out who the Imposters are before one of them has a chance to kill them. Players can be voted off by other teammates as well so each game becomes a game of survival. To win, you either must complete all of the tasks or have uncovered the imposter(s).  Education Benefits: An interesting article in TCEA TechNotes talks about how this game can be used either online or in-person instruction. Most of the skills learned are social as students must work together to come out on top. It can also provide a stress release or be used as an award for completion of their work. Due to the popularity of the game, you will start seeing it pop up in worksheets,

There are many different Chrome extensions I like to use. One of them is called JustRead. This Chrome Extension will allow you to take a webpage and remove all of the annoying ads and popups so just the words remain. There is a free and a premium version but to be honest, I have been using the free version for a long time with no problems. The paid version allows you to permanently save the version of the pages, easily share them with others, and add annotations and highlights. Here is a quick video showing you how I use JustRead. JustRead is not the only Chrome Extension designed to make it easier to read articles off the website without popups and ads getting in the way. Here are a few others to try as well. EasyReader : One advantage this has over JustRead is it will create an index on the left-hand side which can come in handy with exceptionally long articles. MercuryReader: This extension allows you to send the articles to your Kindle device if you want to read them at a later