In this video I'm going to show you 16 must-have Google Chrome extensions for teachers.
If you watched my previous video on this topic, you know that a lot of the Chrome extensions
that I recommended are no longer available. Plus, I got a lot of suggestions about some
different extensions I should showcase so I decided to make a totally different video and
in this one I'm going to show you Google Chrome extensions that'll help you with work productivity,
as well as make the content that you teach students more interactive and engaging. My
name is Sam Kary and this is my YouTube channel for The New EdTech Classroom.
If you like the tips that I share about extensions in this video, you can show your support by sharing
it with other teachers that you know, hitting the like button, leaving a comment, and subscribing to
my channel and hitting the notification bell to make sure you don't miss any of my weekly updates.
Since I have so many extensions to show you, let's jump in right now and take a look at 16 must-have
Google Chrome extensions for teachers. All right first off, to get Chrome extensions you're going
to want to go to the Chrome web store. You'll see on the Chrome web store that there are loads of
different extensions that you can add to your browser. One thing to note is that some schools
block access to these extensions so if you try to add them and it says that you've been blocked and
you're not able to add them, you would need to request permission to do so from your
administrator. All of the extensions that I'm going to show in this video have free features.
Some have some premium upgrades and others are just completely free for you to use.
All right the first extension that I recommend you get is Loom for Chrome. Loom is a really
easy to use screen recording program that has a couple of features that make it really stand out.
So since this is the first extension, I'll walk through installing it a little bit slower
and then I'm not going to show the setup process for the rest of the extensions.
So what I'll do here is search for Loom and then I'll click on Loom for Chrome. That will take me to
a page where I can learn a little bit more about this extension and if I want to add it, i'll click
that blue 'Add to Chrome' button. That'll pop up another box and I'm going to click again that
I want to add this extension. After you install an extension it may not show up yet on your browser
so to get it to show up you're going to need to click on this puzzle piece,
then you'll want to pin that extension to the browser by clicking on the pin. It's important
to note that even though an extension isn't pinned to your browser that doesn't necessarily
mean that it's not running and active. Okay now that I have the extension pinned to my browser
I'm going to go ahead and set up an account. A lot of these extensions will require you to set up an
account in order to use the program. So I'll click 'Get Loom for free' and then I'll sign in with my
Gmail account. Now one thing that I want to point out here about Loom that makes it appealing for
educators is the fact that you can get a free account if you're a teacher or a student. So
now let's say that I'm over on this Google Slide and I want to record a tutorial for my students.
All I need to do is go up to the Loom extension and then configure my recording and once I'm ready
to record I'll click 'Start Recording.' You'll notice that you can include a video of yourself in the
corner of the screen. Here I actually have a Loomie avatar rather than my webcam video, and I'll show
you how to make one of these in another tutorial. So when it's recording, I'm able to talk about
what I'm showing on the screen, then when I'm done recording I'll click on the Loom extension again
and then it will take me over to another page where I'm able to make some edits on my video.
The video editing tool is another aspect of Loom that makes it stand out. So rather than just being
able to trim from the beginning and end of a video, with Loom you can also trim sections from
the middle. And then once you're finished with the video it will create a link that you can easily
copy and paste in order to share it with others. I have another separate video on my channel about
how to make video tutorials for students if you're interested in learning more about it. All right the
second extension is Tab Resize, which is a screen splitter. What I like about this extension is that
it gives you different formats for how you could split your screen. Okay so I'm going to go through
the process again of installing this extension here. Alright so you can envision a situation where
you might have something like four different Zoom rooms open at the same time because you're using
breakout rooms. Obviously if you have a second screen it's going to be easier to monitor all
of those different Zoom rooms at the same time, but if you don't you can use a tool like Tab Resize in
order to split your screen into quadrants. So what I'm going to do here is go up to Tab Resize and
then I'll select the four quadrant option and there you'll see that it's going to split all
four tabs into equal sections on my screen. So now if you had students in four different Zoom rooms
it would be easier to monitor what's happening in each of those rooms. And of course this quadrant
splitter would be useful for any other program that you're using for small group work as well.
In addition to splitting the screen into four parts, you can also split the screen into two
along a horizontal line and then of course there's a traditional screen splitter option so that you
can split the screen in vertical halves as well. The third extension I recommend is called Insert
Learning. Insert Learning is an extension that's going to allow you to make any web page into an
interactive assignment for students. So the way that it works is that after you have it installed
you can go over to a webpage that you want to have your students read. Then what you'll
do is open up the extension and you'll see that it will pop up this little menu on the left hand side
of the screen. This menu basically gives you some different interactivity tools that you can add to
any web page. So for example you could add sticky notes to different parts of the web page. Then
you can do things like add a URL link to a video and that will actually directly embed the video
onto this webpage for your students to watch right there. In addition to sticky notes there's also a
question tool. When you choose to add a question to the webpage you can either choose from a drop-down
menu of pre-created questions or of course you can just write your own. And then what's going to
happen as students are responding to that question is that you'll see the answers coming through live
and you can respond to students right away as well. And then another useful feature is the
discussion tool. If you add a discussion to a part of the webpage it will allow students to see each
other's responses and they can have a conversation with each other in real time. If you want to learn
all the features of Insert Learning, like how to bring in classes from Google Classroom and how to
assign assignments to students, I would recommend you check out the full tutorial that I have on my
channel. Alright the fourth must-have extension for teachers is Mote. Mote allows you to easily leave
quick audio feedback on any Google Doc, Google Slides, Google Sheets, or in Google Classroom. This
extension works a little bit differently from the others because after you've created it all
you'll need to do is find Mote in the comment feature on one of your G-suite products. After
you've installed the extension, a little 'm' icon is going to show up in G-suite tools that allow for
commenting. So now on this Google Slide you'll see that in addition to leaving a text-based comment,
I'm also able to leave a voice comment as well. So I just click on this purple 'm,' record what
I want to say, and that will produce an audio comment. And you'll see that when you have the
extension installed, the purple icon will also show up in a Google Classroom comment, so you can leave
audio comments for students there too. The premium version of Mote has other tools like translation,
auto-transcription, and the ability to store your comments and reuse them at a later time. Like some
of the others, I also have a full tutorial about Mote on my channel if you want to learn more
about it. The fifth chrome extension is Custom Cursor. Custom Cursor is a great tool if you're
teaching online because it's going to help direct your students' attention to the part of the screen
where you want them to look. So let's say that I'm over here in Khan Academy and I want to point out
particular aspects of the screen really quickly for my students. I'll go up here to the Custom
Cursor extension and then you'll see that there are a bunch of different options of cursors that
you can choose from. So they have cartoon cursors, cursors that are based on books and movies, and
also just some cursors that are a little bit more stylish and more interesting to look at. So I'll go
ahead and select this ninja turtle cursor here and now you can see that my cursor has changed into
a ninja turtle head and a sword when I'm moving it around on the screen. The sixth extension is a
personal favorite, Web Paint. Web Paint basically just allows you to mark up any part of a web
page that you're teaching to students. So let's say that I'm on this national geographic article here.
What I can do is open up Web Paint and then I can use this drawing tool to circle the title
of the article and you can also do things like add different shapes. So here I could also draw a box
around the title, then once I have this box drawn, I can use the fill color tool to fill all the color
around the title to really make that title stand out. So this would be useful just to draw students'
attention to certain parts of the screen. And then another useful tool is the text tool which
is going to allow you to type on any part of the web page. So let's say you've marked up an entire
web page and you want to keep it or you want to be able to post it for students to look at later.
You can create a screenshot that you can easily share by using this screenshot tool.
The seventh extension is Bitmoji. In order to use a Bitmoji you are going to need to set up your
Bitmoji separately, as well as create an account. And then once you've done that and you have the
extension installed, let's say you're over here on a Google Slide, you'll just click on that Bitmoji
extension, you can search for something like 'Good Morning,' and then you'll see that some pre-created
virtual avatars of yourself are going to pop up with the words 'Good Morning.' Once you've found
what you like, simply drag and drop it onto the slide and it will put that Bitmoji in.
There are lots of websites where you won't be able to just drag and drop a Bitmoji in,
so if you're having difficulty with that, what you need to do is drag your Bitmoji onto your desktop
and that will save it as an image and then you can just upload that bitmoji into a program
that only accepts image files. The eighth extension is a translation tool called Reverso.
I got a lot of comments on my previous video that Google Translate wasn't the best for translation
and that this was actually a much more accurate translator. It works similar to Google Translate
and is really easy to use if you need to translate some text. All you need to do is highlight the part
of the text that you want translated and then click on the extension and then you'll see that
it will produce a translation for you into the language that you've chosen. The ninth must-have
extension for teachers is Kami. Kami is a PDF and document annotation tool and it does merit
noting that it's going to be most effective to use with students if you have the pro version of Kami
and if your students have the Kami extension installed on their browsers as well. Luckily when
you first install it, it gives you quite a long trial period to check out the pro features to see
if it's worth it to you to get them. I want to show you how Kami works with Google Classroom here. Once
you have the Kami extension installed, when you go to create an assignment in Google Classroom,
you'll see that you have the option to create a Kami assignment. Once you click on that, it's going
to pull up an assignment editor that looks very similar to the Google Classroom assignment editor.
Since this is a PDF annotation tool I'm going to go ahead and bring in a PDF file from my Google
Drive here and now I'm going to go ahead and assign this assignment to my students.
So let's jump over here quickly to a student account. Note that this student
also has the Kami extension installed. When they go to open up the assignment in Google Classroom
they'll have an option to open it as a Kami assignment. And then once they do that they'll
have a bunch of different tools available to them on the left hand corner of their screen that they
can use to interact with the PDF that you assigned. So for example they could highlight different
sections, they can annotate with a text tool, and they can even add voice annotations as well. There
are lots of other tools available in Kami and if you're going to use it with students, I definitely
recommend that you proactively teach them how to use all the different tools that are available. The
10th extension is Smallpdf. Smallpdf is basically going to allow you to easily convert files from
one type to another. So let's say you have PDF files that are currently uneditable. This program
is going to allow you to take those PDF files and convert them into an editable word document.
I've gotten a lot of comments that Smallpdf isn't a totally free program. When you first create an
account, it is going to prompt you to set up a trial account but you actually don't need to do
that. It does still have free features, you're just going to be limited to the number of times that
you can use them per day. So I'm going to show you now how you could create an editable Word document
out of a PDF file. I'll go ahead and select 'PDF to Word' file here, then I'll choose to upload a PDF
file that I have on my computer. I'll click 'Convert to Word' and then once it's processed the document,
it will pop up a new file that I can now edit. And once I've done that you'll also see that
it gives me a notification that I've just used one of two free tasks that I have available to me each
day with the free version. So now when I click on this document, it's no longer a static PDF document.
I'm actually able to type on it and I can delete parts of it as well. You can also do this the other
way around, so if you have a Word document that you want to convert to a PDF, you could do that too. The
eleventh extension I recommend is Awesome Screenshot. I do recognize that it's not hard to take a
screenshot with keyboard commands, but Awesome Screenshot has some features that still make
it worth installing. So let's say that I'm here on this Google Form and I want to take a screenshot
of it. I'll go up here to Awesome Screenshot and then I'm going to go to the 'Capture' option.
So here you'll see that you can choose to capture what's visible on the screen, to capture the entire
screen, or to capture a selected section. And then after you've taken the screenshot it will bring
you over to an editor where you're able to draw and annotate directly on that screenshot before
downloading it or sharing it with somebody else. The twelfth extension is Giphy or Giphy depending
on how you pronounce it for Chrome. Giphy's a tool that I use all the time just for fun. It's great
for adding different animated images onto things like Google Slides to make them more exciting and
engaging for students. So I'll go back here to a Google Slide presentation that right now is
pretty boring and bland and then click on the Giphy extension and search for a GIF that
I'm looking for. So for example let's say that I want to convey the idea of happiness to students,
I could search for the word 'happy' and see what comes up. Then once I find a GIF that I like,
I can drag and drop it directly onto the Slide presentation and it will show up as an animated
image. In my opinion GIFs are one of the best ways to add a little bit of humor and fun to
your slides, whether you're presenting them to students or to other teachers, so I definitely
recommend that you check it out. The thirteenth extension is an extension for math teachers called EquatiO.
This extension is going to allow you to add math language to different G-suite products.
So let's say that I'm over here on a Google Doc and I have EquatiO pulled up. One thing you can
do is just type a math equation directly in using some of the keyboard shortcut tools, but another
option that I really like about this extension is that you can also record yourself speaking a math
equation and it will interpret what you said and create an equation for you. So for example I could
say something like, '2 plus 2 to the third equals x' and there you'll see that it's interpreted what
I said and created my equation. And then once I click 'Insert Math,' it will insert that equation
directly into Google Docs. The fourteenth extension is really useful if you're a Padlet user. It's called
Padlet Mini. Padlet Mini is basically just going to allow you to very easily add different posts to a
padlet that you've created. So first I'm actually going to go back over here to Padlet and I'll
quickly create a board about U.S. Presidents. So let's say that I just have created this board and
I want to start gathering some different resources that I want to be able to share with students.
Once I've found one, like this web page about George Washington, I can click on the Padlet extension
and then select the board where I want that source to show up. And then when I click 'View' it will take
me back over to the Padlet board where you can see that it's created a thumbnail image representing
that webpage, a description, and an active link that students could click on to open up that web
page to be able to see for themselves. The fifteenth extension I recommend is the Google Calendar
extension. So installing this extension is just a really quick and easy way to see what events
you have coming up in a day, even without opening it. You can see how much time you have until your
next scheduled event. So here for example, you can see that I have an event scheduled in 20 minutes.
And then when I click on the extension I'm also able to see the rest of the events that I have
scheduled for that day. I just like the ability to easily check and see what I need to do rather than
having to go over and open up Google Calendar in a separate tab. The sixteenth and final extension
is called Extensity. One thing that comes up a lot when people install a lot of extensions
is that you might notice that it starts to slow down your browser speed. Extensity helps
you with that by allowing you to easily remove and add back extensions on your browser. So when
you click on extensity you'll see that all the extensions you've installed will show up in a list
and if you click on those extensions, it will quickly remove them from your browser.
And then if you want to add an extension back on, you just need to click on it again.
You might be thinking that this is the same as pinning and unpinning an extension, but you might
recall from the beginning of the video that even if you have an extension unpinned, it can
still be active on your browser and might still be slowing it down. So if you're having that problem
of extensions slowing down your browser, you'll want to get Extensity. I hope you found these
tips about must-have Google Chrome extensions for teachers helpful. If you have any questions
about the extensions, comments about them, or suggestions about other extensions that you like,
I'd love to hear about those in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching my video to the end.
If you found the tips that I shared helpful, please share it with other teachers that you know,
hit the like button, and subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell to make sure you
don't miss any of my weekly updates. You can also check out some of the other tutorials I
have on my channel by clicking on one of those two videos above and if you're interested in
downloading any of the resources that I've created and show on my videos, please visit my website at
www.newedtechclassroom.com. Lastly if you want to check me out on social media, my Twitter handle,
Facebook page, and Pinterest account are all in the description below.
Thanks so much and have a great week!