Favorite Chrome Extensions - Week of February 23rd

Here are my extensions for the week. Check out my Getting Jiggy with Chrome presentation if you want to learn more about this awesome web browser. 

#1: Easy Share
Type: Productivity
Summary: This extension allows you to post to Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Linked In, Tumbler, and Pinterest. You do still have to compose separate posts (or you can copy and paste), but I do like that you don't have to go to multiple sites to post the same link. I have tried a couple extensions that allow you to share a link across multiple social networking platforms, but I didn't really care for any of them until I found Easy Share. It is worth a try. 

#2: Turn Off the Lights
Type: Productivity
Summary: This extension will block out everything on the YouTube page except for the video. I have known about this extension for quite some time and to be honest I never really liked it. My co-worker, Jennifer, mentioned the extension the other day and I expressed I didn't like it because I didn't feel the opacity of the "dimmed" portion wasn't dark enough. Then I decided to poke around and see if I could change that. I stumbled across a ton of features you can activate with this extension, such as changing the dimmed color, changing the opacity, and automatically making the player part larger. Now I love this extension.

#3: Read & Write for Google
Type: Productivity
Summary: I believe that I have shared this one before, but felt that perhaps I should share again. The premium version is always free for teachers, but limited to a 30 day trial for students. After the trial it goes to the basic features. See list for basic vs premium.

While premium is nice, basic will do. We have teachers in our district who have started putting their common assessments on a Google document, so that the students who need the test read to them can use the text to speech feature. The students put on head phones, turn on the extension and select the portion of the assessment to be read. The teacher no longer has to sit with that student and is now freed up to monitor the rest of the class. 

#4: Move It
Type: Productivity
Summary: Get active with Move It. Great for people who need to have a brain break. Set the time interval and after the designated amount of time a screen will come up give you instructions on a movement to complete. Once complete, click done and get back to work. What about using this in a class to get students up and moving every so often?