How to Customize the Zoom Waiting Room

One of my favorite features in Zoom is the Zoom Waiting Room.  It's like a virtual tailgate party before your actual Zoom session.  I like it because you can customize the waiting room to make it fun, engaging, + informative.  Of course, using the waiting room is also helpful for security; you can see who is in the waiting room and admit them accordingly.  I'm going to show you how to customize the waiting room K?

Steps to customize the Zoom Waiting Room:

1.  Log onto your free or paid Zoom account at zoom.us

2.  Click on Settings in the toolbar (my toolbar appears on the left hand side of my screen if that is helpful).

3.  Scroll down in the settings just a touch to Waiting Room.  When you are there, make sure to toggle the switch on to activate the Waiting Room.  

4.  Then, go to the next setting which is Waiting Room Options and choose Edit. This allows you to edit who actually goes to the waiting room before your Zoom begins. I personally send everyone to the waiting room, because to me, the waiting room is the pre-party/tailgate to the Zoom.  Ha!

5.  Next, click on Customize Waiting Room.  This is where all the fun lives! You can add a very small graphic, change the title, meeting focus and blurb.  Make sure when you edit each block of text, you click on the little checkmark to save your edits.  I like to make my main blurb playful, like this:

"Hey there!  Are you ready to Zoom together?  Right now, I'm getting our Zoom space clean and sanitized for you.  I'm also adding bouquets of flowers because it's spring!  In just a few moments, our virtual Zoom doors will open.  In meantime, enjoy the (faux) waiting room music! See you virtually very soon - Jen"

6. Exit out of settings.  

7. Next time you host a Zoom, your guests will arrive to the waiting room.  To admit them, click on Participants and either admit guests one-by-one or click on admit all (which is generally what I do for large groups).  If a participant arrives late to your Zoom, you will see a waiting room announcement come up and remind you to let them into the Zoom.

The waiting room is pure joy.  So fun, functional and helpful.  

You can update the customized settings as much or as little as you like.  I try to update my Zoom Waiting Room settings to keep it fresh about 5-6 times a year and/or for special Zoom events.

Happy Waiting Room-ing,

Jen

Text Blaze for Tech Tuesday

Remember when I used to blog every Tuesday and share a favorite tech tool?  Well, I'm back!  Or at least, I am back today with a tech tool I am l-o-v-i-n-g!  Plus, here's a sneak peak of my new home office.  We call my office space the Jen Den.  It's a mix of color (to inspire me) and natural tones (to calm me down).

Today's tech sensation is a Chrome extension which means you have to use the Chrome browser to enjoy it. If you are new to extensions, Chrome extensions are like mini-apps built into Chrome. I appreciate all the extensions I've downloaded so far via Chrome (eg: Text Blaze, Pinterest, and Rakuten - to name a few).  

Today's tool, Text Blaze, is a Chrome extension tool that you can use to quickly insert a snippet of text when you are using any web-based program (like email, Facebook, grading within an online course, etc.).  It's for those times where you find yourself repeating your typing over and over again and you want a snippet of pre-written text to insert instead.

Teachers, you will love this tool for giving feedback to students.  Everyone else, you will appreciate this tool, too. Here's how I use it....

I have a lot of people contact me at work about my college's coach training program.  I now have a snippet I use to answer them back.  I simply type /cto (which for me stands for "Coach Training Offerings" and with just those four keystrokes the following snippet/message appears in the email I am composing: 

Thank you for reaching out. Right now, our spring 2021 coaching courses are full; they filled up in under a week. We do plan to begin our coaching course series again this summer 2021 and fall 2021. If you mark your calendar and email me (say in mid-March), I can share the upcoming dates/times with you.

If you have more questions, please let me know.

Best,

Jen

See how easy that is!  Four keystrokes and I get that entire snippet of text above.  Since I write this standard email reply many times a week, Text Blaze is saving me time and brain power.

Here's another example.  With coaching clients, I often follow-up by email after a coaching session.  Here's the snippet I use for that.  I simply type /csfu (which for me stands for Coaching Session Follow-up) and the following snippet appears:

Hello - As promised, I wanted to follow-up with you after our coaching session. Based on our session....

What updates can you share?

What are you noticing?

What are you learning?

Curious,

Jen

See how easy that is!  Four keystrokes and my message is composed!

Go check out Text Blaze and see what you think.  A lovely colleague shared this tool with me.  The free version gives you up to 20 snippets that you can change as you need them.

Happy Tech Tuesday!

With love from the Jen Den,

Jen

Rate My Professors {for Tech Tuesday}

I'm laughing that Rate My Professors is today's Tech Tuesday.  Here's the backstory....

Mr. UpCyclist is working on his Ph.D.  He has a not-so-great professor this semester, to say it mildly and kindly.  I asked him what his classmates thought about his professor.  He didn't know.  I said, Didn't you check him out on Rate My Professors.com? 

What?  He had never of that online resource before.  Geez, you can tell he's been out of college for a while.

So, doing the most romantic move possible on our date night, Mr. U checked out Rate My Professors on his phone.  His current, slightly-awful professor wasn't rated; Mr. U was thrilled to see his stellar graduate advisor had received positive reviews.

I'm not saying I totally agree with the ratings on Rate My Professors, but since I do have a chili pepper by my name, there has to be some truth in it, right?

Ha!

Jen

Gapminder {for Tech Tuesday}

I love statistics and data. Do you?  I love them even more because of Gapminder.  Gapminder takes statistics and data and visually graphs them over time, which can then be animated.

Say what?

Animate my stats, data, facts and figures?  Yep, animate them.  See that play button above (lower left hand corner of graphic)?

Thanks to Hans Rosling, who has appeared on TED Talks over a handful of times (yes, that's how bright and creative this guy is), we can now "play" with our stats and data.  Play!  Do you know how awesome this is for kids and teens?  How about us adults?

Life and statistics just got totally better with Gapminder.

Totally,

Jen

PS - The graphic above depicts poverty statistics from around the world over time.  I was so bummed to see how high Ethiopia is as I was thinking of all the kids at AHOPE and our Rainbow Loom Project.  Ethiopia is one of the upper, medium-sized, royal blue circles.  Boo.

Favorite iPad Apps of Lil O {for Tech Tuesday}

After dinner at our house (and sometimes before dinner) can be a true mix of randomness. Well over a year ago, Lil O saved up and paid for half of an iPad.  Mr. UpCyclist paid the other half.  Sometimes I totally despise that piece of technology.  Other times, when Lil O is using the following apps, I enjoy it as the apps below encourage problem-solving, creativity, and music:

Video Star - Lil O is a music lover.  Really she is.  This app allows her to create the coolest music videos.  You should see the videos she produces.  They are time-consuming, creative and totally entertaining (to me, her and just about everyone else she shares them with).

Edjing - This app allows Lil O to mix, edit and spin her own tunes.  She's like a mini-deejay in training.  Plus, I like how this app makes her think ahead, pay attention to beats & rhythms, and be musically creative.

Sing! - For karaoke lovers, this app is hysterical.  You partner up with people from all over the world to sing duets.  I was concerned about the safety of this app, but so far, I'm not seeing anything fishy. I'll keep you posted if I do.

And just in case you want to see the randomness that happens sometimes all at once at our house, here you go.  An annotated photo....

I so love this kid and all the randomness.

Jen

Colorful Colorado Cloned {with Pic Monkey}

Just for fun.....

I love this photo that we took on our winter road trip, but I hate those darn signs by my hand.

No problem.  I'll just clone them out with PicMonkey.

Aren't I sneaky?  If you need a cloning refresher, check out my post on cloning.  I don't know why, but cloning always makes me feel like a super hero-FBI agent-faux graphic designer all in one.

Plus, really....isn't this photo so much better without those silly road signs?!

Ha,
Jen

TEDtalks You Must Watch {for Tech Tuesday}

You know how much Upcycled Education appreciates TEDtalks, right?  Remember this post here?

Today, our student (yes, student) guest blogger, the amazing KH, is here to share her must-see favorites.  Have you seen the three talks listed below?

Welcome, amazing KH!

Amy Cuddy's Power Pose

I think what Amy Cuddy presents in her TEDtalk is something very useful that doesn’t need a lot of resources to change your life.  Plus, what she talks about is very true: 1.) many judgments are based on nonverbals, 2.) we are influenced by our nonverbals, and 3.) our bodies change our minds, our minds change our behaviors, and our behaviors change our outcomes.  And I think these are very valuable things to remember in the classroom (and life) because students/people might base their judgments on how we present ourselves in the classroom.  The 2-minute a day power poses, Cuddy describes, can change not only how others think of us but how we think of ourselves.  If you go into a classroom feeling vulnerable, or into a meeting feeling insignificant, you can practice these 2-minute power poses and instead of faking it ‘til you make it, you can fake it ‘til you become it.

Jane McGonigal's Superbetter 

I absolutely love this idea of Superbetter (Ialready downloaded the app!).  In the game, you are given "power ups" that boost four types of resiliences: physical, mental, emotional, and social, and if you spend one hour a day boosting these resiliences, studies have shown that you can add ten extra years to your life.  So how can you incorporate this in your classroom? So many ways!!  You can actually teach your students the game.  Have a special "Superbetter Board" where you can post different types of power ups, quests, and bad guys.  This way students can try and complete the missions on their own time.  But for me, working with young kids, I thought these would make great focus activities.  Before starting the day why not give your kiddies some paper and tell them to write a short thank you note to someone they love to boost their social resilience, or tell them to jump up and down for 30 seconds to boost their physical resilience, or even give themselves a hug or pat on the back to boost their emotional resilience.  So not only are you adding time to their lives, but you're helping them to stay connected and in touch with people in their lives, themselves, and their environment.

Shawn Anchor's Happiness

Basically what Shawn Anchor is saying that the world has reversed the formula for happiness. We think that if you work harder you will be more successful, and if you are more successful you'll be happier.  But this is backwards because when your brain is at a positive, it functions better than at negative, neutral or stressed.  So if we as teachers, train our students to think more positively, not only will they use better work ethics but they will generally become happier.  And to train them to think positively we can use a series of exercises.  For 21 days, you can ask students to write down three gratitudes and by doing this they will begin to scan the world for positives first rather than negatives.  Journaling is a great tool used in most classrooms already, and by asking them to journal about a positive experience they had in the last 24 hours, they can relive this experience and receive the same positive effects it has on their brain.  Exercise, meditation, and random acts of kindness are also activities you can use with students to focus their brain on happiness and allow them to function better and more efficiently in the classroom.

Thank you, amazing KH!  She really is amazing, by the way.  These TEDtalks seem so appropriate to this time of year, too.  Each of them is like a mini-New Year's resolution.

I love TEDtalks and I adore my wonderful students, like KH!

Enjoy,

Jen

Instaport {for Tech Tuesday}

I recently needed to have access to all my Instagram photos for a holiday project.  Since they aren't downloadable from Instagram, I used this handy-dandy tool, Instaport, to download them.

It was  a total snap to do.  After opening Instaport, I just logged onto my Instagram account.  Chose my date range to download (you can also download by #hashtag, which is soooo cool and another good reason to use hashtags).  Then, click on "start export."  It took under a minute to download my Instagrams and now, I have all of them saved to my computer.

Ready for fun projects.  Hurrah!

Happy Tech Tuesday!

Jen

PS - Are you making any cool holiday projects this year?  I'd love to hear about them.  I've been uber-busy making holiday garlands.  #garlandaddict

Implicit Association Tests {for Tech Tuesday}

Today's guest blogger is a longtime friend of Upcycled Education.  Please welcome back, Dr. I.  You'll remember her first post here.

Source for graphic:  http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/psych-11c/deck/6417095

Are you truly aware of your unconscious thoughts, attitudes, preferences, and stereotypes?   Do you have a preference for thin people (versus overweight), abled persons (versus disabled), men in the field science (versus women), or young people (versus old)?  More than likely, you answered no to all of these questions.  Few of us would admit a preference for one group over another; but our unconscious minds may tell us something different.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was originally developed in 1998 by three professors (from Harvard University, University of Washington, and University of Virginia) to explore the “unconscious roots of thinking and feeling”.  The test grew from research in the area of implicit social cognition, a term used to describe the cognitive processes that occur outside of our conscious control or awareness (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995).  

The IAT is designed to measure our instinctive associations between concepts like skin color or religion and attributes like good/bad or male/female.   After choosing a test to take, you will be presented with a set of images or words that you need to quickly categorize into groups (e.g. abled/disabled, good/bad).  The test is timed to elicit your first instinct, without thinking too much.  For example you will press a button with your left-hand to categorize something as “Black” or “good” and a button with your right-hand to categorize something as “White” or “bad”.  Then, the categories switch.  Your answers, as well as the length of time it takes for you to categorize, contribute to your result (e.g. “little to no automatic preference between Black persons and White persons”).

You may be surprised by your results!  The good news is that your results include an explanation, research support, and a table like this showing the results of everyone who has taken the test:

I encourage you to take the time to complete one or more of the Implicit Association Tests.  It might just change your mind!

Thank you, Dr. I, for sharing this blog post.  I just took my first implicit test and the results were a bit surprising.

Oh my,

Jen

Reference:

Greenwa ld, A. G., & Banaji , M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102(1), 4–27.