In this issue

• Koala Teachers Family FB Weekly Recap

• The Canva Doc format

• The new screen recorder I use

• Editorial: The importance of backup plans

• Interesting Links

• User Submissions

Facebook

😑📘Koala Teachers Family recap

Another relatively slow week in the Facebook group

Silent E Community Park, now on the marketplace

Dyslexia Support and Resources for Families Facebook group.

Canva

📋🪄The Canva Doc format is actually way cooler than I thought

When the Doc format was released it really didn’t do much for me, I couldn’t really see a good use for it. However, lately I have been using it to make the PDF stories I have been sharing in this newsletter. It’s not the best at formatting things but it does give ok results that are FAST.

Recently, I see that you can change a Doc to a Canva Presentation with just a couple clicks.  Now this is a Huge timesaver. Once you have a presentation with a few more clicks you can have a website and/or a PDF!

The results are not perfect, but it is a great start if you feel like editing it. I usually don’t. For these short stories I don’t look for perfection.

Tools

🧑🏽‍🏫🛠️The new screen recorder I use

When I moved my adult students to the Preply classroom I needed a way to record a few minutes of speaking at the end of each class. I first asked Perplexity to recommend the best free options of screen recorders for Chrome. This was the third one I installed and tried, it is by far the best and has, so far, not failed to deliver.

Click on the icon in the extension bar, click a couple options and it just does it’s job. The output is in webm format which seems to be more and more popular these days.

There are many tools to convert webm to almost any other format, I actually use this tool.

I only need the mp3 audio track and this tool strips it off very quickly. After I have the mp3, I send it to this tool for a quick transcription.

I do this in just a couple minutes during the 10 minute gap between classes. Once I have the class summary written in Notes, the mp3 and the transcribed text pasted into the beginning of the next lesson for that student I am ready for the next class.

Editorial

✍️🃏Editorial: The importance of backup plans

In all the other parts of my life I was always aware of the importance of having backup plans because stuff just happens. In the tour business I regularly needed to be prepared for road closures, volcanic eruptions or lack there of, detours, poor weather, rule changes, bad drivers, equipment failures, sick passengers, Karens, etc.

After awhile I was ready for pretty much anything.

I take the same approach with online tutoring. After switching my adult students to the Preply classroom a couple weeks ago I have had a few classes where I needed to use Koala Go as a plan B. Either we had bad connections with Preply or it just plain wasn’t working right. Anyhow it’s always good to be ready.

I usually have extra materials handy just in case things don’t go according to plan.

With kids that might be Wordwall games, Dunk The Teacher spelling, reading comprehension Pyramid Escape or even just a screenshot of a word search puzzle, something is bound to still be working.

With adults I’m still collecting things to use in those emergency situations, I have a couple of movie trailer presentations. I have a few PDF stories that I created for individual students, but I can reuse them. Of course we still have Wordwall games and even a few mazes in Playground like phrasal verbs and a couple others.

I enjoy the peace of mind knowing that I’m ready to improvise and not cancel a class because something isn’t working right that day.

Links

🧐⛓️‍💥Interesting Links

These are links that I found interesting but haven’t written about, there is simply too much happening these days.

• Llama Tutor, free AI powered tutor that does the research and gives the links. https://llamatutor.together.ai

• Gandalf, try your skills in tricking LLMs to do things they are not supposed to, the new hacking.  https://gandalf.lakera.ai/intro

• Studymap, the future of course creation? Check out the Free AI generated courses in their library they are impressive  https://studymap.ai/

• Educato, create and monetize courses and test prep.  https://www.educato.ai

Enjoy!!

⬇️⬇️ User Submissions ⬇️⬇️

Playground

💧👩🏻‍🏫Seeking content for Dunk The Teacher and Escape the planet

Do you like the concept behind these games but they don’t have the right content for you? Send me an email about it.

My original plan was to offer many different versions with the content that teachers like yourself wanted (each version at $3), but since I cannot read minds I need you to tell me what you need. 😆

Submissions

🙋🏽‍♂️🤷🏻‍♀️How do I submit my Playground to be featured in Koala Bites?

If you have a Playground you would like to have in this newsletter, or for that matter, anything the readers might find useful. Just click that button that says “Submissions”. That will open an email for you to describe what you would like to submit.

I like to schedule a time where I can come to your classroom and tour the Playground. Then I will do a short write-up. There is no cost for this.

Bye-bye

👋🏾Well that’s it for this issue

Don’t forget to share it with your friends or on social media!