The internet is a vast world of information. It's all at our fingertips, but it can be overwhelming if you don't know how to find what you're looking for. Here are some tools to help you navigate this web universe.
Power up Google Searches: We've all been there. You want to search for something on Google but can't think of how to refine your search so that you don't end up with too many unrelated results. How do you achieve the perfect Google search? Here are 10 tips to get you started:
There are even more Google search tips here. In my class, I am introducing a new Google search tool each week, and letting the students practice. I also plan to make a poster of some of the most useful search tools that they can reference throughout the year - one of my projects for the summer.
I mean, why do any actual thinking on your own anymore? Just kidding. 😉 I can see this as being most useful in secondary education, especially in higher-level math and science.
Searching for Copyright-free images: The internet is FULL of images, but most of these images are protected by copyright, so you can't just go copying and pasting all willy nilly. Then, how do you know which images you can use, and which you can't? Watch this video that I made for my students for help finding ok-to-use images on Google.
Searching for Images in a Google Doc: To save you even MORE of your precious time, Google has made finding safe images even easier within Google Docs, Slides, and Drawings. When you are creating a new Doc, Slide or Drawing, first...
Then,
From there, you can choose the image type and main color (if you’re looking for clipart of a red house, for example), and insert your image. All of the images provided are already labeled for personal or commercial use, so you don’t have to worry about copyright issues. It’s super easy and quick. Enjoy!
Wasn't that easy? I love that students can do this and not have to worry about usage rights. That's a time saver in my book.
I hope this post made you feel more powerful, or at the very least, a little more knowledgeable about how to search the sea of information. Happy searching!
The count is on... 19 days left of school here in my neck of the woods! I cannot believe that summer break is almost here. This year has flown by! My students are super excited, too, which is why it's even more important to find ways to keep them engaged until the very last day of learning. My fourth graders LOVE to use tech, and anytime I can make it more like "big kid" stuff, that's a big bonus.
Padlet: I have used Padlet a few times in my classroom, and I love it. It's a really easy and quick way for students to share information with the class. Below are some that I have used in my classroom.
We made this Padlet at the beginning of the year. I had students brainstorm all of the norms that they want to see in our classroom. Then we talked about each of them, combined some, generalized others, and whittled it down to five "Classroom Rules" for our poster. This way, the students felt they all had a say in what our class norms would be!
The students took pictures of idioms and used context clues to figure out their meanings. They had a lot of fun taking pictures with the iPads!
Students are working in pairs to research a state and make a commercial inviting others to visit their state. We used this Padlet for students to post three or more fun facts about their state.
Padlet makes adding to the board very easy through a shareable link or QR code. I used the QR code to share these boards with students, but the link would be very useful for a virtual classroom or email. We have used Padlet as a staff to share out what we learned from some reading that we did in a jigsaw format. They can be used anonymously or have names so that student have accountability. I love the versatility of Padlet!
Symbaloo:Symbaloo is a very easy-to-use bookmarking tool. Each "board" you make is called a "webmix." Our district has a few set up for teachers and for students. They are quick to make, and once you share them, you can continue to update the links that you have on your Symbaloo webmix. It's cloud-based so you can access it anywhere. I have this one set up for my students to use at school or at home. They can even access it over the summer to practice some of those skills that otherwise would be lost over a long break. As you can see from mine, you can color-code and group together certain links to make it easier to use. You can embed your Symbaloo on your class website, within your virtual classroom, or set as the home screen on your classroom computers. Within the site, you can search for already-made webmixes to get even more ideas of what to share with your students. You can make them for other teachers in the building, for parents, or for students (for one topic, or the whole school year!). There are many different uses for this cool tool.
There are so many great social media tools out there to use with students. Just remember to be safe, and err on the side of caution. My rule of thumb is that if I have to ask if something is OK to post - it's probably not.
"If I could save time in a bottle..." -Jim Croce If only we could! Time doesn't seem to like to slow down when I need it to, unfortunately. Anything that helps me save and organize my time is very welcome! Here are some tools that do just that. Flippity: Talk about time savers! Check out Flippity. This tool is amazing! Flippity is a Google Sheets add-on. It includes templates for games, flashcards, name pickers and more using spreadsheets that you create. I learned about it at the beginning of the week and immediately started using it in my classroom. We've made vocabulary flashcards already and I've grouped students in an instant a few times. Here's a little about the add-on and how to make flashcards in Flippity:
Since this video was made, 3 more templates have been added, Bingo, Crossword Puzzle, and Tournament Bracket. I also noticed something pretty cool with the random name picker when I moved students from pairs to groups of four. As long as I didn't shuffle the names, the pairs stayed together and combined with another pair to make a group of four. That's pretty handy for great discussions in class! Visit Flippity and play around to see what is useful to you for your classroom!
Remember the Milk: This is a beneficial app that you can use across all of your devices to send yourself reminders. It's simple and quick to set up, and you will get a notification on your phone or tablet if you allow them. You can share reminders with others, too. This is an excellent tool to send reminders to a spouse! RTM has the ability to create labels for your reminders, as well as lists.
One snag I hit while experimenting with RTM was how to add a due time. It's not easily accessible, which is a bit annoying, truly. So, I thought I'd share it with you so that you don't have to spend forever figuring it out, too. You're welcome. :)
I still prefer Google Keep for to-do lists (more on that here), but I may use RTM just for reminder notifications.
Doodle: Don't you just LOVE cluttering up your email inbox with messages between several people trying to find a time to get together that works for everyone? No? Doodle has the solution!
Lesson Planning: If you're a teacher looking for a quick way to find fun lessons for your classroom, try my favorites:
I just returned from Boston for the MRA (Massachusetts Reading Association) "For the Love of Literacy" conference. It was Ah-mazing, and we learned a ton. I also can't wait to get back to Boston just for fun to explore the historical city. There was so much more I wanted to do! Back to reality with only 29 days of school left before summer break - (but who's counting?!) Honestly, after a conference like that, I almost wish it was August so I would have all year to implement some of the new ideas I have. I guess we'll just dip our toes in, and I'll dive in deeper with next year's fourth graders.
This week in my class, I revisited my best tech friend - Google! It's no lie. I'm in love with Google. Just head back to my posts from this January and February, and you'll see more of this girl gushing over Google. Here are some more features to adore:
LucidPress:
This is an extremely helpful app I use though Google Chrome. Lucid Press lets you create posters, brochures, flyers, invitations and more that you can print or share digitally. There are also templates for creating social media posts. I have used Lucid Press to make expectation posters for the alternative seating in my classroom. My students will be using it to create promotional brochures for a state they are researching. There are templates for “behavior bucks” for classroom incentives, rubrics, syllabus, exit tickets, lesson plans, name tags, and more! Check out my header image for this blog post. I created it on Lucid Press!
Google Forms:
I have blogged about Google Forms in the past, but this app has been SO helpful in my classroom this year, that I have to shout my praises again. As teachers, time savers are a MUST. My grade level departmentalizes, which means that I have three classes of students for reading. That's 80 quizzes and test to grade every time! Yikes! If I make the assessments in a Google Form, it's quick for the students to take, uses no paper, and is graded instantly for me! That's a whole lot of win in my book! Here's a recent quiz I made that students will be taking next week. How well will you do?
Here is my previous blog post that touched on Google Forms: Ode to Google Drive
Google Drawings:
I have mentioned Drawings before, but haven't gone into much depth. Drawings are useful in many areas of education. Here are some ideas:
I have used Google Drawings mostly for making graphic organizers like this one:
This graphic organizer can now be printed onto paper or used in a Google Slides presentation for students to record and study new vocabulary words. Now, that's super!
I'm sure I've made it abundantly clear that I love Google, and I plan to for a long time to come.
Now, it's back to the classroom on Monday to let the kids all know how "Wicked Smaht" I am now after my conference in Boston!
This week, I tried out two Learning Management Systems (LMS). I'll admit, I was a little out of my comfort zone. I try to integrate digital learning with my students often, but I hadn't jumped into the world of a virtual classroom... yet. Both Edmodo and Schoology are free learning platforms that are simple to set up. I checked them both out to decide which one I want to implement for myself!
Edmodo: Edmodo is the LMS that has been used by my school district, so it was the one I was most familiar with. My own children have used it with some of their teachers. So, naturally, it was the one I gravitated towards first. This video gives you an idea of what you can do with Edmodo:
As you can see, it's a pretty sweet tool for teachers, and students seem to really enjoy it. It can, however, be fairly time-consuming to get it started, and I'm still getting used to the organization of it all. That is the most difficult part for me. I don't feel that it's completely intuitive, but it's not too hard to figure out if you already understand basic digital folder systems.
Schoology:
Schoology was completely new to me before this week. Despite it being around since 2007, I hadn't even heard of it! Just like Edmodo, it's a virtual classroom where teachers and students can communicate and collaborate.
This video really got me excited to try out Schoology. I initially thought I'd like it better than Edmodo because it seemed like it could do more. While playing around by adding files and creating lessons, however, I found it to be less user-friendly. There seems to be a bit more of a learning curve with Schoology.
Bonus:
There is one more platform that I'd love to play around in, and that's Google Classroom. It's no secret that I love me some Google, and I feel like this might be the right fit for me. Unfortunately, I don't have access to it through my school Google account, so that will have to wait. Luckily, thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, I found a review that compared all three LMS!
Currently, in my classroom, we use shared folders in Google Drive to organize digital work. I have a classroom shared folder that is "view only" where I post assignments, rubrics, class lists, interesting links, the weekly newsletter, etc. I also have individual shared folders with editing rights for each of my students. This is where they turn in their work, and I post their graded rubrics. I give them tests using Google Forms, and they present information using Google Slides and Docs. We use so much Google in my class, that I'm sure a transition to Google Classroom would be seamless - if only I had access!
For now, I plan to tinker a bit more with Edmodo. Who knows? I may end up loving it, and jump full-force into it this fall. For me, new tech is not scary, (I LOVE learning about and playing with technology) but for some reason picking and using an LMS is proving difficult for me. Here's hoping it's easier for you!
Education, like many other professions, has a multitude of acronyms that are specific to the field. Teachers spout off letters like IEP, SPED, GE, OT & PT, SLP, ESOL, and ASD. But perhaps one of the most important is the PLN or Personal Learning Network. This is the one acronym to understand them all.
The following video will explain what a PLN is, and why you should have one:
This week, I explored a few PLNs. Some were brand new to me, and others I was already using but hadn't looked at them as PLNs yet.
Diigo:
Prior to this week, I had never heard of Diigo, but I can tell you that it is nothing short of amazing. Diigo is a social bookmarking tool. What this means, is that you can bookmark articles, websites, videos and pictures within Diigo, and then you can share them to groups, other people can bookmark them directly from your library, and then... poof! - You have expanded your PLN. Here are some of the things Diigo can do:
Click on this image for more information about Diigo
As an educator, if you sign up with your school email, you can have access to even more features of this great tool. I highly encourage you to check this out.
Twitter:
This one is my favorite PLN because it is quick and easy! I already had a professional Twitter account, so getting started using this as a PLN was simple. If you don't have a professional Twitter account, I would advise that you set one up. It's good to keep your professional and personal Twitter separate. No one is going to take an educator seriously when they follow the Kardashians and Real Housewives on Twitter. You can find my Twitter feed over on the right-hand side of this blog. Feel free to follow me! Now, if you're not all that familiar with Twitter, you may not understand why this makes a great PLN. Well, along with following some other awesome educators, you can take part in Twitter chats about education. This is how they work:
There are plenty more PLNs for you to try out. Here are a few that I like:
EduTopia (Education-focused links to articles, videos, blogs, etc.)
GoodReads (For finding and discussing books as a teacher or as a class - can set up book clubs)
ProTeacher (Very organized and easy to find what you are looking for - like a giant teacher's lounge)
Pinterest (Can create boards for specific topics and subjects, share and follow other educators)
Instagram (Follow educators and Edu blogs for quick links to articles)
The most important thing is to find a Personal Learning Network that interests you and that you think you'll be able to have the most interaction with. The point is not just to get information, but to share, as well! Happy learning!
I am currently taking another online tech class and already learning about some helpful tools that I can use in the classroom. I love when I can learn about a tool and immediately apply it!
So, I'll be honest here, I don't tend to follow a lot of blogs. Teaching full time, working on my masters, and raising four kiddos doesn't leave me a whole lot of time to peruse the web at my leisure. There has to be an answer for all of us busy people who would really benefit from keeping up with blogs about how to stay organized, right? There is!
Feedly:
This is the one-stop-shop for all of your blog following needs. Feedly compiles all of the latest blog posts from your favorite blogs in one place so that you don't have to spend your time visiting each blog individually. Here's an example of what it looks like.
I have mine in "cards view" because I'm a visual person, but there are two other view options, as well. The "title only" view looks more like an email inbox. You can click on the post directly in Feedly, and a preview of the post comes up. Within the preview, you can click to open up the whole post from the poster's blog site, or you can save or share directly from the preview window.
So what if you don't know what blogs to follow? You can search by topics or blog titles directly in Feedly. This is a huge time saver! Give Feedly a shot. You can sign up using your Google account (another thing I love as a busy teacher/mom - Who can remember 17,893 passwords, anyway?!).
If this is not the RSS reader that you are looking for, this site has reviews for a few more, and you can pick what works best for you.
Any way you slice it, an RSS reader can help a teacher stay up-to-date with what's going on in education through educational blogs. Here are a few that I follow:
Adobe Spark:
Do you ever wonder how people get those cool, Pinterest-worthy images at the top of their blogs? Well, it's possible that they are using Adobe Spark!
As you can see from the video, there are many uses. I am going to use this in my classroom for the visual storytelling feature through video. Here's an example of what it can do:
The image at the top of this blog post and my blog title were created as "posts" on Adobe Spark, as well. Students could each design a post to share a concept, and then add it to a class Google Slide presentation. This would be useful a the beginning of the year so that students can introduce themselves to each other in a fun, artistic way. In my online class, we each created a post with an inspirational quote.
My Google Tools for Educators class is coming to a close, but I have gained so many useful skills that I will continue to utilize every day! I have made some changes in my class, and my students are LOVING it. In fact, this week, we are doing our first-ever paperless writing project! They wrote procedural papers in Google Docs and submitted them to me in a shared folder. Next, I will grade them on a rubric through Google Sheets and place it in our shared folder, as well. We're saving the planet - one Google project at a time! So amazing!
Now on to the latest tool we learned about:
Google Sites:
This was a very exciting week for our class because this is a tool that I can immediately use - as is - for my class. Google Sites (or rather - The NEW Google Sites - launched in November 2016), is an easy-to-use website builder. As with most Google tools, it's fairly intuitive.
Watch this video to see how to get started.
This link will take you to the Google Sites page, which is an alternative route to get started (similar to opening up the Sheets page first to begin a new Google Sheet). From there, you also have the option to go back to the Classic Google Sites version.
I wouldn't recommend starting a new website using the classic version because that version will eventually be phased out. Read this for more info directly from Google.
Now that your site is started, how do you add content? I'm so glad you asked! Here you go...
Once content is added, you can start to customize your website to meet your preferences. Here's how...
When your website is exactly how you want it, you can click that big, blue "PUBLISH" button at the top. Now you're ready to pass along your brand new web address!
Some tips:
As with most Google applications, you have the option to collaborate. Just click on the "add editors" button, and share away. This would be perfect for a grade level team, so they can all go in and add their own content.
When you are adding content from your Google Drive, make sure that the files are set to "anyone with the link can view." Otherwise, no one will be able to see your content, which defeats the purpose. Here's how.
Overall, I really enjoy using Google Sites. Those that like more options for fonts, themes, etc may find this interface fairly limiting, but because this new version of Google Sites just went live less than four months ago, I think we will see more possibilities in the future. I believe it's best to start out simple and add more choices as you go.
I will leave you with my own classroom website to peruse at your leisure. Enjoy!
I've been on a world tour this past week, and I didn't have to pack a thing!
I will be the first to admit - maps haven't really been my... thing. Geography wasn't my strongest area of study, for sure. Enter: Google Earth and Google Tour Builder. Man, how I wish I would have had these impressive online tools when I was a kiddo! It's really amazing how exploring an interactive map can bring Lewis and Clark's expedition to life, and it's thrilling to be able to get down on street view and explore the avenues of Paris without even leaving my house.
Google Earth:
To use this feature, you will first need to download Google Earth. Once you have done that, you can start exploring. I recommend searching for your own address first. This will show you how accurate Google Earth is. My favorite feature is the historical imagery. You can view aerial images from years back, and see how the area has changed. I enjoyed watching my neighborhood as it was built up from farmland. Here's the town where I live shown in 1991, and then in 2016. Just a BIT of growth in the past 25 years!
Gardner in 1991
Gardner in 2016
This week I plan to send my students on a virtual scavenger hunt around the Midwest Region of the United States since we just finished studying that area. I will give them clues (I have four heads but no brain! - Mt. Rushmore; I am the Gateway to the West. - St. Louis Arch; My land's not so Bad. - Badlands National Park), and they will place pins to show they found the locations, and write down the map coordinates.
Google Earth also has street view.
This is a fun way to explore a city you may be thinking of visiting, or for students to feel like they are taking an actual field trip to a different city. Here, we get to visit the base of the Eiffel Tower:
Street View of Eiffel Tower
You can also be in map view with 3D buildings. I think this is really awesome for kids (and this 38-year-old kid who has never been to Paris) to see the size of the Eiffel Tower in relation to everything around it.
3D Buildings View
Google Earth can be fun to just explore, but you can do so much more with it. You can change the view by tilting it or changing your orientation. You can add placemarks and save locations to visit again later. With the placemarks, you can set up a virtual tour, as well. Speaking of tours...
Google Tour Builder:
I had a lot of fun playing with Google Tour Builder, and it feels a little more user-friendly than setting up a tour within Google Earth. It uses the same technologies for searching and finding locations but is set up specifically for making tours. Check out my example tour here. I can see this being used in the classroom for any number of reasons. A music teacher might visit the birthplaces of different composers. An art teacher could visit museums throughout the world. A history teacher could trace the route of the Westward Expansion or plot the important battles of the Civil War. With each stop on the tour, there is the ability to add photos, videos, and/or an explanation. You could view this whole class, or give students the opportunity to explore the tour at their own pace and take notes as they go.
The background of Tour Builder is pretty inspiring:
My students will be their own Tour Guides around different areas of Kansas City this week, as they plan virtual tours in small groups. Each group will be assigned a different area of the city to present to the rest of the class.
Both of these tools are fantastic resources for the classroom. My students have been very curious about Google Earth, and now I'm excited to tell them that we're finally going to be using it in class! I love how interactive Google Earth is, and how easy-to-use Google Tour Builder is. Out of the two, I think GTB wins my heart. Since it's only in beta I can only imagine how much it will grow and expand in the coming years. It's an exciting time in education!
This week of class has been a lot of fun for tech exploring! I played around with YouTube, Story Builder, and some other exciting tools. Here's a little about what I learned:
YouTube:
I have been using YouTube for a long time, but mostly it was just to look up a video to use in class or to listen to a song that I wanted to hear. I knew there was a way to make a playlist, but I hadn't really messed with it much until now. Making a playlist is easy, and can be useful for planning lessons or professional development for staff. Recently at our school, we talked about helping students conduct meaningful research in an age of online "fake news" and untrustworthy sources. Here is a YouTube playlist I made on this topic. I plan to use the videos spread out over a long period so we can revisit reliable research often.
There are 6 videos in this playlist. You can add as many as you like to yours, and then they are easily retrievable from your YouTube main page.
Another great feature of YouTube is the ability to customize a video to start after the beginning. When watching a video, simply pause it where you want your audience to start viewing, and then copy the code. This will give you a shareable link for your viewers so that the video will be primed to start at the point you indicated.
If you want to do more with a video, try using EDpuzzle through Chrome. It has even more features, and students will be watching a video outside of YouTube itself so they will be less likely to become distracted. EdPuzzle gives the teacher the option to add questions and audio notes and allows you to embed the video or share a link. Here's more information on EDpuzzle:
Story Builder:
This is a fun tool to use in class. Story Builder is a story maker where you create characters that have a dialogue with each other. It's very simple and easy to use. I may try it in a writing center, and allow students to work in pairs to create a collaborative story, or do a whole-class story, where each student adds a few lines. Another idea would be to write a story to introduce or review classroom procedures or expectations or to teach social skills. I plan to write a series of stories about bullying from the perspective of the bully, the bystander, and the victim. I think these would be useful for upper elementary and above since the text moves pretty quickly. Here's a quick guide, and here's an example that I wrote.
Spell Up:
I think the concept of Spell Up is pretty awesome. I could use this in a center for my higher kids - a challenge for them. It would also be a good time filler for those that are early finishers. There are fun challenges: Guess the mystery word, rearrange, add missing letters, spell the word. There are power-ups, and other engaging “helps” that would entice the students’ gaming tendencies. It also gives you the option to skip levels if you do really well on a level, which helps find the best level for each person.
Spell Up is not perfect, however. I couldn’t get it to work very well at first because the computer had a hard time understanding what letter I was saying, even though I spoke loudly and clearly. On most letters, it worked just fine, but on some, it didn’t register that it understood what I was saying. If it worked more consistently, I would give it a rave review. It is also important that you spell very slowly, which could be frustrating for students that are strong, fast spellers. Although, if you go to the settings, you can turn on the keyboard. That way, you can spell using the keyboard, which I like better. I appreciate that it goes back to missed words, so you have another shot at them. You can also save and continue later, which is a nice feature. The kicker for this one: it's only available on Chrome.
Check it out:
Google Translate:
Google Translate can translate between 103 different languages. I use this tool often when I come across a post from one of my Facebook friends from another country. They sometimes post in their native language, and this way, I can keep up with them more easily. It’s really easy to use, and pretty accurate. Now that they have updated it to using Neural Machine Translation, it’s infinitely better. No more choppy English (or Spanish, Arabic, etc) translations. It translates entire sentences or paragraphs instead of going word by word. This makes for more natural-sounding translations.
I already use this tool in the classroom with a student who came to our school in August knowing minimal English. With total English immersion, ESOL support, and the added tool of Google Translate, she is now virtually fluent in English. This tool would not only be helpful for students in the ESOL program, but for students in our Spanish class. They can use Google Translate to help them with their projects and presentations in Spanish. With the option to have the translation spoken, students can use an iPad with Google Translate as assistive language technology!
Both of these tools would be great for researching time periods, locations, culture and art of any topic a student might be studying. I could take the entire class on a virtual field trip and explore to bring the places we read about to life. I'm excited to use this tool in my class very soon!
I love that there are so many tools that I can use in the classroom. Variety helps keep school engaging for our students, so it's good to switch things up every once in a while. All of these tools will help me accomplish that for my kiddos. Thanks for playing!
I've been having fun using some practical Google tools this week. These three are not only going to help me in my professional organization but also personally. It takes some work to organize life with a family of 6! Here's what I've discovered this week.
Google Photos:
My iPhone is breathing a great, big sigh of relief now that I'm not using all of my available space for pictures! Google Photos makes it easy to transfer all of your pics to the Google cloud. Once you give permission for the app to access your photos, the syncing begins immediately.
But, wait! There's more! GP has a built-in "assistant" that automatically makes albums, animations, collages, and movies from your pictures and videos. You can choose to save their creations and/or make your own. Here is an animation I made using some photos of my middle daughter playing dress-up in my old dance costume:
And here's an animation that was automatically made by GP from a video of my youngest:
Along with animations, you can create movies and collages, and use many different filters and effects to enhance your photos. Here's a photo I took of the Kansas capital building in Topeka with an added filter and vignette. I think it looks like a postcard!
Within GP, you can do a search for a specific type of photo. For example, if you search for "beach", it will bring up all of your photos of a beach.
I have tried a few digital calendars in the past ten years or so. The first one I fell in love with was my Palm. I loved that it was color-coordinated for each member of the family. Alas, that went the way of all Palms, and I had to move on.
After searching for a while, I came across an app called Cozi. What's great about this app is that you can share events with other family members and integrate sports calendars, school calendars, etc. The downside is to get all of the features, you have to pay for Cozi gold.
I took some time off from Cozi for a while because I was required to use my work Outlook calendar for my job, and there was no way to sync Cozi to Outlook easily. This took away my ability to share a calendar with my husband, which was a bummer, so when I left that job, I went right back to Cozi, and sprang for the gold subscription.
Now that I'm taking this Google Tools for Educators class, I decided to give Google Calendar a try. So far, I'm really enjoying all of the features. I can make separate calendars for work and personal events, as well as color-coordinating. Everything is seamless between all of my devices, and I love that! I can share my personal calendar with my husband, and I can share my class calendar with parents. I even embedded my class calendar on this blog!
Try it for yourself!
Google Keep:
This tool is FANTASTIC for organizing all of the random thoughts I have throughout the day. I use WAY too many sticky notes on a day-to-day basis, and this replaces most of them. I can make quick notes, voice memos (helpful when on the go), reminders (that show up in my calendar), to-do lists (that I can check off - a gratification I NEED), and even snap a photo! There is also the ability to assign tags to notes and color-coordinate. Can you tell I'm obsessed with color-coordinating?
Isn't it pretty?
Plus, like everything Google, you can access your Keep from any device. No longer do I need to bring home my stack of sticky notes with all of my reminders for the day. It's all right there in Keep! I'm just getting started with this tool, but loving the ease of it. Play around with it, and see if it's right for you. This site shares ten creative ways you can use Keep.
Next week, I will be exploring YouTube, Story Builder, and a few other Google tools. I can't wait to tell you all about it!
I just started using Google Drive last year, and it was my first realization that I'm not a young teacher anymore! I learned the ins and outs of how to navigate Google docs and slides from some 20-something teachers in my master's cohort. After just one collaborative project, I knew this was an amazing tool. I shared it with my coworkers, and we began discussing moving from using OneNote to Google Docs and shared folders through Drive to organize our shared files. I quickly saw the benefit of being able to share, collaborate, and access our files from anywhere and any device. What a powerful tool!
How do I love Google Drive? Let me count the ways...
1. Collaborative Ability: Within Google Drive, or in their own separate apps, you can create documents (Google Docs), spreadsheets (Google Sheets), slide presentations (Google Slides), and drawings (Google Drawings). All of these applications are easy to use because they are similar to their equivalents in Microsoft Office. Where Google comes out on top is the ability to work collaboratively in real time on a project. This is extremely useful among coworkers, with students, or even parents! See how it works...
2. Automatic Saving: Need I say more? Actually, I do! Not only do Google apps save automatically (no more oops-forgot-to-saves!), but you can also view all of the revision history, and feel like a time traveler! Instructions here.
3. Google Forms for Quizzes: Kids love tech. I love formative assessments. I hate taking the time to grade. This is the answer! I can quickly have students take a quiz, and immediately I have results. I can use those results as a formative assessment to help me plan my lessons, or I can use them at the end of a unit for summative data.
This shows me, at a glance, how my students did on this assessment, and what the most missed questions were. I can see from this specific quiz that I need to reteach text structure. I can also see individual student results and response data for each question.
I like to show the students the results of each question right after the test, to give them immediate feedback, and we can then go directly into a re-teaching lesson from there if needed.
4. Extensions: Google's extensions work great with the apps within Google Drive. As I type this on Blogger, the Grammarly extension is hard at work helping me banish extra commas and correct spelling errors. Click here for more.
5. Accessibility: I can access and use my Google Drive on my iPad, iPhone, laptop, or school desktop. Because all of the information is cloud-based, I can access it from anywhere on any device! I can also store non-Google files within my Google Drive. I have pictures, music, videos, Word documents, pdfs and many other files stored in there. This makes planning my lessons from home easier than ever!
As you can see, I'm really excited about all of the possibilities that Google provides for me as an eductor, and for my students. I'm starting to look into Google Classroom, but haven't jumped that hurdle yet. Now that I have dipped my toe into the Google waters and found it to be very welcoming, I just might have to dive right in!
Hello again, friends! I'm taking advantage of a long weekend, and getting a head start on my Google class work. It's really a lot of fun, so once I start, it's hard to stop! Here are some things I've learned to help with Google searches and with Gmail.
Google Search tips: When searching for a topic on Google, it's important to find exactly what you are looking for. Using quotation marks around your search helps with that. For example, if I'm doing an animal report on Florida panthers, I would want to type it in like this: "Florida panthers". This way, I don't just get information about Florida or all panthers. Additionally, if I do this search, I'm going to get a lot of hits about the NHL team. If I'm doing an animal report, this is not helpful. So, I would type -NHL -hockey after my search term. My search might look like this:
This will give me information on the animal, and not the team or shopping sites selling fan gear.
This all works great if I'm doing a search on my own, but my fourth graders would be a little more distracted by the extra "stuff" and have a hard time remembering to use quotation marks and dashes. So, I set up a custom search engine for them to use when researching for their endangered animal reports. Not only does it take away all of the sites that aren't about the animal they are researching, but it also keeps them from going to personal blogs, inappropriate sites, and that dreaded Wikipedia. Fourth grade is not too early to teach them that Wikipedia is not the most reliable site to use for research. To set up a search engine, view this tutorial.
If you'd like to try one out, check out mine that I will use with my students. Feel free to search for any animal of your choosing right from this search bar. Really... try it!
Gmail: I have been using Gmail for about six years now. It is constantly improving. I've learned a few tricks along the way, and I feel like sharing!
Tip 1: Organize your inbox
This tip has saved me from having an overly-crowded inbox, and helps me see the most important messages, while also allowing me to easily delete the excess. You can choose which of the five tabs are most useful to you. I chose all of them because I love categorizing! There are two ways to do this. You can go into settings (the gear shaped icon on the top right) and choose "configure inbox", or you can click on the small plus sign to the very right of the tabs. Either way, you will come to this pop-up.
In this pop-up, you can choose from 1 to 5 of the tabs to enable, and this will help keep your inbox nice and organized!
Tip 2: Unsubscribe
Now that you have a nicely organized inbox, you can get to work unsubscribing from many of those subscriptions, ads, and updates that you don't ever read anyway. Many of these emails have the option to unsubscribe right in the email itself. This works, but can be time consuming if you have an over-abundance of junk emails. Unroll.me allows you to unsubscribe from many subscriptions at once, and also gives you the option to do a "rollup" where the junk email that you might want to keep (store coupons, for example) all gets rolled together into one daily email. Here's how (you can turn down the speakers on this one):
Tip 3: Undo Send
This one is very useful when you accidentally hit "reply all" or send to the wrong contact altogether. Whoops! We've all been there. If you go to settings, under "general", you can choose to enable the undo send feature. DO THIS. Once it's enabled, you have the ability to undo a sent email within 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds (you choose the time when you enable it). Here's how it looks in action:
Simple, huh? Think of the all embarrassment this could save!
I hope these tips have been helpful. View this training guide for more tips and tricks for Gmail!
And... Happy 88th Birthday to Martin Luther King, Jr!
Good afternoon, everyone! ♫ Good afternoon, Mrs. Holtorf! ♪♪
On this, the first day of my professional blog, I am at home enjoying a lazy severe weather day with my family. A very lucky Friday the 13th, if you ask me. With the full moon, icy weather, and unlucky date, it could have been a crazy day with my fourth graders! Let's hope that the incoming storm won't be as bad as the experts are predicting.
I am a little over halfway through my master's program at Baker University, and right now I am taking a class called "Google Tools for Educators." I'm less than a week in, but already loving a lot of the tools that were right there all along, but I didn't know enough about. In these first few blog posts, I'm going to touch on a few.
Google Chrome: Seriously, WHY have I not been using this browser? I've had it on my computer, but almost exclusively used Firefox. Chrome is very user-friendly, and with the apps and extensions, I feel like I just received a brand new tech device. I'm enjoying searching the web store for more familiar and new apps. I love some of the great features of Chrome like the ability to sync up some of my already bookmarked sites from other browsers, quick access to my gmail, and the fact that all of my favorite apps are in one place, accessible from any device using my Google account. And, of course, there is the ability to download a theme that you love.
How cute is BB-8?
Google Apps and Extensions: Along with the fun themes, and the great LOOK of Chrome, what I find most awesome are the multitude of apps and extensions that you can download. How have I lived without these for so long? In the screenshot above, you can see the apps I have visible on my first page. I have a few more on the next page, as well. I'm just starting to learn about it, but TES Teach with Blendspace is going to be a go-to app for compiling my daily lessons for reading. Often, I have many windows open on my computer with a video, power point, SMART lesson, Kahoot, etc. This app puts them all together on one page, so I can just click on each section, and save it all as one lesson.
This is a lesson I started on pronouns with a video hook, a printable poster, my pronoun lesson file, and a few other resources. All in one place!
Another new app I will start using more often is Lucidpress. I have used Microsoft Publisher in the past for making class newsletters, fliers, invitations, etc. I was looking for something similar through Google because I like the way you can collaborate on Google Docs, Slides, and so forth. Lucidpress allows for collaboration, so my teammates and I can each add in what we are teaching in our own classes at the same time. I love time savers!
Extensions are different than apps, in that extensions just help within your apps. For instance, I used the Nimbus extension to take and annotate these screenshots. It's like the snip it tool that I have used for years, but even better! It makes snipping so easy. I can just snip a small section, the whole page, just what's showing on the screen, or even scroll and snip! I've already used it quite a few times, and it's only been a few days! Another extension I like is Tab Resize. I often have multiple windows open, and like to use the screen split feature. This takes it to a whole new level. I can split my screen vertically, horizontally, or in fourths!
This makes my multi-tasking heart happy!
Google+: I'll be honest here. I've known about Google+ for a very long time. Since it's beta version, actually. At the beginning, I thought it's purpose was most similar to Facebook. What I have learned in the past few days of perusing Google+, is that it has many purposes. One is to gather ideas through "Collections" from others who have posted on specific topics (think Pinterest). Another is to join discussion and sharing groups called "Communities" (think Facebook groups). A third is to make connections with people and add them to your "Circles". This part is similar to Facebook, in that you can share pictures, posts, etc, but you can choose which circles you share with. You can have a circle for family, for friends, for coworkers, for a weight loss group... Circles are also similar to Twitter, because you can follow people without them following you, and vice versa. Google+ has come a long way since it's start, so I'm going to give it another go.
I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far with Google. It's pretty fun to play around with it, but to be honest, I love playing with new toys! If you don't have Google Chrome installed on your computer, you can do it here.
Below is a video that our instructor shared with us, and it has great tips. Enjoy!
