Asking Questions in Google Slides

I saw this roll out last week and couldn't wait to try it!  

Super easy and fun way to involve an audience in your presentation.  

In presentation mode a option for AUDIENCE TOOLS is now available.  

The ON/OFF toggle turns on the questioning option,  this will post the link onto the slide you are on and allow participants to post questions anonymously or signed with their google account.  

Once questions have been submitted participants that are logged in will see all the questions and if they are signed in with their google account they can vote a question up or down.  If there is a question that you are wanting to discuss you can choose PRESENT and it will post to the presentation.  
  

I can already think of ways that this will be useful during trainings and presentations and can't wait to roll it out this summer in some of our classes! 

Often Overlooked When Using Google - Templates!

With all the updates to many of the Google tools, many of us miss out on the templates that docs, slides, etc.. have to offer.  

How did you miss them?  That's easy!  Many of us access docs, slides, forms all through our Google Drive.  When we do this, a new document just pops up and is ready to type.  If we open our new document or slide through the icon in the app (or waffle) menu near your name in the upper right hand corner you will find an amazing library of already created templates!



Tip:  Make sure to click the "MORE" in the right hand corner to check them all out!

These templates are available in forms, sheets, docs, and slides.

Why not just start from scratch?  If you are new to the tool or in a time crunch and need a quick exit ticket, using the template of the form allows you to simply change the words and push it out to students.  If students are working on a project and the many different fonts, funky colors, and wonky visually unappealing presentations are eating at you, have them start with a template and discuss the graphic design of the template that makes it more visually appealing.  Have fun exploring the templates!

Push a website out to your students with Share to Classroom extension!

"Share to Classroom" is such a great extension for any teacher who is using Google Classroom with their students.

One extra feature that this extension can do that I wanted to share requires that students are in class - logged into their chrome on a desktop or on a chromebook AND the students have this same extension installed.

The PUSH option in the "Share to Classroom" extension allows the teacher to instantly push a website to the students on their computer or chromebook.  It instantly opens a new tab and the website appears in front of the students.  This is an easy way to get students to a site without having to post a link, or worse, have the students type the address in the browser.

It took less than 5 minutes to walk a classroom of 3rd graders through adding this extension to all the chromebooks.  If your chromebooks are set up through a management system the extension can be added that way as well.  Once the extension is added it will stay with that student's log in on both the chromebook and in the chrome browser when on a desktop computer.

Must have Extension for Google Classroom!

Using Google Classroom with your students?  There is a must have extension to help streamline the process for creating assignments and announcements.  

The “Share to Classroom” extension allows for teachers instantly link a website that they are visiting to their Google Classroom wall as either an assignment or an announcement.  

You can post directly from inside the extension or ‘save as draft’ to post later or add additional resources.  

Another use is if you have a google document open that you are creating to use in an assignment, using the “Share to Classroom” you can instantly attach the document in the extension and create your assignment.  This saves you from needing to log into classroom and find the document in your drive.  

This productivity tool is essential for any teacher that is using Google Classroom!  There's another cool use for this extension coming in the next blog post!

Not sure how to add an extension? Or what is an extension? Here's a older Youtube video to help explain.

Classroom Updates - it just keeps coming!

A few new features rolled out in Google Classroom to make this tool even more teacher friendly!   As this tool has developed over this year, the features added continue to make Google a key tool in today's classroom.

Save an assignment for later posting...  Not much explaining on this as to how this will save teacher time! Add your links, documents, instructions and choose to save as draft.  This allows you to post it when needed.    

Multiple Teachers.... These still have to be from teachers in the same Google domain but it allows for team teachers and student teachers to all post and take care of assignments, all the same tasks as the teacher who created the class except delete the class.   Perfect opportunity to set up book studies or projects with buddy classrooms in your district! 

  

Flashcards and Jeopardy Board from Google Spreadsheets

Flippity.net is a free online resource that will easily turn Google Spreadsheets into a set of online flashcards, or an online Jeopardy game.

Once you complete the steps to create your online content, it becomes dynamic in nature. As you change the contents of the spreadsheet, including adding or removing rows, the online flashcards or gameboard also changes.

This enables a teacher to maintain one Google Spreadsheet, and then use the same link they have bookmarked for flashcard review or a Jeopardy game.  This link can be a QR code on a wall, or simply bookmarked for easy access.

Have students create their own sets of online flashcards or Jeopardy game boards, and share with each their peers. 

Using Google Classrooms to Facilitate Performance Tasks

After visiting with many teachers who have experienced the new Smarter Balance testing environment, one of the more demanding portions of the test is the performance task, for both math and literacy.

This blog post demonstrates how teachers can use Google Classroom and create a simulated experience for students to complete performance tasks.  You can provide students with practice for online reading and online writing, as these technology skills may hinder success, especially in early grades like 3-6.

For this example "Garden of Learning 6th Grade Performance Task, a student will be provided with resources, two articles and a video.

Then they are to answer a few questions followed by writing an essay or article, may it be argumentative or informative.  When the students are finished, they click "Turn In".

 

Students will be able to toggle between "Assignment Details" and "My assignment" to go between resources and their work, allowing them to re-read articles or re-watch videos as often as they need.

The teacher can set up this entirely digital task and allow students to work independently until they've completed the assignment. 

I've created Performance Task Kits available for teachers to use inside their Google Classroom.  Click open the folder to find the files, make your own copies, and embed them into a Google Classroom online environment.

More kits are coming, as I've started with the three Smarter Balance example performance tasks. 

Great New Features on Google Classroom!

Those of you that have started using Google Classroom need to check out the new features!  These are things that often came up in trainings this Fall as "wishes" for easier classroom management... the first being the ability to control who can and can't post to the stream!

Options include:  Students can post and comment, Students can only comment, or only teacher can post and comment.  This action can be done for individual students by checking the box next to their name or choosing the whole class. 

The second added feature is the ability for a student to choose to turn in an assignment without having an actual file to upload by choosing "Mark as Done".    This means, no more "late" assignments for items such as "read pages 120 - 130 in the text and be ready to discuss tomorrow in class".  Once done, they can mark that they have finished that item.  During earlier fall trainings before this was possible, we suggested posting these kind of assignments as an announcement.  The downfall of that is that it wouldn't show up in their list of upcoming assignments, but the benefit was they wouldn't end up with a list of "late" assignments since their was nothing to digitally turn in! This resolves that.  Awesome!

Other features added - the ability to go back and look at comments that were deleted.  Also being able to download a csv for all assignments at once, not just one and the ability to sort their list of students by first or last name.   These added features make this tool even more powerful in the classroom.  

Google Classroom - Yes it's up and going!

Google Classroom rolled out a few weeks ago, creating a mad rush to check it out before students walked through the doors.  All schools in our region have it under their Google Apps for Education domain.  

A few things to remember as you explore and or look to roll it out with students.  The teacher and student must BOTH use their school google domain.  If you are unsure of what your school google is or would like to set up a time to have one of us go over it with you, please contact us!  We are available to help. 

For our schools in the region rolling out chromebooks, this is an invaluable tool.  It takes the time of setting up numerous shared folder systems with all the students and makes it a one stop place!  The best part?  Automatic folder creation and organizing.  Even better?  Automatic file naming! 

Not sure how you might use this is your classroom?  Check out this blog post from Alice Keeler on Teacher Tech "20 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom".