The Frayer Model (now in Google Slides)

Alice Keeler recently shared a template to make  your own Frayer Model graphic

organizer.You can read her post here.  It includes a copy of the template below:

If you are looking for more background on using this with your students, there are

several short videos from The Teacher Toolkit here.

More to LOVE in Google Quizzes

Ever since I read these blog posts (6 Ways Quizzes in Google Forms are getting Smarter)

and ( Six new features coming to Google forms), I have been checking to see if the rollout

was complete- and today it is!

While you can read the complete update in the above blogs, here are my favorites additions:

• There is now a running tally at the top right of the Google Quiz with the number of points.You will know exactly how points the quiz is worth.
• If you are grading manually, you can now add fractions of a point. This will be helpful with partial credit.
• The grid questions (both multiple choice and checkbox) can be automatically graded. (I used parts of speech in my sample.)
• Google will try to anticipate the answer while you are writing the question.  On this sample quiz, I didn’t enter any of the answers to the two multiple choice questions.  Google suggested both the correct and incorrect answers.

Here’s a sample quiz to view.

Using Music to Inspire

In this New York Times article, Natalie Proulx suggests nine ways to help inspire student writing using music.  Please click here for the article.

Adobe Spark

Have you used Adobe Spark?  If you are looking for creative ideas for your classroom, please check out this blog post from Alice Keeler.

Lessons from Teachers of the Year

I saw this in a recent Google EDU newsletter.  These videos were brief and engaging.
Please check out the Lessons from Teachers of the Year:

To celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re launching ‘Lessons from Teachers
of the Year’, a video series highlighting insights from the 2018 State Teachers of
the Year. Check out the playlist to hear about their most inspirational teachers,
where they see the future of education going, and more.

Branching Quizzes

Folks who have attended by Escape Room classes know branching Google Quizzes.  These are quizzes that based on your answer, send you to a different location. In the escape room, we use them to ensure students get the correct answer before moving to the next question.  Alice Keeler has a great step by step review of the process here.

Making puppets speak

Third graders created puppet characters to share their recent reading experiences.  Karen Swierczek then used ChatterPIX to record their impressions.  We put them together in an iMovie for you to enjoy!

Visit Georgia with Tour Builder

Last week I posted some of my samples of Google Tour Builder- now I have a student sample from Pam Chartock’s class.  Visit Georgia (the country not the state) in this Google Tour- there are some breathtaking sites!

Printing in Google Sheets

Often times when you print a Google Spreadsheet, the pages don’t look exactly right.  Using the directions from Alice Keeler here, you can customize your pages.

Cartoons in the Classroom

No, these are not the ones you clip and paste by the door.  The AAEC (The Association of American Editorial Cartoonist) have lessons plans and cartoon templates tied to current events.  Geared to middle and high school students, this could be a creative way to weave today’s topics into your history lessons. Please see their site and a complete review by TeachersFirst here.

Book Creator and Butterflies

This morning I had the chance to work with Melissa Ciampa’s students and explore

Book Creator.  First, we used pictures from the Saturday POAC walk to create a book

together about the event.  Special thanks to Mrs. Lynch for her help in capturing our

thoughts for the book.

You can read it here.

Then, each student worked individually to create a book about the butterfly life cycle.

They have butterflies in their classroom and awaiting their exit from their cocoons.  

Here is one created by one of her students.

Click here to read.

Special thanks to Ms. Ciampa’s class for their help!

How do you know when the form is submitted?

While I use an add-on to be notified when a form is completed, Alice Keeler

shares some shortcuts here.

What can you do in your Google Drive

Alice Keeler has a nice summary of her favorite Google Drive features - there

is something for everyone!

How to tell FAKE from Real

Helping students determine which web resources are credible can be a daunting job.  PearDeck has created a series of slides to help you with this effort. Here’s the link to their blog post (the PearDeck slides are included). Ready for more? Here's part two.

Click several checkboxes at once

The newer feature in Google Sheet allows you to insert checkboxes. (I know I will
be using this option when I create the next round of Sayreville University
Registration forms!).  In her blog post, Alice Keeler shares how to quickly check
off several boxes at once.

VR Tour Creator and Tour Builder

Last week, Google rolled out  VR Tour Creator.  Now you and your students can

create 360 tours! (Similar to Google Expeditions).  These can be viewed on a mobile

device or in a browser. Here’s a post from Richard Byrne with the basic directions

and I’ve developed step by step directions here.

This has prompted (at least on my end) more interest in Google Tour Builder.  

I’ve just revised my directions.

Which one to use?  Well, it depends what you want to achieve. If you are looking

for a more interactive view (without maps), then Tour Creator will allow you to add

locations, points of interest (images only), and some text. You are sometimes

limited to the number of 360 images.  Here’s a sample one I created.

If you are looking to tell a story (and add videos as well as images) and the map

feature is important, I would go with Tour Builder. Here’s a sample.

Need a timeline?

SoftSchools has an easy to use timeline maker.  Just enter the dates and events and
you are done!  Please click here to try it.  For the complete review, please see
TeachersFirst.

Google Charts are Everywhere!!

From Docs to Sites, you can now easily add charts from your Google Sheets.  Create

the chart in sheets first. Then, while you are in Docs (or Sites), select insert- chart.  

You will then be directed to your Sheets and you can select the chart you want. The nicest

feature is the automatic updating.  After you insert a chart and a change is made in

Sheets, there will be an automatic notification to update the chart in Docs/Sites!  

For more information, please see Alice Keeler’s post here.

Why are slides better?

For feedback as well as the flexibility they offer to students.  Please read Alice Keeler’s post here for all her suggestions.  While I usually stick to Google Docs, I can see the possibilities in Google Presentations!

Where is the World (with Wiki Clues)

In a recent blog post, Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) shared WikiWhere (you get three clues from Wikipedia and then need to find the location on the globe. You earn points for getting closest to the correct city.  Might be a fun geography activity on the SMARTBoard or Chromebooks. You can read his post here.

A picture is worth 1000 words

Alice Keeler has an interesting idea for an exit ticket- have your students add

their image to a Google Slide.  You can read her post here for her directions.

Above is one I created as a sample.

BCC and Don’t Reply All

Alice Keeler’s recent post shares one of the email features I use the most- BCC. Even though carbon copies (even blind ones at that) are becoming a thing of the past, I find this a useful feature when sharing email to a large group of people.  This way any response comes only to me (and not all those on the BCC line).

My new favorite thing- Book Creator!

Click here to read.

I’ll admit that I knew about Book Creator on the iPad (yet somehow I missed their Chrome introduction) and when I read this recent blog post from Richard Byrne

(Free Technology for Teachers) with their new read to me feature- I was smitten!  

Currently, each teacher has a free library of 40 books.  All the students in your

library can read the books and they can be shared with a link. Or you can

download or print the book!  

The book can include text, images, video and come in several formats (check out

the graphic novel/comic book ones!).  You can even add your own narration!

While I was going to share the ones I made about completing your paperwork
for Sayreville University classes, I quickly created this ebook about the SU quilts instead.  

What books would your students create?

Media Literacy for ALL!

This week in TeachersFirst, they focus on Media Literacy with a wide collection of resources. From lesson plans (to lesson plans with fake websites- All About Explorers is included!)- there is something for every grade level and interest.  For the complete review, please click here.

Control Z to the rescue

Wait, you don’t see the undo arrow?  Don’t worry- CTRL Z will undo your last action.  I think this might be my new favorite shortcut- for all the details, please see the blog post from Alice Keeler here.

Checkboxes in Google Sheets

I saw this post on Facebook this morning and now I see the CheckBoxes in Google Sheets in Alice Keeler’s blog post.  This could be a great tool for helping you manage information in a spreadsheet.

Another reason to love Quizizz!

I love Quizizz for many reasons- and now there are new reasons to try it!  Not only can you create multiple correct questions, add images, but now you can tag questions with standards!  While it is limited to CCS (and a few states), you can tag each question with standard (they even have a search feature to help you find the standard) and then see results by standards.  For a complete description of the new feature, please click here.

Looking for free images

While PhotosforClass is my personal choice for images, Eric Curts (my favorite Google Guru) recently shared a blog post with 18 sites for schools.  I haven’t test driven all of them (so I cannot guarantee they will all work in our district) but I was thrilled PhotosforClass made the list.  Here’s the link to his post.

If you teach weather..

Then you want to explore NOAA SciJinks.  Here you will find all things weather!

Check out Curriculum Pathways

SAS Curriculum Pathways is a powerful  free website for a variety of student resources.  This link highlights the writing navigator as well as a coding option. You might want to check out their professional development as well.

Google and Making Copies

Need to copy a file?  How about forcing a copy (so folks have to make a copy)?  Click here to read Alice Keeler’s blog post for all you need to know.

Just when you thought Google Searches couldn't get faster

While many educators know about Google Advanced Search features,

I will admit I probably don’t use it as much as I should.  Now there is no

excuse- install the Fast Advanced Google Chrome Extension.  It will

then show the image below.  

Now you can easily use the advanced search feature,  For a review,

please see the review by Richard Byrne here.

Students on a Google Slide

Interested in having your students create an infographic yet need a place to start?  How about using this Google Slide? It contains step by step directions for the students.  And the topic? Something they know best- themselves! Please click here and then make a copy.

Feng shui for your classroom

September is around the corner and so is classroom design.  For a few lessons learned, please check out this blog post from PearDeck.  Sometimes less really is more.

Conditional Formatting in Google

For those who have worked with me on the digital escape room, conditional formatting is old hat. (Conditional formatting allows you to set rules to change the color of cells in Google Sheets).  For others, please read Alice Keeler’s shared post here (she shares Beth Mossholder's guest post). You will find several ideas for your students.

Capturing Hand Made work in Classroom

Alice Keeler has some easy step by step directions on using student webcams to capture student work or photos and submit it using Google Classroom.  She has directions for both mobile and chromebooks. Please click here to read her blog.

Let Google make your more efficient

Even though we don’t use Gmail for educators in the district, you will find the suggestions in this post worthwhile.  Let Google help you improve your organization!

HyperDocs and #BookSnap

In my email this morning, I found a message from Shake Up Learning

as well as link to an extraordinary hyperdoc (this Google Slide

set works it way through a novel along with many student learning activities
along the way.)  You can click here to see her post and make a copy

of the hyperdoc.

But in the process, I came across the concept #BookSnap. (Now, when

I did some research, I realized Tara Martin has been promoting this concept

(with a wide variety of tools) for several years- so I apologize for being late to

the party!).  So what’s a #booksnap? Here are Tara’s words “ However, the idea in

my mind was to create a digital visual representation of the text along with the

annotation”. So image a quotation from a book along with information on how the

reader feels.  For more information, please see her blog post here.    Want to see

her tell her story?  You can access her ISTE talk last year here.

While she started with Snapchat, she has expanded  to a variety of tools (SeeSaw,
Google Slides and Drawings).  I just watched the Google Slides and Google Drawing
videos.  And #Booksnaps are not just for books- you can find examples in many content
areas.  You can find resources and samples on Tara’s website.

I’ve deliberately chosen not to include an image- search on Google or Twitter
for samples.Or better yet- have your students make their own!