How to help your students cite evidence

SOS (Spotlight on Strategies) to the rescue!  Here is a blog post from Discovery Education showcasing the SOS tools that will help your students cite evidence!

Managing your extensions

Not extension cords or surge protectors- but chrome extensions.  Richard Byrne shares his tips here.

NEW Discovery Education Updates

Every summer Discovery Education refreshes the site.  Please see this site for a review of their new features.

REUSE (not copy)

No, this is not a recycling or environmental post- rather a suggestion (from Alice Keeler) on how to reuse forms rather than making a copy.  Just unlink the spreadsheet and delete the responses. Please see her post here.

PowerPoint and Slides Hidden Features

Think you know everything about slide presentations?  Check this post here for the top ten tricks with both PowerPoint and Google Slides.  Special thanks to Carrie Lurilli for sharing.

Want to customize your classroom header?

Here’s a post from Alice Keeler on how to customize your header in Google Classroom.

World Language and Storyboardthat

For my world language teachers, Richard Byrne shared Storyboardthat lessons plans for World Languages.  Click here to see the Storyboardthat resources. For those in the district, please see your media specialist for Storyboardthat information.

Adding audio to your virtual tour

Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) has developed a video that will walk you through the steps in you would like to add audio to any of Google Virtual Tour Builders.

Math Playground and Google Classroom

Math Playground wasn’t new to me- yet when I read Richard Byrne’s post, I realized you could share activities from Math Playground to Google Classroom!  This makes it easy for students to quickly access the site and find your selected activity.

Star your originals

Tired of losing your original documents?  Are copies and students work cluttering your drive?  Alice Keeler suggests using the STAR to keep track! Please read her post here.

A picture is worth

Do you know best how to use Discovery Education Spotlight on Strategies with photos?  Click here to see the collection of activities to use with your students.

New Ideas for Google Keep

Alice Keeler shares her ideas on the best ways to use Google Keep. This is a great app for your phone and will help keep you organized and more efficient.

Going Nuclear

Ever wonder how nuclear energy is produced?  Now is your chance with the Discovery Education virtual field trip to the Palo Verde Generating Station on Monday, October 15 at 1 pm. Please see the link to register.

Making Comments Quicker

To be effective, you really need to be efficient.  Check out Alice Keeler’s shortcut suggestions for comments.

Google Classroom- the movie(s)!

In late August, Alice Keeler shared this post with 32 videos for Google Classroom.  Please note there have been some changes since then (and I’m still waiting for the locked quizzes!).

What makes a city SMART?

Not sure of the correct answer?  Then you and your students might want to check
out the Discovery Education Virtual Field trip here.  This event is on October 9 at 1pm.

Quick start Google Classroom for Students

Alice Keeler shares concise information for getting students familiar with Google Classroom.  
Please click here for the link.

More on Google Classroom Materials

Need a little more information on the new Materials option in Google Classroom?  Take a look at this blog post from Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers). This is a great place to post frequently used material and links.

Several ways for private student communication

While you may be aware of the Private Comments in Google classroom, Alice Keeler has several additional suggestions for reaching the quiet student who may not speak out in class.  Please see her blog post here.

Draw and Tell

Richard Byrne shared the Draw and Tell iPad app in a recent blog post.  Brought to you
from the ChatterPIX folks, it looks great for young learners. You can select a coloring page
(just click the color and the object) or the drawing page (here you can add stickers
and drawings).  In the Drawing page, you can import your own photo.

All of the recordings can be grouped and played within the app.  The exporting
process is a little cranky-today it worked and yesterday it didn’t. (As you know
what my daughter says, “You get what you pay for!” and this is a free app!  

Can you hear my SOS?

Discovery Education recently shared a package of their Spotlight on Strategies that deal with audio.  Please click here to see view the entire group.  Sometimes I think sound is underrated and that it plays a bigger part in learning then we admit!

Make spreadsheets easier to read

Want an easy way to make spreadsheets easy on the eyes?  Just alternate the colors. Read Alice Keeler’s blog here  for the step by step directions.

Internet Safety Resources

In his blog post today (on Free Technology for Teachers), Richard Byrne shares NetSafe internet safety cartoons from Planet Nutshell.  There are a variety of topics divided by grade levels.  I’ve included one above as a sample.

The Learning Network

The New York Times has a variety of educational resources for high school students on their Learning Network site.  Please click here for a resource overview.

Quick start Google Classroom for Students

Alice Keeler shares concise information for getting students familiar with Google Classroom.  Please click here for the link.

Classroom Extensions for Chrome

In a guest post, Lynn Gershman shares chrome extensions that will help a variety of learners.  Please click here to read her suggestions.

What if

What if your students could share (writing prompt? Do Now? Journal entry) on a Google slide?  But wait, there's more- how about if you could see all their responses in a spreadsheet and send them feedback?  Leave it to Alice Keeler to create the Add-On that will make this happen. Please click here to read her blog post for step by step directions.

Send then a certificate

While there are several ways to send completion certificates to folks, but Certify’em is probably the most creative.  This is an Add On for Google Quizzes.  You can select the certificate template as well as the passing score to generate a the emailed certificate. Please see Alice Keeler’s post here for all the details.

Google Classroom Quick Start

Over the summer (when Google rolled out the Classroom changes), I saved a variety of resources. Here is one from Matt Miller (Ditch the Textbook) that will quickly walk you through the process.

New Google Classroom Changes

Please see this link for the newest Google Classroom features.  Now you can easily add materials to the top of the Classwork page.  This was one of the biggest requests for the new classroom.

Were there really Amazons?

Here’s a quick TED lesson on the Amazons.  I think it would be interesting to

survey your students prior to the video- what (and why) do they think as they do?