From Richard Byrne- 5 things about slides

Even if you are an experienced Google Slides user, you will find something new in these short video tutorials.  I would check out the one on inserting audio.  This is a newer feature and he explains how to format it to your liking!

Google Classroom and Feedback

How are you using Google Classroom for feedback?  Do you need a few ideas? Please check out this blog post from Kasey Bell (ShakeUpLearning) for ideas.  If you haven’t checked out the comment bank- it can really save you time and make the feedback more effective!

Informational Postcards

Sarah Kiefer (who has wonder templates on her site here) has shared an information postcard template here.  I’ve made my own copy as a sample.  It was very easy and I can see many options for classroom use.  I would love to try it with your students!

Social Studies and History Resources

TeachersFirst has highlighted Social Studies and History sources here.  I really liked exploring the National Park site!

Diversity and WriteReader

This blog post from WriteReader has step by step directions for a diversity lesson plan.  This might be a nice project for your students.  If you are not using WriteReader (for a variety of reasons), I still think this elementary lesson plan could be adapted for older learners with a variety of applications.

To use tech or not to use tech- that is the question

While it is easy to get caught up with some of the tech applications, Matt Miller poses 10 questions to help you determine if tech is the best solution for a project. Please see his blog post here.  I think #9 is my favorite.

Got an animal project in your future?

Image by Sarah Kiefer 

If the answer is yes, please check out this template developed by Sarah Kiefer.  It will guide your students through the process and help structure their research.

Using Check Marks with conditional formatting

Alice Keeler shares a template (as well as the directions) to enable checkboxes to change the color of your cells.  I just incorporated this into the Sayreville University sheets I use to track registration. For her template and blog post, please click here.

Signing into Chrome versus Google

Ever wonder what’s the difference?  Richard Byrne takes a few minutes to explain the difference in his blog post here.

I love you because

Please click here to read.

Instead of using ChatterPIX (and then creating an iMovie), Amanda Telesco used WriteReader and had each student answer the prompt “I love you because..” both with an illustration and their voice. The result was a wonderful Valentine's book she shared with their parents. Please click here to read the book.

Valentine's Day (Part 3)

Special thanks to Miss Jackie’s class (and especially Mrs. C!) for this cute ChatterPIX iMove for Valentines’ Day.

Valentine's Day (Part 2)

Here’s some more ChatterPIX magic from my preschool friends in Ms. Ana’s class.  The children created their paper heart collages and then added their voices. 

Valentines’ Day (Part 1)

What do you get with heart-shaped bugs, ChatterPIX, and preschoolers?  If you are in Ms. Kathleen’s class, you would have this charming iMovie from the love bugs!

How are you KEEPing?

Google Keep is my go-to for lists and tasks.  It's on my device and my phone and allows me to stay organized.  Alice Keeler presents several of the outstanding KEEP features in this blog post.

Checkboxes in Google Sheets

Alice Keeler shares her favorite method for using checkboxes in Google Sheets.  While she uses it to track resubmitted work, you can use them for a variety of issues.  Please click here to read her thoughts.

Moby with a middle school twist

Who says 7th graders are too cool for BrainPOP?  Not Katie Hoff.  She shared this video from her seventh-grade class.  I think it was a great idea to have the students record their own voices (and in the far distance, you might hear some of the class).

Storyboardthat and Daily 5

I visited Colleen West’s class yesterday (third grade) and introduced them to Storyboardthat. She used it for vocabulary work and plans to incorporate it into their Daily Five activities.  In these samples, we asked the students to craft sentences (using at least two of their spelling words) and then create an image.

Google- Where the learning never stops

Are you interested in increasing your Google knowledge?  Would you like a free

self-paced way to accomplish this? Check out Google’s Teacher Center.  From

novices (their first-day series) to advanced users- there is something for everyone.

Engineers Week

TeachersFirst has collected STEM-related resources for National Engineers Week.  Please click here to see the resources.

More Black History Resources

National Geographic has recently shared their collection of Balck History resources.  You can view it here.

And the winner is…

Common Sense Media just realized their rankings on online quiz applications- which one do you think is in the number 1 spot?  Click here to find out and read their reviews.

Do you use Units? Topics? Weeks? Subjects?

So how do you organize your Google classroom?  Kasey Bell (Shake Up Learning)

recently shared six different strategies (and I think whichever one I pick,

I would use Alice Keeler’s suggestion of today!)  Please click here

for her post. 

Differentiated work in Google Classroom Assignments

Alice Keeler shared her directions to differentiate assignments in Google Classrooms.

She suggests reusing the assignment/post (and then modifying the direction, etc) and

then using the assign feature to share it with selected students.  Please see her blog

post here.

Wheel of Names

Click here to see the wheel turn!

This past weekend I attended an EdCamp.  To give away the prizes, they used Wheel of Names.  This is a free random name (or any other item) generator.  You add the names and then you can customize (this example is in the Google theme).  Make an account and you can access your saved wheels. Here’s a short YouTube video on the features!

Looking for Presidential sites?

TeachersFirst has shared its wide collection of Presidential (and civics) resources. Please click here to see their curated resources.

Student Written Inspirational Stories

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Robin Read's high school students used Book Creator to share their inspirational stories. My thanks to her students for sharing their works with you.  Please consider reading some and leaving a comment.

Using Google Forms for retakes

Alice Keeler has crafted several easy steps to help you use forms as retakes.  Bu building a question bank (with variations on the questions), to multiple forms (with responses going to the same sheet) to suggestions about data validation - all you need to know is here.

Educational PodCasts

While I walk in the morning, I try to sneak in a podcast (in a vain attempt to get caught up!).  This morning I listened to Alice Keeler on Vicki Davis’ Ten Minute Teacher Podcast. You can find the link here.  Alice had some interesting ideas on the best way to use Google Classroom.

BrainPOP Make A Movie

Last week I joined Diamond Hargrove’s third-grade class as they converted their

short essays into BrainPOP movies.  Their essays were done (after watching the

BrainPOP movie on Goal Setting) shortly after the New Year and outlined their

goals for the year.  Special thanks to her kids for sharing!

Audio in Google Slides

I've been waiting since last spring for the Insert Audio feature in Google Slides. While it will be easy to insert- it doesn't allow you to record right in Google Slides. Instead, you need to record and then add it to your drive. I have used Online Voice Recorder. Here is a blog post from Richard Byrne with the details.

Here is a wonderful list (from Kasey Bell and ShakeUpLearning) of audio suggestions in Google Slides. Here is another blog post from Tech You Can do that includes a nice handout for your students for Online Voice recorded.

Black History Resources

("NEWtubman20" by animaltourism.com is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

With February just around the corner, TeachersFirst has shared several Black History Resources.  Click here (for a wide variety of sites) and here (from PBS) to see resources for grades K-12.