September 27

Apps Worth Investigating: Google Screencast

Because our Chromebooks have been upgraded to a newer operating system, we now have access to the Screencast App that Google has included with the more recent updates. This software has a lot of features that Screencastify had, and a few more editing options. One promising feature is a build in transcription tool. The wonderful thing is we don’t have to pay for it. This won’t work on your laptop, only a Chromebook, but if you are logged in with your account the videos created will be accessible in your Google Drive.

This brief video shows you how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mp1TcpJfF4&t=3s&ab_channel=GoogleforEducation

If you’re interested in more details, here is a video from Eric Curts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHyPcIHvlxo&t=2s&ab_channel=EricCurts

Or if you prefer a website rather than a video  https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/11972236?hl=en

February 22

Google Docs Cloze Worksheets

If you want to create your own Cloze worksheets for building vocabulary, check out this short video by Flipped Classrooms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoACo03N82g

In a nutshell, he goes over how to use an Add-on called “Cloze-It” to select vocabulary words in a Google Doc paragraph that you type or copy and replace them with blanks. Then add-on generates a word bank that students can then use to fill in the correct word. You  have the option of removing the entire word or leaving the initial consonant as a hint.

I’ve added the Cloze-It add-on to our “approved” list for Google Docs so you shouldn’t have any trouble installing it.

November 24

Extensions Worth Exploring: Checker Plus for Google Calendar

If you create Google Calendar appointments with students only to have them forget to attend, you might be glad to know that we added a tool to help. I’ve pushed out a Chrome extension called “Checker Plus”for Google Chrome. If you use Google Calendar to create an event and invite a student to that event, this extension will pop up with a reminder. They do need to initially click on the extension and grant access. If they click on the puzzle piece (extensions) icon they’ll see the Checker Plus and can just click on it to allow it (screenshot below). Students will need to accept your calendar invite, but when they do, they will get a pop-up reminder that has a link to a Google Meet (Zoom can be an option if you’ve installed theZoom Scheduler extension) .  It even has a snooze button!
Another benefit of this extension is that it shows assignments from all of their Google Classrooms. They just need to click on the extension to see a dropdown of their calendar.
Please let me know if this extension causes any issues. I can downgrade it to “allow install” (which means students can install it from the Chrome Webstore), but this seemed beneficial enough to push out to your students. (You might want to use it too! Just click here to installit yourself.)

 

 

May 7

App Worth Investigating: Glide

I’ve been playing with a cool app that creates phone apps from Google Sheet data. It is called Glide: https://www.glideapps.com/ Here is a sample one I created for Kelso Schools: https://go.glideapps.com/play/H9VV5EhOetFsMd4EbUFg

It works really well on phones (scan the QR code to test it out). I thought it might be an interesting tool for some of your more advanced students to work with (it’s not hard, programming wise- they  just would need to work on pulling together the data and image links). Here are some samples of how it can be used: https://www.glideapps.com/

For a high shcool, one could be created for the various clubs and could include advisors, officers, meeting times, etc. Same with sports. A community service activity would be to create one our city– maybe historical sites, places of interest, parks?

Here is a nice tutorial explaining how it works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQPRVtxI1gM

and some ideas on how you could use it from Richard Byrne https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2019/04/5-ideas-for-using-glide-to-create-your.html

January 17

Website Worth Sharing: Google Mystery Animal

Google has taken the 20 questions game virtual with their Mystery Animal site: https://mysteryanimal.withgoogle.com/  You have 20 questions that you can ask in order to discover what animal Google is thinking of. The website looks like it can only work with Google Home, but if you click on the “Preview it Here” link on the lower right, you can use your laptop to verbally ask the questions. This would be a great activity to reinforce characteristics or animals (Does it have fur? Does it have feathers?) after an animal unit. Secondary science students could see if they can come up with the best list of questions for early success. It would also be a good activity when you have 5-10 minutes at the end of the day or during lunch to keep the noise down.

Annoyance warning!!! The artificial intelligence here is a work in progress- when I tested it out, sometimes it heard me wrong- (kept hearing “in” instead of “inches”). Prepare kids for this possibility so they don’t get too frustrated. Tell them the technology is still learning too. (Here’s a video about how they developed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE982gjjHEU ) They’ll also need to be quiet when it is in “listening” mode (click on the microphone to turn it red) or it might hear the wrong question.

Speech teachers, this might be a nice way to have kids practice speaking clearly.

As kids practice this, they’ll soon figure out what types of questions are good and which ones are too specific. You may want to keep track of good questions. Here is a table from Sarah Keifer (tech blogger) that you can copy and start adding to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19dqHAtksKMV0Q6ne3Mj3QNON2fXT4GfXVvyBTbzKia8/copy

 

 

May 9

Video worth Viewing: Managing Multiple Google Accounts

If you struggle with logging into multiple Google accounts on your work and/or home computer, you may want to watch this 7 minute video by Kasey Bell at Shakeuplearning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnYFZSBmNR4

I started using this technique myself this fall and it has made my life a lot easier. Everytime I’ve shown it to teachers, they are excited to learn that this is an option.

Who could use this tip?

  • Anyone who logs into more than one Google account
  • Elementary teachers who would like to access their classroom account AND their teacher account on the same computer.
  • Anyone who has multiple Google users on one computer (maybe it’s your home computer or a classroom computer)

 

Please note: When she talks about signing into the Customize menu of your Chrome browser, she shows the 3 horizontal lines (she refers to them as hot dogs). Those lines are now three vertical dots located on the upper right.