💥 Tech items - Some cool tools, FREE and low cost equipment and more in this weeks post!

30 must-have resources for teaching digital citizenship -  Check the out.

Slido - Create and Run Polls Within Your Google Slides 

Find out more about this add-on here. 

How to create (and re-use!) templates for your students

• Assigning a good template to students can do magnificent things.
• It gets them right to work. It guides them through learning.
• Plus, it can save you a ton of time!
• It's easy to create templates for your students using Google tools. (Hint: Google Slides is the way to go!)
• Use this simple step-by-step tutorial post to get started right away.

Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning? - Check out this great sample/idea.  When students are told exactly what to do and how to do it, they remain passive participants in the classroom. They may not have to think critically or creatively about their learning. Try out this simple strategy in your classroom to provide students with a choice of options they can choose from to demonstrate their learning at the end of an investigation, unit, or project.

Can your students escape? Let's find out. --Escape rooms are super popular right now!
You're locked in a room. There are clues all around you.
You must use the clues to find a way to escape before time runs out.
Imagine using that excitement to help students learn in your classroom!

When the clues relate to your content, learning feels like an exciting mission!

Guest blogger Mandi Tolen shares step-by-step how she's created digital escape rooms for student learning and for teacher professional development. (There's even a planning template you can download!)

Plus, you can download some pre-created FREE escape rooms!

Checkout Dith that textbooks resource:  How to create a digital escape room for your class or PD

Checkout robo-compass: https://www.robocompass.com/app  (More info and article here.) 

A Couple of Fun and Simple Map Games for Students of All Ages -  How Many European Cities Can You Name? and How Many US Cities Can You Name? (More info and article here.) 

Educandy - Quickly Create Educational Games from Word Lists (More info and article here.) (A more polished version of Flippity) 

topoView - View and Download Thousands of Historical Maps  topoView is a free service that anyone can use to find and download historical topographic maps produced by the USGS since 1880. (More info and article here.)

Create and share labeling games by uploading your own images at http://PurposeGames.com  Thanks to @tonyvincent for this great tip and allowing me to use his graphics! 

 

Looking to make an animated GIF? Check out these four online tools...

https://ezgif.com/

https://andtheniwaslike.co/

https://brush.ninja/

https://gifmaker.me/

  Thanks again to @tonyvincent for this great tip and allowing me to use his graphics!    

✂️ Long videos can be an information overload. Shorter clips with time to think, discuss, and apply can help learners better understand the content. You can chunk a video using Google Slides. 

Tips & Tricks for the Digital Workplace - How Gmail Filters Can Help Organize Your Inbox
Automate your inbox and enhance your organization by taking full advantage of what Gmail filters have to offer. I know I have mentioned the power of filters in the past... but this one is worth looking at again if you are not doing this.  Check it out here  Need help - Jason or myself are available to help!  

And now for some low-cost or free tech: 

Get an Echo Dot for just $1 when you sign up for a month of Amazon Music Unlimited
For just $9 total Prime Members can get an Echo Dot and a one-month subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited. (Yes, you can cancel the subscription and still have 1 month of Music Unlimited and keep the dot... all for $9.) 

Free Google Home Mini offer from Spotify:

If you are already a Spotify premium member... just claim your free device.  If not, you can join and then claim your device.  (This offer is good for anyone who has not already claimed a free mini in the past.  More info here. 

Get a free Alexa Echo Auto: 

If you are already a Nationwide Insurance customer... call them and get your free device.  I guess if you decide to become a new customer, you will get one too.  (Not sure it's worth changing insurance for that... but hey who knows. LOL)  Those interested in receiving one can visit nationwide.com/echoauto, call 800-347-1792

💥 Tech items - Decorate your pumpkin, Google drive tips, great app list, the motherload of templates and more....

Norris Middle School Social Media featured on ClassIntercom 

The efforts of Jason Cullison and our Norris Middle School students were recently featured in this story by ClassIntercom.  If you have not had a chance to see their video news stories check them out on their Norris MS News Channel.  They do a great job posting to social media so check out their feeds. Our entire listing of Norris Social Media accounts can be found here.  Congrats to Jason & MS students! 

Have you watched any of the Norris sports broadcasts this fall?  If not, you are missing out! 

Volleyball net cams, sideline cams, 1/2 time guest interviews, endzone cams, replays... the nsdV streaming channel is rocking thanks to Andrew Carlson, Bryan Williams and a host of others. Special thanks to Jason Cullison and Dylan Kendal for announcing the games. You can subscribe to any of our YouTube Channels here.  You will want to subscribe to our nsdV and nsdV_alt2 channels to make sure you get notified when games are streamed. (When you subscribe you get an email when they are broadcasting.)

Form Notifications add-on now available in the G Suite Marketplace - There were a few other add-on's that accomplished this, but this is now the one to use.  It's free, made by Google and has a few more features. More info here. 

35 Google Drive Tips You Can't Afford to Miss - This is just a great list.     I normally pull a few gems out and share with you and toss the rest... but this list is solid.  Yes, I already knew many of them but it was a great reminder with a few new ones I did not know!  Check it out here. 

FALL INTO ELEMENTARY AUTUMN RESOURCES  have students create pumpkins without the mess...and more activities & ideas!   - Some great ideas in this article.    Check out the sample pumpkin animation that is easy for kids to do. 

Here are a couple of pumpkin ones:  Build a Jack-O-Lantern (This one you would assign in Google Classroom and collect via classroom) or Pumpkin Building Class Activity (This one you would share the entire slideshow and each student would work on their own pumpkin. 

We have an entire folder of similar activities/ideas in this folder in our public docs. 

If you have not had the chance to work with Jason, he would love to help get you started with using these as well as other amazing tech ideas for your classes!   

Need a buzzer system for your classroom games/quizzes? (Thanks to James Myers for this one!)  It's a great website use with your review games, etc...  and it's free. https://buzzin.live/  (Works best with touch screen devices.)  The power of gaming in education is great and this one makes it easy to do your own review or other games in the classroom. 

All the Best Google Sheets Keyboard Shortcuts  - If you use sheets a lot, these tips may come in handy.

A nice list of Chrome Shortcuts:  Chrome Shortcuts You Should Know. 

Use  Nearpod? The new #GoogleSlides add-on will be a winner for you. Make your slides an interactive lesson in Nearpod.

25 practical ways to use Google Forms in class, school -  You may pick up on an idea or two from this list. 

A couple of nice articles on self-graded quizzes.  (Remember, Google forms makes this simple! 

• Should we use auto-graded quizzes?
• If we use them, how can we make them better?

Your Go-To Educational Apps - There are thousands of educational apps out there, this is a great source for your IOS, Chrome, and Android apps.  CHECK IT OUT! 

Spring cleaning has come early to GoGuardian with their next two additions/features.  Teachers now have the ability to delete Scenes and archived classrooms! This will reduce the clutter of unused Scenes/Classrooms and clean up the dashboard. Read more about these features at the Help Center articles below

• https://help.goguardian.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005496963-FAQ-Can-I-Delete-a-Scene-
• https://help.goguardian.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004056646-Archive-Restore-Remove-Delete-a-Classroom 

Google Slides: The Swiss Army knife of G Suite 

• 30 interactive Google Slides activities for classroom excitement. 
• 20 add-ons and extensions to supercharge your Google Slides presentations. 

The motherload! Spice Up Your Slides with 600+ Free Design Templates 

I always recommend Slide Carnival, which is first on their list... but there are so many more!  Check out the list.  

75+ Google Classroom tips and tricks - Here are some tips put together by the "Ditch That Textbook" groups. Check them out here. 

How to Import Data from Another Google Sheet -  How-to article here. 

Should you need to import data from another spreadsheet in Google Sheets, you can do it a couple of ways. Whether you want to pull the data from another sheet in the file or an entirely different spreadsheet, here’s how.