FlipGrid is one of our Must-have tech skills/tools for next year - Look what they have added!
Read the FlipgridLIVE recap or watch the recording to see what's launching August 1st and beyond, including major improvements to the...
Flipgrid Camera Learner Experience Educator Dashboard Discovery Library
Flipgrid tips: How to Create Whiteboard Videos in Flipgrid and Wakelet
Checkout our "Using Flipgrid in the Classroom" doc to get started.
Student Badges coming next year
Just an FYI - We are getting rid of the fingerprint readers in our lunch lines. Students will be issued badges. These badges will be printed in-house and placed in badge holders. They will be used for lunch and library systems, activity passes and other services. (Clever & SeeSaw QR codes will be on the backs of elementary cards.) Each building may have some other logistics including possible lanyards, etc...
How are you coming with your tech skills prep this fall?
Our "Remote Learning Teacher Tools and Skills - For the 2020-21 School year" document outlines the guidelines for the fall. Check it out!
Some great sessions are coming to the Norris Tech Boot Camp on August 5th and 6th!
Jason will be sending out the schedule in the future.... WOW it's looking great! Thanks to everyone for making this a great event. Hope to see you there.
Some new resources added to our Google Classroom tips & Tricks document:
Google Classroom header graphics (Templates) - Thanks to our very own Hanna Borgmann for sharing this one! Did you know you can add custom graphics as the banner for your Google Classroom? Here are a few templates in our public tech docs folder to give you an idea on getting started. Here is a quick how-to article.
Animated Bitmoji Banner for Google Classroom - A cool trick for a fun animated banner in Google Classroom.
Quick Tip: Emphasize Text in Google Classroom -Short 2 minute how-to video. (Note possible limitations on this one in the video.)
9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face - Some great tips and ideas to prepare for the fall. If you listen to the podcast they bring out some great points beyond the article.
- We need to be consistent with our communications to parents. (This is why we want all K-2 staff using SeeSaw and 3-12 using Google Classroom.)
- Parents need a learning hub to go to. (SeeSaw and Classroom can help in this arena but there may be more in each building to guide instruction.) Parents need to be able to easily navigate and communications need to be consistent.
- We need to encourage our students (especially in the 6-12 grades) to be checking their email each day. (Consistent form of communications.) (This was pointed out in our tech survey and is correct!)
More Google Slide Templates! How to Use Slidesgo Templates for Daily Organization We have added this resource to our "Google Slide templates and ideas" doc which is chocked full of templates!
Ten Ways to Use Google Earth in Your Classroom – It’s Not Just for Social Studies -Some great ideas to check out!
How to Convert Physical Notes into Google Documents. -It's simple. They are searchable in drive, and they OCR. This short 3 minute video walks you through the process.
Google Cast for Education and Share to Classroom extensions are going away! (Bummer!)
I think Google really missed this one up! Especially getting rid of Cast for Education. (It ranks up there with pulling the video editing tools from YouTube. The share to classroom extension was nice, but it's not as big of a deal and not as many teachers used that extension. So my Google Kool Aid is not tasting as good today!
They have a couple suggestions/workarounds, but both are pretty lame.
- Share links with students by posting to the Stream page of Classroom. Students can also use this feature to share materials wit
h you. - Teach students how to create bookmarks in Google Chrome or your web browser.
How can I replicate the functions of Cast for Education?
The Cast for Education Chrome extension allowed teachers and students to remotely “cast,” or share a live display of, their screen wirelessly to the instructor’s computer from anywhere in the classroom. After Cast for Education is discontinued, Google Meet will be the best tool for screen sharing between instructors and students.Tools for educators
- Start class online meetings (inclusive of screen casting) in Classroom, Google Calendar, and Meet on your computer or mobile device.
- Create a unique Google Meet link for each class to easily start virtual meetings and screen shares with students.
- Present your screen and use live captions in Google Slides or Meet to show text of the conversation as a learning aid.
Convert Google Slides to Video - How to Video here (It uses the Creator Studio add-on for Google Slides.) .
Breakout EDU - A Wakelet Collection of Breakouts
Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online software that improves reading, learning, and teaching. This site can:
- Intelligently simplify difficult English, for faster comprehension
- Effectively teach words, for building a better vocabulary
- Help teachers save time and produce engaging lessons
- Help improve learning outcomes
Assess without Tests - Here is Lynne's Assess without Tests presentation at our Norris Virtual Summit. (We have added this to our assessment tools doc)
See new changes or restore an old version using version history. Hopefully this is not new to you, but some of you may not be using named versions which can be nice!
Sometimes it’s helpful to look back at an older version of a Doc, Sheet or Slide to see how the contents have evolved or to restore an earlier version. In the file, click the gray text at the top saying “Last edit was on [date].” You’ll see a list of versions organized by date to the right of your file; click on a version to view associated changes. You can also revert to a particular version by clicking “Restore this version” (a blue button on the top left above your file). You can even name your versions to help keep track and quickly find the one you’re looking for. If you’re working in Sheets, use edit history to track edits for a specific cell.
5 Things You Might Not Know About Adobe Spark - Check it out. Yes, we already have the Enterprise version (Free to schools) for all staff and students. Our directions for logging into the Adobe Spark tools for Norris can be found here.
