I hope everyone is off to a good start!
If you have any tech issues, let us know via a help desk request, or feel free to give us a call if the help desk is not the best option for the event/service needed.
Summer went fast. I have been saving a few good tips from this summer and just ran across some great ones this past week, but I wanted to wait until we got past the first few days to share them. (I know it takes more than a few days to settle in, but there are some great "start of the school year" tips that I wanted to share with you right away.
Have a great year and thanks for all you do in the trenches!
~Noel
Great ideas and templates in this one! This back to school slideshow has some great back to school ideas and templates. Check it out here!
Bend text into waves, arcs, curves and bulges at http://photopea.com. Save as a PNG to use in Google apps. (Another great tip from Tony V.)
Teach students about Chromebook care -- and play a Kahoot! game
. It'll keep your digital activities on track throughout the year! This training HyperDoc and corresponding Kahoot! game are waiting for you!
. It'll keep your digital activities on track throughout the year! This training HyperDoc and corresponding Kahoot! game are waiting for you!
Help students know how to take good care of their Chromebooks
Learn to be a Chromebook Lifeguard then have kids create their own meme! Sample Meme assignment here.
Another idea: We show this Chromebook care presentation in every class before we get started with our devices. And we play this accompanying GetKahoot!
Digital Choice Boards with Google Slides - Need to create an engaging, student-friendly digital choice board with Google Slides? In this fast-paced walkthrough you can watch again and again, learn how. You’ll see how to “hide” slides that you can link to and create a hyperslide deck.
Here is even a free template to get you started!
Some nice accessibility features added to G Suite:
Improvements for braille mode in Google Docs provide a richer, more interactive experience - Google has improved how suggestions are announced in braille mode in Google Docs. You’ll now hear detailed suggestion information inline with the rest of the text — this includes whether the suggestion is an insertion or deletion, and the author of the suggestion. | Learn more.
New font in Workspace improves accessibility for vision impaired - Now there's a new font in Workspace optimized for vision impaired users. When you create or want to read a document, set the font to Atkinson Hyperlegible for improved legibility.
My tech presentations during tech boot camp:
Cyber Security - http://bit.ly/ErskineTips2
Chrome extensions - Tech Bootcamp 2021 - http://bit.ly/ErskineTips3
Science Research Papers Annotated With Teaching Resources
Science in the Classroom is a free resource for teachers from Science Magazine. On Science in the Classroom you will find research papers containing interactive annotations to help students understand the content of the papers.
Check it out here! - Another great tip from Richard Bryne.
Misc. Tech tips:
Digital Citizenship Superhero HyperDoc (Grades 2-5) - Check it out!
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK (Google Meet Host Controls) - As the host of a Google Meet, you can control how and when your students join, and what they can do. You can also set it up so students can't join before you, and others can't join if they are not invited. 
Watch this quick 2 minute video to learn how!
Watch this quick 2 minute video to learn how!Free Templates for teachers! https://www.
This is a nice tip for Google Forms! How to Add Ranking Questions in Google Forms.
Free Virtual Reality Resources in YouTube - Discover lots of free, educational videos filmed in 360° virtual reality on YouTube for your students to use in mastering critical concepts. Checkout this article with several great videos highlighted to get you started.
Google Sheet tip: 
labnol shares two ways to shuffle the order of rows in Google Sheets. (This could be handy for assigning tasks or determining the order in which students will be presenting.) Check it out here. (Thanks to @tonyvincent for finding this tip.)
labnol shares two ways to shuffle the order of rows in Google Sheets. (This could be handy for assigning tasks or determining the order in which students will be presenting.) Check it out here. (Thanks to @tonyvincent for finding this tip.) New Google Forms Feature: Your Progress Is Automatically Saved As You Respond to Forms and Quizzes
English teachers: Add Google's Ngram Viewer to Your List of Research Tools.
Google's Ngram Viewer is a search tool that students can use to explore the use of words and names in books published between 1800 and 2019. The Ngram Viewer shows users a graph illustrating the first appearance of a word or name in literature and the frequency with which that word or name appears in literature since 1800. Great how-to from one of my favorites... Richard Bryne.
A fun, very visual way to start the school year ... Use this "icon board" template to let students share about themselves and their goals for the year ... (Along with the icon's add-on to slides)
Checkout this periodic table! - (From Google's Art & Culture) Do you find the periodic table a little...flat, or feel it's missing some substance? Then the new Periodic Table with 3D models is for you. Check it out, and share it via Classroom.
Google Classroom tips:
- Hide Notifications in Stream. (Thanks to Cindy Larson-Miller for this one.) If you want to hide notifications in the stream and force kids to use Classwork, checkout this 2 minute video.
- How to Use the Comment Bank in Google Classroom + Fancy Feedback Tips & Tricks. A great 8 minute how-to video located here.
Create your own Free Jeopardy online game at: Jeopardy Labs.
Some great websites (Online apps) for math (From the math learning center.) Money, clocks, number lines, and more! Some great K-8 math resources
They are now making hardshell snap-on cases for the staff Acer 713 Chromebooks!
We have had several teachers ask in the past, so we thought we would forward this to all staff. At the time they were not making them. But they are now! (Thanks to Jessie Andre for finding this!)
Here is the Amazon link with several colors available. Jessie said they fit perfectly. These offer some nice cheap protection for your device.
How to use anything on the web as an LMS (For us, Google Classroom) assignment - Canvas. Blackboard. Schoology. Google Classroom. No matter your LMS, you have LOTS of power to create great assignments! Checkout this great how-to article for tips, resources and more. AND 10 ways to make the most of your LMS
Congratulations to these staff members for completing their Google Certifications! (If for some reason I missed you on the list... let me know.)
Summer 2021 certifications: (As of 8-16-21)
New Certifications:
Level 1:
hannah.childress@nsdtitans.org
New Certifications:
Level 1:
hannah.childress@nsdtitans.org
melissa.wesch@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1- 6-24-21)
anton.olbricht@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 8-4-21)
Level 1 & 2 :
kelsey.appleby@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1- 6-12-21 and Level 2 8-9-21 )
leeann.mertens@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 - 7-15-21 and Level 2 8-4-21)
savannah.engle@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1- 7-12-21)
faith.hrnchir@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 - 7-27-21 and Level 2 8-1-21)
madison.johnson@nsdtitans.org (Completed 7-27-21 and Level 2 28-1-21)
Certification renewals:
Level 1 renewal:
leia.rumsey@nsdtitans.org (Completed 6-11-21)
Level 1 & 2 renewal:
jessie.andre@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 6-30-21 and Level 2 (7-1-21)
jennifer.hutzler@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 7-28-21 and Level 2 (7-29-21)
nicole.bishop@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 8-4-21 and Level 2 (8-4-21)
anton.olbricht@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 8-4-21)
Level 1 & 2 :
kelsey.appleby@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1- 6-12-21 and Level 2 8-9-21 )
leeann.mertens@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 - 7-15-21 and Level 2 8-4-21)
savannah.engle@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1- 7-12-21)
faith.hrnchir@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 - 7-27-21 and Level 2 8-1-21)
madison.johnson@nsdtitans.org (Completed 7-27-21 and Level 2 28-1-21)
Certification renewals:
Level 1 renewal:
leia.rumsey@nsdtitans.org (Completed 6-11-21)
Level 1 & 2 renewal:
jessie.andre@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 6-30-21 and Level 2 (7-1-21)
jennifer.hutzler@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 7-28-21 and Level 2 (7-29-21)
nicole.bishop@nsdtitans.org (Completed Level 1 8-4-21 and Level 2 (8-4-21)
More Templates! from DTT
Here are some highlights:
- Google Sheets calendar templates (Great for long term planning.)
- Google Slides newsletter template (it's nice!)
See all the templates in the DTT Template Library
Some favorites:
- The Yelp Review template (review a place as a historical character)
- The This or That Snapchat game template (great bell ringer activity)
- The interactive notebook template (bye bye composition notebooks)
- The infographics templates (visual learning at its best)
Remember-- We have a template doc with many more! (And now it includes these too!)
Thanks Janelle for this tip. (It was sent to HS staff, but I thought I would share this with everyone.) (Thanks Janelle.)
Here is a quick 5-min video explaining how to build a complete email distribution list of parents for a particular class with all listed emails and no duplicates. Once you have this done, emailing all parents for that class can be done within Gmail.
Make your own simple puzzle or floor puzzle from an image:
Visit the Split Image online tool on the PineTools.com site. Super easy to divide any image into squares or rectangles! Print large, laminate, and you have a great floor puzzle, use Slides Tool Box (Listed above) to import each image as a slide background for an icebreaker.
If you are not using Canva, you are missing out! They give educators the pro version for free! Super simple! It's the best online graphics program for teachers.
Sign up for an educators account here to get all of the paid features. 100% free for educators and their students! They have a lot of templates! They even have Google Classroom header templates- check them out.
Here are the Desk Stip templates shown below. They even have alphabet desk strips here.
Chromebook tip:
