💥 Google Classroom tips, Don't get scammed, great Chromebook deal for home, and more!

Remove students and archive your old Google Classrooms!

Just do it!

Here are a few notes/tips on this. (THX to Janelle Coady for these.) 

• It will be removed from the students' class lists. I don't know how many times we have seen a student's list and it still had classes from several years ago. Archiving will eliminate this.
• You can still see your archived classes; they are just in a new place (look down the left sidebar for archived classes).
• You can still reuse old announcements and assignments from archived class. (However, you cannot reuse items from the "about section," so if you are like me and used this spot for ongoing course info, it is not an option to reuse. In fact, you cannot even look at your old about section. The good news is if you put those items in the stream as an announcement, you can reuse next year. Yeah!)
• I would also recommend removing all students before archiving classes. Although it should still remove them from seeing the class (I tested with a test account), it is probably still good practice to remove students and then archive. 

More Classroom ideas:

Back to School with G Suite: 6 Activities for the Classroom - Vision Boards - Student Interest Survey - Emoji Scavenger Hunt and more!  

Google Classroom - The new roll-out started on August 7th!  

• 5 Things to Know About the New Google Classroom 
• Have questions? Check out Google's Back to School FAQ. 
• Time for a refresh: Meet the new Google Classroom 
•  Alice Keeler's recent post on "the comment bank." If you scroll down her post, you will also see a feature that allows teachers to scroll through assignments with an arrow rather than opening each one up. 

Jason did a session on the new features at boot camp - if you get a chance ask him about them... pretty cool additions to the classroom program. 

We are better than this Norris Staff!

With a subject line of: Click The Easy Button!!

...and a message with just a button:

We had almost 50 staff members click on this. (47 to be exact.)   Really!  That tells me that we have a lot of staff members that one day will have hackers on their computer watching them on their webcams. Staff members who will have bank accounts drained and wondering where the money went.  Staff members who have purchases on accounts or cards that they did not authorize.  The list goes on.  We need to be careful with what we click on!  It's really dangerous out there and it's to easy to be a victim.  Sorry to sound like I am a parent scolding you.... but It's not just about Norris... it's about your personal security!  We are all in this together and we care! 

Have you checked your web profile? Did you change buildings, coaching duties, etc.... Remember to update them on our website - it's simple to do! Here is the info from our webmaster (Andrew Carlson) Just reminding you again!

Please double check your profile page on the Norris website and make sure all your information is current.  

If you have something that needs to be changed, it is very easy to do...you don't need to contact me to make the changes.

To log-in to the site, just go to the top of the page and click on "Titan Tools" and then "LOG-IN"   Help Logging in

This should take you to a "user" page that has some links to your Profile and a direct link to EDIT your profile.  Help with Profile Edits

Don't forget to Save your changes at the bottom of the edit window.  

All other Help options:  www.norris160.org/help

Create Better Looking Sites More Quickly with Section Layouts in New Google Sites

Via G Suite Updates | Google is adding section layouts to the new Google Sites. You can use these layouts to quickly design pages or sections of pages on your site. This makes it even easier and quicker to create professional-looking websites using the new Sites.

annual tech boot camp! (Wow, it was great seeing all of the innovative tools and tech that staff use here at Norris. Special thanks to  our very own Jason Gault for organizing such a great event!)

Many of the session resources are available from the schedule - Check them out! 

 Congratulations to these staff members that completed their Google Certification's this summer! 

You can see our complete list of certified educators here, and learn more about the Norris Google Certification Program here.  Get ready for another round this next spring!  The feedback from participants has been very positive! 

If you are a teacher or administrator - Join NETA now. It’s Free!

Fill out this quick form now - membership is free! - https://goo.gl/nWPQ6x ←- Join Now!

The Nebraska Educational Technology Association (NETA) - http://netasite.org/ is a grassroots organization open to everyone interested in sharing information about using technology in the educational process. NETA has over 5,000 members. You will be eligible for free classroom grants, allowed to vote for many Norris staff members that may be on the ballot, receive a monthly email with resources and more.   

Looking for good Chromebook for home at a great price - This is a great one for the money. 

Acer Chromebook 14 - at Walmart for $219   Here's an article about this deal. 

Why are Google's teachers tests open book? Do we need to learn from them?

A teacher recently sent me a link to this article and pointed me to a section toward the end of the article. 

From this article I read the following excerpt:
"When I was going threw the process of becoming a Google Apps Certified Trainer I was taking the required tests on all the Google Apps. The tests run on Google's own system and once you press start you have 90 minutes to finish. Google also gives you all the training materials which are public and anyone can learn from. So I did what any cheating student would do. I started the test in one browser and then opened up the training materials in another browser. When I came to a question I didn't know the answer to I would quickly search for and find it in the training manuals. Basically an open book test.

As I continued taking the tests I kept asking myself "What is Google after here?" and then it hit me. It's about searching and finding information.

Wow... This is spot on. I love the statement... "So I did what any cheating student would do. I started the test in one browser and then opened up the training materials in another browser." Yep, that is what I would do too! 

I can remember 20 years ago, when they talked about living in the "information age", and did not realize what that meant until several years later, when hundreds of emails fly through my inbox weekly and millions of Tweets and Facebook postings are made daily. So much information, so little time, and so many people that can not find the data or answers when they need it.  I think it's a generational thing.  The best thing you can tell many teachers is... "Just ask your students for help on how to run the __________. (You can fill in the blank with any piece of technology or tool that you want to.) Do not be afraid to asks students for help with technology, and at the same time let's look at those students and figure out ways of delivering content that will reach them as well require them to apply and use the content they can easily find.

My son recently tore a car apart and rebuilt it from the ground up. (He has a couple things to finish, but it's close to getting done!)  He had no automotive classes or training.  How did he do it?? The internet. With a great web site, tutorials, videos, and a car community willing to answer peoples postings and emails... I saw my son become a mechanic, who encouraged me pull a motor and transmission out of one car and drop it into another car. I have done mechanic work in the past, but I never would of been motived to trying it again if it had not been for my son's encouragement and help.  (And yes, that car has been running great ever since!) 

I remember watching a TED video- Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education. If you have not seen this, you need to, it's amazing what kids can do if we get out of their way.

This was blog article I started long ago, and since it's initial start, I have taken all of the Google Certification tests, and yes... I think I used the same technique as described in the original article that spurred this blog posting. Since the tests are time limited, as a student you spend so much time preparing, taking notes, etc... that you learn the curriculum, even though the test is "open book". 

So what does it really boil down to??? 

It's all about information management, problem solving, and becoming a lifelong learner.  What are we doing to foster this in our children?