Noel Erskine, Technology Coordinator Norris Schools

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Showing posts with label Google Drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Drive. Show all posts

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

Tuesday, October 15, 2019



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! 

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

Google Slides: The Swiss Army knife of G Suite 
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.

πŸ’₯ Tech items - Some great tips and tools to check out πŸ‘€ in this weeks post!

Wednesday, September 11, 2019


Google releases Chrome Canvas web app for drawing with ‘Ink’  - Just visit this site and start drawing! More info here.   (We have added a direct link to this and the AWW App in Clever) 
  • -Save drawings
  • -Export file if needed (PNG picture file format.) 
  • -Easy, Simple, & Fast!
I have added this one along with some other great ones to my doc: Use your iPad or Chromebook (Android app) as a Whiteboard <---Check it out! 

Free app! For kids in grades K-3 - Quality reading practice has never been easier.
Rivet is a free (Developed by Google Labs) program that provides access to  3,000+ free books across 14 categories in a kid-friendly interface. More info about the app can be found in our info document.  (Feel free to share this with parents tool) 

EdPuzzle has some great new features.  (This is an awesome tool for videos in your classroom.) It integrates with Google Classroom too!  Great for making sure students have watched the assigned video. You can even quiz them along the way! 

Here are a few of the new features:
Live Mode 
Project your edpuzzle for the whole class while your students answer live on their own devices… watch together, have fun and spark discussion!

Open Class 
Now students can watch videos without having to create an account – perfect for quick practice and elementary students! 

Are you using Comments in Google Classroom with grading assignments/Docs? 
Remember, the # will bring up your list of comments to insert. It's a nice time saver!  More info in this short 2-minute video. 

Display the word count as you type in Google Docs - New feature 
(Starting gradual roll out on 9-9-19.)  Instead of going to Tools > Word Count each time you want to view this information, now, you can simply select Tools > Word count > Display word count while typing to continuously display it in the lower-left corner of your doc:


Here's one for the math teachers - Need to do equations in Google docs?
Give the Auto-LaTeX Equations add-on a try. This add-on lets you automatically convert every LaTeX equation in your document into beautiful images! Simply enclose your math equations within $$ ... $$ and click the button in the sidebar, and all of your equations will be rendered in LaTeX!

3 easy strategies to organize your Google Classroom - This article has some great tips on getting your classroom organized.  Note - I have added this resource to our Google Classroom tips and trick doc

New Features coming - Switch to a Blank Screen and Set Advanced Time Options for Presentations in Google Slides
Via G Suite Updates | Google is adding two new features in Slides Present mode to help you better control and customize your presentations: keyboard shortcuts to switch to a blank screen and looping and auto advance time options for presentations. More info here. 

Some great resources from Matt Miller's Ditch that textbook email:
Check out his site with some amazing resources that grow each week! 
Here are just a few: 
20 Seesaw ideas with Chromebooks for K-12 classes  We are pushing every K-2 teacher at Norris to use SeeSaw - but check out these great ideas for everyone! 
Signup on the right-hand page of his website to get a weekly email with some great resources. 


Great email tip if you do not really want to give out your actual email address. This avoids creating a junk email address for conferences, etc...

Have you ever signed up for a conference, newsletter, or other services as a requirement or to get a discount Instead of setting up a different Gmail account for that unwanted Spam give this a try!

By simply adding a + to the end of your username (but before the "@") you can create infinite variations of your Gmail address. For example, ted.smith+norris@nsdtitans.org will direct email to your main address (ted.smith@nsdtitans.org) without giving it away to spammers. You can then filter messages containing "username+norris" into your junk or trash folder so you never have to be bothered to delete them again.   (Do this using Filters in Gmail.)  As shown above, this will work for EDU domains like our nsdtitans.org or for regular Gmail accounts as well.) 

Google Drive tips:

Share for a limited time - You can make a file in your Drive storage available to someone else only for a limited period of time. Right-click the file and select “Share,” Type in the name or email address of the person with whom you want to share and click the “Send” button.

Fax a file from drive - Need to send a fax from your Google Drive - No problem with the HelloFax add-on.  (Free and paid plans.)  Click the big “New” button in Drive’s upper-left corner, select “More,” and then “Connect more apps.” Search for “HelloFax” in the window that appears, then click the green “Connect” button and follow the steps to authorize the service.

Maintain different versions of files -  With Google Docs you have version history as well as named versions right inside of the doc.  But with non-google files like PDF's Pictures, etc... did you know you can keep up to 100 different/older versions of the same file?  In Drive right-click on a file to upload a new version or to download an older version of the file.  This how-to article will help if you have further questions. 

Color code folders or add emoji to the names of folders.  Right-click (or Ctrl-click) any folder and look for the “Change color” option.  Right-click to rename the folder and past the emoji as a part of the name. 

πŸ’₯ Tech tools - SeeSaw ambassadors, Google Classroom, Offline files, Shadow Art and more in this weeks tech post.

Monday, May 6, 2019


πŸ“ŒOur Norris SeeSaw Ambassador Program is off and running!
Congratulations to Haley Halvorsen on becoming our first K-2 Norris for becoming a SeeSaw Ambassador!  More Norris program details can be found here

HS - MS -IS - If you are not using Google Classroom-You are missing out! 
  • More and more products are integrating with Google Classroom. Pearson's Realize product just announced integrations with Google Classroom too. 
  • If you are using Google Classroom - You need to enable the parent notifications!
  • See Jason for more info and help to get started with Google Classroom! 
  • We are pushing this for grades 3 & up, but there are applications and uses for elementary as well, so we are willing to help if you want to use it with those younger grades too.  
⚠️ We need your help -it's only a few clicks! (And it's not Phishing!) 
We need to increase our subscribers to our YouTube Channels!  Visit this page  (Please!) and subscribe to all of our Norris YouTube Channels. There are some tech reasons that we need more subscribers, but I think it would be beneficial to all of our staff and students to be subscribed to all of our channels. (Notifications of live broadcasts, etc...) 



New right-click in Google Drive to make files available offline and more (Coming in the next few days)
It’s now possible for users to work on Docs, Sheets, and Slides files when your device is offline or have a bad internet connection within Google Drive. (It's always been available but now you can do it within Drive.)  You can also preview which files are available offline with a new offline preview mode.  More info here.  And there is more coming to the right-click menu... Via TechRepublic | If you depend upon Gmail for daily communication, you'll be happy to know about the new right-click context menu that gives users more power and flexibility. More info in this article.

Helping families develop healthy digital habits with Chromebooks
This article has several tools for Android and Chrome devices that are freely available to families to help monitor and guide digital citizenship at home.  (I have added this to our document - "Internet filtering and monitoring kids at home" which you can freely share with parents when questions arise.)  

πŸ“„27 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Google Sheets could do
There’s much more to Google Sheets than meets the eye. Unlock these advanced options–and watch your productivity soar.

Google Drive Workspaces is coming soon! 
Workspaces allow you to create a collection of files into a workspace. (pull files from different folders into a grouping while still leaving them in those folders. This article will show you the basics of priority and the new workspaces. -How to access and organize files faster in G Suite using Priority and Workspaces

Hey, my files are getting deleted from my Z drive (Network drive) this summer! (And Windows 10 is coming too!) 
We sent out an email to our Norris staff about this but I did want to include this in my blog posting since Windows 7 will be losing its support starting in January 2020.  It's very simple to move files to Google Drive!  I would upload entire folders but you can do individual files too. 








 How to Enable Gmail’s Hidden Email Preview Pane (We all have different email views that like and Gmail gives us that flexibility.)
Via How-To Geek | Gmail has a hidden preview panel that gives you a dual-pane view of your emails—just like in Outlook and other desktop email clients. Here’s how to enable it on the web and choose a horizontal or vertical split.


This one is kind of cool - and fun!  Shadow Art: Form Shadow Puppets With A.I. and Webcam

Google has taken the ancient practice of forming shadow puppets with your hands and turned it into an interactive digital experience. Check it out here: https://shadowart.withgoogle.com/?lang=en-us


How to Add Music to Spark Video with Soundtrap
Check out this quick tutorial on how to use these two easy and powerful tools together to "app smash" them together and turn out a great student project. 



 ⚠️🚨 I never want to sound like an alarmist, but these are the reason's we keep educating staff to be diligent and to always be careful about what you click on and what information you give out.  I know the phishing emails and required training (from KnowB4) can be a hassle... but we are trying to protect you and the district.  

Scott County Schools Victim of 3.7 Million Dollar CEO Fraud Phishing Scam 
(WKYT) - Scott County Schools has announced the district is a victim of a multi-million dollar online scam. The FBI is now investigating after Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hub said an undisclosed vendor told the district it was never paid for an invoice from two weeks ago. As the district investigated, it learned it fell victim to a fraudulent email disguising as the vendor.

"This is a process that we use currently in Scott County Schools. It's a way that we pay our vendors. And it was in this specific case, a single case, that we can verify, and this fraudulent email and fraudulent documentation is what caused this crime to happen."

The school lost USD 3.7 million as a result of the scam. Hub said the fraudsters no longer have access to the district's bank account, and there was no data breach involving personal information.

Sounds like they could use some new-school security awareness training. Video at WKYT:
https://blog.knowbe4.com/scott-county-schools-victim-of-3.7-million-ceo-fraud-scam
  


The City of Tallahassee Lost Half a Million Dollars in an Insidious Payroll Attack 

Hackers stole approximately 500K from the city of Tallahassee, Florida, by diverting city employees’ paychecks, according to USA Today. The attackers hacked a third-party vendor that provides the city’s payroll services and then redirected direct deposit payments to attacker-controlled accounts.

Tallahassee officials only learned of the attack after they were contacted by the city’s bank. The incident is still under investigation, but city spokeswoman Alison Faris said the attack is suspected to have originated outside of the US.

City officials said attackers try to compromise the city’s defenses every day, and last month a malicious Dropbox link was sent out from the email account of the city manager. Officials don’t believe this attack was related to the payroll theft, although IT experts noted that this type of phishing attack is often a precursor to more advanced attacks.

“Usually the way they get in is through email," Blake Dowling, CEO of Aegis Business Technologies, told USA Today. “Those happen all the time. If you’re not trained to be on the lookout for something, about how that may look or feel or the implications, it can bring your city to a crawl.”

Even secure networks are vulnerable to employees making a simple mistake and accidentally opening the door to an attacker. Supply-chain attacks like this one can have far-reaching impacts that can cripple a vendor’s reputation. New-school security awareness training can help your employees defend themselves against phishing attacks. USA Today has the story:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/05/hackers-divert-nearly-500-000-city-tallahassees-payroll/3383451002/
  


The above two articles are from the KnowBe4 product - Check it out, it's worth having at your school. 

πŸ’₯ Tech tools - Hyperdocs, free templates, free AR app, make Google rock, and more in this weeks tech tips

Friday, March 22, 2019



New feature in GoGuardian product- Quick Links.

I toss this out there, since our district uses GoGuardian. 

In a Teacher Session, teachers may create and apply a Scene to limit student browsing.

In a Scene, teachers may block or allow specific websites.  Many popular educational websites sometimes redirect to other websites in different domains -- Quick Lists accommodates this. Quick Lists are groups of URLs that can be quickly added or removed to a Scene's exceptions list. They can be added to block or allow mode scenes.  More info on quick links can be found here.

If you need help with GoGuardian or have never even started with this great tool - Give Jason a call. If you have not worked with Jason yet... you are in for a treat! HE ROCKS! 

Hyperdocs - Have you jumped on this tool yet?


Learn more about them in this Ditch that Textbook Digital Summit presentation. Hyperdocs are not just a doc with links.  Are students creating and not just consuming with your Hyperdoc? Video here.

Free web tools and sites:

PDF Candy - Awesome free/online FPD tool - Convert, save, rotate, cut, etc... the list goes on,  This is a great site!

Mozilla launches Firefox Send, a free self-destructing file-sharing service - Free, simple password-protect options, private file link, encrypted, ... and more!  





This free online tool uses AI to quickly remove the background from images- A handy utility if you don’t have access to Photoshop! (Works great!) 

Free AR app and tools!
My Very Hungry Caterpillar AR is free for a limited time(IOS app)   If you have not played around with AR - grab this app, your kids will love it too! 


Free Audible News:
Audible: News Digests from NYT, WSJ & The Washington Post are free for  Amazon Prime Members. Details here

Make Google Suite rock with these tools/tips:

25 Good G Suite Add-ons & Chrome Extensions  CHECK IT OUT! - Great list from one of my favorites -   


Google Slides interactive notebooks + 20 activities to fill them CHECK IT OUT! Think out of the box on how to use slides! 



Google Classroom:

 
Can AI help you make your quiz questions for you? 
Give it a try! Automate question creation with Quillionz.  Check out the 5-minute video to see how it works.  So if you’re excited about automating question creation, you’ll want to check out this AI-powered tool. Get started with Quillionz for free!   If you try this, let me know... it looks pretty cool! 

Some great tips from @tonyvincent: Follow him for more great stuff!

Create a QR code that links to a shared Google Drive folder with images you've selected. 


Set a Google Form to give instructions and a clickable link after the form is submitted using the Presentation setting. 


Did you know that you can change the background color of a Google Doc?  


 
 

πŸ’₯ Tech tools - VR, Google updates & tips, Kahn Acadamy, and more!

Tuesday, December 12, 2017



360 degree videos and VR resources:
You do not need a VR headset to use Streetview....... But remember - We have a VR kit in the MS and Intermediate buildings that have the VR headsets that are great for viewing Google Street View!  

Some pretty cool virtual visits to places, campuses and more on the YouVisit web site

360 Video Education Spotlight: BBC on YouTube 

360 Video Spotlight: National Geographic Videos for Your Next Lesson 

Virtual Reality Education Spotlight: Parks Explorer Classroom Field Trip 

Virtual Reality Discovery Channel App – Virtual Field Trips for iOS & Google 

New York Times Virtual Reality App: Free VR Experience 


Have a form to send out - it will go to spam at Norris unless you do this!
If you want to send out a form, just send a link to the form in an email to staff.  If you use the send feature within forms it will go to spam.

Techy info on this in case you care: We have taken some efforts to prevent our email addresses from being spoofed. This prevents us from being spammers and also prevents users from sending email to our staff thinking that it came from one of our staff members.  So when Google forms send an email on behalf of "us" it gets caught because we did not truly send the email. (Google sent the email form on behalf of you.)   Clear as mud... right? LOL 

Make a Fancy Email Draft in Google Docs, then Send it as a Gmail Message: 
Google Docs has a large number of formatting tools, including charts, images, tables, graphs, fonts, etc. A limited set of those are available in Gmail’s editor, however. That means it can be a challenge to create a nice-looking email using only the Gmail platform.

That’s where the Chrome extension Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts comes in.

You can create an email message or newsletter—including all its beautiful formatting—in a Google Doc, and then click a button to convert the Doc into a Gmail draft. Here is a link to the doc you get after installing the extension with more info. 

Google Drive tips & apps:

Become a Google Drive power user with these 20 tips and tricks 

Create Audio projects right from Google Drive with this add-on:  Beautiful Audio Editor

Tip: Tag Anyone in a Doc to have them respond. 
Need a friend or other person to answer a question about something in a doc? 

Just type “+yourfriend@theircompany.com” in a comment.

Google drive will notify them of the comment in the Google Doc and send them a link giving them access to the document.

This Google Keep Trick Will Make You a Better Reader - Check it out. 



Finally! Embed HTML and JavaScript in the New Google Sites! 
Google recently made it possible to embed web pages as iframes in the new Google Sites. With this launch, they're giving you one more tool to customize your sites—you can now embed HTML and JavaScript code directly into your sites. This makes the new Google sites much more powerful!  Read more about it here

Use your phone as a remote for Google Slide presentations and as a mouse for your computer!
 
Turn your phone into a Google Slides remote control with this Chrome extension.  At Norris - I recommend turning your entire phone into a remote mouse for your computer! This doc will get you started. 

Changing How You View Photos and Videos in Google Drive
Today in Google Drive you can view your Google Photos directly via a tab in the left navigation and from folders within My Drive. In early January 2018, Google will simplify Drive navigation by removing the Google Photos tab. You can continue to access your photos and videos in Drive by creating a Google Photos folder in My Drive. More info here. 


Some new features in Gsuite:


Science Journal on Android and iOS
Let your class explore the world like scientists with the Science Journal app. Students can measure real-time data and record their observations in a digital notebook. The redesigned app is now available on iOS and Android with over 20 new activities from educational partners. Note- This Android app has been aproved for the HS student's Chromebooks... so they can install it if needed. 

Weather Station up and rolling at Norris: 
Bryan Williams has the Norris FFA WeatherLink station all set up and ready to roll!  We do not have Ken Siemek rolling yet... but Cullison does have the MS news broadcast that often includes a weather report. πŸ˜€ You can get current and historical data including temperature, wind, rain and many other measurements. 

Data from the station is available on the WeatherLink.com website as well as iOS and Android apps.


Thanks to the Norris FFA for obtaining the grant. 

A few good Gmail tips from Better Cloud - with how to videos!

Undo a Sent Email

If you made an error in your message, sent it to the wrong person or forgot some information, Gmail has you covered. You can undo a sent email up to 30 seconds after clicking the send button.

Create a Contact Group

If you have a group of co-workers or a team you need to frequently send emails to, this is a definite time saver. Instead of adding every individual—and potentially forgetting someone—you can create a group and just type that name in instead of each email address.

Use Gmail Advanced Search Operators

Everyone knows that Google is renowned for their search engine. With Gmail, you have the power of that search engine in your inbox. If you’ve got a ton of emails to sift through and you’re looking for a particular one, this makes it a lot easier to find. Check it out now! 

Log Out of Other Sessions

This one is more of a reminder. A lot of bad can come from forgetting to log out of your Gmail account on shared machines, like having your personal info get compromised. Here's how you can log out of those sessions.

Enable Desktop Notifications

If you’re keeping an eye out for an important email, but don’t want to have to keep going back to check Gmail, this is perfect. While you’re doing other tasks on your computer, a pop-up window will announce when you’ve gotten that email you’re waiting for. How to video here

New & Improved Google for Education Website
Introducing the new and improved Google for Education website! Now live in the U.S. and Canada, check out our redesigned site and explore new additions like the Computer Science hubK12 and Higher Ed solution pages, and The Latest, a collection of news and insights about the education world. 

Google's Applied Digital Skills Curriculum - now aligned with state standards.
  • Identify Applied Digital Skills content that overlaps with your state standards
  • Filter for your “state,” “grade,” “state standard,” or “skills” to see the unit(s) that best fit your needs

Google Arts & Culture 
On the homepage, you’ll find a wide range of media to bring into your classroom. This website has a daily digest that includes a handful of curated resources to jump into each day. It includes free access to videos on topics related to different cultures as well as featured themes with large collections of images, artifacts, videos and more.

5 things to do before giving an old iPhone or iPad to your kid
Don't hand over an aging iOS device to your eager youngster before doing a little kid-proofing first. These steps will get you started


Great IOS app for younger kids and projects:  ChatterPix Kids Makes Pictures Come to Life

A plug for Kahn Acadamy - 

I thought it would be appropriate to forward some materials I received in an email from Kahn.  The timing is right! 
(Remember it's free (and always will be!) because millions have been donated by foundations and individuals.)

Finals are almost here, and we want to do everything we can to make sure your students are confident and ready.
Take a few minutes to check out our world-class videos, overview articles, diagnostic quizzes, and practice questions. Then, share links to Khan Academy lessons with your students.
If you have students who are shaky on a concept, you can also create an assignment that points them towards a video or practice problems to make sure they’ve got it:



You can also assign a quiz or unit test to check their skills. If they have any gaps in their understanding, we'll help your students find and fill them.
Check out the content we have for your students and then recommend the resources that will work best for them:
Advanced Placement & college prep
AP Calculus ABAP Biology
AP Calculus BCAP US History
AP StatisticsAP World History
AP Physics 1AP Art History
AP Physics 2AP Microeconomics
AP ChemistryAP Macroeconomics
Math
6thTrigonometry
7thPrecalculus
8thCalculus
Pre-AlgebraStatistics & probability
Algebra 1Linear algebra
GeometryDifferential equations
Algebra 2 
Science & engineering
BiologyOrganic chemistry
PhysicsHealth & medicine
ChemistryElectrical engineering
Arts & humanities
Art historyUS history
GrammarWorld history
Economics & finance
MicroeconomicsMacroeconomics
Onward!
The Khan Academy Team



And remember ... we are not cavemen!
(No, I do not watch SpongeBob, but I love the graphic. )