💥 T𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 - Templates, Chromebook resources, watermarks, game buzzer and more in this weeks tech tips.

 WOW - This one is a winner!  A ton of resources on the Chromebooks in the Classroom resource page. 

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Miscellaneous tech tools:

GAME CHANGER TIP FOR ME! - WOW - Yes, I just learned this one and should have known it all along!  In short, when in chrome you can highlight text on a website, right-click and select copy link to highlight.  That link you send will take them to the website with the text highlighted that you selected. Pretty useful!  (30-second Video here if you want to see it in action.) 

ReadWriteThink Interactives Now Work Without Flash! - ReadWriteThink offers a great collection of free interactive templates for students to use to create all kinds of things including poems, story plots, timelines, compare & contrast maps, and much more. More info here! 

Mergo add-on installed for doing email merges and campaigns. -  We have added the Mergo add-on into Google Sheets to easily do email campaigns and merges.  (I sent out an announcement several weeks ago about this.)  We have put together a tutorial doc about how to use this new tool. 

An A-Z of Creativity" digital book is collection of over 100 free tools and sites. It  includes ideas for possible classroom uses for each. Check it out here.  (Great example of a book created with BookCreator, which is another great tool for the classroom.) 

4,000+ Maps of Military Battles and Campaigns - The vast majority of the maps are from the 18th and 19th centuries, although there are about 600 maps covering World War I and II.  Check them out here. 

ClassTools.net - an oldie, but still a goodie! - If you have not checked out classtools.net it's worth a look.  Badge Maker, Random Name Picker, Image Annotator and more! 

Another oldie but a goodie - Have you checked out Flippity lately? If not, it's worth a look.  Create games, timelines, flashcards and more from a spreadsheet list. 

20 Canva templates to use in class tomorrow - Check them out here. 

Google Slides - It's one of the best. - Slides lets you and your students create interactive, visual, engaging learning activities that are anything but ordinary and boring. You need to check out the ULTIMATE Google Slides teacher resource, it is stuffed full of great resources.

Easy Ways to Create Voice Recordings - No Account Required -  Check it out here. 

Create or import text watermarks in Google Docs - You can now add watermarks to docs. Text watermarks will repeat on every page on your document, making it useful for indicating file status, such as “Confidential” or “Draft” before sharing more broadly, no matter the application you use. In addition to text watermarks, you can insert an image watermark or images above or behind text. Go to: Insert > Watermark >

Your Gmail will look a bit different in a few weeks: Gmail’s ‘new integrated view’ web redesign starts rolling out in the coming weeks.  (Google's article can be found here: integrated view.)  

What is good digital citizenship?  -This poster will tell you and your students! 

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CrowdBuzzer - It's a great tool for classroom review games.  Check it out! 

Playing a classroom game? - Use the student's Chromebooks as their own buzzers for your review game!  (Works great for remote learning as well.) 

(This tip and other great tips can be found here: https://www.notanotheremailpd.com ) 

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Jazz Up Your Docs!  - Do you like to print your docs on colored paper?  You can make your Google Doc colored too! In Docs--> Go to File --> Page Setup and choose the color of your choice!

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Tiny Sketchbook is a free extension that lets you create digital sketches with just a click of a button.  This one may not be for everyone, but some may find it useful.  There are a lot of canvas type drawing tools out there, and each fit a niche depending on what you use it for.  (Google Drawings, Canva, many whiteboarding tools, etc...)  This one would be good if you just want to do a quick doodle/drawing and send it in an email or paste it into a doc.  (You can send a link to someone, so they can edit that simple drawing/scribble too.)  If it's something you may use, check it out here.  (The developer/company is solid. They have some good products.) 

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Checkout Emoji Copy -   All you need to do is click, hit copy, and BAM... it's ready to paste into your text! It's even searchable!!  Check it out here.  We have added this to our clip art and sound resources doc. 

Did you know, you can access the built-in emoji keyboards by doing this:

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Virtual Field Trips~ 

EBOOK: 25 instant virtual field trips -- This ebook contains 25 of our favorite on-demand virtual field trips. 

TEMPLATE: Postcards from around the world -- This template lets students write about their experience in the virtual field trip. It's a great way for them to summarize and reflect what they've just seen! 

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PDF Candy - A free online PDF Editor with a lot of bells and whistles you would expect from something that cost big bucks.  PDF Candy allows you to change, edit,

or transform any PDF into another form. Imagine taking the PDFs and editing them, download them to Microsoft Word (Convert to Googel Doc), merge two PDFs so
that they print together, or SPLIT a PDF into two different pages. PDF Candy allows you to do this and so much more. It even features an "Extract Text" option that eliminates ads and pictures prior to printing a larger file.  CHECK IT OUT. 

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The only thing better than a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet with Wordle in it.  
You can grab the sheet here, but better yet, learn how this was recreated in Google Sheets 

Looking for ways of using Wordle in your class for engagement? Check out these ideas. 

Speaking of Google Sheets - You can even make an Etch A Sketch with sheets! 

The power of sheets never fails to surprise me.  Here is how this was made.  (You can make a copy of this sheet here.) 

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30 sites for students with free time on their hands - Check them out here. 

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Rainbow "Scratch-Off" Drawing Templates for Jamboard - COOL  Check them out.  (We have added this to our JamBoard doc, where more links to templates can be found.)

Jamboard: Add a Background from Canva - How-to here.  

The templates below have been added to our Jamboard doc that contains many more great ones!

More Jamboard Templates: 

• Global Educator Jamboard Collection

• K-2 Jamboards

• Word Work Jamboard (for littles)

• SEL Jamboards

• Image collection to use with Jamboards

• Wheel of Fortune Jamboard

• Kinder Collection

• Brain Dump Template

• Reflection/Portfolio Templates

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CANVA TEMPLATES FOR SEESAW 

SeeSaw templates for:

• Announcements
• Newsletters
• Activities
• And more!

If you do not have a Canva account:

Canva for Education - A great free online graphics program. Available to K-12 teachers and their students. 100% free - now and forever. More info here. You will need to create an account in Canva.  Educators may request a free premium account, and they are usually approved in about a week.

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💥 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.

💥 Tech tools - Map tools, see changes to our world via Google Earth, Gsuite tips and more in this weeks tech posting.

Misc web tools:

Watch videos together as a group - https://www.watch2gether.com/  (Create a free room and get started - no registration required.) Thanks to our very own James Myers for this one! 

31 of My Favorite Ed Tech Tools - By Richard Byrne Here is the video. 

AWESOME Math Drill site! - All grade levels- check it out+ https://www.math-drills.com/

Need a quick and easy password for student? - Check out https://www.dinopass.com/ (There is a button to generate a simple one or a strong one. (Do the strong one!) 

This one is a must for Teachers and YouTube.  I use to recommend Majic Actions for YouTube but now I recommend Improve YouTube.  This one has a lot of features and is simple to use.  (Go through the settings and slide one of the settings to stop YouTube ads.) 

The new kahoot creator makes game creation easier and 3x faster!  If you have not used kahoot or quizizz ... give it a try for a review game. 

Need to print a Calendar? - This site has a ton of different styles. They have them by year. 2019 is here. Find the ones at the bottom and select Google Sheet.  Example 2019 one here.

24 Google Docs Templates That Will Make Your Life Easier 

Great shortcuts for use in Google Docs. 

8 Nifty Apps to Identify ANYTHING Using Your Phone’s Camera

8 Options for Making Digital Maps 

Our Tech Boot Camp is coming - August 6 & 7 - Be on the lookout for more info.

• Great sessions!
• Great lunch!
• Stipends!
• And more!

We would love for you to present (Contact Jason) as well. 

Free book reading app for the younger kids!

Better Reading Practice. - Reading practice has never been easier with Rivet, a reading app with over 2,000 FREE leveled books for kids. Check it out.  (It's really free!) 

GSuite Updates:

Check out the new G Suite Learning Center - Posted: 28 May 2019 - Visit the learning center.

Update all linked content with one click in Docs and Slides - Posted May 24, 2019, More info here. 

New features for Slides Present mode coming to Google Slides. 

Gradebook in Classroom now generally available - This new feature adds a tab in your Google Classroom with a grade book view. Coming next year - Looks like the grade book in Google Classroom may sync to our SIS (Student Information System) -PowerSchool. We have signed up for this beta to sync to PowerSchool but not sure if we will be accepted. 

Announcing Grammar in Google Docs 

See 35 years of change on Google Earth  -See the shirking Glaciers, expanding cities and more.   Meandering rivers, mining, and urban growth are just a few themes that you can explore in Google Earth Timelapse. A global, zoomable video that allows you to see anywhere in the world and witness Earth’s surface transform over the past 35 years.

Sign up to get Google for Education updates in your inbox. -  Sign up here. 

See Changes in Google Docs Over Time With Compare Documents
Via G Suite Updates | It’s now easier to compare two Google docs. This feature will show you the differences between the docs as “Suggested Edits” in a new document. NOTE - This will be rolling out soon.

Side note - This is a great extension for teachers to see the document history played back like a movie. Great for looking at student's docs. - Draftback. 

View the Edit History of a Cell in Sheets
Via G Suite Updates | “Show edit history” is a new feature in Sheets that will help you easily see the edit history of a cell, including who made the last edit, when that edit was made, and the cell’s previous value. NOTE - This will be rolling out soon. 

Two new formatting tools available in Docs - Posted: 30 May via GSuite updates.  More info here. 

• Insert section breaks and view section breaks in Docs
• Adjust margins per section - It’s now possible to use the ruler to adjust the left and right margins by section.

26 Incredibly Useful Things You Didn’t Know Google Calendar Could Do -  Checkout the article here.

#10 was great -  Switch your calendar view in an instant by tapping into one of Google Calendar’s super-handy hidden shortcuts: Press “1” or “d” for the day view, “2” or “w” for the week view, “3” or “m” for the month view, “4” or “x” for your custom view, “5” or “a” for the agenda view, and “6” or “y” for the year view.

18. Did you know you can add an attachment directly to an event within Calendar—something like a PDF, image file, or document that you want all the invitees to see? 

Find out more: Check out the article here.

How to Split Text in Google Sheets
Via How-To Geek | Often, you need to split the content of a cell in your spreadsheet that is separated by a comma or space, such as the first and last names of a contact. Luckily, Google Sheets provides a simple, straightforward approach to dealing with merged datasets. Short how-to article here. 

Remember - help in G Suite is only a click away for you and your students.

Quick tutorials, short videos and more are only a click away.  More info here. 

I love Google's MyMaps - Use it this summer for your vacation!

Take a road trip with Google MyMaps - There are many classroom uses and personal uses (Can we say vacation!) for Google's MyMaps.  Have students create maps of historical trips, battles, etc...  Check it out.  (Yes it is one of the 8 mentioned in the posting above- "8 Options for Making Digital Maps " 

Google Photos Will Stop Syncing to Drive on July 10, 2019
Via G Suite Updates | Starting on July 10, 2019, Google Photos will no longer sync to Google Drive. From that date forward, if you add or delete files in Photos, they won’t be automatically added or deleted in Drive.  (In settings for drive you had to click a checkbox for the photos to appear as a folder in drive-...so you may or may not see this folder or use it.) This will really only affect you as a user if you used this feature in drive.  More info here: Google Drive and Photos Are Splitting: What You Need to Know.  

💥 Tech tools - Great student sites, end of year tech tools, Google sheet tools and more in this weeks tech tips.

A list of Web tools and sites that require no registration for students. 

Here is a nice list of sites/tools that do not require students to create accounts: https://bit.ly/noreg19   This list has some great resources!

Create and Insert Image Carousels in New Sites

Via G Suite Updates -- Google is making it easier for site editors to share a selection of images in new Sites by creating a new image carousel.

SeeSaw End of Year Best Practices

Archive classes do not delete your classes or remove students! Do not turn off family access!  Here is a short 3 min. video.  (This is also included in our Norris Important end of year reminders for staff concerning technology document.) 

Clever - New features coming! Have you created a Classroom page?

Did you know you can build your own classroom page (Better than Symbaloo now!)  You can also click a button to launch an app/page for your entire class. If you need help, talk to Jason to get started today with your own class page!  Great short video tutorial here. 

Fun review games. Almost no prep time. 

If you're looking for new ways to review at the end of the year, this post from Matt's DitchThatTextbook is for you.

Twelve Tools for Creating End-of-Year Review Activities

Check out these resources compiled by Richard Byrne @rmbyrne

10 tools for effective peer feedback in the classroom

Click here: 10 tools for effective peer feedback in the classroom

Teaching students some Chromebook skills? -This one is for you! 

Chromebook grade level skills K-12. 

G Suite for Education: 90 Million and Beyond!

Last month, Google announced that 90 million students and educators are now using G Suite for Education and shared 15+ G Suite product updates, including accessibility features like closed captions in Hangouts Meet, editing Office files from G Suite, inserting audio files into Slides, and more. Check out the news!

Google Classroom Updates

To help teachers and students find assignments quickly, Google added topic filters to the Classwork page and changed how new items and topics post to the top instead of the bottom so that students can see the newest information first (newly created courses only). To make Classroom accessible to all students, they also changed the way attachments appear in assignments by bringing back thumbnails- so all attachments now have an image preview, especially useful for students who aren’t yet reading. More on Classroom updates here. 

Sign up to get Google for Education updates in your inbox.  <--- I recommend signing up! (You only get 1 email a month packed with some great resources and updates for education. 

Three new features to format and work with data in Sheets

Posted: 08 May 2019 09:08 AM PDT

What’s changing 

We’re introducing three new features that will help you clean up and work with your data in Sheets. These features are: 

• Remove duplicates 
• Trim whitespace 
• Compatible spreadsheet shortcuts 

Complete info here. 

How to Automate Google Sheets With Macros

How-To Geek | Google Sheets lets you automate repetitive tasks with macros, and you can then bind them to keyboard shortcuts to execute them quickly. They work using Google Apps Script to capture your actions for later use. When you record a macro in Google Sheets, it automatically creates an Apps Script with all the code to replicate your actions for you. This means you can create complex macros without knowing how to write code. How-to article here. 

Dropdown List in Google Sheets - How to article here-Simple!  From http://jakemiller.net/ 

Misc. Gsuite tips:

Set a cut-off date on Drive shares via the Set expiration feature

The already very powerful search in Google Drive now allows you to limit a search for files to a single file hierarchy

How To Work With Images in Google Docs

Misc. Tech Resources:

8 Options for Making Digital Maps  

Lots of New Videos Added to One of My Favorite Alternatives to YouTube 

How to Use Spark for End-of-Year Celebration Videos 

60 Tools to Inspire Students with Chromebooks

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

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.

• How to Create HyperDocs
• Sample activity - Show What You Know Bingo: Maker Space Activity. 
• With the Teacher's Give Teachers site you can search for a ton of free Hyperdocs via keywords. Check it out!
• Checkout their templates to get started. 
• The best template to start with maybe the Explore-Explain-Apply HyperDoc Lesson Plan Template. This will help make sure you plan your hyperdoc and make sure your students are creating and not just consuming.
• HyperDocs from The HyperDoc Online Course they teach. (Padlet resource site.) 
• The HyperDocs Toolbox: 14 engaging example activities   

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!  

More Than 3500 Free Civics Lessons

4 ways to make math come alive with Google tools 

15 go-to resources for teachers short on time 

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! 

6 ways to start using Augmented Reality in your classroom   

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 - Richard Byrne  

Article: The Best Google Sheets Add-Ons  

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

8 Fantastic Ways to Find Anything in Google Drive   

The 10 Best Google Docs Add-Ons for More Professional Documents via MUO. 

Google Classroom:

20 great ways to start using Google Classroom now Updated March 2019. 

 

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. 

http://tonyv.me/galleryqr 

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?