Noel Erskine, Technology Coordinator Norris Schools

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Showing posts with label google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google. Show all posts

πŸ’₯ T𝗲𝗰𝗡 π—Άπ˜π—²π—Ίπ˜€ - Templates, Chromebook resources, watermarks, game buzzer and more in this weeks tech tips.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

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




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 MakerRandom Name PickerImage 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! 


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 ) 






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!





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.) 

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:





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! 

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




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.) 





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









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: 

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.




Some great web tools, free apps and more, in this weeks treasure chest of tools!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Misc. Web sites and tools for your classroom:

Use TEDED to make YouTube a powerful educational tool.

32 Reading Websites - These cover elementary school through high school (sites like Open Library and Gutenberg Press where students can get free copies of books they need for class)

Tons of free brain breaks to use in your classroom! Your students will love this! -Gonoodle

Free website with tons of educational curriculum games - sheppardsoftware.com

Wonderful extensive list of free online tools to spark student creativity: http://goo.gl/iazAtk

Do you Swivl?

Here at Norris, we have 4 Swivl units for staff to use.  They are awesome for recording your lessons or for evaluating your teaching style. More info and help can be found in this doc

Matt Rosenau posted this to our Middle School Community:
A 31-second example of the Swivl. The wireless mic allows a viewer to hear your small-group interactions with students anywhere in the room, even if there's conversation going on. Let me know if you're interested in trying it out. 

CK-12 - Amazing resource for more than just free ebooks  (Flexbooks)!

Practice, practice, practice!
Improve your learning by practicing thousands of interactive questions in Math & Science. Anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Are you Free at 1 pm on December 3rd?  - This webinar may be for you! 
CK-12: How to Build a FlexBook

Discover the easiest way to build a FlexBook using your own content as well as content available on our website.  Connect on the webinar to share tips and best practices and get answers to your CK-12 questions.
Date: Tuesday December 3rd, 2014
Time: 3:00PM Pacific time

If you have not looked at CK-12 before <--- now is the time! 

Some PowTunes Awesomeness!
Lisa Harrington's class here at Norris has made some great little clips using PowTunes.  Here is just one example:

Google Apps - Tips, Tricks and Features: 

6 Google Apps Updates You Might Have Missed From October

How to Enable and Set Limits on Your Google Forms

5 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Google Apps

Earlier this week, Google announced all Spreadsheets in Google Drive will be migrated to the new version of Google Sheets. Learn all about the New Google Sheets in this short 6 minute video! (Ignore the info on opting into the new sheets. In our Norris School EDU environment... you are already opted in by default.) 

How to Create a Works Cited with Google Docs - Short two minute YouTube

Need a quick timer? Type "set timer 5 minutes" in Google search. Allows full screen too!
From the Google Guru (Great to follow on Twitter and via email tips!) 
With Add-ons available for Google Docs and Sheets, it was only a matter of time before these custom tools made their way to other parts of the Google Drive suite. If you happen to use Google Forms on a regular basis, you have to be thrilled that Add-ons are now available there, as well. Now you can add custom features to Google Forms with Add-ons
Send Bulk Custome Emails Through Gmail With Google Drive - This 5 minute YouTube will show you how. 


Chromebooks and Apps:
The Chromebook Usage Collection by KC Testerman. This is a list of web tools that do not need plug-ins that can be used on chrome books. I've used all of these items and highly recommend.

Nice list of Chrome extensions in this Google Presentation

IOS Apps and Tips:
Here's one for the elementary staff:
Fun Timer By all4mychild FREE TODAY -  
Description
The Fun Timer has been designed specifically for kids who have little sense of time or weak time management skills. Place an image or word at the center of the timer reflecting the reward or fun to be experienced after their chore or task. When they get off task or start goofing around, just start the timer and the kids will see concretely that their fun time will disappear if they don't get back to business. The adult controls all the features to be able to use the timer at each child's developmental and cognitive levels. It's a FUN way to teach kids not to waste time!

Upgraded to IOS 8 .. get the most out of it with this huge list of new features

Mathseeds Kindergarden Grade 1 - Grade2 ALL 3 FREE TODAY -
Mathseeds apps are a great way for young students to practice and master all the essential math skills. Written for the Common Core Standards, students can access a huge range of activities that make learning math fun, motivating and very rewarding!

Let's do some App Smashing: 
It's a simple app smash that we complete in Kindergarten.  It might look like there are several steps, but it's really quite easy for.... 

App Smashing Defined: The process of using multiple apps in conjunction with one another to complete a final task or project.

Free apps and web resources for the week! -Don't miss out on these!

Monday, April 7, 2014

Free apps for today:
Math Splat - ** FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!!! ***

** Previously ranked in the top 3 educational apps in the UK, USA, Australia, Canada & New Zealand ** 
Math Splat is a simple number based app aimed at helping the user improve their mental math abilities. Each level consists of a +, -, x and ÷ game. Once these have been completed the final game of the level is unlocked which must be completed for the next level to be unlocked. 

The app is suitable for all abilities as the user can choose between easy, medium and hard questions.

Everyday Mathematics Equivalent Fractions app for iOS by By McGraw-Hill School Education Group is free today (Normally $1.99) (It has been free in the past... if you have not grabbed it, now may be the time.) 

Other IOS apps and tools:

If you haven't checked out the CardClutter app and you teach Math, many middle school teachers are saying it's a must!

Educators Recommend Bloom's Taxonomy-Aligned Apps - A list created by fellow educators. 

Some Great Web Tools:

Google Storybuilder anyone?   This is a great little web app, that could be used in a variety of ways in the classroom.  Have student collaborate on a short story... or tell your story.   Short resource article. 
In order to make your Google story follow these steps:

1. Add your characters
2. Create your Story
3. Give your story a title and add soundtrack


Create a book from Wikipedia articles, with the Book Creator tool in Wikipedia. 

Want some feedback on a lesson you just taught?? Take a video of yourself teaching, upload it and get your peers or coach to review it remotely -  this free iCoach app will do just that. 

EmergingEdTech’s 2013 Free Education Technology Resources eBook is a nice free resource.  (PDF Format) 

The GEDB Online Learning Platform has a lot of nice free online tech classes/tutorials.  5 Powerful But Little-Known Ways To Use Your Apple iPad, is a recent addition to their list.  These classes are a great free resource for teacher, students and parents. 

Want a review game before a test? Pre-created jeopardy templates or create your own: https://jeopardylabs.com/

Learn Twitter - Free Twitter 101 eCourse for Parents & Educators -If you are an educator and not using Twitter, you are simply missing out.  (If you follow the right people & educational organizations and groups... it will be the best informational source you will ever experience!) 

Lesson Plans for Teaching Computational Thinking - via Free Technology for Teachers - series of lessons for designed to help middle school and high school students explore mathematics and science concepts.

Google Sketchup Resources - Free to schools
The Sketchup program (Used to be owned by Google) is free to schools... a CAD/Modeling program.  (This program is currently being used by Barry Pedley  in the MiddleSchool.)

WUDWORX library of SketchUp plugins and tools for working wood.  https://sites.google.com/site/wudworx/

sketchUcation is a site with a lot of Sketchup resources and plug ins. http://sketchucation.com/

Welcome to Extension Warehouse - The best place to find and install add-ons for SketchUp! These are divided into categories too.  Includes a 3-D printing section too!