💥 Tech tools - Online virtual labs, Escape Room with Google forms, an Internet minute... and more in this week's tech tools and tips

Misc. tech & teaching resources for the classroom: 

Are your students studying or memorizing the states and capitals?  If so.... this WORKS!  I have talked to a lot of teachers that say this video/song changed the way they do it.  (And the kids love it!) -Check it out.  Wish they had this when I was learning this stuff.

 A few ideas on how you can use Chromebooks for creative learning! - 4 Chromebook Lesson Plans for your classroom!  This is a searchable database by grade and subject area. All 100% free.   

New Ways to Personalize Certificates in the Certify'em Google Forms Add-on or Autocrat (Pretty cool add-on if you need to generate an email with a certificate!) 

Reading Tracker: A Simple Way to Monitor Progress -Think out of the box- this will work great for tacking any kind of progress! 

The Practical Ed Tech Handbook- via Richard Byrne - PracticalEdTech.com.  The 2018-19 edition of the free Practical Ed Tech Handbook includes nine sections. More info here. Download it here. 

Nova Labs by PBS are some nice online free virtual labs.  Sun, RNA, Clouds and more... 

5 Augmented and Virtual Reality Creation Tools for Students 

How to create a virtual tour that includes narration!  Uses Google's VR Tour builder. 

This video shows how to create a Google Form for an Escape Room that can only be unlocked by typing in a Keyword or Phrase.

StoryBoard That provides a space for students to create their own comics. Students can choose from different layouts and add characters, props, and talk bubbles. Their free offering provides enough for some basic classroom project uses. 

How to measure distances in the Chrome (browser) version of Google Earth and in the desktop version of Google Earth.  (Great for math lessons and more!) 

Google tables search - Pretty cool! Export your results to a Google Sheet! 

Google Slides: 

How to Specify Start and End Times for Videos in Google Slides (Short 2 minute video.) 

Add Music to Your Google Slides With the AudioPlayer Chrome Extension. 

Google Classroom:

Google Classroom: Email Selected Students 

Google Classroom Now Has a Random Name Selector - It's built into the Android App for now, so if you are using the Classroom app on Android... you're in luck.  (This article has some other ideas and tools too.) 

Bring Digital Simulations Into Your Classroom - PhET from the University of Colorado Boulder provides digital simulations for math and science concepts. No registration is required, you can easily push out these simulations to your students via Google Classroom.

Google Classroom: Pop Out Student Documents

Google Classroom Improves Feedback Workflow - This short video will walk you through the basics of the new assignment shell where you easily navigate through the assignments as well as the new assignment back feature. 

A great tip from our very own Andrew Carlson!  Also, if you're using Google Classroom, here's a quick and easy way to embed your Google Classroom Calendar into our school's website (your profile, class, and department page).  This is a great way to give your students and their parents access to assignments that you post on Google Classroom.  https://youtu.be/b83YI1cmLxc

Things to remember...(I mention these things in the video)

Google Classroom only adds "assignments" to the calendar.

Classroom assignments need a due date.

Your Google Calendar needs to be public.

Google Sheets: 

How to Create a Dropdown List in Google Sheets - via MakeUseOf

In Sheets, you can easily restrict entries with dropdown lists. These dropdown lists can also be an easy way to make data entry faster and more streamlined.

Digital Citizenship resource: 

Our friends at the FTC (that's the Federal Trade Commission for all of you not up to speed on the government acronym bank :) ) have provided a game to play that addresses phishing. It's designed for everyone, but would be a really good resource for teaching students some digital citizenship skills. Wondering how you would do in this game? ... take a minute, kick back, click on this link: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/media/game-0011-phishing-scams and go phishing!  

The bad guys are stilling trying to get into our network, your pockets, invade your privacy, etc.... be careful of phishing emails! 

Phishing Is the Internet’s Most Successful Con - (Yes- We have been warning you at Norris of quite a while on this!)  Tricking people out of sensitive information online is far too easy.   

A few interesting facts from recent national test phishing campaigns:  

Things move fast in the digital world anymore! Look what happens in one minute: