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Showing posts from 2016

How to Digitally Close out the Year

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Happy Friday, Wow, we're almost there! This time next week our students will be counting the minutes/seconds until the buses roll out for the last time of the school year.   As you wind down the last week with students I wanted to go over a few digital year end things that will make life easier for you and your students. Archive your Classes in Google Classroom.  By doing this the class is no longer visible to you and your students. You will still have access to the  Google classroom assignments, streams, etc but it will not show up on your Classroom Dashboard. I really think that this is important to do and only takes a few seconds. Also, and  of great importance it will remove the class from your students dashboard so they will no longer see it. CCSD employees may want to change your password before you leave -  Hit Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose change a password. This will prevent you from possibly being locked out of your computer over the summer If you are leavi

New Updates Announced For Google Classroom

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Happy Friday!! There have been 2 new announcements this week about Google Classroom that you may be interested about. 1. If you would like to schedule assignments, questions, or announcements ahead of time you can!  Starting this week, when creating an assignment, question, or announcement you have the option to assign at a later date.  So, if you would like to go ahead and plan ahead now you can! Here is a image from the Google Classroom site that shows you how to do that. 2.  Starting next school year parents can be a part of Google Classroom. Parents can choose to receive e-mails when an assignment, question or assignment  is given to a student OR they can receive emails in a daily or weekly digest. If you have questions about these features please let me know. Good luck in the last few days of school.  I am thankful to work with amazing teachers all over the county. Thanks for all you do. Take Care, Clint

Playlists and mixtapes

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Happy Friday! I don't know about you but as I approach the end  of the school year I really begin to reflect on what went well and what didn't go so well for me instructionaly for 2015-2016.  I try to save  or bookmark resources as I go but sometime I move on so quickly that I forgot I bookmarked them. That's one of the reasons that I created the blog this year so I can go back and reflect on the digital resources here and can go back and review them easily because they are all in one place.  If you are trying to organize your resources  please consider a couple of these ideas.   Create a  Symbaloo page with your digital resources.  Symbaloos are a great visual representations of your sites and or resources.  Also, these can be shared with others in your grade level or department. You can create a free symbaloo account and sign in with your CCSD Google account. These are what we use as the student start page.  If you have Youtube Videos or clips that you may use

Get Cultured with the Google Cultural Institute

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Happy Friday! The Google Cultural Institute is a great place for students  and teachers to explore some of the best museums and historical places in the world!  Students can view historical places in 360 view, be able to zoom in and see some of the most famous art work and pieces in the world!  Also, you as the teacher or your students, can make your own galleries and choose destinations or pieces for your students to view.  You can send the link to your gallery to your students through Google Classroom or post on your website for everyone to access.       Also, there are already curated galleries!  For example, there is a whole gallery about the life of Harriet Tubman that is ready to be viewed now.  I really think that  the Google Cultural Institute can be used across curriculum. If you have questions here is a great Help Document .  Or as always  please contact me.   Have a great weekend, Clint

Google Classroom Poll feature

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Happy Friday!! Google Classroom rolled out a new feature this week that I think that you will find valuable. You can now Poll your students within classroom. This could be a great tool for both instructional and administration  use.  Teachers at one of my schools were talking about how this could be part of the morning routine and could be a way for students to sign up for lunch choices. Also, this could be used as a way for an opening or closing activity during class.  Below is a quick screencast that I have made on how to use the polling feature. (The end of the screencast accidently got cut off. It should say" if you have questions please contact me").      Speaking of Google Classroom. Please take time to fill out this short survey (Your students can do it to) to help make Classroom better!   https://docs.google.com/a/clarke.k12.ga.us/forms/d/1ftrRY4z-UIv_R4s57OGAWg50eghgGB-8uOvPCet6iio/viewform#responses Have a great weekend and don't forget that taxes

Bringing Music to your classroom with Google Chrome Music lab!

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Happy Friday! I have a new favorite Digital Creation tool.   Chrome Music Lab   is a site where students can design, build, create, and share their own digital music. This site could be used for students to produce their own music to supplement a creative writing assignment. Below is a  short screencast that I have made to show you 2 of the tools on the site. I can see how this could fit into almost any content area!. If you have questions about how to use this in your classroom please let me know and I will be happy to schedule a time to meet. Have a great week and to all my Elementary teacher friends in CCSD good luck in your first week of Milestones. Take Care, Clint

Joe Zoe Addon: Quickly leaving meaningful feedback for your students.

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Happy Friday! I wanted to highlight a new  addon\s that you might find useful in your classroom. This  could be seen as Augmentation or Modification on the SAM-R scale (Depending on how you use it). It  also has the most unique name of any addon I've seen latelty. Joe Zoo  is an addon for Google Docs  where teachers can easily give feedback to students.  With Joe Zoo you can quickly leave feedback with a few clicks, (See below animation.  Click on the picture for full screen), You can also quickly build rubrics that can be reused again and again, and are editable. Finally, Joe Zoo can be synced with Google Classroom. If you have questions about this tool please let me know. I would be happy to show you or your team all of the benefits with Joe Zoo.  Lastly, Here is Google's April Fools joke for this year. I thought it was pretty great. .  Take Care and have a great weekend, Clint

Thinking Globally in your Classroom

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Happy Friday, The Set of the Walking Dead. This wall keeps out Zombies and Clint Winter and Steve Piazza.  This week I want to highlight 2 tools and a half. I was fortunate enough to attend a Educational Technology conference last weekend in Peachtree City which is about 10 minutes away from Senoia, GA (aka  Woodbury the fictional town from one of my favorite shows the Walking Dead)  I learned a great deal from many different speakers. One of the things that I really enjoyed learning about was NextVista.org .  Nextvista.org is a site that is dedicated to showcasing, for free, wonderful teacher and student created educational videos. Teachers and students can search for videos by subject area, careers, global perspectives, and services.  These videos could be used for review, inspiration, or to see different perspectives. Check it out    Unfiltered News Site  Speaking of Global Perspectives I read about this site this week.  http://unfiltered.news . This is a site that upda

Springing into the next 9 weeks with Classroom

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Happy Friday! How about that time change? Google Classroom continues to make changes that benefits students and teachers each month. I have a difficult time keeping up with all of the changes. Luckily, Google Classroom has announced that they now have a month by month  breakdown of features that have been released . I try to quickly check it each month to see what new features may be beneficial to us here in CCSD.      A site that I've really been excited about this week is  Cyark .  Cyark is a site where students can take a virtual tour of endangered historical sites all over the world. The mission of this website is " to create a free 3D online library of the world's cultural heritage sites before they are lost to natural disasters, destroyed by human aggression or ravaged by the passage of time. " Cyark view of Chichen Itza If you have questions about either of these sites please let me know and I would love to schedule a time to meet with you,

Google Doc Templates

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Happy Friday, and Happy Spring Break! Did you know that there are many  pre-made templates in Google Docs?   These Googe Doc templates  can take  reports beyond the Substitution level of SAM-R. Students can insert pictures, videos,and collaborate  with their Google Docs.  Do you need a template for students to create a flyer or newsletter? There is a Template for that as well.      To find these templates simply type docs.google.com   or slides.google.com , or sheets.google.com (Depending on the type of template that you are looking for) into your search bar and the templates will appear. You can make a copy of  any of the templates, edit them to meet your needs, and send them to your students in Google Classroom. if you have questions about any of the these features please let me know.  Have a Great Spring Break! Take Care, Clint

New Features with Voice Typing

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Happy Friday! This week Google Docs has release some new features for their Voice Typing Feature. Voice Typing is a speech to text function where you and your students can speak into your Google Docs. (Click on this picture to make it larger) To get to this feature open up Google Docs, click on tools, and select Voice Typing. From here click on the microphone and begin to speak into your document. This could be a great feature for students to brainstorm or create a rough draft.     Now using Voice Typing students can utilize almost any command.  For a list of new features click HERE .  Below is a video that demonstrates the new features of Voice Typing. If you have questions about Voice Typing please let me know and we can find a time to talk about this.  This is a great way to Augment and Modify lessons with Google Docs. Take Care, Clint

Start Spreading the News: Using Google Spreadsheets in your classroom

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Happy Friday!!! Have your students ever utilized Google Spreadsheets?  Spreadsheets are great to graph information, manipulate data, and preform math calculations and that is just scratching the surface.   Spreadsheets can be used collaboratively, and also be pushed out in Google Classroom.   Here are three of my favorite ways to use Spreadsheets: 1. Have Students Graph their Data.  It's much simpler than it use to be.  Students can select the data that they want to graph, and click the graph data and they can see a visual representation of their information. ((Click on the picture to make it full screen))  Students can use this to track assignments, behavior data, Split times for Physical Education, etc... Another way to use spreadsheets is to preform  basic math calculations. To make a formula to preform calculations you start by typing the equal sign and then using words like Sum, Difference, Average, etc. For example, to add all the numbers in a column you could ty

It's Primary Season: (Finding good primary resources for your class)

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Happy Friday, I have had several requests lately of places where Teachers and students can access primary resources.  Below are some sites that may be beneficial to you and your class. If you have questions about any of these please let me know. Take Care, Clint World Digital Library   - The World Digital Library is sponsored by the United Nations and the Library of Congress to offer free access to  thousands of different documents, pictures, and recording from places all over the world. The WDL can  be browsed by place, time, topic, or  type of item.  All content can be browsed by 7 different languages (See the website for more information about this  Library of Congress  -  The Library of Congress has a digital collection that is really easy to view. There is no login required and all material is free. One of the things that I like about this is that they have rotating  "Digital Collections" Students can see primary documents, pictures, video, and audio.

The Friday Tech Tip: Collaboration with Google Docs

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Happy Friday!! Last week I blogged about using Voki in the classroom. Matt Smith, a 7th grade teacher at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School, decided to give it a try with his class and use it as Digital Closer for his students. HERE is an example that one of his students made Way to go Mr. Smith's class! In all of the schools that I serve we have discussed the SAM-R model.  One of the ways that is easiest for me to think of the concept of the SAM-R model is to use Google Apps  as the reference when thinking about SAM-R.  Examples: Substitution - My class is typing instead of writing. (No enhancement) Augmentation - We are using Google Docs and we are using the all changes saved in drive feature  to see our edits. (Some enhancement due to technology) Modification - I am leaving Comments on my students documents and we are able to edit together in real time. (Lot's of enhancement due to technology)  That brings us to Redefinition.  One of the questions that was asked

The Friday Tech Tip: Voki

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Voki has been one of my favorite digital tools for a while now.  Voki is a way for students to orally share their ideas.  They record their voice and it makes an avatar that repeats what they say.    Here is an example of a Voki I made  : Students will need to create accounts to make Vokis. If you have questions please let me know. Take Care, Clint

The Friday Tech Tip was delayed due to weather: Get the most out of your Google Calendar

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Happy Friday! (Actually Sunday Night) Are you and your students getting the most out of using their Google calendar?  Some of the features of Google Calendar that may be of interest to you and your students Students can get an automatic daily e-mail of their calendar agenda Students can set and get reminders (Ex: remind me at 12:15 to get my homework for Mr. Winter's class Set reoccurring appointments (12:30 everyday I get a reminder to go to the office to take my medicine)  Copy calendar entries from Google Classroom to the student's personal calander If you are interested in these features or would like for me  to work with you 1:1 or with  your students let me know and I will be glad to help.   Here is a good place to start  https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/2465776?hl=en   . Also, you can learn more in the Google Apps for Education Training Center  https://www.google.com/edu/training/ .  If you have questions let me know Take Care, Cl

Using Comics in the Classroom

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Happy FRIDAY!! Are you looking for an alternative way for your students to write a story?  This week I read about a great Comics site called makebeliefscomix  .  Students are able to create their own comics using this site. The site is available in many different languages.   Below is a tutorial that walks you though oof this digital tool. I think that this is a very valuable tool  that all students can access. If you have questions about this please let me know. Have a great weekend, Clint

Keeping on in the New Year

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Happy New Year!  One of my New Years Resolutions (One of the same ones I keep every year) is to be more organized.  I am going to be using Google Keep to keep up with my lists, tasks, and notes. With Google Keep Students and teachers can easily create, access, and organize  notes and lists. Students can even insert pictures, graphs, charts, and leave notes about them.  Students can also share notes and lists just like Google Docs. What I really like about the program is that once students make a note they have the option to set a reminder so that they will get an e-mail about the note. This could be beneficial for students to be able to quickly access notes or lists to review material.  If you have questions about Google Keep please let me know. Happy Friday, Clint