The Friday Tech Tip

Happy Friday,  You may have noticed that Google has rolled out some new features in Gmail.  This is a global rollout to everyone in the world who uses Gmail.  I wanted to highlight a few of the new features. Google Calendar, Google Keep and Tasks are now on the right side of your E-mail. You can now quickly access your Calendar. Just the other day I got an email about a meeting and without opening another window I just clicked on the calendar and put the meeting on the calendar. Google Keep is  a great way to keep up with tasks, assign due dates to tasks, and is also collaborative.  Tasklist is just an easy way to create a task and then mark it off the list Another new feature is "Smart compose " or  predictive text - You can choose to turn this on or off. As you are typing an email it will automatically predict words and you can press the tab button to insert this word. If you do not like this feature you can turn it on or off. There ar...

Happy Friday! Our Google Suite for Education is now available to ALL students in our district. Our Elementary and Primary students are logging in with  Clever Badges.  Students scan a QR code with their name and that logs them into the Chromebook. It also logs them into all Google Products (Google Docs, Google Slides. etc..) They are logged in without ever having to type in their username or password.  Here are a few of my favorite ways for students to be able to explore the world using their chromebook. Google Tour Builder -  Google Tour Builder is a way for students to tell stories incorporating Google Maps.  Students can insert Pictures, maps, and text to tell their story.   This would be a fabulous way to incoroprate writing, story telling and multi-media into the classroom. Here is a short video tutoral about Google Tour Builder  Google My Maps -  Google MyMaps is where students can create, share, and collaborate by making th...

Happy Friday! One of the great things about using Chromebooks in the classroom is that we are able to get immiediate results on how our students are understanding.  There are many ways to do digital pulse checks, tickets out the door, and personalized learning with our digtial devices.  Here are 3  tools for Digital Formative Assessment.  3.  Make it a Game Quizziz is a fun way for students to interact with the curriculum. You can play a quiz game.  You as the teacher sign up for an account and then create or beg,borrow, and steal from the quizziz bank.  When students are finished you get immiediate results of how your students are performing. Below is a video tutorial about Quziz 2.  DIGITAL TICKET OUT THE DOOR  Google Classroom is a great way for students to leave written response or to crowd source or post resoucres for others.  Here is a great article about 6 ways that you can use the "Ask a Question" feature...

Happy Friday! In honor of it's 10th Anniversary Google has updated Chrome to a brand new version. Chrome automatically  updates so you may already have it if you do not turn off your computer and turn it back on and it should update. What are some of the main differences? Chrome looks a little different. It looks much cleaner Chrome can now make  your passwords and store them as well. When you create a new account Chrome will suggest a password for you (you don't have to use it but it will make and store a password for you Chrome can be your personal assistant -  You can type in common phrases such as (What is the weather?) and you don't have to hit enter and go to another page. It will show right up for you Here is the official release announcement .  Another update that has been pushed out to students and teachers in the district is Gsuite Training.  For teachers to receive this they must log into Chrome. For students it will automatic...

Happy Friday! How do you grow professionally? Read books? Talk to colleagues?  Build and improve upon others ideas?  You can do all of this at your own pace using Twitter. By now you probably know about twitter. It's in the news a good bit.   But, it's also a great way to build a PLN (Professional Learning Network) Educators from across the globe are using Twitter to share their ideas. For me personally, this has been a great way to interact with Tech leaders across the world.  Twitter is a professional learning network where you read and share ideas. Twitter is not a place to post pictures of your beach trip.  It is  one of the leading ways that Teachers are giving and receiving Professional Learning. Twitter is a little different than other social media sites because  tweets can only be 280 (Recently it changed from 140 characters.) Many people use twitter to share their experiences in the classroom,  share links to educational blogs ...

Happy Friday! I'm very excited about this new initiative this year with our school district.  We have adopted #BluewayonDisplay  this year as our campaign. We would love for you to show off the amazing things that are happening in your classroom or school.  We have launched Thebluewayondisplay.com    to be able to show off your good work.  This is a place where you can submit short videos that can be up to around 2 minutes  of what is going on in your building! For example, you have a great learning activity going on in your classroom ( Sidenote: I saw this on ESPN the other day and this is the most epic game of rock paper scissors of all time ).  You can go to Bluewayondisplay.com and upload the video, tag your school, and it will be on display for all to see. (Please be mindful that  if there are  students in your video they have a media release form). I have created this short video tutorial to show you how the submission activ...

Happy Friday! I hope that you all have had a good full week with your students! If you are using Google Classroom you may have noticed that it looked a little different this week.  For example, the about page is located in the bottom right and not in the stream.   For the last few years Google Classroom has released  some great new features in August that have been helpful. This year is no different.  There are several changes that have been rolled out or is currently rolling out that I think that you will find useful.  Here is some information from the Google Classroom page New Classwork page— Teachers and students have a new  Classwork  page. Teachers can post assignments and questions on the page, and also group them into modules or units with topics. New grading tool in Classroom—Teachers have a new grading tool where they toggle between student submissions while grading, and  save common feedback  in a comment bank to...