Santa Tracker, New Google Sites Updates, New Year's Resolutions

Santa Tracker

'Tis the season. Thanks to our awesome middle school counselor for sharing the Santa Tracker site.  Learn about holiday traditions, do a little coding, track Santa and interact with the elves during the month of December.

Finally! New Google Sites Allows HTML and Java Script Embedding 

If you maintain a Google Site, this is long-awaited news! The New Google Sites launched last year. It is incredibly more intuitive to use than the Classic Sites. Elements can be dragged and dropped making webpage construction much easier. However, the inability to insert embed codes was a huge drawback, and it's the main reason I haven't promoted the New Sites before now.

(What's an embed code? It's code language that allows you to insert information from one site into another. For example, on BMS Middle School Library site, the feed from our Around BMS blog and the Symbaloo tile of icons are embedded on the website using embed codes.)

Check out G-Suite's post for more details. If you want to add a little pizzazz to your webpage using embedded content and need some help, please email me. I'd love to help.

Technology New Year's Resolutions

As we usher out 2017 and usher in 2018, consider a techy New Year's Resolution.

• Set up a Google Classroom
• Try out Google Keep for bookmarking or collaborative to-do lists
• Give a favorite lesson a new twist by integrating technology
• Weave coding into your lesson 
• Mark those emails in your inbox READ and start the new year fresh with a clean inbox. (Need help giving them a label and moving them out of your inbox? Click HERE for details.)

 

Automate Differentiating Assignments Based on Google Form Scores; Opening Microsoft Publisher files on your Chromebook; Drawing with Ed Emberley

Differentiate Assignments Using AutoMastery Add-on

Imagine giving a Google Form quiz and pushing assignments to students based on how they scored on the quiz. A nifty little Google add-on makes that differentiation possible. "Students who score at or above mastery receive a link to an extension activity. Students who score at or below the beginner level will receive an assignment that is designed to fit their needs and help them build the necessary skills to move to the progression level." Richard Byrne of Free Technology For Teachers has an excellent blog post highlighting the AutoMastery Google Forms add-on. It's definitely worth checking out! 

(Since I don't have classes to test this add-on, please let me know if you like it, or if you don't!)

Navigating Microsoft Publisher in a Chromebook World

 

Years ago when we were all using PC's in our classrooms, sharing Microsoft files wasn't a big deal. But as many teachers are strictly Chromebook users now, some of those old Microsoft files are harder to share. Word, Excel, and Powerpoint open almost seamlessly in G-Suite products. Microsoft Publisher? Not so much. 

Using an online converter tool will allow you to view a Publisher file on your Chromebook. Navigate to Online2PDF and drag your file to the gray SELECT FILES box on that tab. Click CONVERT, and the Microsoft Publisher file will download to your Chromebook as a PDF.

Draw with Ed Emberley

Ed Emberley's books have been a go-to for me for years, so I was excited to discover his website. Pages include options for step-by-step drawing tutorials as well as drawing pages like the one pictured above. There are links to cut and paste activities, mazes, and more.

This is a great site for both students and teachers. And I love that students use a digital interface to make art using markers, crayons, scissors, and ink--the best of both worlds.

Looking for more online drawing tools? Check out Shannon McLintock Miller's blog about YouIDrawPainter.

Hour of Code, Interactive Science Glossary, EdPuzzle, G-Suite Updates

Hour of Code is Coming! December 4-10, 2017

Looking for a great way to integrate coding into your curriculum? Consider offering your students the opportunity to create a Google Doodle with Google's Hour of Code activity. 
Code.org also has both computer and unplugged activities.

Interactive Science Glossary

According Texas Gateway, "The Interactive Science Glossary is a dynamic resource that offers an engaging new way for students to experience science vocabulary and activities. You can use this resource as a reference tool or as part of your instruction. The resource features written and recorded definitions and sentences in both Spanish and English, images, web links, and printable flashcards." Texas Gateway provides an informational page that shows how easy the glossary is to use. 

EdPuzzle

If you are using videos in your classroom, EdPuzzle  is for you! EdPuzzle offers free accounts to students and teachers. Teachers can crop videos, provide voice-overs, and embed quizzes/questions throughout the video. Videos can be uploaded from Khan Academy, TED Talk, YouTube, Google Drive, and more. 

Ed Puzzle's page in the Chrome Web Store lists the three easy steps to get started:

Step 1:
Crop the video, use only what you need for your lesson. 
Record your voice on top of it to explain it in your own personal way, add clarifications, a warm introduction, you name it.
Add quizzes along the video and check if your students truly understand the lesson.

Step 2:
Assign it to your class/classes and let your students watch the video and answer the quizzes.

Step3:
Get meaningful data and insights about your students while they watch the video lesson or after they have completed it as homework. See at a glance how they are answering the quizzes and where in the video they are struggling to understand the concepts.

Here's a short video that shows you how EdPuzzle works with Google Classroom. 

G-Suite Updates

Google has released a pretty sweet update for the G-Suite products. 

Now it's easier to insert images into Docs, Slides, and Drawings. When you click Insert > Insert Image, you now have a choice to select an image from your Drive, photos, by URL, or upload from your computer.

The coolest part is that based on your selection,  a menu will open on the right side of the screen, allowing you to search without leaving the application.

Next Tuesday Tech Tip: December 5, 2017. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Supporting Diverse Learners with Texquest and the Read&Write extension, Adobe Spark

Supporting ELL and Dual Language Students

I am a HUGE fan of our Texquest databases. In an age when it's harder and harder for our students to distinguish accurate information in a Google search, the databases provide vetted resources to jumpstart their research journeys.

A recent newsletter from Marty Rossi at Region XX included a link to  Texquest's ELL and Dual Language Resources.  Here are four more reasons I an enamored with our database subscriptions!

• Did you know that EBSCO has over 1300 books available in Spanish?
• Did you know that our subscription includes a Spanish language database called ¡Informe!?
• Did you know that the Spanish version of Encyclopedia Brittanica, Brittanica Escolar Online, is available for primary, middle, and high school students?
• Did you know that the Gale/Cengage and SIRS Discoverer Encyclopedia Brittanica offer translation tools as well as Google Classroom integration?

If you are looking for materials to support your ELL students, Texquest has much to offer. See your campus librarian for login credentials.

Supporting Students Who Need Text Read to Them

When I visited campuses this month, I shared Google Voice Typing with many teachers. A primary grade teacher at AES asked a really good question. Voice typing is an awesome resource for our youngest learners, but if they're not reading yet, what's available so they can read/hear what they wrote?

The Read&Write extension reads online text and so much more. You can acquire the extension from the Chrome Web Store. Just search for Read Write. It's little purple puzzle piece icon will live with your extensions. Once it is installed, access it by clicking on the icon. A toolbar will pop up. Click on the purple box in the tool bar. Uncheck "continuous reading" or the app will read every tab on the page! To turn the extension off, just click the icon again.

It's a powerful little tool that can make a difference for many students.

This short video highlights the extension's features.

And this one minute video shows how to get started.

Learning is Fun with Adobe Spark

If you've been by the technology office this fall looking for Mr. Halsell, you may have had to peek behind the mountain of Chromebook boxes containing computers that he has been processing to get into the hands of our elementary and secondary students. Exciting times for BISD!

All those new devices open up opportunities for learning. Adobe Spark is a great tool for making images and videos. Adobe provides an Educator Guide that contains great ideas for using Adobe Spark in the Classroom and projects can be downloaded to post in Google Classroom.

See how this fourth grade teacher used Adobe Spark with her students.

Need help getting started? Give me a call or send an email. :)

Documenting OA; Resources for teaching about fake news; Magnetic Poetry

Try This Easy-Peasy Way to Administer and Document Oral Administration of Tests

Keeping up with student modifications can be a daunting task. This tip from a savvy BMS teacher is an innovative way to offer students oral administration and document whether or not the student accepted or rejected the modification at the same time. 

1. Record the questions and answers for your quiz/test/assignment on Vocaroo.com

2. Get and copy the link for your recording.

3. Create a Google form.

4. On the Google form, insert a question like, "Do you want to listen to the audio for this assignment? Yes or no?"  Mark this question as "required," and add the link to your Vocaroo recording.

5.  Post your test/quiz/assignment to your Google Classroom so the kids can do the work.

Amazing! Modification and documentation in a single spreadsheet containing the following information:

•  who did and did not use the audio
• documentation that you offered audio and whether it was accepted or refused
•  the students' answers and scores

Teaching Bias Detection & Fake News

 This week I had the pleasure of working with Mrs. Spikes sixth grade reading classes on detecting bias. If you're teaching your secondary students information literacy, here are some digital resources.

• A Discovery Education video that explains bias
• A three-minute podcast interview of a journalist who explains how her job of debunking fake news has changed in just the last three years.
• A great infographic on why people create fake news
• An interactive quiz on detecting forms of bias
• An explanation of the CRAAP test to test reliability
• An interactive quiz to analyze news stories and classify them as fake or real

Halloween Magnetic Poetry

Kasey Bell of ShakeUpLearning.com offers several templates for magnetic poetry on her blog. These templates are awesome, even if you're not an ELA teacher. Think about modifying them for matching math facts, science terms, social studies events, etc. Push the templates to your students through Google Classroom, and let them create poems to show mastery of a concept in any subject to support tech apps TEKS and content area TEKS at the same time. Awesome!

Discovery Education, LIttle Things, Shared With Me

Student Accounts for Discovery Education

BISD subscribes to Discovery Education, which offers powerful content to engage students in inquiry and supports teachers in inspiring students. Content can be searched by TEK, subject, grade level, and format. And resources can be downloaded, shared in Google Classroom, or shared by link. Discovery Education also provides professional development resources. 

Students and teachers can create digital boards that contain text, images, and videos. Think posterboard project on steroids!  Discovery Education provides ideas for using their Board Builder as well as support for building, assigning, and sharing boards.

Student accounts have been created for BISD secondary students. See your campus librarian for login credentials. If you have not created your teacher account yet, see your campus librarian for your campus access code.  Need assistance getting started? Your campus librarian is ready to help!

It's the little things!

This week was filled with conversations that reminded me that it's the little things that matter in life.
Here are some technology-related little-thing highlights that brought big smiles to students and teachers this week.

• CTRL Z (Chromebook) or Command Z (Mac) is undo. (You mean I didn't lose that clip I just deleted in iMovie? Yippee!)

• Use two fingers on your mousepad to scroll up and down the screen on both Chromebooks & Macbooks. (I don't have to use that little gray scroll bar to move up and down the screen? Awesome!)

• Adjust the brightness on your screen on your Chromebook or Macbook using the keys in the screen shots below. (Wow! I can see the screen better!)

None of these are life-changers, but they sure do make working on the computer a little easier!

Shared With Me Folder Driving You Crazy?

Opening your Shared With Me folder in Google Drive can be a stressful experience! The "most-recent-shared-file-first" organization doesn't work for many of us.

Enter the "Add to Drive" option, which allows you to add the shared files to your Drive and organize them without losing the file's original properties.  If you were to "Make a Copy" and the file was later edited by the person who shared it with you, the copy would not change; however, if you add the file to your Drive and it is subsequently edited by other collaborators, you will see the changes when you access the file. 

The Teaching Forward blog offers some great tips and a short video to help you organize shared files in your Drive.

AutoDraw, Teachingbooks.net, Desmos

AutoDraw 

A great big shoutout to Sarah Verstuyft at BHS for sharing Autodraw with me last week. What an incredibly easy tool to use for Sketchnoting, creating images for presentations, and enabling artists with limited artistic ability (like me!) to create something identifiable!

Images are downloadable as .png files, which means they can be imported into other programs as images.

So, how can you use AutoDraw in your teaching?

• Create a custom icon for a grading rubric
• Create custom icons as reminders of test strategies, writing tricks, or math/science processes.
• Allow students to create custom images for their literature circles, field trip groups, or teams.
• Encourage students to create an image that represents a character, a time period, steps in a process, or a vocabulary word.

Teachingbooks.net

Teachingbooks.net is one of those awesome resources that sometimes gets overlooked in the craziness of lesson plan prep, but putting it on your radar can save you time in the long run.

If you are teaching a class novel, Teachingbooks has tons of resources including lesson plans, author interviews, reviews, and book guides. If you are promoting books in your classroom, Teachingbooks features "Today on Teachingbooks" to highlight books. Show one of the linked author interviews, and you've got an easy-peasy way to do a booktalk!

If you teach social studies, Teachingbooks' advanced search allows for searching by cultural area, which makes recommending books for independent reading super easy. Additional advanced search features allow for searching books by grade level, curriculum area, lexile, subject, and more.

You can share resources by auto-populated bookmarks (like the one to the left) and QR codes and also by sharing directly to Google Classroom.  

All four campuses (teachers and students) have access to Teachingbooks.net through our TexQuest subscription.  See your campus librarian for login credentials. 

Desmos

A great big shout out to Kierstyn Dumont at BHS for sharing TeacherDesmos with me last week. I knew Desmos had an online graphing calculator, but I had no idea the great resources for math on the site. I think I loved the way Coach Dumont described the site to me almost as much as I like the tools! She explained that the site starts the students on low stakes tasks that quickly build their confidence and move the students to more complex concepts through questions that lead them to seek patterns and rules on their own. Letting the students work through the activity on their own before teaching a lesson allows them to bring some knowledge about the concept to the table.

When teachers preview the student activity, teaching suggestions are offered at the bottom of the preview. Teacher accounts are free.



Teachers share lessons though a class code. Teachers can control pacing and view student responses through the teacher dashboard.  Check out this Integer Operations activity to get a feel for the site.