Digital Learning Spotlight, Canned Responses in Gmail, Limiting Comments in Social Media

Digital Learning Spotlight

Congratulations! You have almost survived the first six weeks. And that is a major accomplishment in itself. As teachers, we most clearly remember the end of the year, and that first six weeks is always a shocker no matter how many years we've been teaching. But give yourselves a double high five because you not only have been molding young minds and hearts, you've been harnessing your Googleness to impact student learning. There is so much going on out there. Here are just a few highlights.

Teachers are providing their students access to 24/7/365 learning with Math Flipped Lessons 

and Spelling and Sight Words. 

They're welcoming their families to their websites with grade level pictures.

They're providing students (and parents!) pages of study materials and...

... study tips to help students succeed in class.

They're co-teaching in Google Classrooms to encourage school-wide discussion of books, and...

...they're providing support for students who are absent or students who need to experience the learning again by recording videos and posting them in Google Classroom.

If this much awesomeness is going on in the first six weeks, I am excited to see how you will be impacting your students through digital learning in May. You are amazing!

Canned Responses in Gmail

If you need to send the same email content over and over again, the Canned Response option in Gmail is a true time-saver. The video below will give you an overview of what Canned Responses does. The screenshots show the old Gmail. If you are using the new Gmail, you will go to your settings and click ADVANCED instead of LABS, and you will click on the three dots next to the trashcan in your COMPOSE window instead of the arrow.  Pair a canned response with a Gmail Contact Group and the time saving grows exponentially. 

Need help creating groups? 

Old Google Contacts

• Click on the app launcher a.k.a. the nine boxes or the waffle
• Scroll down and click on the blue circle for Contacts
• In the left column, click on New Group
• Name the group
• The group will appear in the column under My Contacts
• Click on the 
• In the box that populates, type your email contacts.
• Next time you need to email the group, just start typing the group name into the TO: line

New Google Contacts

Limiting Comments On Social Media

If you find a need to limit comments on a social media account, here are some tips from Tiffany Pierce at AES.

Description:For a Facebook personal account, find instructions here.

For administrators of a Facebook Page, find instructions here. 

On Twitter: After you tweet, click on your post to open it and click on the small arrow in the top right corner. Choose "Turn off Commenting" or "Mute this conversation."

Google Classroom Updates, Archiving a Class, Reusing a Post, and Accessing Tutorials to Start the Year

Updates to Google Classroom

Good thing my webcam is not on this morning. I'm doing the happy dance over the updates to Google Classroom. Just last week a BHS teacher and I were lamenting the fact that we couldn't customize our Classroom dashboard by moving the classes around. So imagine my excitement when I logged onto Classroom this a.m. and saw this message.

You can now reorder your classes, view all of a student's work on one page, and display the class code full-screen! If you've ever used Classroom, you know how big these little changes are!

Archiving a Google Classroom

Archiving a Google Classroom removes the class from your Classroom dashboard, but allows you to retain access to it through the Archived Classes link in the Classroom menu. As you get ready for the coming school year, you may want to archive last year's classes before you set up this year's classes. 

If you accidentally archive a class, you can easily unarchive it by clicking "unarchive."

Click HERE for instructions.

Reuse a Google Classroom Post

Save time by reusing posts (assignment, question, announcement) that you've used previously. When you click the + to add a post to Classroom, one of the options is Reuse Post. When you select that choice, you will have access to all your Google Classrooms including archived classes. Click HERE for detailed instructions.

Access Tutorials for Starting the School Year

If you're looking for help setting up your AV equipment, phone, or digital resources, check out the Starting the School Year page on the BISD Digital Learning site.

Blogger, Digital Learning, Edivate

Check out the new BISD Digital Learning website where you'll find tutorials for G-Suite applications, our BISD systems, and other digital tools. The video below takes you on a virtual tour. Spending a few minutes previewing the site now could save you lots of time in August.

Tuesday Tech Tips Moves from Tackk to Blogger

Tuesday Tech Tips is being migrated to Blogger, which will allow tips to be searched using the search bar on the upper right side of the screen. Past blog posts will be migrated over the summer. 

You can also access Tuesday Tech Tips through the Tuesday Tech Tips tab on the Digital Learning Website.

Register for 2017 Professional Development in Edivate

Log into Edivate and view the Summer 2017 Professional Development catalog through the My Catalog Units tab where you can register for CPI, CPR, GT, or the Compliance videos. If you need to cancel a registration, click on the title of the training for which you registered, and click on the red X to unenroll. Please confirm your registrations, as trainings were modified the week of May 6, 2017. 

The Compliance trainings will open June 5, 2017, and close on August 18, 2017. If you need help logging in, please contact your campus administrator.

Click HERE to access the Getting Started with Edivate tutorial. 

Digital Learning, Feedly, GoogleDocs

Convert text to/from All Caps on Chromebook

Sometimes it's the little things that make us happy. So, I was excited last week when I read on Brenham ISD's blog how to change text in Google Docs to/from all upper, all lower case, or title case. It's not a feature you may use daily, but if you've ever had a student type his/her entire essay in capital letters, it's a feature you'll be glad to access!

Use Feedly to Collect Blog Posts

Speaking of blog posts...one of the ways I try to keep up with professional reading is to follow blogs of movers and shakers in the educational technology and library worlds. Rather than subscribe to individual blog posts that wind up in a too-full email inbox, I use Feedly to collect the posts for me, and I read them when I have time.

There are movers and shakers in your areas, too. A cursory Google search for "top science teacher blogs to follow" or "best educational blogs to follow" or "top basketball coaching blogs" turns up great lists to start. If you've been to a conference this year, chances are that one of the presenters hosts a blog. Add him/her to your feed.

The key to success is to start small, and curate the content as you go. Like something? Save it to a Pinterest board or to Google Keep so you can find it later. Your process may seem a bit clunky at first until you get your rhythm down, but stick with it, and you'll be adding quality content to your professional toolbox all year round.

I have to admit, some months are better than others for professional reading. This time of year, I've got a lot of unread posts, but I know that when the hamster wheel slows down, I'll know just where to turn for the most current happenings in my profession.

BISD Digital Learning Website
Coming Soon

Last winter, several teachers at Alkek suggested that all the tech tips, technology training presentations, and links to technology tools be housed in one place. Tuesday Tech Tips will take a hiatus for a couple of weeks while that site is developed and the blog is moved to a searchable platform. Stay tuned for details. Thanks, AES, for the awesome idea!