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."

Gmail, GoogleDrive, GoogleClassroom

Google Classroom: End of the Year Procedures

It's hard to believe that next week we'll flip the calendars to May. If you have been using Google Classroom this year, you'll want to do some maintenance at the end of the school year so that your online Classroom will be ready for your new classes in August. Below is a short video from Teaching Forward that explains how to archive your classes at the end of the year. And HERE is a link with instructions from Google.

Gmail: End of the Year Procedures

As you begin organizing your physical space in preparation for summer, it's a good time to organize your digital space, as well. And one of the most frequently used digital spaces is email. Yikes! That inbox can get out of control.

If there are items in your email that you never want to see again, just send them to your Trash and empty the trash. If there are items in your email that you want to keep, label and move them OR archive them. When you archive an item in Gmail, it can be found again by searching All Mail.

Remember that if you are on a computer, you can select a single email or multiple emails by clicking the checkbox in front of the email. Then you can select an action from the menu above the emails, or simply drag the emails to their destination.

If you open your Gmail on a personal device, make sure that your swipe settings are set to accomplish what you want. In your device settings, specify if you want a swiped email to go to TRASH or to ARCHIVE.

Click HERE for Google's Gmail help page.

Google Drive: Shared With Me

The Shared With Me link in Google Drive tends to look like a junk drawer in someone's kitchen...a slew of mismatched items. But that's okay. Shared With Me is not really a folder at all, but a temporary holding space for files that others have allowed me access, with the most recent shared file appearing first in the list. However, moving things out of Shared With Me can cause other collaborators to lose access to a file. If there are items in your Shared With Me that you would like to retain in your Drive but want to organize so that you can find them later, watch the three-minute video from Teaching Forward below.

Subscribe to a Google Calendar, Google Forms, Free Ebooks, Boomerang, Gmail

Subscribe to a BISD Calendar

Adding events from a BISD calendar to your Google calendar takes just a few short steps. Here's a short video to get you started.

Another Reason to Love Google Forms

If you have equipment or books that you manage, Google Forms can provide a solution for managing the items. Check out Richard Byrne's video on creating a check out system. Some of our innovative teachers at Alkek Elementary are using Google Forms for students to check in/check out of class. What an awesome idea, especially if your students struggle to tell time. Google time stamps the form submission.

Epic Books: 100% Free ebooks

Epic Books offers free accounts for teachers and librarians in the US and Canada. The interface is user friendly and attractive. While I love their fiction ebooks, one of the biggest draws of Epic Books is the extensive nonfiction content.  A simple search for "tsunami" turned up a great combination of fiction and nonfiction texts. Some of the books also provide "read to me" support. This is a great site for science, social studies, math, ELAR, and elective teachers, too.

Need to Schedule an Email?

Boomerang for Gmail may be just the tool you need. (Thanks, Ms. Moseley, for sharing this timesaver with me!). By adding Boomerang to your Gmail. account, you will have access to a "send later" button under the regular "send" button. You can select the date and time to send the email. What a time saver for busy people who don't always have the time to sit down at the computer to get that essential email out! Need some help? There are "how to" videos embedded right on the Boomerang website. Gotta love that! (BTW...you are receiving an email with a link to this newsletter today, but I scheduled the email using Boomerang over the weekend!)

Try Quizlet Live!

Quizlet introduced a new feature last week: Quizlet Live. If you already have a Study Set built in Quizlet, just click on the set, click on Live, and a game code will be generated. Share it with your students and let the fun begin. If you're new to Quizlet, it is an online platform that allows teachers (and students) to create learning tools (flashcards, games, practice tests, etc.) for FREE, although a premium account opens additional features. Quizlet works on any browser and any device. Quizlet apps are available for IOS and Android.

Student Emails

GMAIL INTRO | EDUCREATIONS

Educreations is a community where anyone can teach what they know and learn what they don't. Our software turns any iPad or web browser into a recordable, interactive whiteboard, making it easy for teachers and experts to create engaging video lessons and share them on the web.

https://www.educreations.com

While even our youngest students have the concept of texting down, our older students may need some encouragement to use their Gmail accounts to support their learning. BISD students can't email other students, but they can email their teachers to ask homework questions, request make up work, or notify a teacher of an emergency situation. Encouraging our students to use email to support their learning gives us opportunities to teach digital citizenship. (Thanks, Ms. Bagwell, for allowing me to use the Educreations video you made for your students. Educreations is a whiteboard and screencasting app available on IOS.)

TeachingBooks.net

TeachingBooks.net is a database that is available to BISD through our Texquest subscription. Get your campus's login info from your librarian. TeachingBooks.net is a robust resource for teachers that includes author interviews, supplemental materials, links to author websites, lesson plans, and much more. You can search by title, author, award list, grade level, reading level, curricular area, or genre. Whether you're looking for a new book to teach in class or your looking for supporting material for a book you're already teaching, TeachingBooks.net is a great place to start.

Need to Move PPTs to Google Slides?

Check out Richard Byrne's video on importing PowerPoint files into Google Slides.

HOW TO IMPORT POWERPOINT SLIDES INTO GOOGLE SLIDES

http://safeyoutube.net

Subscribing to a Google Calendar

In case you missed this in the Tech Integration classroom last week, here's a short video on how to subscribe to a Google Calendar.

SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR TEACHER'S GOOGLE CLASS CALENDAR.WEBM

https://drive.google.com