Google Slides: So Much More Than a Presentation Tool!

Google Slides has become a teacher's best friend for creating presentation of information to their students, but did you know this is just the beginning of the endless possibilities that Google Slides has to offer? This week we are going to look deeper into Google Slides and hopefully help you find some alternative ways to use this program for yourself, your productivity, and for your students.

Teacher Uses:

First Slide:

Follow along as Alice Keeler shows you how to quickly collect students responses when using Google Slides.

Reuse GC:

Use this template created by Alice Keeler to be able to push your slides to individual students, to reuse multiple Google Classroom assignments at once, and to export your Google Classroom assignments in list form

Automated Hyperlinked Table of Contents:

Use this template from Alice Keeler to quickly create a table of contents for you Google Slides presentation. This is also a great one to share with students too!

Google Slides: The Swiss Army Knife of G Suite

Here is a Google Slides presentation filled with 25 ways that Kasey Bell will help you quickly master Google Slides for more than just your everyday presentations!

Bitmoji Classrooms:

If you haven't jumped on the Bitmoji virtual classroom craze here is an easy tutorial video to get you started on creating your own!

Need some more inspiration: Check out these groups that have gone Bitmoji wild!

Facebook Groups: Bitmoji Craze for Educators

Bitmoji Classrooms and Digital Learning Materials for Distance Learners

Bitmoji lounge for Educators

Articles: School Library Journal

PBS

Make a Drag and Drop Activity:

Watch this tutorial to learn how to create a drag and drop activity to replace the boring worksheets!

Student Uses:

Google Slides 101:

Here is a video crash course on how students can use the multiple features of Google Slides. Use this one if you need to quickly teach your students how to use Google Slides so they can begin creating innovative assignment responses!

Here is a video for Elementary Students:

Social Media Google Slides Templates:

Students love to use social media to express themselves and to communicate. Why not use some of these Google Slides templates from Matt Miller to have students create responses to reading assignments, history projects, or create playlists from YouTube that help better inform others of a research topic?

Social Media Slides Templates

Activities for Classroom Use:

Click here to check out Matt Miller's suggested uses for student activities using Google Slides. No matter what content or subject area you teach there is something for every class to use to take lesson responses to a new level!

Need to put together an end-of-the year presentation?

Google Slides may be the answer.

Kasey Bell and Matt Miller of Google Teacher Tribe call Google Slides the Swiss army knife of G-Suite, and they're spot on! Google Slides is versatile, and it can be a true time-saver at this time of year. An update to Slides that enables the insertion of audio files completes the app's punch list for me! Click HERE to access Brenham ISD's post on inserting audio, or click HERE to read Kasey Bell's post on twenty-five ways to use audio in Google Slides.

So how do you get all those photos of your class/team/group into Slides? Super easy. 1. Put all the photos in one folder in your Google Drive. 2. Create a Google Slides file. 3. Use the add-on Photo Slide Show, and connect it to the folder. (See image below). You may need to adjust some of the cropping, but that goes pretty quickly.

When you're done. click >File and then >Publish to the web. Customize your selections, grab your URL, and bam! You're ready for your end-of-year event. Call/email if you need help.

Password Keeper

Yep! Our students may have a few logins to remember. Easy access can save time and frustration for all parties involved. Check out this password keeper that Shea Holland (AES) made for her students. The icons help even our youngest readers navigate this tool. Click HERE to grab a copy of Mrs. Holland's template. (Thanks for sharing!)

Blended Learning Spotlight

This week's spotlight is on what our digital classroom teachers are using in their classrooms.

From Cassie Simon:

https://sites.google.com/cftigers.org/techcoach/trainings/samr-matrix

This amazing chart gives you thirty-six tools to offer your students opportunities to communicate, collaborate, create, and think critically.

From Judi Chesshir, Sarah Person, Miranda Little, and Ashley Jones

https://www.freckle.com/

The digital classroom teachers at HCE are using Freckle to differentiate instruction across math, reading, science, and social studies. If you use it, please let me know how it is impacting learning in your classroom.

From Lisa Gherman: