Google Calendar

A great big Bulldog thank you to AES teachers for their willingness to grow in their Google-ness last Friday as they dug into Google Calendar. If you are considering using Google Calendar, here is the Google Slide presentation to get you started.

AES 3/24/17

AES 3/24/17 Growing in Google-ness: Google Calendar & Chrome Extensions

Sync's Free Audiobooks for Educators and Teens 13+

With state testing this week, summer may seem far off, but it's closer than we feel. I did the happy dance when I got this email from Sync last week. "Young adults and educators will have the opportunity to download free audiobooks starting April 27. For the eighth year, SYNC is offering a free summer audiobook program for teens 13 and older. Two complete, thematically paired, audiobook downloads will be given away each week" starting April 27. For a complete list of all 32 titles, click HERE.

To access the audiobooks, download the OverDrive App on your personal device. Visit the SYNC website each Thursday after 7am Eastern Time to download the new audiobook pair for the week. Each title is available for one week only, but once downloaded can be kept forever, so the opportunity to listen can extend well beyond the term of the summer program.

Happy listening!

Creating Videos on Chromebook

If your students will be creating videos on Chromebooks this spring, check out Richard Byrne's March 6 post. He provides useful links to twelve tools that you and your students can use to create screencasts, cartoons, Common Craft-style explainer videos and online videos. If video creation is on your list of "I-don't-have-time-now-but-I-want-to-learn," bookmark the post for later. It's a keeper!

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

GoogleCalendar, Quizizz

Thinking about moving to Google Calendar?

Skill Level: Beginner Use: Organization and communication

Your BISD account comes with a default Google Calendar associated with your username. In addition to that default calendar, you can create and share additional Google calendars. For example, you can create a classroom calendar and link it to your website; you can create a team or club calendar and share it with your students; you can create a department calendar and share it with your team. You have full control over who can view the calendars and who can make changes to the calendars. Each calendar's permissions are separate from the other calendars, so your classroom calendar can be public and allow viewing only, while your department calendar can be shared with a small group and allow others to add/delete events.

Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers has several videos on his YouTube channel to get you started with Google Calendar.

Need to keep organized on the go? Sync your Google Calendar to your mobile device.

Skill: Beginner Use: Organization

Say goodbye to missing meetings. Sync your calendar to your mobile device, and stay organized even when you're on the go. Google provides detailed instructions for syncing your Google Calendar to your calendar on your iPhone HERE. If you are looking for more simplified instructions, click HERE. (This site displays ads.) Need to add your Google Calendar to your Android device? Click HERE.

Quizizz Adds Read Aloud Feature

Skill Level: Beginner Use:Digital Learning

Earlier this month, Quizizz released a new IOS app that enables questions to be read aloud. If you are using Quizizz in your classroom on iPads, this is awesome news for students who require oral administration of quizzes/tests.