Brush Ninja, Practice Records, Update to Team Drive, Google Slides Remote

Brush Ninja

A big Bulldog thank you to Lisa Gherman at AES for sharing Brush Ninja in the AES Teach with Tech Classroom! Your students can create animated .gifs on Chromebooks, PCs, or iPads. Save the animated images to your device. Embed the .gifs in Google Slides; combine with Screencastify to provide voiceovers.  Imagine students illustrating their understanding of chemical reactions, character traits, historical events, or mathematical equations. The possibilities are endless.

Help Students Keep Track of Information

Snaps to Toni Batto at BMS and BHS for harnessing the power of G-Suite to help her students keep track of their practice information, to reduce paper clutter, and to teach her students twenty-first century record keeping skills!

Ms. Batto shared a spreadsheet with her students to record their practice information daily. At the end of the week, she offers them a Google Form to transcribe the information from their individual spreadsheets and submit to her so that she has all her student practice information in one place. Students can access the Sheet and the Form at school or at home on any device. If the students are using a personal device, they may need to download the free Sheets app to edit the sheet. 

Google Form completed once a week

Google Sheet for daily record keeping
Personal note: I love that the students (and their parents) see daily what practice entails.

Helpful hints from Ms. Batto:

• Freeze rows that you don't want students to manipulate. That feature is under the VIEW tab in Sheets.
• Use the section feature in Forms to help the students transcribe their data accurately.

Team Drive Update

If you use Google Team Drive, you will notice some updates in the near future. When the update rolls out to us, the roles in Team Drive will be different. Below is a summary from the G-Suite Blog. Read more HERE.


The existing roles for Team Drives memberships will get new names:

• “Full access” will now be known as “Manager.” 
• “Edit access” will now be “Contributor.” 
• “Comment access” will now be “Commenter.” 
• “View access” will now be “Viewer.” 
• There will also be a new role, “Content manager.” See below for more details. 

Run a Google Slide Presentation from Your Phone!

Diana Benner of TCEA is a rockstar! Over the summer, she shared on the TCEA TechNotes blog that the Google Slides Remote extension allows you to run your Slides presentation from your phone. 

Acquire the extension from the Chrome Web Store.

When you open your Slides presentation, click on Present with Remote.

On your phone, bookmark the page s.limhenry.xyz. You will be asked to enter a code. Hover over the bottom of your presentation and click on Show ID. That is the number you will put into your phone to enable the remote.

No Chromebit? No problem! Move freely around the room running the presentation from your phone.

Important: If you are presenting from a computer that you do not normally use, you may need to install the extension on that computer's Chrome browser so that you see the "Present with Remote" option when you open your presentation.

Gmail Groups, FlipAnim, Icebreakers, Google Educator Certification, Google Classroom Training Center

Create an Email Group in Gmail

Back to School Night is just around the corner, and it offers an awesome opportunity to acquire email contact information from parents. Perhaps you've created a Google Form to collect information. Access the spreadsheet that accompanies the form and copy the data in the email address column. Use the video below to help you set up a Gmail group. (Remember when you email a group of parents to put their addresses in the BCC section to retain their anonymity.)

(animation created using Explain Everything app on iPad)

FlipAnim for .gifs

GIF's aren't just for social media. They're for your classroom, too. Create a .gif (animated picture) to show a process, re-cap directions, or send feedback to students in a digital classroom. Even better, ask your students to create a .gif to demonstrate their problem-solving process!

FlipAnim fast and easy to use. Create your animation, upload it, and then click .gif under the completed animation to access the link to the finished product. HERE is a short tutorial from Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers for using the tool.

Richard Byrne's blog is one of my go-to places when I need technology help or inspiration. There is a "subscribe" link at the bottom of his blog.

Google Classroom Training Center

Google recently updated its Google Classroom training materials. If you are new to Classroom or are looking for a solution to a particular issue, check out the Google Classroom Training Center. This site is AWESOME!

Icebreakers for the beginning of the year

The TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) has an incredible blog that highlights integrating digital learning into your classroom. Last week, Dianna Benner posted several creative icebreakers to start the year. In the post is a link to a similar post from last year with additional ideas. 

Considering acquiring your Google Educator certification?

Google provides free online support to brush up on the skills you need to pass the $10 Google Educator Level 1 exam. Kasey Bell of ShakeUp Learning has published a matrix that lists the skills that you need to pass the exam. If you are considering become Google Educator certified, download Kasey's matrix so you have a checklist to work from.

Kasey has a subscribe button at the bottom of her blog. She posts regularly on Google-related issues.

If you subscribe to several blogs, you may want to consider using an RSS feed/blog aggregator like Feedly or Newsify so that your email box isn't filled with blog posts.