All posts by edtechmrbrown

Here is a Google Slide template for a wanted poster activity. This activity can be posted in Google Classroom.
Wanted poster activities are great for having students show what they have learned about people from history and characters from literature.

Here is a digital version of an oldie but a goodie U.S. History STAAR Review, created by THE Historian of History himself, Bradford Sherman. This modernized update can be collaborated on by your students in Google Classroom or Google Meets. The bracket is the background image of the Jamboard. Students just need to debate and justify which had a more significant impact on the United States, then use the zoom, highlighter, and text tools to fill out the bracket. Students can complete this in groups or you can work together as a whole class. Run the game yourself on the board in front of your class in person if you are lucky enough to do so.

Here is a news article from Reuters with questions that focus on citing evidence from the text (6.6C, 6.5F), making connections to personal experiences (6.5E), summarizing texts and identifying thesis (6.6D, 6.8Di).

Here is what might be the first of many Princess Bride reading activities. If you folks like it let me know and I will continue on with more parts of the story. If you have any suggestions for alternative questions or even ways to word these questions, let me know. I am used to writing fact based Social Studies questions so I won’t claim these questions are flawless. I look forward to making more of these sort of activities and there is clearly an awful lot more of this story to tell.

Here is a question I get every now and then: How do I embed a timer in a Google Slide?
Well the easiest, fastest, and my favorite way is to embed a YouTube video of a timer. Building a timer into your Slides presentation can help you move through a lesson more smoothly without having to leave your presentation to access a timer. These can be great for transition time, think pair shares, stations, and many more ideas. Below are the quick simple steps to accomplish this and look like a seriously cutting edge teacher.

Here is something simple and hopefully helpful. This is a weekly lesson plan calendar made in Google Slides. You only have to type in your plans for each day. This template has several huge benefits in my opinion. It is a quick and easy to print format. It is stored in your Google Drive and can be accessed and updated from almost anywhere. You can share it with your team or administration so they have easy access to view your plans. You can publish it to the web and embed it in your class website to share your plans with parents and students.

Here is a digital drag and drop puzzle activity made in Google Slides which can be assigned in Google Classroom. There is an easy mode with the state outlines included on the map and a more challenging version. You can kick it up a notch and have your students use the text tool to label each state.

Let’s take a look at a new screen recording tool called RecordCast. I had a little trouble with this but a restart fixed my problems with my microphone being recognized and a problem where the video was not downloading at the end of the export process. Could have just been my PC. Here is my video I was able to produce and below that is a walkthrough the steps of using RecordCast.

You can of course sign up/in with Google. That is always my favorite method because I don’t have to remember what strange login or password I created.

“Create by Record” Starts a new recording.

You can record only the screen or the camera. You can also record both at the same time.

The first time you launch the program you will have to allow access to your camera and microphone.

The record settings screen unfortunately lacks any way to test and make sure your microphone is working. I would recommend a quick recording to test it before diving into a long recording.

You have many options to choose from which are incredibly similar to presenting in Google Meets. I chose entire screen and that worked fine for me. It was able to capture system sounds and video as well as the microphone.

When you finish your recording you will go to the editing software. There are some pretty neat looking features here including overlays and animated elements. This might be a very good free video editing software and that is something I am asked for all of the time. I might have a good answer now. I will have to make a more detailed video on these features.

Processing the video sure took a very long time so go get some coffee or hit the restroom while you are waiting. Don’t sit and stare at it or it will feel like forever.

The video lands in your Downloads folder when it is done.

Let’s play Bammboozle! Join me online HERE 7 April during your lunch break in Google Meets for a quick example game.

Learn more about Baamboozle here.

Here is a web scavenger hunt for space exploration. This activity has students investigate online resources related to NASA and the history of space exploration to learn about its development over time. This activity examines several significant missions and spacecraft.

This is a large and comprehensive activity with 47 questions over 15 topics including Pioneer 1, Mercury 7, Mariner 2, Ed White, Moon Landing, Mariner 9, Skylab, Viking 1&2, Space Shuttle, Pioneer 10, Hubble Space Telescope, International Space Station, Voyager, New Horizons, and Mars Rovers.

There are two files for this activity. One is a Docs version that can easily be printed for distribution. The other is a Slides version designed to be posted online in Google Classroom. Both versions include interactive answer boxes and could be assigned digitally. The Google Slides version will maintain it’s formatting completely while the Docs version could become misaligned when completed digitally.

Behold, a unit of activities that hopefully you and your students will find exciting and engaging. These activities are created in Google Slides and can be posted in Google Classroom. So far there are four activities in this unit.

☠Activity 1 is a Science activity that requires students to demonstrate knowledge about forms of energy based on M.E.L.T.S.
☠Activity 2 is a creative and sequential writing activity in which students write adventure chronicles to tell about their escape from the zombie hoards.
☠Activity 3 is a math activity that has students design the floor plan for their survival bunker as well as calculate the perimeter and area of the rooms.
☠Activity 4 is a social studies map skills activity that requires students to follow directions a draw a route on a map to escape the zombies and avoid dangerous situations. It also includes fill in the blank questions about cardinal directions based on the map.

I would love to add more activities to this unit. Do you have an idea for another concept that would go well with this unit? If so please email it to me. [email protected]

EdTech Update Episode 08 Notes

Welcome

Baamboozle Quick Intro(edited version of main baamboozle video)

Fast4Friday
*You can publish a Google Slide show to the web to share it with students or parents in presentation mode only.
*Use the Windows key and the left or right arrow to set up a split screen and multi-task easier.
*Your students can easily create a video slideshow of photos set to music or narration with Adobe Spark. Spark in in ClassLink.
*Click the Star to add your frequently used Google files to your “Starred” favorites to quickly find them in your Google Drive.

Badge Update

Microsoft translate Live demonstration with some foreign language speakers

Baamboozle is an engaging team competition game hosted and controlled by the teacher. Students do not need devices to play this game. A teacher could easily host a Baamboozle game online or in person. When I tested this game out on the coaches in my office it was a blast. We had intense competition and teams learned quickly to use strategies to win.
One thing I really like about this game is that it gives everyone a chance to win compared to games like Kahoot or Gimkit that reward the fastest and smartest only. Each team/person gets an equal chance to answer questions.

Let’s take a quick look at how to create a Baamboozle game. I wouldn’t call it super user friendly or obvious but it is not hard either once you figure it out.
The first step will have you create Title and a Description. You can also upload a cover image for your game.

You can type in a question or upload an image for a question. If you choose to upload an image you must also enter text on the question line. After you enter a question and correct answer click save

From the game preview screen you can click play to launch the game

How to Play explains how the game works. You can have up to 4 teams on the free version.

These are the options with the paid account version.

Here are the available options on the free account. I like to turn on the pass option and lose points for guessing wrong.

Here is what the game board looks like when you are playing.

Students choose a question number and that question is displayed on the screen. After students provide you with an answer click check answer.

Then decide if they earned the points or not.

The more teams you have the more questions you need to give everyone multiple opportunities to answer.

Some questions are bonus cards. The game adds bonus cards in addition to your questions.

After all of the questions have been answered a winner is announced.

Sometimes when you post a Google Form assignment, you forget to check the box for “Collect Email Address” or forget to include a name collection question. Have you been there and done that? I know I have several times.
This is an issue I used to see a lot more often at the beginning of the year but I know I used to make this mistake every now and then and I always felt like I was just messed over and wasted the students efforts.

I have found and confirmed a solution!
You just have to go back to edit the form screen then allow students to “Edit After Submit”. Go check the collect email box or add on a (required) name collection question and it will be there when students return to the form. The responses will update with the new additional information when they resubmit.

I have a few troubleshooting ideas for you to try if you have student Google Classroom assignments (Not Google Forms) disappearing.

• Look in your Google Classroom Drive folder for the activity. Sometimes it stays there even when it disappeared from Classroom itself.
• If you find it in Drive try to leave a teacher comment on the assignment. I have heard that will make it show back up in Google Classroom.
• Of course we also want to make sure they are logging in correctly to avoid any issues: https://edtechmrbrown.com/login-issues-with-google-forms/

Screenian is a simple little tool that can turn your laptop or Chromebook web camera into a document camera. This looks like a decent option for presenting or recording lessons for your students.
Since it uses your webcam it does not require sharing your screen in Google Meets. Which makes for a good simplification of that process. You just set a clipboard or white board down over your keyboard and start sharing.
This is a far more affordable option than purchasing an expensive document camera for remote teaching. If you gave one to your students they could share their work over a Google Meet or record a video of it to submit.

Screenian lists for $25 on their website. Even better I found an iPevo version on Amazon that comes in a pack of six for $40! You can share some with your friends or students.

Screenian reminds me of the Osmo device my daughter uses on her ipad. If you have one of those laying around it should do the same thing. It is also like you are harnessing some fancy yet simple periscope power so you can feel like a submarine commander when you are deploying it. I can definitely see myself having a Navy hat on the side that I would put on before announcing I was about to raise the periscope to present. I would probably have my students make sonar sound effects when I was “raising the periscope” to make things more fun for them.

https://www.screenian.com/

With these steps you can enter just the answer key for a test you already have. Then you can print scantrons for your individual students. Once those scantrons are scanned into Aware you will have data about student performance on your tests, just like a six weeks test.

Step 1 Go to ClassLink and click on Eduphoria

Click on Aware

Click on “Create a New Quick Test Key”

Give your test a title, select the subject, grade level, and add a course, then click “Build Quick Key”

You should be prompted to enter the number of test questions you will have on your test. Then go to the Go to the “Test Key” tab.

Click the pencil to edit each question

Select the correct answer choice also attach the TEK standard on this screen, then save

Repeat those steps for each question on your test

Step one go to ClassLink

Step two Click on Eduphoria

Step three Click on Help Desk

Step 4 Click “Create a New Request” in the bottom left hand corner

Step 5 Choose the best category you can fit your request into?

Step 6 If necessary, choose the correct sub topic

Step 7 Enter the details of your issue, be sure to include your room number

Step 8 click Submit Request which is hiding way down in the bottom right corner of the screen