Texas Regions Jamboard Activity

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1oCABwLAF9Oe1R-gR4KOeVAdq9OcR7G6GeDePagLq50g/edit?usp=sharing

Have your students debate and determine where on the map each post it note should go.

OpenShot Trim a Video

OpenShot is a free video editing software that you can download and use for all of your video editing projects. You can use it to create full length video productions or for tasks as simple as trimming a video you previously recorded. Today we are going to take a look at how to use OpenShot to trim a video we recorded in Google Meet.

EdTech Update Episode 009

Join us for Episode 9 of the EdTech Update as we talk to Mr. Gunnels about this new year, we see the Fast4Friday from Harper Elementary School, we will hear from Mr. Vincent about the 1 to 1 roll out, we will see a cool little tool called Blabberize in action, and we’ll give away some Education Galaxy prizes! Also there is a give way contest at the end. BE THE WINNER!

Lunch and Learn 22 Sep 2021 Class Craft

Please join myself and our own expert, Lara from ClassCraft.com, live in Google Meet during your lunch time Wednesday 22 September. Lara will give you a quick introduction to Class Craft and answer any questions you might have.

Class Craft is a really cool gamified positive reinforcement focused classroom management tool. Classcraft also offers really cool customizable adventure quest lesson templates for you to create exciting supplemental learning opportunities. With your students now having full time Chromebook access, this is the time to jump into this amazing tool.

https://meet.google.com/ziq-cbxe-dhy <— 22 September during your lunch go there.

Super cool 8 second teaser trailer

Please see the links below for brief precursory overview.

 It was a pleasure learning more about your district. I have a few documents below for you to review; please let me know if you have any questions or if there is any other information I can provide.

• Document: Classcraft Overview
• Document: Intrinsic Motivation
• Document: Tabor City Middle School Case Study
• Video: What is Classcraft?

Looking forward to our Lunch and Learn next week! Have a great day!
Sincerely,

Lara CrutcherSolutions Advisor at Classcraft

HMH Online Textbooks: Avancemos and more

Teachers and students will both access the online textbooks for HMH through ClassLink. It is the Holt McDougal My HRW app at this time (I have seen that change so look for something HMH related). Inside this app you can choose what ever text book you need access to.

That will drop you on your Dashboard which gives you access to the many available resources.

At-Home Learning Support gives access to .pdf copies of the text book’s student edition.

The Program Preview is a short video about the resources available to teachers and students

Teachers Edition opens a browser based online copy of the textbooks teacher edition. There is a print option available from the menu on the left side of the page as well as other helpful tools like the ability to create bookmarks and notes.

The Teacher Resources menu provides access to tons of resources but most importantly I found Graphic organizers and Rubrics. Also, Activities opened up an enormous Word doc that included printable worksheets and activities.

Student Edition opens up a browser based online version of the textbook with many tools including access to additional resources with practice activities.

Student Resources gives students access to practice activities, self check quizzes, and review games.

Assignments gives you the ability to assign online digital activities to your students.

Reports gives you access to ALL THE DATA!!!

Strive: How to upload evidence

Access Strive through Eduphoria, which is in Classlink.

Click on My Evaluation Process from the menu on the left.

Find the Uploaded Evidence box under the Evaluation Process tab

Click the arrow to expand the box

Click the Plus sign to add evidence

Give your evidence an appropriate Title that clearly identifies what the evidence is

Give your evidence an accurate description to help your evaluator

Click the Choose File button to locate the evidence you would like to submit

Use the file explorer to select the evidence you wish to upload

Click Open to choose that file

Lastly click Upload to complete the process

Then your screen should then look like this:

Kinder Chromebook Intro

Infinite Campus Send General Class Messages to Students and Parents

https://kb.infinitecampus.com/help/send-general-class-messages-to-students-and-parents

Stations Timers PowerPoint

This PowerPoint presentation has a fifteen minute station timer and a two minute cleanup and transition timer. Once you launch the slide show it does all of the work for you. The timers start automatically and the slides are timed to automatically transition without any effort on your part. They include music to help indicate what is happening. It is a PowerPoint file and not a Google Slides. It will not work in Google Slides. It is a large file and might take a while to download. Copy paste the slides for each station you have or set the Slide Show to start again when completed.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15hdcs_xhl4HU7ARwNDuv5X0cQfTLc6Ox/view?usp=sharing

Solar System Drag and Drop Google Slides Activity

1 to 1 Chromebook information for students

Teachers!!!
The Chromebooks are coming!!

I have created a video to explain the new Chromebooks to the students.

The video is on YouTube so that you can play it for your class. You should probably develop a plan to show it on your campus so students don’t have to sit through it six times a day.

I then followed the sage advice of Mrs. Nelson and turned the YoutTube video into an EdPuzzle Activity. Now you can assign it in Google Classroom as an activity for your students. It includes many multiple choice questions that will grade automatically and provide you with an assignment grade for your gradebook.

I have also created this poster/cheat sheet that you can print to hang in your classroom.

Student-Chromebook-Poster-3Download

Chromebook Tips and Shortcuts Repost

Chromebook Tips and Shortcuts

January 14, 2020|Alwayslearning, EdTech, Elementary, Google, Secondary, Tools

Here are some options for posters and slide shows of Chromebook tips and shortcuts that would be excellent for new users and even helpful for experienced students.  

I learned a couple things myself looking these over.

• Ctrl+Shift+V will paste text without the format (size, font, hyper links) it was in so it will match your document.
• Ctrl+↓or↑  will change the layering order of objects in a slide or drawing.

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1wxcMd4WoqjZKGQW8ySlWTkKqOXuzfTv3JYWzS00ou4A/edit?fbclid=IwAR3Xt_I9hqdkt2cJMgOhxMjTeTzkPwNg70Ro-QPTrcMHVEguCnEIguHdOFk

https://www.haptic-networks.com/chromebook-keyboard-shortcuts-quick-reference-guide/?fbclid=IwAR1RPFVA1MoRFN43MKOO8r7vViGjktT06jmiFb8aiXASAYV54c095sq59m8

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_bQyAtja4RYwxmZbs9_73w61tfs4LuKIclwlfiA1obY/edit?fbclid=IwAR0Yf5uhBOw59bOqvvLFFQ3TsHOPUx3IilxtMlhQXtLFmlMCC6BxjZ37y1c

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nz50GyILldTS1vHZx7G31nGyIdn57IYYS0FdROEo_HE/present?fbclid=IwAR3N9uoH1t_tdZjeQx1s1ckE_MFakFBYKBWYNFGpbp5slyQis6ahJi1TRK8&slide=id.g6fad93654f_0_23

Login & Password Help

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TWOhUBZH5Jc1GSZJBOLOZBAB6tFPPTzj_3RTzNvQQUY/edit?usp=sharing

Biography Poster

Here is an easy to complete one page biography book report. It is formatted big enough to even be printed on 11×17 paper to make it more exciting. It asks students to explain experiences from the persons early life that molded them as well as their significant impact on the world.

Padlet

Padlet

January 14, 2020|Alwayslearning, Beautify, EdTech, ELAR, Elementary, ELL, Google, Math, Organization, Review, Science, Secondary, Social Studies, SPED, Tools, Vocabulary

https://padlet.com/

Padlet is a great tool for organizing digital student projects.  You create a Padlet wall and students upload or post links to their projects like slideshows, docs, videos, etc..  You could also have students share resources they find as opposed to resources they created.  You yourself could organize a padlet wall of resources that you want your students to explore.  

There are different options for organizing your padlet wall’s information including a map and a timeline.  There are lots of options for background colors and themes to design your wall.  You can have 3 free Padlet walls which can keep you moving no problem if you just delete them when you are done with them. 

New STAAR Item Types

Below is a bit of information analyzing the new STAAR question item types and how we can get students practicing these skills. I did some searching for pre-existing online practice tools that use these new item types but I have yet to find any free options. I then moved on to brainstorming ways we can get as close as we can to these item types in Google Apps. Below is an activity I put together practicing each item type the best we can so far. The questions are not challenging because the purpose of the activity is to experience the way the question is answered.

Google Takeout

Takeout is the built in Google system for downloading a copy of everything Google that you have in your account. You get a copy of just about EVERYTHING emailed to you to download via a link after it has been processed and prepared. This can take a few days depending on the size of your Google Account.

Share a copy of your Google Drive

Do you want or need to share a copy of your school Google Drive with your personal account?
What we are basically going to do is download a copy of the files from one Drive then upload them to the new one. I swear you used to be able to copy the files into another drive and or transfer ownership but I don’t see that nay more.

Alternatively you can use Googles system Google Takeout

Start by making a new folder and dragging everything you want to share into that folder. For this walk through I will be using the Test Transfer Folder 001.

Next I am going to right click on that folder and share it with my personal Gmail Account. I am going to make my other account a viewer only.

You will get an email inviting you to the new shared folder. You will have access to the folder but it still belongs to your school account and is located in your school account Google Drive. Right Click on the folder and select download.

It will download as zip file. Open that up and extract all of the files. That will put the folder in your Downloads on you PC. You now have that copy of your files physically on the PC hard drive.

Go back to your school Google Drive and unshare the folder from your personal account. Be sure to save the changes. This will help avoid any confusion.

In your personal Google Drive we will upload the file folder from your Downloads that we unzipped. You now have a separate copy of your files in your personal drive as well as that copy on the PC hard drive.

More Fonts: Google Docs

I love cool fonts. Back in the day I had been known to go too crazy with fonts and pick some that folks found unreadable, so be careful about that. How ever an engaging font can really help set the mood for an assignment or publication. You can find festive holiday fonts like spooky Halloween fonts. More Fonts has a search feature that can help you find a font you want. I suggest taking a few minutes and scrolling down through that “More Fonts” list. Just click the ones you like as you go to ✔ them. That list will keep growing and populating more options as you keep scrolling. Think ahead about activities and units you will cover. ✔ fonts that you know you might want later. Hit ok when you get tired of that list continuing to populate more options and those new fonts will be available for you to choose from.

Edulastic Online STAAR Practice Tests

https://edulastic.com/

Edulastic provides online practice of released STAAR tests. There are currently 139 released STAAR tests available for you to assign to your students as practice. This system does sync with Google Classroom for rostering. Edulastic offers Color contrast and zoom accommodations. Text-to-speech is included with a premium account. Hopefully as the new STAAR question types hit released STAAR test inventory students will also have access to those.