Prepared for SLOCUE Connects Event 9-12-15
Let’s start off with a race…
Ninja Level 1 Challenge – Take a photo and insert into your map.
Ninja Level 2 Challenge – Take a video, upload to YouTube, insert into your map.
Author: Admin
Extensions: Making Your Life Easier
Here are some great Chrome Extensions. You can save the actual document if you’d like. Please share out any awesome ones that may have been missed.
Create A Google Form
Some people I have talked to still aren’t sure how to create a Google Form. I say jump in and start clicking! Don’t worry, you won’t break Google. Start off small with a few questions and question types. Once you get more comfortable, try something new. In the meantime, here’s a quick tutorial on how it’s done.
Voice Typing in Google Docs
Not so long ago, I wrote about a handy Add-On for Google Drive called Speech Recognition, here. It allows the user to talk into the microphone and have their words transcribed. Google has now incorporated Voice Typing in their Tools Menu, which does the same thing!
A microphone icon will appear on the side of the d
ocument. Click it. The first time you use this feature, you will be prompted to allow Google Docs to use your microphone. Choose allow and start talking.
Google Docs Now Has Templates
One of the best features of Google (and all that it encompasses) is that it is always changing and updating. This is true for Google Docs. You can now easily create a Document from a template.
You can also type: docs.google.com in the URL
This opens the home page for your Docs (documents). There is now a bar across the top with several template options. Not satisfied with those? Choose the ‘More’ option with several choices in each category.
If you are already in a document and wish to create a new one, you can quickly click the upper left corner. This will take you to your Docs home page.
Create Announcement in Google Classroom
Create Assignment in Google Classroom
Classroom Updates August 2015
Quick Overview
Reuse Post
Create Question
Google Docs – Speech Recognition
Have a student who has great ideas, but can’t get them written down? Google Docs has a great Add-On to help: Speech Recognition.
In a Google Doc, look for Add-Ons in the toolbar.
You will need to get the Add-On.
Now it’s ready to use. In the toolbar in your document, Speech Recognition is ready to use.
A sidebar will appear on the right side. Choose ‘Start’ and begin speaking.
When you finish speaking, press the ‘Stop’ and your text will appear in your document.
First Day
Start Off Positive
We’ve all heard this, but what does it really mean? Yes, we all greet our students at the door and welcome them with a smile on our faces. Many of us have ‘fun’ activities planned in order acclimate our new students to our ways, rules, expectations, and personality. How many of us bust out the technology on the first day? How many of us have students creating something meaningful the first day?
Here’s what we did
- Wrote out all expectations (learning goals, personal goals) on sticky notes and posted them around the classroom. As a group, we read them and talked about them. What I think I will do next year: write these expectations on a Google Form, take their answers and create a word cloud using abcya, wordle, tagxedo, or tagul (my personal favorite).
- Paper Bag 5 ‘W’s – I wish I could site this, as it wasn’t my idea. I read it online somewhere. The idea is to give each student a paper bag with 5 items in it (I put in a pencil, eraser, Hershey Hug, mini candy, and a Smartee). Students answer the 5 W questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why). They then take the bag home, put in 5 items that represent them, and present it in class the next day. A bonus was, I was able to see the quality of their writing in a low-risk setting.
- Students also worked together in the Marshmallow Challenge. I modified it to fit my needs. Students used spaghetti, mini marshmallows and 4 large marshmallows. I was able to see which groups/individuals communicated, collaborated, planned, thought out, and were innovative.
Finally, each student created a Voki to tell me a little bit about themselves. This was a fun way for students to introduce themselves to me. They got to use technology, create something meaningful, and were able to view it online (and show their families). Here is my class and the other class (Mrs. Pursley).
This was a great way to begin the school year! We just finished our second week, and things are going GREAT. I am blessed with an amazing group of students. This may be the best year yet (and that’s saying something as this is my 20th year teaching).
