As our district has returned to school under non-traditional instruction (NTI), I have been visiting the teachers who are in our buildings -- planning, assessing, synchronously teaching, meeting online with students in small groups and one-on-one -- as the students are unfortunately at home. As always, I am impressed with not only the teachers' innovation but their positive attitude in less than ideal circumstances. The current growth and transformation in their teaching will have long reaching effects. As our new superintendent Dr. Sugg often quotes, we are creating a foundation for "better than normal" learning when students are once again in our buildings.
Often in my classroom visits, I end up sharing an aspect of Google. I realize that I have amassed, in various one-sheets and blog entries, several helpful tips and tricks....enough to put together this blog entry as a "greatest hits" collection. Some of these are not well known, others could be considered hacks, but the common theme is that all of them are pragmatic and could be easily applied tomorrow in a digital classroom.
- Calling OUT by phone in Google Meet. Helpful when your student needs to participate or be contacted but does not have Internet. (Note: this may end for the "free" educational version of Google Meet on September 30.)
- Translate captions and chat in Meet. A potential game changer for EL students. All of the Google Translate languages can potentially be used!
- Creating and organizing personal bookmarks in Chrome. Bonus: I also share some information on creating "Teacher Pages" in Clever.
- Google Classroom and Guardian Emails. Parents can receive a weekly email "report" on what is going on in your Classroom, although it takes a few steps of setting up.
- "Google Jamboard." A relatively new Google app that will soon be integrated into Google Meet. Think of it as a collaborative "digital corkboard" for brainstorming, an entrance/exit slip to assess student thinking, or a place to capture opinions.
- "Google Keep." An underutilized and underappreciated part of the Google Suite, especially if you couple it with its mobile app! Make short notes, create artifacts, track and document your conferring.
- Inserting audio in Google Slides. While the insertion of audio is simple, this Doc details ideas for how to create the audio in the first place, pedagogical examples why audio in Slides could help, and options for formatting the audio's appearance/playability.
- Making manipulatives and digital annotation in Google Slides. This combines together a few ideas which can allow students to annotate text as well as imitate the "Infinite Cloning" feature of SMART Notebook software.
- Sign your name in Google Docs. "Document signing" software is hardly ever free, so this gives you the next best thing at no cost.
- "Student Journals, Personalized Learning Plans and More: The Power of HyperDocs." In this blog entry, I describe a work flow to make Google Docs into something deeper.
- Take a picture inside your Doc (or Slides, Sheets, Drawing). Did you know that you can Insert>Image and directly utilize your webcam? This Doc shows how, but also gives pedagogical examples of when this could be helpful.
And here are some of my favorite Chrome Extensions:
- Mote (audio comments on Google Docs and in Classroom)
- Read Aloud: Text to Speech
- Screencastify (free version allows you to record 5 minute screencasts saved straight to your Drive)
Do you have a favorite Google hack, tip, trick or Extension? Share in the Comments below!
