Google Docs and Slides (and other fun stuff!)

One of these days I will be writing a primer for all of you who are new to Google.  But for right now, I am going to go through the new stuff I learned at this workshop...  Brain dump list!

• google certification for teachers--there is a lot of training available and you can even become Google certified (our facilitator said you have to take 5 tests that are $15 each to get certified and then can become a Google trainer, I think by submitting a video of you using it in your classroom)
• with Todays Meet students can post questions or comments in the "background" while you or someone else is presenting
• Plickers--this is so cool!  it is so hard to explain, but it is a great lo/hi tech way to formatively assess students (teacher needs a device with a camera, students do not)--see the video below to get an overview, it is much easier to understand if you can see it in action

• change margins under File-->Page Setup and you can set the margin size as default!
• share a doc with another class in your building (or somewhere else in the world!) to collaborate on the document at the same time--why did I never think of this!?
• if you are a Google school, you can set sharing permissions so that the product can only be viewed when logged in from an account in your organization--super helpful when looking at the revision history because you will know exactly who contributed what
• by the way, you can sign into another Google account without signing out of an original one if you use an Incognito window in Chrome--great if you have two students sharing a computer, they can make sure they are on their own account when working to make sure they get credit for their work
• we discovered a newly added feature--Suggest edits!  this is listed below the comment option when you right click--you can actually make edits in the document and they can be accepted or rejected
• when students are chatting, it is not recorded anywhere--when the window is closed, it is gone! so beware! I like to mess with my kids by adding my own comments here and there when they are chatting because they don't realize I can see what they are saying
• if you are having students work on the same document, create a table so that they each have their own cell to work in
• if you have a Microsoft product in your drive and click on it to open the preview, if you click "open with" and choose a Google product, it will be converted to a Google product
• there is an add-on called Font Extender that you can use to add fonts
• there is apparently a voice over add on that is not great, but good to know it exists
• when you choose to import images, you can do a Google image search right then and there
• you can also search Youtube within Google products to embed videos
• when working in Presentations, if you click to "import themes" you will see all of the presentations in your drive (your own or shared with you) and copy a theme from any of them
• once you have a theme, you can click Slide-->Edit Master to change any of the details of the slides
• have students practice public speaking skills in your class and actually grade them on those things in addition to the content (our district apparently has a speech and presentation rubric that they all share)
• a science teacher in our district created a science fair template for his students to fill in to make sure they have all of the necessary components

Here are some more specific tips and tricks...

Research tools
-Click Tools--> Research to open research tools
-if you are searching images, choose "free to share" to know that you don't have to deal with copyright issues
-research tools will automatically cite sources and make footnotes (it is not complete, but useful for students to remember the websites they used while researching)
-this is a great tool for students to organize their research (as an alternative to note cards)
-you can also create a citation by clicking "cite" for the link
-to get a more complete citation, use the Easy Bib add on or try Noodle Tools

Hangouts
I am really new to Google hangouts, but am hoping to learn more about them!  I want to use them for review sessions before tests or for nights when students have particularly difficult homework.  I mentioned it to a colleague and she said it was like having office hours.  So yeah, I want to have virtual office hours!

I have a Google Academy workshop next week with breakout sessions on all things Google and we got an advanced peek at the list of sessions because our facilitator got the list to look over during our workshop and she shared it with us :)  Workshops help me keep my finger on the pulse of what is going on in our district and the world of education!  Anyway, there is a session on Hangouts and of course that is where I will be! (I already added this post, find more info on Hangouts here!)

In the meantime, my colleague and I played around with Hangouts to see what we could figure out...

• you can create a link for your hangout that attendees can click by making an event on  your calendar
• you can create a circle for each of your classes on Google + so you can quickly add your students to your hangout
• make a community for your class on Google + and students should be able to see your Hangouts (we think!)
• when you are in a Hangout, the camera focuses on you when you make any kind of a noise, so mute yourself and then when  you want to say something, unmute yourself to talk

And last, but not least, just for fun... there is an extension in the Chrome store called Momentum.  It lets you make really cool landing page for a new tab that you can customize with your name and stuff.