Time Magazine Template

Steven Katz used sGoogle Draw to put this together, and included instructions & links to real Time covers on the drawing. Click on the image below to make a copy of the template.

How to Expertly Organize Your Classroom With Google Sites

Image: https://d3e7x39d4i7wbe.cloudfront.net/uploads/post/image/6602/half_size_Help-1444864393.jpg

Websites exist to share information, broadcast the news, help people connect, and more… right? A teacher can create a solid classroom website for their class to do the same things by picking and choosing from some of the options below:

• Contact information - so students can get in touch
• Class Announcements - to share what’s going on
• Shoutouts - to recognize hard work
• Grades or Mastery Tracking - to share progress
• Study Guides - to promote study habits
• Classwork / Homework - for kids to keep up
• Extra Credit or Accelerated - for kids to advance themselves
• Helpful Links (content, videos, tools) - to expand opportunities

Here are 2 links about building sites

1. from Evan Stoudt
2. from Nate Kellogg

Google Draw and Slides: Tips for Creating Templates

The drawing features in Google Draw and Slides allow you to create templates for your students to manipulate. Create math manipulatives, annotate maps, Venn diagrams, model their understanding of concepts, and more. Here are some tips to help you to create the templates.

When students are manipulating one template, use Google Drawing. If you want them to model multiple things use Google Slides. Using Google Slides you create the template and the manipulatives once and then duplicate the slide to create multiple canvases for students to manipulate. See more here

100+ Chrome Apps and Extensions for Teachers and Students

Kasey Bell put together a Google Chrome App and Extension Database for Teachers that is loaded with apps and extensions for productivity and classroom integration. Google Chrome can be customized to fit the needs of our student learners. The database includes 100+ Apps and Extensions and is searchable and filterable. She does not recommend every app and extension for every teacher. Rather, use this as a guide to find what works for you, your classroom and your students. There is something in here for everyone.

Google Search Tips to Share With Your Students

There’s no shortage of interesting Google hacks floating around the internet designed to help you find what you’re looking for faster. We've perused those hacks, tips, and tricks and extracted items that are most relevant to classrooms. Here’s what we found.

My Maps

Did you know there is a collaborative mapping tool built right in to Google Drive? You can create some interesting maps with video and picture place marks along the way. The map above shows the territory under the rule of Genghis Khan and the Silk Road. It was made by 8 9th graders in social studies class. to get started, here's a cheat sheet.

Organization in Drive should be super easy

Saving lots of files in Google Drive is a great way to keep them safe. But as you put more and more files there, keeping things organized can be a bit of a challenge. So, here are some recent improvements that will help you more easily put things where they belong:

Update: Here's a nice cheatsheet

Resources and Downloads to Facilitate Inquiry-Based Learning

From Edutopia: 

Find information, strategies, protocols, and tools -- including resources and downloads from teachers and schools – to promote curiosity and engage students in asking questions, thinking critically, and solving problems.

Creating Comic Strips with Google Slides

From: http://ti.apps.sparcc.org/videopd/20151215-slides-comics

Creating comic strips can be a great way for students to tell stories, express understanding of content, give reports, and be creative. There are many tools available for making comics, but a great one is Google Slides. Learn how to use Google Slides, including many of the newest features, for your students (and you) to create online comic strips.

Jeopardy Game Templates for Google Slides

The key to making a Jeopardy game is to use the "Link" tool in Google Slides. Normally a slideshow is designed to be viewed sequentially, one slide followed by the next in order. However, Google Slides allows you to put links in slides that can link to any other slide in the presentation, regardless of order. By using links to other slides, a presentation can be created that is non-linear, in which the user can choose which slides to view.

Directions

10 engaging Google Drawings activities for classes

Google Drawings is like a digital poster board. Or sheet of paper. Or a blank slate waiting for your great ideas. As versatile and powerful as it is, there are bound to be lots of uses for it. Here are the top 10 from Ditch That Textbook.

More information on using Google Draw is here.

16 Things Teachers Should Try in 2016 [infographic]

What are your goals for 2016? There are so many new and exciting things to try both in and out of the classroom. So Casey Bell at Shake Up Learning put together a list of 16 Things for Teachers to Try in 2016 to help inspire educators to try something new this year. What will you try? What would you add to this list? 

Updating Technology Resources

I used to send out YHS Tech Tips via email. The Student Senate has chosen to take that over, so I wanted to have a way to let faculty know when I run across new items that might be of interest. I hope that you will find these links useful and I would love to have your feedback. You can subscribe to this blog with an email account and have the newest posts show up in your mailbox, or you can read the feed on the high school technology page. You can also get the past tips here.