IHMS Tech Tips

I was in a meeting before Thanksgiving break where teachers were talking about how useful the table of contents feature was in Google Docs.  I agree! So I thought I'd share how to use it. To start, you will need to have a Google Doc with text.  You cannot start a table of contents without a working document.  Once you have some text, you will start to edit that text to be title, subtitle, heading, or heading 2 and so forth.  Highlight the selected text and then select "Normal text" near the font button.  Choose the type of text you want. Next, you will tell Google Docs to take that information and turn it into a table of contents with corresponding links.  Select "Insert" then "Table of contents." The table of contents will remain at the top of your document.  You can also select "Tools" then "Document outline" to have your table of contents displayed on your screen to the left of your Google Doc at all times. Us...

GarageBand is another one of those tools that students have at their fingertips.  Are you using it?  If not, here are some great ways to use this free program in your classroom. Booktalks: Students can review a story or novel read for class or one of their own choosing. Interviews: Students can interview either real people or characters from books and/or history. Podcasts: Students could write a script for a podcast of their choosing on current events, events in history, or a fictional story. Music: Students can create a soundtrack for an iMovie or any other project that incorporates sound. Read-alouds: Have students read their writings aloud while recording in GarageBand and listen to critique their phrasing and language for revision.  Or, have students read each other's writings verbatim and students can listen to the recording to see what doesn't make sense. Students need to download it from Self Service first, a task I always recommend doing way in adva...