IHMS Tech Tips

This is primarily for elective classes.  For core classes, you will want students that change hours at semester to unenroll from their 1st semester class and join their 2nd semester class period. The first day back from break is a great day to visually see that all students are still in not only your correct Google Classroom, but that they are enrolled in Knight Time Google Classroom as well. The first thing you, as a teacher, will want to do is Archive your 1st semester classes.  You will want to Archive, not Delete so that you can reuse some of your posts. There's no way to undo deleting a class. If you click Delete, you no longer have access to any class posts or comments. However, you and your students can still access your class files in the class Drive folder. Archive a class: Sign in to Classroom at  classroom.google.com . On the class card, click  and select Archive . To confirm, click  Archive . Next, create your 2nd semester classes using the for

As the semester winds down or as you prepare for the start of second semester, consider doing a rebus story in Google Docs.  A rebus is " a puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters; for instance,  apex  might be represented by a picture of an ape followed by a letter  X ."   Students are already doing this as they text each other, so try having them create a rebus using your content.   To create a rebus in Google Docs, first open a blank document.  I would suggest having the students write their story first, then figure out which words they can replace with emojis.   To insert emojis into Google Docs select "Insert" then "special characters". To find a correlating emoji, change the first dropdown to "emoji".   You can then search through the emojis by category, by using the keyword search, or by drawing a symbol. Think about using a rebus to have students demonstrate new

Who has been around long enough to remember the good ole Beyond Question clickers?  While it was a pain to create lessons for and never really worked quite right, I loved how it made test reviews and lessons engaging and interactive...even in the dark ages...as long as you had a pallet of AA batteries.  Mentimeter is a free(ish) website with the exact same concept.   Creating an account is simple and can be connected to your Google account.  To use, teachers create a poll question.  This could be for test review, seeking prior knowledge, or anything that you want to ask your audience.   Students then visit the Mentimeter website and enter the code given to them by the teacher.  They do not need to sign up or create an account.   Teachers and students can watch the results come in in real-time, or you can save the results for later.   There are several different types of questions you can create, image-based, multiple choice, scales, open-ended, questions from the aud

Most classrooms have time dedicated in the hour for independent student work.  While some teachers allow their students to listen to their own music, you might consider using Noisli as a class next time. Noisli is a free website that is much like the sound machine I use with my five-month-old.  It's goal is to "improve focus and boost productivity." Noisli takes different sounds from nature (wind, rain, etc) and plays them directly from the site.  You can sign up with your Google account in order to save certain combinations of sounds that you like, or you can simply play from the homepage. If you do create an account, add the Noisli extension to Chrome.  Then, when you or your students are working silently, you can select one of your saved combinations of sounds to play while you work.  There is a timer that can be set and you can also tell the sounds to fade in and out if you need to share something with your students.  I'm listening to a combination of wi

The Global Oneness Project  "was f ounded in 2006, as an initiative of Kalliopeia Foundation, we   bring  the world's cultures alive in the classroom using stories as a pedagogical tool for growing minds. Committed to the exploration of cultural, environmental, and social issues, we offer a rich library of free multimedia stories comprised of award-winning films, photo essays, and articles. Free companion curriculum and discussion guides are also available. All for free." Creating an account is fast and easy.  Each week, a new lesson plan with accompanying media is released on the site, or you can choose to sign up for the newsletter.   When exploring in the site, you can search by media type, those that have lesson plans, subject, or standard.  Most films are twenty minutes or less.  You can also use the search tool to look for something specific or to browse popular topics.  Use the "share to classroom" button to...share to Google Classroom. If

My favorite way to be! But seriously, if you aren't going Incognito when using Google Chrome, you're missing out for a few reasons. Incognito mode is a private way to browse the internet.  When in Incognito mode, browsing history and the web cache is disabled.  For teachers, there are many benefits to using Incognito mode with students as well as when you are doing your own research.  To go Incognito: Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of Chrome and choose "New Incognito window" or press shift+command+N . Once you've gone Incognito, you will see this and your browser window will appear dark gray: Here are a few reasons to go Incognito: 1. Student presentations If you are using one computer for students to share presentations (to avoid AirPlay catastrophes), you can use Incognito mode.  This makes it so that students can sign into their Google account, but as soon as that Incognito window is closed, the student does not remained signed

Buncee is "t he award winning content creation and communication tool being used by educators around the world. Engaging people of all ages and transforming them into creators, storytellers, and future-ready digital citizens."  From buncee.com , students and teachers can create a Buncee account by linking to Google. With Buncee, students and teachers can create up to three, free "interactive media-rich lessons, presentations, assessments, digital stories, parent outreach, and newsletters..."  Obviously, the paid version allows for endless creations and more features, but for those feeling brave enough to try something new, you've got three! The media options are fun (there's a corgi!) and images, audio, video, animation, etc. is all in one place.  Students don't have to worry about whether images can be used due to copyright as they are pulled from Pixabay . Buncee Boards allow you to subscribe to the Buncees created by another user and see any

You know I love a good Chrome extension and here's another one. There are so many cool features to this extension, you just have to try it out! "Read & Write offers a range of powerful support tools to help you gain confidence with reading, writing, studying and research..." To add Read & Write to Chrome, first visit the Chrome Web Store and add it. Once you've added it to Chrome, when you are in Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, websites, etc, the extension icon will appear at the top of your Google window. When the extension is open, you will see a toolbar with lots of features. Most of these features are only available in the Premium ($) version, but you and your students can use them for free for 30 days. Some of the features include: • Text-to-speech to hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting (both versions) • Text and picture dictionaries to see the meaning of words explained (pre

If you are looking for another way to assess your students' learning, try Quizalize !  Quizalize can, " Turn boring tests into fun classroom team games. Instantly know who needs help and what they need help with. And effortlessly assign follow-up activities that boost student results." Registering is simple and can be done through your Google account.  Once you have created your account, create a class.  You can create your own assessment, or use the search bar to find something that has already been created. Assign activities to the classes you have created and share the Quizalize with your class using a unique code (same as Kahoot). With already-created assessments, you can modify it to fit your needs, or simply assign it to your class. When students are actively working on an assessment, they are given points for correct answers and for speed which help boost their team score.   Quizalize activities are not limited to assessm

Explore is an under-used feature within Google Suite that is great for students to use when they are writing a paper, doing research, or working on a project in Google Docs, Slides, or Sheets.  The Explore feature: Pulls topics from your writing Uses those topics to curate suggestions of websites, images, and other files from your Google Drive Cites as a footnote any source that you use  To use the Explore feature, first open up a Google Doc or Slides that has text.  Open Explore by clicking the icon in the lower right corner of the window or by choosing Tools- Explore. Select which topic you'd like for Explore to...explore.  If you don't like what it pulls automatically based on your writing, you can type a different keyword. Explore will pull websites, images, and anything in your personal Google Drive that relates to your topic/keyword. To cite the source you've selected, choose the three dots and choose your citation format. Then, selec

Wakelet is a free website that can be used as a teaching resource or with your students as a presentation tool.  Signing up is easy and links to your Google account.  Students can create a collection/story and curate a variety of media based on a given topic.  Wakelet allows you to pull in videos, websites, tweets, photos, and more.  The functionality is similar to Thinglink that was previously discussed on this blog . Here is an example of a public, published collection that I have embedded here: To get started on your own, choose "create a collection/story" from the home page. Give your story a title and description.  Add tweets, photos, files, or create your own writing. When adding photos, you can either add from your own library, or choose a stock image from Unsplash.  There is a space to add credit which would be a great place for a citation. Students can create work in Google Docs, save it as a PDF, and insert it into their collection.  You can

A long while back, I posted about Pear Deck .  Pear Deck is a  a site where you can import or create interactive presentation slides and then students can join via a code.  Pear Deck syncs seamlessly with Google Drive which is a great feature for both students and teachers.   But that's not all Pear Deck can do!  There is also a feature called "Flashcard Factory" that allows students to create vocabulary flashcards that can then be shared with the class or synced with Quizlet.  #awesome "When you play Pear Deck's Flashcard Factory students pair up and work together to create dynamic and engaging flashcards. Students collaborate to illustrate and define terms, making learning vocab an active and social experience! Flashcard Factory is free to use." To get started: 1. Create a list of vocabulary words. 2.  Students are paired up and either write definitions in their own words or they use the Merriam Webster definition synced within Pear Deck.