IHMS Tech Tips

Whiteboard.fi is a digital tool for student and teacher use.  It's free and there is no login/account creation required!  While there are other digital whiteboards out there (I know there is one in WebEx), whiteboard.fi is such an easy way to do formative assessments and easily check in with your students.  Students can join from mobile devices or their MacBook, so this is a great option to consider for virtual learning. Classes are limited to about 50 students, so I would close out the room between each class period. To start, visit the website and click "new class". Type in the name you'd like to display for your students and click "Create new class".  You will then be given a URL to provide to students so they may enter your class.  Post this URL in Google Classroom for easy access.  Students can click on the link to join, or visit the Whiteboard.fi homepage, click "join class" and enter the last part of the URL (red rectangle below). ...

Mote is a Chrome extension that makes adding comments and feedback to Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Classroom much easier. First, add the extension via the Chrome Web Store .  You will have to sign in with your Google account. Mote is then added to your task bar.  You will click the extension button whenever you wish to engage Mote. Open the Google Doc or Slides that you wish to comment on, highlight the picture or text, and click on the Mote symbol. Select the record button and start voice recording your comment or feedback.  Note that you have a 60-second time limit, so if you wish to speak longer, you will have to do it as more than one comment.  When you finish, you will see the below statement until you hit "Comment".  Then, your comment will appear.   If you don't like how your comment appears, choose the "Edit" button and make your changes.  Mote does not automatically put punctuation throughout your comment, s...

Google Meet is yet another option for meeting during distance learning.  It is new so somewhat glitchy, but I did not find it much glitchier than WebEx Teams.  Please note that WebEx is still the district-suggested medium to use. Meet is now available for all Google Classrooms, though you choose whether or not you want to enable it and if and when you want students to have access to the meeting link.  To get to the Meet info in Classroom, first choose settings: Scroll down until you see the Meet information.  Click "generate link" and then decide if you want to this link visible to students at all times or not.  If you toggle it on, the link will appear in the banner of your Google Classroom.  If you have it turned off, you can still post the link at a later time, or even change the link each time you want to Meet.  Be sure to save your changes. If visible to students, they will see the Meet link in the banner: To start your meeting, ...

As we continue to work with students through virtual learning, choice boards are a great way to provide asynchronous options to students that may have limitations (time, connectivity) in some regard, but they still want to be engaged in the content. You should be familiar with choice boards as our last PD day was a choice board using Blendspace .  Blendspace is a great tool to use if this is something you want to implement in your Week at a Glance, but you can always stick to Google Docs and make it even more simple. The easiest way would be to download one of these templates .  Be sure to make a copy for yourself. The template uses a Google Doc and a tic-tac-toe format which we know students understand.  Within the choice board, you can ask students to produce something using another digital tool they may be familiar with (FlipGrid, PearDeck, etc.) or ask them to explore a new digital tool on their own. The above choice board asks students to start with ...

In these interesting times now, more than ever, it's important to know which students are engaging in what is posted online.  In Google, this is easy! If you have posted a Google Doc or Google Slides in Google Classroom for your students to open and or edit, it's simple to see the activity that document has received.  1. Within your Google Doc or Slides, click on the lightning arrow in the tool bar. 2. The default tab is on Viewers .  This shows you every single person that has accessed this particular document at some point.  It does not necessarily mean they are live on the document right then.  "Shared with" tab indicates those you have actually shared the document with while "All viewers" will show you every person that has accessed the document in history.  3.  View trend tab shows the number of views to this document over a time period. 4.  Comment trend shows the history of comments over a period of time and whether...

If you have students that need modified or differentiated assignments, follow the directions below to easily get those assignments to specific students or groups of students.  These modifications are not visible to anyone else in the Classroom, just the student(s) receiving it. First, create the different versions of the assignment that you will issue to students.  You can do this in Docs, Slides, Forms, whatever you like.  Try to come up with unique naming so that you will always know which version of the document you are looking at; modified or not. Next, create an assignment post in Google Classroom: Give the assignment a title, directions, and attach the needed file.  Be sure to make note of which version of the assignment you are working with (modified or not). Then you will choose which students will receive this version of the assignment.  On the right, click on "All Students".  Uncheck "All Students" and check only those students that sh...

While Guardian Summaries have been available in Google Classroom for some time, it seems like a good time to revisit what this looks like.   First, don't worry, parents cannot get into your actual Google Classroom.  They are merely seeing an overview/summary of the class and their student's work.  They cannot add, submit, or edit anything that is being done by the student from the Summaries.  They also cannot see the Stream.   The one catch is, parents/guardians have to have a Google email to sign up.  If you find that you don't even see the option to "invite guardians", please let me know. When a guardian receives a summary, they will see: Missing work—Work that’s late at the time the email was sent Upcoming work—Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or work that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails) Class activity—Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers Guardians can choose how...

A lot of us use rubrics to assess our students' learning.  It's a great tool to provide students at the beginning of an assignment or project so that they know exactly what is expected of them.  However, Edutopia thinks that providing only a single-point rubric would more greatly benefit students in that, " the single-point rubric includes only guidance on and descriptions of successful work..."  Why are we telling our students how to fail? Most of them can figure that out on their own.  Instead, we should be providing information on what the student needs to do to successfully complete their assignment.  Here is an example as provided by Edutopia: They go on to list 6 reasons why we should be transitioning to this type of rubric: 1. It gives space to reflect on both strengths and weaknesses in student work. Each category invites teachers to meaningfully share with students what they did really well and where they might want to consider making some ...