IHMS Tech Tips

My 1st hour class, Emerging Technologies, has posted their first edition of tech tips on their individual blogs.   Please take a look if you're interested in any of the below topics on Macbook tips and troubleshooting: Moving your dock  Deleting apps from student devices Wolfram Alpha Currency exchange Keyboard shortcuts More keyboard shortcuts Even more keyboard shortcuts AirPlay Grammarly Checker Plus for Gmail EasyBib Charging issues Downloading Chrome Quizlet If you wouldn't mind terribly, please visit and glance at one or two.  We will be checking viewing statistics and they would love to know they have readers.  Thank you!

It's August, and I know that everyone has that usual overwhelmed feeling- me included! I get to use Skyward this year and have no experience, so I've been looking up tutorials.  I figured new, and even veteran teachers, could use the same help, so here they are!  From these videos you will learn how to (to name a few): Take attendance Make a seating chart Add assignments Make online quizzes Print reports (class rosters, etc.) Post grades Calendar There are dozens and dozens more out there.  Simply search "Skyward tutorials" in YouTube and see what you can find!

Google has listened again and made some great updates to Classroom.  Here are a few highlights: 1. Rearranging class cards You can now order the Classroom homepage any way you like! Students and teachers can sort their classes in order of hour or color...whatever!  To do this: click on the class card you'd like to move choose "move" and then choose your order. 2. Display the class code Hopefully you'll only have to do this once a semester if not once a year, but this is an easy way to get your students enrolled in your classes.  To do this:  choose your class go to the "students" tab choose "display"

It's May! Which means that both students and teachers are on their way to burnout.  On this last blog post of the school year, I'm giving some ideas on project-based lessons to help your students hang on until the last day.  You could choose one idea and give it to all students, or maybe you present them with all five and give them the choice. 1. Show what you know Everyone has something that they are really knowledgeable about (ex. karate, knitting, singing). Make them showcase that knowledge through a presentation/speech.  Create a rubric using a Google Add-on or have students created the rubrics themselves. 2. Own a _____________ Students again become the experts, but this time they will have to do research to establish their expertise.  Have them take ownership of a football team, planet, animal and be able to present their findings to the class or in small groups.  Students can use their choice of presentation tools like Thinglink , iMovie, Prezi, or...

Previously on the blog , I discussed how to use the Chrome Extension, Kami, to edit PDFs.  Today we will discuss how to use Preview to do the same thing. Preview comes pre-installed on all student and staff Macs.  Its primary function is for browsing and viewing PDF files, but it has so much more potential.  To mark up a PDF, first open the document.  It should default to open with Preview, but you can always start in Preview, select "Open" and find your document.   Once the PDF has opened in Preview , go to Tools, then Annotate .  You will see options to mark-up your PDF including highlighting, strike through, and inserting shapes. You can also use the Edit and Mark Up buttons in the Preview toolbar. There are many more fancy options to edit your documents.  Click here to see the possibilities.

Continuing with my love for Google this week is an activity your students can do using Google Slides.  I know many are using this concept in your classrooms already. Using Slides will take it one step further on the SAMR scale. Many of you are familiar with jigsaw: you divide up a chapter or unit into separate parts and assign those sub parts to student groups.  For example, you divide up Chapter 5 into the different subheadings.  Each group is assigned one section and are to become the experts on that section.  They are then responsible for teaching the rest of the class their section.  Individual sections as opposed to group is also a possibility. Using Google Slides for this activity will ensure accountability as well as make the jigsaw/chapter/unit come back together as a whole. To assign this activity, make a copy of this template and assign it to your Google Classrooms as "students can edit."  It's incredibly basic, so you can always modify it ...

Google Forms is a great tool for surveys, exit tickets, and quizzes, but now it actually has a quiz feature where you can grade, score, and give feedback. To create a quiz you can choose "Blank Quiz" from the template chooser or open a blank form and choose the settings in the upper-right hand corner: Then choose the Quizzes option: Toggle to "Make this a quiz" and choose what type of feedback your student will receive if answered incorrectly. This feature works to create new quizzes or to turn your previous forms into one with points associated with each question.   Watch here for a 3 minute tutorial on how to create a form/quiz.