Monday, April 29, 2019

a Google a day

Looking to help your students improve their online searching skills? 


With more and more of the world's content online, it is critical that students understand how to effectively use web search to find quality sources appropriate to their task. 

Check out Google A Day Classroom challenges and help your students put their search skills to the test, and to get your classroom engaged and excited about using technology to discover the world around them.

Become an Apple Distinguished Educators.





If you are using Apple products to transform teaching in your classroom?   Then this is for you.

             

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Edit Microsoft Office files using Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides

Did you know you can now edit Microsoft Office files in G Suite without converting them from their native format?


This is BIG NEWS for corporate users that are required to use Microsoft Office but want the flexibility to share and collaborate on files with their colleagues.

With Office editing, you can now edit, comment, and collaborate on Microsoft Office files using Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This feature brings the collaboration benefits of G Suite to Office files while streamlining workflows by eliminating the need to convert file types.

How to get started:

  • In Google Drive, double-click your Office file. This will open a preview of the file. 
  • At the top, click Open in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
  • From here, you can edit, share, view version history, collaborate in real-time with others, and more. 
  • All changes you make will be saved to the original Office file. 

Additional details:

The following Office file types are supported: 
  • Word files: .doc, .docx, .dot 
  • Excel files: .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm (macro enabled Excel files), .xlt 
  • Powerpoint files: .ppt, .pptx, .pps, .pot 
Note: If you edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents older than Office 2007, files will be saved to a newer format when editing using Office editing.

Potential Issue:  If you have installed the Office compatibility app in Chrome, you may experience issues using this feature.  Use the following steps to remove this extension from Chrome if you have it installed:

  1. Click the Chrome menu icon  More while signed in to your managed Google Account.
  2. Scroll down to More tools.
  3. Click Extensions.
  4. Find the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides extension and click Remove.

Monday, April 22, 2019

Global Day of Design

The 2019 Global Day of Design will be held on May 6th!


Last year over 100,000 students from four different continents participated in the second annual Global Day of Design.
The hashtag went viral as students and teachers shared and launched their creative projects all day long around the globe. This year, we are doing it again, and we can’t wait to see what students design, build, and make!
For more details visit John Spencer's blog @ http://www.spencerauthor.com/gdd2019/

Thursday, April 11, 2019

How to quickly switch search engines

Did you know you can use alternate search engines without changing your default search engine?

In the Chrome Browser you can add different search engines and quickly toggle between them by editing the Keywords for them in your search engine list. 


  1. Right click on your Omnibar and click Edit search engines...

Edit Search Engines
  1. Look for the DuckDuckGo entry and select it
  2. The middle column enter a short and memorable keyword, like du for instance
DuckDuckGo Entry
  1. Click Done to close the modal window
In the Omnibar, you can now just type du + Space on your keyboard to toggle DuckDuckGo. Then, just type a search term and off you go.
If DuckDuckGo does not exist in your list of search engines, you can easily add it.
  1. Right click on your Omnibar and click Edit search engines...
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the Other search engines section and look for Add a new search engine
  3. Enter DuckDuckGo for the search engine name, du (or other) for the keyword, and https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&t=canonical for the URL
  4. Click Done to close the modal window

Try adding the following new search engines to quickly search from the Omnibar using a short keyword:


Google Drivedrvhttps://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=%s
Gmailmailhttps://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#search/%s
Google Mapsmaphttps://www.google.com/maps/search/%s?hl=en&source=opensearch
YouTubeythttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&page={startPage?}&utm_source=opensearch

Google Drive search methods

Having trouble finding things in your Google Drive?

Here are some tips to improve your Drive search results:

Filter your Drive search results


To find files more easily in Drive, you can narrow search results by filtering them.
  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. At the top, type a word or phrase into the search box.
  3. To narrow your search, click the Down arrow Down Arrow.
  4. Fill out any of the following sections:
    • Type: File types such as documents, images, or PDFs.
    • Date modified: The date a file was last edited.
    • Item name: Searches only for the title of the file.
    • Has the words: Searches for words and phrases within documents.
    • Owner: The person the file belongs to.
    • Shared with: Who can view, comment, or edit the file.
    • Location: Whether the file is in a specific folder, "Trash," or "Starred."
    • Follow up: If the file has action items assigned to you, or suggestions in files you own.
  5. At the bottom, click Search.



If the built-in filters are insufficient then you could try some advanced tricks.

Advanced Drive search methods

You can refine a search in Drive with these advanced searches entered directly into search bar. 
Note: Not all examples work on all devices.

Quotes

  • Find documents that contain an exact word or phrase.
  • Example: "match this phrase exactly"

Minus sign

  • Find documents that exclude a particular word. If you want "salsa," but not "dancing"...
  • Example: salsa -dancing

owner:

to:

  • Find documents you shared with a specific person or a group.
  • Examples:

is:starred

  • Find items marked with a star.

is:trashed

  • Find items that are trashed.

type:

  • Search by the type of document: folder, document, spreadsheet, presentation, PDF, image, video, drawing, form, site, script, table, or jam file.
  • Example: type:spreadsheet

Before & after

  • Find items that were edited before or after a certain day. Format the date as YYYY-MM-DD.
  • Examples:
    • before:2014-05-01
    • after:2014-05-01

title:

  • Search by title
  • Example: title:Conference 2014

app: 

  • Find Google Fusion Tables or Apps Script files. 
  • Examples:
    • app:"Google Apps Script"
    • app:"Google Fusion Tables"

Source:domain (Google for work or school)

  • Search for items that have been shared across your organization’s entire domain, instead of items created by you or your group. 
  • Example: To search for files related to domain, use source:domain

Using Technology to Promote Leadership, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Inquiry Based Learning



The Grade 6 students at Holy Cross were invited to attend an engaging student-led technology exploration session.

The purpose of the session was to demonstrate the variety of technology, coding, and robotics available at the school and how they might incorporate this into their learning.









Mrs. Sloan’s nine Grade 6 students were tasked with providing hands-on support to the other 75 Grade 6 students while promoting a learning environment where students felt comfortable and safe exploring technology.








These students will then complete an inquiry-based learning project around the Flight unit in Science.  Students will be encouraged to demonstrate their learning and understanding of the properties of air, the forces of flight, and how flying devices impact society and the environment while incorporating some type of technology (eg. Makey Makey, Scratch coding, Sphero, Ozobots, etc.).  



Teachers provided students with curriculum expectations, an opportunity to perform experiments, and guiding questions to direct the final culminating task.




Both those in attendance and the student facilitators benefited from a process of inquiry, collaboration, troubleshooting, and critical thinking.  These skills will continue to be honed as students explore these concepts with and without technology.

Monday, April 8, 2019

You can now add AUDIO to Google Slides

The wait is over, you can now add audio files to
your Google Slide presentations.  




Check out Alice Keeler's  Google Slides Online Course for Teachers  to see why she refers to Google Slides as the Swiss Army Knife of G Suite. The video is full of examples of how you can use Google Slides as so much more than just a presentation tool.



Monday, April 1, 2019

100 Writing Prompts for Middle School

View John Spencers Original Blog Post @ http://www.spencerauthor.com/prompts/

Over 100 visual and video writing prompts for grades 6-8. Here’s a one-minute preview video:

One of the best aspects of being a teacher is watching students go from saying, “I hate writing,” to being so passionate about writing that they refuse to stop when the bell rings. In these moments, it can feel like magic. While there are many ways to spark the love of writing, one of my favorite strategies is a video or visual writing prompt. For over a decade, I have been creating authentic, teacher-tested writing prompts to spark the love of writing with even the most reluctant writer.
Right now, you can download a set of 100+ writing prompts (plus 30 video prompts) for free. Simply visit John's original blog post to add your email address he will send you a PowerPoint, Keynote, and PDF with the prompts.

Creative Writing Prompts

Some of the prompts focus on creative writing, like this prompt:

Personal Narrative
Other prompts use creative methods to help students feel safe sharing their story.

Persuasive Prompts

Other posts focus on persuasive techniques

Or this video prompt:

Social-Emotional Learning

Some of the prompts help guide students in self-reflection and social-emotional learning.

Creative Thinking

I also include prompts to spark creative thinking:

Science and Social Studies Integration
Some of the prompts tie into social studies, like this one:

Others connect to science:


 Stay up to date with Google Workspace Updates! Click on the icon to visit the subject-specific blog.