Seesaw - Showcase Student Work for Parents

Written by STII Student: Jason

How many of you have wanted to document what a student is doing? Or document what a student has done? With an app called Seesaw, you can take a picture or video of such thing.

When a student uploads content to Seesaw, it can be organized into a certain folder. It is then accessible by any teacher at any time. This also helps so teachers and students can watch their growth. Another feature that can be used is that a teacher can flag a certain item to either ask a question, or review such item.  This app can also be accessed anywhere. So parents can also watch how their student is doing, along with what they are doing during the school day.

Seesaw is available for the iPad in the app store for free. When parents download the app, they can see only their own student’s work. You only need one iPad in your classroom to use Seesaw! Get started today!

For help getting started or questions, contact Sarah Radcliffe (x2216) or Cara Schueller (x2587)

Google Forms Gets a New Look

For a while now, you may have noticed Google asking if you would like to try the new Forms.  The interface is revamped with a new look and supposedly easier to use.  I have been hesitant to encourage staff to switch to the new forms because the ability to use Add-Ons was not there yet.  For many seasoned Google Forms users this was a huge deficit. Much of the power of Forms comes from how you can control the distribution of the form or manipulate the form submission data with Add-On tools.

I am happy to report that you may make the switch because Add-Ons are now available in the new interface.  Try it out.  I think you will like the new look and features.  

Below are two great articles detailing some recent updates to Google Forms.  

Google Form Tips from Synergyse.com

Google Form Tips from thegooru.com

Tech Tool Spotlight: Google Docs Creation Links

Tech Tool Spotlight: Google Docs Creation Links

by: Isaac Wisti

The Google Drive suite is a wonderful tool that we use in this district, but it can be a little bit of a hassle to create a new document. You have to go into Google Drive, find the folder you want your document to be in, then you have to click new, and finally click document. This process takes an average of about 20 seconds, and takes even more if you are an extremely organized person that uses a lot of folders. Fortunately, there is an alternative route: you can create a bookmark.

By using a bookmark, you don’t have to enter Google Drive at all, saving you over 15 seconds every single time. This is useful to both students and teachers alike. Not only do you save time, but it is just feels better, at least in my opinion, to click one button rather than go through a 4 step process in order to make a new document.

To get it set up is just a couple simple steps.

First, right click your bookmarks bar and click “Add Page” as shown in the image (similarly, if you are using Firefox hit “New Bookmark”)

A menu will pop up, it will ask you to enter a name and link. You can put whatever name you want to in the first box, I recommend the name “New Doc.” The second box must be the following without the parenthesis, (docs.google.com/document/create). You can then click the save button, and you’re done!

This process also works for presentations, spreadsheets, forms, and drawings, you just have to replace the word “document” with the corresponding word.

There are two issues with doing this, however both have solutions. The first is that when you create a document this way, it will be in your main Google Drive folder, not organized at all. The fix for this is to use another feature that allows you to move a document to a folder from within a document.

The other issue is that these bookmarks can take up a lot of space on your bar, this is fixed simply by putting them in folder on your bookmarks bar.

Hopefully you found this as useful as I did, and it will save you some time and hassle.

Original article: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3005797/software-productivity/5-cool-google-drive-features-you-probably-arent-using-yet.html

List of things to replace document (in the link) with:

• spreadsheets
• presentation
• form
• drawing

Tech Tool Spotlight - Quizlet

-Written by: Emma
Senior student in Student Technology Integration and Innovation

There are important terms to know for every class taught in school. The degree to which students are tested on these terms varies, but a basic familiarity with them is essential. Traditionally, students use flashcards to memorize vocabulary. It’s an effective method of learning, but there are some serious flaws. For one, flashcards are time consuming to make. There are classes with upwards of a hundred words to learn per unit, and making that many flashcards every few weeks just isn’t feasible.

Quizlet.com is a website initially started in 2005 by a fifteen year-old in California looking for an easier way to learn vocabulary for his French class. Essentially, it’s online flashcards. Quizlet is both free for students and easy to use, with many students already having some experience with it. It includes games that make learning entertaining, and offers a free app students can get on their phones should they choose.

Signing up for Quizlet is simple and only requires an email address. If you register as a teacher, you’re given the option to pay $24.99 a year for added features such as tracking student progress. That might be something you’re interested in. If not, there’s an option to skip to the regular teacher version of Quizlet, which still allows you to create classes and add flashcard sets to them just as efficiently as the premium version.

Quizlet is fast, easy, and free if you want it to be. Students can study from their phones, and this way they can’t complain that you’re killing trees with all the study materials you’ve been printing out. With the added ease of not having to buy, store, and keep track of hundreds of notecards and finals right around the corner, there’s really no better time to start using Quizlet.

Tech Tools on the Tech Coach Blog

I have committed time in the past to making sure that I write a blog post (nearly) every Tuesday. Sometimes I stop, with fear. I could say I'm too busy, but really I'm scared. What if no one reads this stuff anyway? What if I feature a tool that people already know about? What if I brag about a tool and then it doesn't work? Fear - maybe I'll think of a better way to do this that will help everyone! Stalling with fear.

I just finished attending one of the best installments of the Slate Technology Conference in WI Dells that I have ever been to. (Search the hashtag #slate2015 to see what you missed!). Kevin Honeycutt was the opening keynote speaker. He said, "Perfect is the enemy of done. Start!" How true is that? I have stalled myself out with worry and in the meantime, missed out on sharing ideas, tips, tools and technology integration with my teachers!

No more! In fact, I'm going to do you one better. I'm not sure if you've heard, but our high school students spend one class period per day fixing broken Chromebooks at the high school. Yes, you read that right. We have a technology repair workshop in our very own district run by high schoolers. You're probably a teacher, a principal, a secretary, support staff... so I don't have to tell you that kids can be amazing.

Our class is called Student Technology Integration and Innovation, or STII for short and these repair students have certain job duties that rotate each week. Several of them diagnose, troubleshoot and repair broken devices; one enters data in our data warehouse spreadsheet; one is a Quality Control Manger and makes sure that the repair is done correctly in a timely fashion and that the Chromebook is cleaned up and charged to be returned in better condition than it was received. Each week, Ms. Amblang takes a couple of students to the public library to help community members with their technology on Tuesdays. And, two students have Special Operations assignments (aka Special Ops). These tasks vary depending on the needs of the workshop and workflow.

Starting next week, there will be a new position for 1-2 students. They will research, vet, and explain technology tools and techniques that could interest teachers in our district. They will blog about those tools or techniques right here on the Tech Coach blog!

So, stay tuned... because when it comes to my STII students, I like to brag about how amazing they are. And this, this is going to be awesome! You'll see, #mightycardinals, the best is yet to come!

How to Sell Items on Watercooler and Make Your Buyers Love You

Being part of the watercooler group is somewhat of a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you can find things for sale that you never even knew you needed until you saw it posted for such a good deal! But, on the other hand, there are so many emails that clog your inbox. Even if you filter the messages or even ask them to skip your Inbox, it can get overwhelming. Then, as if that isn't enough, you get follow-up emails from people that say when things have been sold. And, yet, there are still about 400 people on watercooler, including me! So, I have some suggestions on how to sell multiple items on watercooler, while also decreasing the impact on people's inboxes and making buyers love you!

First, we can leverage the power of Google to set up a virtual thrift sale. Just create a new folder and set the sharing settings to "anyone with the link can view." People will be able to open your folder and look at all of your goodies. You can right click on the image to enter the name of the item and a price. You can also put a Google document in that folder that provides descriptions and prices. As people purchase your wares, simply delete the photo from the folder and it will not appear to your shoppers.

To start a new folder, use the red "New" (Or "Create") button on the left side of your Google Drive Screen and choose "Folder." A new folder will be created in your Google Drive. You can single-click on that folder and then use the image of the person with the plus by it to change the sharing settings of the folder. You will need to do this in order for people to be able to open your folder. You will likely want to set it so that people with the link can view the folder so that no one except you can delete images from the folder.

Then, begin dragging and dropping or uploading your photos to the new folder. You will want to probably set the folder to thumbnail view so that people see a gallery of photos in the folders.

Once you try this once, you'll see that the setup is pretty easy and then you'll have it all set to go next time you have things to sell. Once your shared folder is set up, then you can share it in your email with the watercooler group. When you compose an email, click the Google Drive symbol near the "Send" button and you can choose your shared folder. That folder will appear as a clickable link in the email.

This way, you can send one email to the watercooler group with information about the types of things you have for sale, and a linked folder of images and/or descriptions. As you sell your items, delete them from the folder and they will no longer be available for viewing. If you need help setting this up, just get in contact with me. You'll make the other 399 members of watercooler so much happier to decrease their watercooler emails by about 75% while still being able to shop for things you never even knew you wanted because it is such a good deal!

For an example, feel free to see my shared folder "Items For Sale" by clicking the link below.

Items For Sale

Folders for shared images work really well for other things also. If you have photos from a field trip, you can upload them to a folder and set it so that anyone with the link can view and send the link to parents. Parents can see and download images of their own students without worrying about attachment limits. You can share a folder of images with students to help further illustrate certain concepts in your classroom. What other things have you used shared folders for?

Got Spelchek?

Just as in other Word Processors like Microsoft Word and Word Perfect, Google Docs also has spellcheck capabilities, but this is a function you can turn on or off. Teachers have noticed that some students have this turned off and are not notified of spelling errors in their documents. Using Spellcheck can be an easy way of catching little mistakes and typos.

To turn Spellcheck, make sure that you select 'Show Spelling Suggestions' on the View menu as seen below.