Pear Deck & Global Read Aloud

The tool I have to share with you this week is Pear Deck. This is a Google Add-On for Google Slides. It helps make your slides presentations more interactive. Students can join your presentation session/lesson by joining with a code. The slides get pushed out to display on participant screens and allows them to submit responses to tasks. This is a great tool for checks for understanding and IT’S FREE! Check out these example slide decks from Be Internet Awesome.

The Global Read Aloud is back starting on 9/30/19! Visit the website to sign up and check out #gra19 on social media.

Be Internet Awesome Printable Activities & Everfi

The tool I have to share with you this week is Be Internet Awesome by Google. This resource has a lot of great digital citizenship activities and resources for families and educators. Please share this resource with families! Teachers, check out the printable activities. These can be done without devices!

Check out Everfi and the free courses they offer, including digital wellness and safety. They added some new ones this year!

The Chromebook App Hub

The tool I have to share with you this week is the Chromebook App Hub. This is a resource to help educators learn about Chromebook apps and get activity ideas. You can filter by idea, age range, subject, and learning goal. There are so many great apps! I recommend scrolling through to see what might be applicable to your unique context.

Guardian’s Guide to Chromebooks & Applied Digital Skills

The tools I have to share with you this week are the Guardian’s Guide to Chromebooks and Google Applied Digital Skills. Please share the Guardian’s Guide to Chromebooks with parents and guardians. This resource provides more context and understanding of Chromebooks at school. Google Applied Digital Skills has a couple collections I’d like to point out; Back to School 2019 and Online Safety & Digital Wellbeing. These collections have great video lessons that foster digital skills and good habits for the year ahead.

Also check out this fun and engaging activity that integrates computer science —> how to code a popup message for your google docs!

How to Break Up With Your Phone & Google Certification

Congratulations on another year in the books! This week I am sharing How to Break Up With Your Phone. I want you to take the time for a good digital detox over the summer and practice good screen life balance. I encourage you to scroll to the bottom and sign up to Take the Challenge. You will get 7 daily emails with steps to take to internalize and achieve better screen life balance. Enjoy the outdoors and your time off! 

Google Tip: Google Certification

If you are interested in becoming a Google Certified Educator, check out the Google Teacher Center. Summer is a great time to do this! For Level 1 certification, go through the Fundamentals training and then register for the exam. For Level 2, go through the Advanced training and then register for the exam. If you would like to meet for a study/tutor session prior to taking the exam, I’m happy to help you out.

Wakelet

Google Tip: Wakelet Extension

There is a great bookmarking tool extension called Wakelet. This makes it easy to save and organize content you find on the web. The beauty of this is that Wakelet is Free and what you save is viewable on all devices. Imagine how this extension can transform teaching and learning! Check out the Educator’s Guide. Click here to add Wakelet to your Google Chrome extensions.

Story Speaker & Goals in Google Calendar

This week I am sharing another Google Experiment with you called Story Speaker. It uses voice to create interactive stories. This can be great for writing units and speaking skills. To get Story Speaker, get the Google Docs Add-on. Start from scratch or use a template to guide you through creating a story. This can be a fun activity to do with students whole group, in small groups, or individually.

Google Tip: Goals in Google Calendar

Google Calendar can help you set goals for yourself! These goals could be personal and/or professional. As we reflect on this school year and come up with goals for next year, this is the perfect tool to help hold us accountable for achieving our goals. To use the goals feature within Google Calendar, open the Google Calendar app on your mobile device, in the bottom right, tap “+”, tap Goal, choose a category or create a custom goal, follow the prompts, tap done. Sessions automatically add to your calendar and when life gets in the way, Google calendar will add it to another available time in your schedule. Check out their commercial here.

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Google Tip: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego

Google Earth has a new Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego Game! Check out Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego and share with students to get them acquainted with Google Earth in a fun engaging way.

BoClips & Google Search Education

The resource I have to share with you this week is called BoClips. This website curates educational videos that have the proper licensing for educational use. Their platform sorts videos by subject area. The affordance of BoClips is that it is free of clutter and inappropriate content. You may recognize many of their content providers. It is also free to sign up for an account. Check it out today! Don’t forget about Classhook for educational videos from popular TV shows and movies, too.

Google Tip: Google Search Education Lessons

Google has a library of lessons to help students learn how to navigate the web effectively and efficiently. These lessons are great for growing search literacy skills. 

Shared Drives & Adding Audio to Google Slides

The news I have to share with you this week is about Team Drives within Google Drive. “Team Drives” will soon be renamed to “Shared Drives”. This renaming will NOT change its functionality. It will still “live” in the same spot on the left-hand side panel of your Google Drive. You will notice this change happen sometime this month, regardless of if you are using the web or mobile versions.

Google Tip: Add Audio to Google Slides

Google Slides will be adding a new feature this month. We will now be able to insert audio into Slides! When you click Insert and then Audio. The audio can be voice, music, narrations, sound effects that you already have the file for. *Note: This is not a way to create audio.