Did You Know? Google Jamboard for Engagement

A great way to add engagement and student voice to your hybrid teaching it to use the Jamboard app from Google.  Like most Google apps, it is sharable and collaborative.  Go go jamboard.google.com or to the waffle (that box of 9 squares in the upper right corner in a new Chrome tab) and find Jamboard, or you can go to Drive and click the NEW button to open Jamboard.  Choice is good!

Here's a link to some Jamboard templates and another link with information on using Jamboard.

Both Wakelet collections were created for teachers of all levels but there are lots of ideas that would work in any classroom, and for those of you in teacher education, there are a lot of other ideas that work in K-12.

Don't forget to go back to the Remote Learning Resources website from KATE.  We're adding new ideas and resources to it all the time.

Friday Matinee: Text Comments in Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a great way to have a discussion whether you are in class or remote.  Create your question and let students answer and then reply to each other.  Flipgrid recently added text comments rather than just video, which is helpful for shy students.

Here's more on how they work: Introducing Text Comments

Haven't used Flipgrid before?  It was actually created for Dr. Miller's PhD students at the University of Minnesota.  Since then it has become one of the go to discussion apps for students from K-PhD!  Here's a post on remote learning with Flipgrid in higher education.

For more on Flipgrid, check out the information on our Remote Learning Resources page or check out their blog.

Want to know MORE about Flipgrid?  Take this FREE class with Holly Clark online.  You can do it at your own pace.

Did You Know? Quickly Add a Comment in Google

Quickly add a comment in Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings by using this quick shortcut (Ctrl + Alt + M) shown in this video.  

Friday Matinee: Holiday Fun With Goose Chase

The holidays are here and families and friends are getting together, although this year these gatherings may be virtual rather than in-person.  No matter which type you're joining, GooseChase allows you to set up a scavenger hunt where teams can compete against other teams.  Ready to give it a try?  Read on!

If you might use GooseChase with your class, I would create a GooseChase EDU account.  You set up the game on a desktop or laptop and play on a phone or tablet using their app.  There are games online that you can copy and use for your own scavenger hunt.  

Here's another video on creating a GooseChase EDU game:

Let us know if you try this over the holidays and how the game went!  Enjoy!

Here are a few other things you can try to make the holidays fun for your kids or grandkids:

Christmas Scavenger Hunt

Decorate a Gingerbread House

Build a Snowman

Each file will ask you to make a copy.

Did You Know? Adding Images to Docs and Slides

Sometimes you need an image in your Google Doc (or Slides) to help tell your story.  In both Docs and Slides you can use the Explore Tool or choose insert image from the insert menu.  

Here's how to add images in Google Docs.  

It works the same in Slides!

Friday Matinee: Creating Choice Boards With Google Slides

Giving students a choice of how they can complete an assignment gives students ownership over how they show you what they've learned.  By creating choice boards, in Slides (you can also use PowerPoint to do the same thing) it is easy to create an assignment where the students have to pick a certain number of things to do to complete the assignment.  Many teachers use these boards and have students pick 3 out of 9 options to complete tic-tac-toe.

Here's how to create the boards in Google Slides.

During remote learning, some teachers are having their students work on their choice board assignments when they are remote while they do something different with the students in their classroom that day.  Others are using choice boards to have students work independently when they are not attending class synchronously.

Did You Know? Getting Started With Google Docs

Have you never used Google Docs before?  Are you not sure how to get started?  Docs is great because you can access your files no matter what computer you are on since your documents live in Google Drive in the cloud.  You can even pull them up on your phone or tablet.  

Do you need your document to be a Word file?  No problem.  You can download Google Docs as Word files or PDFs.  Watch the videos to get started!

Friday Matinee: Using Padlet in Your Class

Padlet is a great app for discussions, formative assessment, sharing documents, brainstorming, and more.  It looks a lot like an online bulletin board with a bunch of sticky notes!  The free version allows you to create 3 walls for free.  If you need another one, just delete a previous one.  Students can upload just about any file, add a link, search and add images, videos and more via Google, take a picture with your computer's camera, capture video from your camera, record their voice, record the screen, doodle, add a place/location, or link to another Padlet.  Wow!  That's a lot!!  What's more is that students can respond to other students.

I've used Padlet for years to have students give feedback on an article they've read, review a Chrome extension that they have tried, as a backchannel, or as a way to share a document with the class.  I've asked a question and had students respond.  I've even had them introduce themselves and add a video or image to show something that they are interested in.  The possibilities are endless and it is easy to use in a hybrid teaching environment.

Check out this video on how it works.  Want to try it?  Here's one I created asking about what the characteristics of effective feedback are.

Did You Know? 3 Quick Google Tips

Here are 3 quick Google tips that will save you time!  Learn how to quickly create a new Google Doc (works for Slides, Sheets, and Forms too), how to force your students to make a copy of a document you are sharing with them, and use advanced search to find files in Google Drive.

Friday Matinee: Using Wakelet in Your Classroom

Wakelet is a curation tool that allows you to save items (anything with a link), organize them, tell stories, and share content from around the web (Kathleen Morris, 2019).  Curation, evaluating resources, and collaboration are necessary skills for our students.

It will help you understand more about what Wakelet is if you look at a collection.  Here's a one on (drum roll please . . . 🥁 ) WAKELET!  Check out these resources, many of which have been written for K-12, but that doesn't mean that they can't be used in higher education.  It's a great way for students to keep up with their research and they can work together in groups to find and organize their information.  Their curated information can then be put into a Google Site, a research paper, a presentation, or a digital magazine as a way for them to show what they have learned.  Here's another one that you can actually add to!

Wakelets can be private, unlisted (only people with the link can find it), or public, where anyone can find it when searching the web.  It's easy to get a link to share a collection or add collaborators.  Wakelets are an easy to share resources with students, differentiate learning, create digital portfolios, and more.

Watch as Holly Clark (she's amazing) shows how to use Wakelet in the Classroom.

Click on the above image to read more!  

Remember to check out our Remote Learning Resources website for more ideas on collaboration.  

Want to know more about how technology is infused into classrooms around the world?  Attend the Virtual FETC Conference in January for FREE!

Did You Know? Recover Last Closed Tab in Chrome

Have you ever been browsing the web and somehow you click and close a tab that you really need?  How do you quickly get it back?  There's a quick shortcut for that!

On a Windows computer - Control-Shift-T

On a Mac computer - Command-Shift-T

It's a life saver!  Here's a video on how to do it.

And use Control-T to open a new tab!  Command-T on the Mac.

Want to know more about how technology is infused into classrooms around the world?  Attend the Virtual FETC Conference in January for FREE!

Friday Matinee: Creating a Backchannel With Google Docs

Having a discussion is an important part of a class but it can be difficult when you are teaching either totally online or using the hybrid model.  Fortunately there are digital tools that can be used for backchannel discussions, including a shared Google Doc that everyone in class has the right to edit.

Use this Google Doc that you can copy (FILE>MAKE A COPY) for classroom discussions.  I like this document rather than just using a Doc without any added guidelines because you can see not only who asked the question, but also who responded and what their response was.  It also keeps the questions and answers together for easy viewing.  Multiple people can also answer the same question.  

A suggestion is to have one student per week or class period who would be in charge of the backchannel document.  They would monitor the questions and answers, and bring up questions in class that might need clarification.

I would keep the original document as a master and then make a copy of it and rename it every time you use it.  All you need to do is change the title and date at the top.

Did You Know? Undo Send in Gmail

Have you ever clicked send and then realized that you forgot to add something to your email?  Gmail has an undo send that gives you 30 seconds to stop that email from sending.  You can then make the change or add additional information and click send again.

Here's how to set up undo send in Gmail.

Need help?  Want to know more?  Contact Patti to set up a 1:1 session via Zoom!

Friday Matinee: Online Learning With Powerful Thinking Routines

Dr. Catlin Tucker teaches high school, but the thinking routines she shares in this blog post can easily be used in higher education.  Created by Project Zero at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, these templates and routines encourage students to be intentional thinkers and to share what they know, their perspective, what they wonder, how their thinking has changed, and more.  Each thinking routine can be modified and adjusted to meet your needs, your student's needs, and your subject area and are great for engaging students both online and in the classroom.  Go to the Project Zero website to learn more about the routine's purpose, application, and find tips for starting and using the routine in your classroom.  There are other routines on the Project Zero site that you can check out.

Support Online Learning with Powerful Thinking Routines by Catlin Tucker

The templates that Catlin created are shared in Google Slides, but can easily be downloaded as PowerPoint files.  Just go to FILE >Download > and choose Microsoft PowerPoint.

Did You Know? Version History in Google Docs, Slides, & Sheets

Did you know that you can name different versions of your Google Doc?  As you work in your Doc, it automatically saves different versions of the document.  It's kind of like "save as" in MS Word, and you can access those different versions at any time.  To view them, go to FILE>VERSION HISTORY (see attached image).  You can name previous versions or the current version - or all of them!  This allows you to quickly refer back to them.  Simply view the versions, click the 3 dots next to a version, and choose to name it.  Choose a name like first draft, 2nd draft, final draft, etc.  This doesn't change the name of the file.

Once in version history, click the date and time to view that version of your document.  To name it click the 3 dots and choose "Name this version" (image below).

⭐ Are you looking at a document that your student worked on as a group?  You'll see who did what in the document in the version history.  Each collaborator's input will be a different color.  Check out the image below:

Here's a video on how to check a document's version history to see what students did the work!

Friday Matinee: Google Jamboard for Online Collaboration

Google Jamboard is a physical digital whiteboard (our college has one!) but it is also an online digital whiteboard that is collaborative.  Online you can share, view, and create Jams with your students to engage them during class time.  All "jams" are saved in Google Drive and are accessible via Google Chrome.  You can add images, sticky notes, text, and drawings.  

Let's try it out!  Open this file and scroll through the frames at the top.  You can have a total of 20 frames in one Jam.  Go ahead and add to each frame.

To create a file, just go to Drive>New and find Jamboard, find Jamboard in the waffle, or type jamboard.google.com.  Like a template, but need to make a copy?  Open the template and go to the 3 dots in the upper right and choose "make a copy".  You can download PDFs and images from there as well.  Use the Share button to get a link or share via email.  There's an app for your phone or tablet that will let you add files from Google Drive.

 Want ideas for using it in your classroom?  Matt Miller's article includes 20 ideas for using it in the classroom.  

Here are a few idea templates that you can copy and use.

Blackout Poetry

Brainstorming

Thinking Routines

The Ultimate Collection of Jamboard Templates

Jamboard Templates and Information

Let's Jam: Google Jamboard Resources in a Wakelet collection.  We'll keep adding to this wake.

You'll be jamming in no time!  Here's a video if you want to learn more.

Did You Know? You Can Pin Tabs in Google Chrome

If you are like me, you have lots of tabs open in Google Chrome!  To keep yourself organized and make it easy to find the tabs you use the most, you can pin them and they will move to the left side of the Chrome window and stay there.

Check out how easy it is to pin the tabs in Google Chrome.

Friday Matinee: Kahoot for Student Engagement & Review

Kahoot! is a fun game based way to engage your students and also check for understanding.  You can create a variety of questions and either play it live (even via Zoom) or you can assignment it as a challenge game where students play at their own pace when they have time.  Instead of you creating the questions for the game, ask students to submit questions to let them take over the review process.  

The Basic version is free and allows you to play live class-sized games or student-paced challenges so that students can play at their own pace.  Games will use multiple choice quiz questions.  There are 3 levels of premium accounts with various features including questions that drive deeper learning like puzzles, student typed answers, and more. 

All games can be played via Zoom!

Resources to get you started:

How to create a Kahoot

Host Kahoot! games - a step by step guide

Kahoot! challenges: how to assign Kahoots as Homework

Playlist of Kahoot! Tutorials

EDU Webinar on Kahoot for Distance Learning (the free upgrade to the pro version is no longer available)

Want to try a self-paced challenge?  Click here.

Need help?  Just ask.  We're here to help.  Also check out our Remote Learning Resources website.  We keep adding new ideas!

Did You Know? Continue Where You Left Off in Google Chrome

Did you know that you can continue where you left off in Google Chrome?  You can adjust your Chrome settings so that the Chrome Tab Groups that you created and other tabs you have open will reload after you restart Chrome.  This setting is a game changer!

To change your settings and see how this works, watch this video.

Friday Matinee: Review Jeopardy Game Using Google Slides

It's getting close to the end of the semester and using this Jeopardy template will allow you to either create the game for your class to play as a review or you can let groups of students use it to create the questions and answer then share their game with the rest of the class.  

Jeopardy 5 Topic Template

In order to use this template, go to FILE and choose MAKE A COPY.  Don't forget to "file" it in Google Drive in a folder so that you keep your Drive organized.  You can do this by clicking on the folder icon to the right of the file name at the top right of the screen.  

If you would like to use this template again, I would suggest that you make not 1, but 2 copies of this file.  One I would add the word MASTER to one of them so that you will know that it is your blank template

Did You Know? Easily Crop an Image in Google

Did you know that you can easily crop an image in Google Docs, Slides, or Drawings?  This is a feature we use a lot.  Here's how:

How to Crop an Image in Doc, Slides, or Drawings

Go ahead and get rid of that extra white space or background in your image quickly and easily!

Friday Matinee: Engagement With Digital Escape Rooms

Digital escape rooms (also called digital breakouts) are a spin on the popular Escape Rooms and are a great way to bring game playing, group work, collaboration, and problem solving into your classroom.  They can also be done remotely!

Jason Reed, the Digital Learning Coach at Marshall County Schools, has created this great tutorial on creating and using digital escape rooms in your classroom.  

EscapeRoom PD

He's embedded an example on slide 2 and more ideas on slide 3.  If you are a math nerd, I highly recommend this one: Shape Escape.

Here's an easy Halloween Haunt Escape Room.  Click in different places in the image to get your clues.

For more ideas on creating or using an digital escape room (there are many shared examples online) for your class, check out these additional resources:

30+ Digital Escape Rooms (Plus a Step by Step Guide for Creating Your Own

40+ Digital Escape Rooms

Creating your clues is half the fun!  You can even have your students help you with these and put them all together in an escape room to challenge your class.

How to Create a Digital Breakout for the Classroom (has great ideas for clues!)

Breakout EDU Digital Resources (great sites for sites to use to create your clues)

Your "locks" should be created in Google Forms using response validation.  Here's a helpful post on using response validation in a Form.  Remember that they have to get the answer right in order to submit their form and breakout!

KATE challenges you to create an escape room for at least one of your classes and we would love for you to share it with us!  Need help?  Let us know.

Did You Know? Group and Color Code Tabs in Google Chrome

Did you know that you can group and color code tabs in Google Chrome?  Believe it or not, I didn't know that you could do this until just now!  Check out this video to learn how to group tabs by topics and colors:

Name and Color Code Chrome Tab Groups

Happy grouping, y'all!

Friday Matinee: Using Nearpod for Engagement & Formative Assessment

As you start planning your classes for the rest of the semester, you might want to check out this post on engagement while teaching remotely.  If you scroll down to where it says Keep it simple with eLearning modalities, you'll see where the author mentions using Flipgrid and Pear Deck with her online college classes.  We've sent out information on using both in previous Friday Matinees.

Nearpod is an add-on for Google Slides and works with PowerPoint and is very similar to Pear Deck.  Here's a comparison of both tools.  Both have free versions and offer interactivity during presentations with either Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint.  The free version of Nearpod seems to have more interactive features available than Pear Deck.  Like Edpuzzle, you can also make your videos interactive.  Nearpod offers some pre-made interactive lessons and videos with the basic plan and your lessons can be presented live or in student-paced mode, which is great for online learning.  You can also add a lesson to Zoom with one click!

If you go here, you'll find some resources that KATE has curated to help you learn more about Nearpod by clicking on the link at the top of the page. There are videos on getting started, using it with PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canvas, and more

Back to Pear Deck for a minute:

In case you are more of a Peardeck fan, here's a link to get 3 months of unlimited access to all of Pear Deck's premium features. When the 90 days is up, you can go back to a basic free account. Not sure when this deal with end.