Terry's Tech Tips

Google Classroom is a great communication and assignment management system.  Google Classroom emails you every time a student turns in an assignment or resolves a comment.  This is a great communication feature, but it can also drive you crazy due to the high volume of emails it generates! If you would like to unclog your inbox, you have a couple of options: Manage your Google Classroom email notifications within Google Classroom (More control with this option.) Manage your Google Classroom notifications within Gmail with a filter Manage your email notifications within Google Classroom You do have options within Google Classroom to manage your notifications.  These options allow more granular control of which notifications you see.  (Although this method isn't always 100% foolproof.)   Within Classroom, click on the  three horizontal lines  located on the top left.  (Raging debate:  Are they ho...

If you have been responding to email today, you may have noticed something new.  As you type, you may see some greyed out text that completes your sentence or thought.  What is that? Smart Compose! Smart Compose is designed to help you draft emails from scratch more quickly.  Using Artificial Intelligence, Google will suggest an ending to a thought or even an entire sentence.  (Like 'Have a nice weekend!' if it's Friday.) If you like the suggested text, simply press your Tab key, and the text will be entered into your email!  Continue typing, and the suggestion will go away! Smart Compose provides huge potential time savings for anyone using Gmail for work!  As with anything powered by Artificial Intelligence or machine learning, it will just get better the more you use it while drafting emails!  The impact over the course of a year could result in hours or days of found time! Smart Compose works in conjunction with the Gmai...

Comments within Google Docs and Slides provide a great communication tool for teacher/student.   Anyone who has editing rights can see the comments, reply, or resolve them! When working with Google products in collaborative teams with your colleagues or with students on a group project, you may find you want a specific person on your team or in the student group to respond to a comment or question you have.  Google allows you to bring your comment to this specific person's attention by doing the following: Highlight text as you normally would. Click the Comment icon on the toolbar if it doesn't automatically appear on the right by the text you highlighted. Anywhere in the Comment area itself, click the ' + ' sign, and begin typing the person's name.  When you see their name appear, click on it.  You can also add the email address of the person you want to see the message. The graphic below illustrates this simple process! Depending upon the p...