Terry's Tech Tips

We have a new app available in the Google Suite called Jamboard.  What is Jamboard?  Great question!  Jamboard is a tool that allows students (and teachers) to work together collaboratively. Jamboard provides you with a whiteboard space where you can draw, add sticky notes, import images, or add Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.  Jamboards live in your Google Drive and are shared similarly to other Google Suite apps. Some ideas on how you could use Jamboard in your classroom with students: Space for group project resources Collaborative brainstorming Design thinking or challenges Collaborative graphic organizers Presentations - Jams can have multiple pages! Mind mapping Character analysis in novels The uses are only limited by your imagination! The example below shows students' thoughts and findings on identifying bias and credible sources: How is Jamboard different from other Google products? You are given a 'whiteboard space' to plac

Common Sense Media just released its most recent annual research findings of Tween and Teen media usage.   Common Sense Media is a non-profit devoted to providing research to parents, educators, health organizations, and policymakers with reliable, independent data on children's use of media and technology and the impact it has on their physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development. I think you will find the highlights in the report quite interesting.  If you prefer, watch this 1+ minute video summarizing the findings. Teens average just under seven and a half hours’ worth (7:22) of entertainment screen media per day—not including time spent using screens for school or homework. This time does not include screen use for school or homework. What are they doing online for 7 hours a day? Teens spend a good chunk of their time watching TV or videos online, followed by gaming.  Boys and girls have vastly different tastes in media. More than twi

Google Drive has incorporated a new feature called the Priority Page .  You may have noticed it on the left-hand side above My Drive.  If you have ever been frustrated about the time it takes to navigate to frequently used files, you will want to check this out! What Does the Google Drive Priority Page Offer? Section 1:  Quick Access The Google Drive Priority page has two parts.  The first section is similar to the one you see in Google Drive.  Google AI (artificial intelligence) gives you quick access to the documents it decides you will most likely want to use.  But, there is one valuable addition! Notice the arrow located to the right.  Clicking that arrow reveals additional files that Google AI has identified, so you can now easily access more documents. Section 2:  Workspaces  The real beauty of the Priority Page lies below!  Google's Workspaces allow you to create and name a Workspace where you add routinely used files.  This does NOT MOVE the i

Google has developed a new series of fonts explicitly designed to enhance reading speed and fluency for Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. Google teamed with Education Therapist Dr. Bonnie Shaver-Troup and typographer Thomas Jockin.  Dr. Shaver-Troup found that perception-based solutions were more effective in improving reading performance and cognition than cognitive-based ones.  Together with Thomas Jockin, they developed the Lexend font series.    What benefits do the Lexend font series provide to readers? Bonnie Shaver-Troup theorized that reading issues may be a result of student's sensitivity to typographical factors like size and spacing.  The Lexend font series provide a clean Sans Serif font base with spacing options helping the reader improve both reading speed and cognition.   (Sans Serif fonts assist students with Dyslexia and other learning issues.)  Lexend is especially suitable for readers who are bothered by visual crowding .  How do I get the Lexend

Are you one of the lucky people who have a 'clicker' that allows you to control your Google Slides presentation.  Controlling your slide presentation from anywhere in the classroom is an excellent strategy for keeping students engaged and on task.  Google Chrome has an extension called Remote for Slides  that turns your phone into a 'clicker'! Watch the 55-second video below to learn how to use Remote for Slides: Steps: If you prefer text directions, follow these steps: Step 1: Click here  to navigate to the Chrome Web Store Remote for Slides extension.  Click Add to Chrome.    The Remote for Slides icon now appears to the right of your Chrome address bar.  Step 2:   Open any Google Slides presentation.  You will now see a Present w/ Remote button on the top right-hand side of your Slides.   Click  Present w/ Remote. Step 3: The Slides presentation automatically changes to Present mode.  You will see the following information on

Do you want an easy way for people to access anything that has a web address with their phone?  Consider using a QR code! What is a QR code? You've seen a million QR Codes.  QR codes look like this: If you point the camera on your phone at this QR Code, a browser on your phone should open to the CCHS Staff Resources page.  Why would I use a QR Code?  QR codes work really well, allowing simple access to any item with a web address via phone.  Guess what?  ANYTHING stored in your Google Drive has a web address!  Museums often use them with their exhibits to provide context and additional information.  Below I'll list just a few ideas on how you might want to use a QR code.  (Our staff is very creative!  I'm sure you can think of many other uses!) Post a QR code to your Course Expectations for parents on Back to School Night (No paper to copy!) Post QR codes around your classroom to student digital work.  Rather than listening to individual or group pre

Are students giving you feedback that work you returned to them after grading is now showing as 'late' or 'assigned'?   The addition of the Grading module to Google Classroom has impacted this process.  Read on to understand what is happening and how to fix it! What is happening? Let's follow through the typical workflow in Google Classroom where students are submitting work to you.  You create an assignment in Google Classroom and assign the appropriate points to the assignment .   You assign the work to students, which puts the work in status ' Assigned ' in the student view.   After updating the assignment, students turn in or submit work back to you by clicking the Turn In button.   The work status changes to ' Turned in.' After grading, you return work to students.  This is a necessary step to ensure the student owns the document.   The status now changes to ' Returned ' if you placed a grade

Have you ever faced a situation where two Google documents exist that are similar, and you want to quickly figure out the differences?  Last week's blog post covered how you can use Version History to compare a single document's changes over time - and even restore a previous version if you had an 'oops'! This week we explore the newly introduced option to compare two separate documents. If you are a teacher who has students submit one document as a 'rough draft,' and students submit an entirely different document as their 'final draft,' you should love how easy it is to see what suggestions students incorporated into the last version. Comparing Two Google Documents: To analyze the differences between the two documents, open the first document.    From the toolbar, select Tools > Compare Documents. In the dialogue, click on Choose document to select the second Google Doc to compare against.  In the “Attribute differences to field,” ent

Students are writing across the curriculum - essays in English, papers in Social Studies, and lab reports in Science.    For any significant piece of writing, teachers usually provide students with valuable feedback to better their written assignments. Grading written work with feedback: Grading these assignments can be confusing.   It can be challenging to determine what changes the student made (if any) to improve the writing.   Many teachers like to have students turn in a 'rough draft,' give feedback with comments, and then have the students resubmit 'final' drafts.  Sometimes, teachers do this within the same document, while others have separate documents. If you face this problem, here is a solution you might want to use! If you use one document as both 'rough draft' and 'final draft.'   If you like to use one document to see the comment threads, you may already know you can click File>See Version History  to view how the document was

Grammarly Premium is now available to Staff! How do I get Grammarly Premium? You should have already received an email from Grammarly inviting you to the CCHS Grammarly Premium group.  Click on the link provided in the email, create your account, and add the Grammarly Chrome extension.  (Note:  You must use Google Chrome to access Grammarly in Gmail, Blogger, and Drive.) If you have never used Grammarly before, following this process should provide you premium account access. If you have used Grammarly before, follow the directions in the slides linked below: I have used the Free version of Grammarly   I have paid for Grammarly premium using my @concordcarlisle.org account. How do I use Grammarly Premium? Grammarly Spelling and Grammar checks: Once you log into the Grammarly Chrome extension using your @concordcarlisle.org account, Grammarly automatically provides necessary spelling and grammar checks for all Google products: Grammarly Editor: The