Terry's Tech Tips

Providing feedback to students is critical, but time-consuming, work for teachers.   Whether students are writing an essay, an analysis of history, or a science lab report, students work using Google Docs and Slides.  Checkmark is an extension for the Chrome browser that allows you to insert pre-set comments with a single mouse click!  You can even edit the existing comments and add new ones to suit your style and your students' work! How does Checkmark Work? Once installed and enabled, the CheckMark menu appears dynamically when you highlight text in a Google Doc or Slide.  Simply click the button representing the feedback you want to add.  The full comment appears in a comment box.  Students then follow the typical protocol to resolve the comment. Courtesy of CheckMarkclass.com How do I get CheckMark? CheckMark is a Chrome extension found  here in the Chrome Web Store.   Click the blue Add to Chrome button to install Checkm...

Web pages contain all kinds of information relevant to your content.  They include scholarly articles, websites devoted to your topic, and current events.  You likely assign web-based resources to students as part of their learning all the time!  You may wonder: did they read the online article/paper/assigned web page? did they understand the content of the article/paper/assigned web page? what conclusions or opinions did they develop based on the content presented on the webpage? Why Use InsertLearning? Use InsertLearning to: add clarification for words/phrases that your students may not understand.   enhance student interaction with your web material by inserting questions for understanding .   ensure close reading by asking them to highlight (using the Insert Learning tools) who, what, where or anything that is appropriate to the content.   ask opinions about the content that will be shared with classmates for...

Storms the past two weeks have really impacted our schedule!  This blog post should interest you if you want to gain more time in class for important student learning! Buy Back Class Time: Do you have a process that indirectly impacts student learning but takes precious class time to show students?   (Installing an app, extension, or using a website specific to your class?)  Do you have a particularly difficult topic requiring extra support or explanation?    Consider recording your screen while modeling the process or explaining the topic using a Chrome extension called Screencastify !  (Note that QuickTime Player also has screen recording options.) Once you have created your video, you can assign it as homework, saving class time you would have spent modeling the process or clarifying the difficult concept to your students. Using my laptop, I made the screen recording below demonstrating how to add the Screencastify extension to Chrome.   T...