Terry's Tech Tips

A simple class roster provides a lot of uses for teachers.  They help track who you've conferenced with, who has completed a project and even allow you to upload your roster to other tools like Turnitin or Zipgrade. Alice Keeler, the acknowledged Queen of Google Sheets, asked her nephew to create a Google Chrome extension that pulls a roster from Google Classroom and creates a Google Sheet with student information. Watch the video below to see how it works or follow the written directions following the video! Navigate to Alice's Website or to the Google Chrome Web Store .  Click the Add to Chrome button.  You need to authorize the extension the first time you use it: Once installed, look on your Chrome browser after the address bar.  Locate the Roster Extension icon and click it.  Click the List classes button.  A list of your Google Classroom classes will appear. Select the desired class....

Around this time of year, the iconic Sound of Music song ' These are a Few of My Favorite Things ' always seems to be playing in my head.  For the second year, I'm publishing a list of my favorite things that help me do my job faster or better.  I use many of these daily. Keyboard Shortcuts 8 Days per Year Would you be interested if someone showed you how to save eight days a year working?  Of course, you would!  Without question, teachers nationwide name lack of time as a top (if not THE top) obstacle they face in their professional practice. Keyboard shortcuts are a way to gain more time.  Watch this video to learn how the time savings were calculated by BrainScape, an education platform that provides flashcards based on brain research.  Or view the formula below: [2 wasted seconds / min] * [480 min / workday] * [240 workdays / year] =  64 wasted hours / year! (2 seconds is the amount of time it takes to move yo...

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...

If you feel overwhelmed by your email, you are not alone! 95.2 GB    Space to store my email  28%   Time in the workweek spent handling email.  (1) $10,000.00 Cost of an average worker per year due to email distractions. (2)  38% The percentage of emails that are "important".  (3) Email overload is a real problem, both in the business world and in Education.  The costs above are a little astonishing.  This research highlights the real cost of interrupting your concentration to check your email, impairing your decision making and leading to stress.  Many studies suggest that once interrupted, it is difficult to immediately return to the task you were working on, and some conclude that you can lose up to 40% of your productivity. (4)  The good news is that efficiency experts are suggesting strategies to overcome email overload.   The strategies are based both on 'habit of mind' and effec...