Audio Messages for Kids & Email Read Aloud - Wk 06

CN Elementary Teaching Team,

Here are some highlights from this week:

Week 6 (September 24 - September 28, 2018)

Thursday Giggles:           What's brown and lives in the bell tower?
The lunch bag of Notre Dame.

Flipgrid. NEW VERSION OF THE ONLINE GUIDE HERE. Another awesome thing about Flipgrid?  Get to know your students.  This teacher learned more about her students via a 90 second video than she ever could have in the context of a busy learning environment.  #GetToKnowYourStudents.  How are you using Flipgrid? THREAD.

Image capture from Twitter.  See Jeanine Bradtke, Martha Thomas, or @Flipgrid.

Audio Email.  So after a long day of looking at your screen, wouldn’t it be cool if someone could read the rest of your emails to you?  Wait no longer.  Microsoft Outlook has a Read Aloud button.  Have Outlook read those long emails to you.  Get all the info you need and give your eyes a rest.  An audio player menu will appear after you click Read Aloud.  Pause.  Back.  Forward.  Close.

You can also change the speed and the voice option.

Display Settings.  If the monitor you have is a bit small, some of display settings could be a bit off when you try to work with some software.  For example, when I use video editing software, it won’t work unless I adjust my display settings.  And, when I helped a teacher the other day, she couldn’t save a file to PDF without adjusting her display settings.  Some buttons were missing.  Can’t see all the buttons?  See if this works (below).  It’s temporary.  You can change it right back.

     1. Click on the Cortana Circle.
     2. Type “display”.
     3. Press Enter.
     4. Locate this spot (orange).
     5. Change it to 125%.
     6. Head back to whatever you were working on.
     7. Switch the settings back when you’re done.
     8. Close out that window.

Timely and effective feedback.  It’s the new buzz word pairing, right? So how can we do that without losing our minds? Or our fingers? This FREE Google Add-on is available to you in Google Docs. You’ll need to add it for it to work. But, you can leave voice messages for your students as they complete work. Record the little memo and they can hear your feedback. Just a little touch of human interaction. Not words on the page. Try it out.  See if this helps your students.

Please note, to activate the voice memos on the student end, you will need to host a technology session where the children allow this add-on (image below).

Kindly,

Clever at Home & Prodigy Made Easy - Wk 05

Here are a few highlights from this week:

Week 5 (September 17 - September 21, 2018)

Giggles:                             Why did the scientist install a knocker on his door?

                                            To win the no-bell prize.

FREE/OPTIONAL Professional Development (PD):  Here’s a date to mark on your calendar.

DETAILS: Building a website is easier than you might think. Click. Drag. Adjust. Move. I’ll walk you through the steps to get you started. Or, maybe you have a website started, but you can’t quite figure out a few bits. If that’s you, come on over! Have an old Site? Did you know you can convert it to the new format? Yep! You can. Come and learn how to do that.
REGISTER HERE

Getting onto Clever at Home.  Are your students having problems getting into Clever at home?  Are parents emailing you?  Here’s a short video that will answer their questions.  Feel free to add this to your website to aid/assist parents/students with this process. LINK HERE

Prodigy. So there are two links now.  Which one do I use?  The previous button didn’t work.  This one does, but there’s one more important detail.  Watch and see.  LINK HERE.

Free Music.  Do you ever make videos for YouTube?  Or slideshows for your campus?  Athletics?  Yearbook?  Is it too costly to purchase music again and again?  Well, YouTube has free music.  Check out this link if you are in search of some background music for your video work.  LINK HERE.

Word Cloud. Back in April, I taught several of my classes how to use WordArt.com to build a Word Cloud.  If you are unfamiliar with this tool and would like to try it out, you can find a video that will show you how to do this HERE.  So, how do you (the teacher) have access to those finished files?  Glad you asked.  You can use this tutorial to see how to print those final projects.

Video Capture.  If you have the Windows 10 operating system on your computer, you have access to video capture software.  Use Windows + G.  This initial window will pop up.  Click Yes.    

When you are ready to start recording, click the red dot (image below).  Confirm that you are recording your microphone.  And, you are good.  By default the videos will be saved in the Videos folder.  You can choose the gear to select an alternative spot for saving those captured videos.

Here’s a blog with more info on how to get started.

Screen Orientation.  Have you ever faced this?  “Teacher, the screen is sideways!”  Here is an easy fix: Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow.  If you are in the locked screen mode, sign in while the screen is sideways and then do the above task.  This should remedy the problem.  Wait about 6 seconds after you perform that keystroke pattern for the orientation to right itself.

YouTube Face Blur.  So, what if you want to post something to YouTube, but there’s one person in the video who’s face should be blurred?  Or you want to blur out personal information of some kind (username, password, etc.)?  Ugh!  No worries.  YouTube will now let you blur that face/information easily.  Head over to the YouTube video editor space and check out those buttons.  Now that face is no longer public and your video is ready to launch.  VIDEO LINK HERE.

Image Credits: screen capture from video (link above).

Kindly,

Ditch That Textbook, Flipgrid, and FREE PD - Wk 04

Here are a few highlights from this week:

Week 4 (September 10 - September 14, 2018)

Thursday Giggles:           Why did the fungi leave the party?
Because there wasn't mushroom.

FREE/OPTIONAL Professional Development (PD):  Here are the first two dates to mark on your calendar.

DETAILS: This class will cover the basics of getting started in Google Classroom. How do you design one? How do you close comments? Where is the classroom code? How do you get students into your classroom? How do you create an assignment? How do you locate student work when it is done? How do you provide student feedback along the way? How do you grade student work? And, what types of assignments can you add to Google Classroom?
REGISTER HERE

DETAILS: Building a website is easier than you might think. Click. Drag. Adjust. Move. I’ll walk you through the steps to get you started. Or, maybe you have a website started, but you can’t quite figure out a few bits. If that’s you, come on over! Have an old Site? Did you know you can convert it to the new format? Yep! You can. Come and learn how to do that.
REGISTER HERE

YouTube Channel. Have you ever watched one of my videos on YouTube and then you can’t find it later?  Lost that email?  Don’t know where to find it?  Google won’t pick it up on a search?  Have no fear!  My YouTube Channel is now a link in my email signature.  Scroll down to the bottom and there it is.  Check that out if you want to re-watch one of your favorites.  LINK HERE.

Flipgrid.  Complete Guide to getting started.  LINK HERE.  Flipgrid is totally FREEE!!!!!  Yes, at the close of the school year Microsoft bought out Flipgrid and they made it totally free.  If you haven’t played with Flipgrid yet, I encourage you to explore how awesome it is.  Get approval from your site admin.  Get parent permission forms out.  And let that #StudentVoice shine!  Great learning tool.

Image credits: screen capture from website.

Reading Material.  Here are a few free downloads that might be worth reading.  LINK HERE.  Are you doing education-related research for a grant or a paper of some kind?  Need more relevant information to add to those papers/discussions?  Check out these online tools and see if they shed some light on the thinking, learning, collaborating process.  And, see how these insights shape your instruction.

Image credits: screen capture from website.

Ditch That Textbook.  Matt Miller from DTT recently finished up the second edition of his book.  If you would like a free copy of his book, head over HERE.  Maybe you can explore some ways to Ditch That Textbook this year.

Image credits: screen capture from website.

Trackpad turns off.  Not every computer has this tool.  If your student laptop has a malfunctioning trackpad, try this strategy.  See if the F8 button looks like this.  If so, press it to see if that fixes the malfunctioning trackpad.  If not, try Fn + F8 and that might fix it.

Sponsors. Shout out to our sponsors for Tech Boot Camp!  Thank you again to Classcraft, Flipgrid, Prodigy, and Freckle Education.  They were kind enough to send us giveaway resources.  Thank you so much!

Kindly,

Math Book, Sites & Chrome Folders - Wk 03

A few highlights from this week:

Week 3 (September 4 - September 7, 2018)

Thursday Giggles:           Why do they put bells on cows?
   Because their horns don't work.

FREE/OPTIONAL Professional Development (PD):  Here are the first two dates to mark on your calendar.

DETAILS: This class will cover the basics of getting started in Google Classroom. How do you design one? How do you close comments? Where is the classroom code? How do you get students into your classroom? How do you create an assignment? How do you locate student work when it is done? How do you provide student feedback along the way? How do you grade student work? And, what types of assignments can you add to Google Classroom?
REGISTER HERE

DETAILS: Building a website is easier than you might think. Click. Drag. Adjust. Move. I’ll walk you through the steps to get you started. Or, maybe you have a website started, but you can’t quite figure out a few bits. If that’s you, come on over! Have an old Site? Did you know you can convert it to the new format? Yep! You can. Come and learn how to do that.

REGISTER HERE

Math Book Online. Are you having problems signing into the Math book when you click on McGraw Hill in Clever?  No fear!  Head to www.cusd.com.  From there choose Employees.  Choose Employee Quicklinks. Then, find McGraw Hill/ConnectEd.  You’ll see a grey box on that next screen.  Use the same username and password you use to get into your laptop.  Your books should now appear on the screen for you.

Sites Conversion.  Over the summer a new feature was added to Google Sites.  If you have a website or two in the older version of Sites, you can update that site so that it works in the new interface (much easier).  

      1. Click the blue button at the top of the site you wish to convert.
      2. Click the Start button in the middle of the screen.
      3. Wait 5-10 minutes for your site to convert.

      4.  Tweak and adjust that new version of your old site as you see fit.
 

Google Chrome.  Did you know that you can add folders to your Bookmark Bar?  I have so many bookmarks that I have to organize them in folders.  Each folder has several web pages that I have saved.  The keyboard shortcut for saving a bookmark is Ctrl + D.  When you’re on a page worth saving just use those two keys and a save window will pop up.  Tell Chrome where you want to save that item and rename it if you wish.

You can also rename bookmarks you have saved in the past.  You can delete them.  Lastly, you can drag and drop any of your bookmarks to arrange them however you wish.  

If you haven’t discovered this piece yet, I HIGHLY recommend it!  Sign into Google Chrome so that your bookmarks, passwords, usernames, and history move with you.  Your computer down?  Sign into another one.  ALL your precious resources (passwords, usernames, history, settings, etc.) will be accessible from home or another computer.  Such a lifesaver!  I hope these strategies help you stay organized.  VIDEO TUTORIAL HERE.

Kindly,