Updates to GAFE Products

Google is constantly updating their products making changes and improvements. In the last week, there were several improvements to GAFE products that I believe are of interest to teachers. Check out a few of those changes below.

'Shared with me' is coming to the new Google Drive

With the launch of the new Drive last year, we renamed the ‘Shared with me’ section to ‘Incoming’ and tweaked the functionality a bit. We’ve since heard feedback from people using the new drive that they miss the ‘Shared with me’ functionality, so today, we’re bringing it back

Headers and Footers

1. People using Google Docs can now use different headers and footers on the first pages of their documents, which comes in handy for:

• Following academic formatting guidelines (e.g. MLA, CMS, APA)

• Starting page numbering on the second page

• Making a title page without headers or footersAfter inserting a header or footer in your document you’ll see a new checkbox―just tick it and you’ll be able to set a different header and footer on the first page:
  

There’s also a new Insert > Page Number menu that lets you customize how and where you start your page numbers―like on the bottom of the second page, for example

Custom themes, mobile app improvements for Google Classroom

Today we announced several improvements to Google Classroom. On the web, teachers can now bring their own personal touches to Classroom by uploading their own images to use as themes. They can add their own custom images, or choose from our gallery of options, which has been updated with 18 new images and 30 pattern themes.

For the Android and iOS Classroom apps, we added the ability for students and teachers to view the class resource page, and a few other features for both Android and iOS. 

The Classroom app allows students to do their work anytime, anywhere and is designed for schools with iPads or Android tablets and students' personal devices. If you are a Google Apps for Education admin and your school is using managed Android tablets, iPads, or ChromeOS devices, please consider installing the Classroom app centrally, as students may not be able to install it themselves. To make sure students have a great experience using the Classroom app, be sure to install the Drive and Docs apps (Docs, Slides, and Sheets) to the devices at the same time. 

To learn more about our native mobile apps, please visit the Classroom Help Center.

As a side note- I get incredible up to date information from Twitter. While you can find great teaching ideas on Pinterest, there are groups of people worldwide who are willing to share ideas and want to talk about what they're doing in their classrooms in their corner of the world. I'm amazed every single day by the things I learn on Twitter from other educators. 

Tech Bytes-Digesting Technology One Byte at a Time

About a month ago, I was on a Twitter chat (my favorite form of PD) and a few of us came up with the idea to do weekly tech tips. We wanted these tips to be simple, quick things you could implement immediately.

Tech Bytes was born that night. It's a collaborative effort between myself and a tech trainer in Loomis USD.

I'll post a new Tech Byte every Monday. You'll see that I posted a new one yesterday and it's actually the second one posted while I was working out the kinks of the layout.

If there is a Tech Byte that you'd like to share, send me an email (kmartin@ltusd.org) and I'd be happy to post it and give you credit. Or if there's something you'd like to know how to do let me know. When we collaborate, we all learn and we're better together.

Be sure to check out Tech Bytes every Monday by clicking any of the links above or here.

SBAC Skills

Skills for the SBAC

On Monday morning, students will see a new tab on the homepage of their browser tech.ltusd.org titled SBAC. On this page there are clickable boxes by grade level spans (see the pic below) that link to different skills which will help students with the computer skills needed for the SBAC.

I'd highly recommend assigning your students to a specific skill that you'd like them to work on. You can access the skills and lessons here.

Within the next few weeks, I will continue to make changes to this page including adding the link to the practice and training tests for the SBAC test.

If there are any sites, skills or lessons that you think are appropriate for a specific grade level please don't hesitate to email me. I'd love to expand this list.

A Resource You May Not Know About...http://ltusdedtech.weebly.com/

LTUSD EdTech Website

You may not know that I maintain and constantly add to a website that helps me with training. Here's the link: http://ltusdedtech.weebly.com/

I constantly add content and instructional videos. Usually those videos pertain to trainings I'm doing with teachers or things I've noticed students need help with. I've also included some videos that others created that may help you.

If there's something you'd like added (a short instructional video or a resource you found) to the EdTech website, send me an email and I'd be happy to add it.

At this point, the content of the site is more focused for K-5 but I'd love to have more resources for 6-12 so feel free to send me an email suggestion.

Tech Tuesdays!

I am very excited to announce Tech Tuesdays starting January 6th! These fast-paced training sessions will be focused on you, the user! All Tech Tuesday events will be held at the Ed Center and are voluntary (unpaid). Below is an outline of the upcoming schedule and topics:

January 6th: Google Drive

January 20th: Google Docs

February 3rd: Google Forms

If you're interested in attending, please click here to fill out the form. If you have any questions, email Kelly Martin at kmartin@ltusd.org

A Few CCSS Aligned and FUN Websites to Check Out

Recently I've found a few great CCSS aligned websites that also have a game-based element built in to help motivate students to succeed. I highly recommend checking them out.

First off is www.zeal.com. It's a site for K-8 that's aligned to both ELA and Math standards. Below is a video explaining it a bit. It tracks what standards students have worked on. You can assign the standards and once they've completed the assigned standards, they can then choose the standards they work on. It's game-based as well in that students build an avatar and earn coins to buy items for their avatar. Which as we've seen from some of our other programs is a good motivator for our students.

Next is www.teachyourmonstertoread.com. This is a super fun FREE website that teaches phonics through a very engaging game. I found this site while on Twitter and set up an account and was immediately sucked in. It's THAT engaging! It's great too because while it initially works on phonics, it moves students then through to digraphs and trigraphs in level 2. Currently they have two levels but level three should be released in early 2015. I HIGHLY recommend this site for K-2.

LTUSD ED Tech Pinterest Account

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break! I know many of the teachers in the district (including myself) have personal Pinterest accounts and use them to gather awesome teaching ideas. And I had the brainstorm while traveling last week that it would be great to pool our collective resources. I've created a Pinterest account with the name LTUSD Ed Tech. I've already created 30 boards some with significantly more content than others.

If you're interested in pinning to some of those boards, send me an email at kmartin@ltusd.org and I'll gladly add you as a pinner. If there's a board you'd like me to add, just let me know.

I learned a cool trick from Twitter (my new favorite form of PD) to create covers for Pinterest. I'll be posting directions on how to do that in the next week or so.

To see the district Pinterest boards click here.

Enjoy!

-KellyBy the way-all the Pinterest Boards I created have a board cover that looks like this: