A Little Fun with Google Arts & Culture

You may have seen (or tried) the latest trend of finding the piece of artwork that looks most like your selfie. This is a fun use of the Google Arts & Culture app/website, but there is so much more you can do with Google Arts & Culture in the classroom!

1. Take a Virtual Field Trip-The "Explore" menu through Google Arts & Culture gives the user an opportunity to tour famous sites, landmarks, and museums using Street View (which teachers may be familiar with if they've ever used Google Maps or Google Earth). In a few short minutes, I was able to travel from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the Colosseum in Rome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. Teachers could use this feature to connect to ideas in subjects across the curriculum like locations in a novel, studies of foreign languages/countries, and landmarks from history.

2. Look Closely-When viewing works of art (which includes paintings, photos of historical events and people, and places), the user is able to zoom in on features down to the brush stroke. This could be a great way to compare and contrast artists' styles, to look for examples of symmetry, or to look at details of life in the 19th century. There are lots of options for use of this feature!

3. Explore History-The information in Google Arts & Culture seems to be endless-photos, artwork, historic people, places, and events, museums, and more. There is a search feature if the user knows exactly what he/she is looking for. Additionally, the home page includes a highlights section, which includes items like surprising facts, spotlight works, people born on the current day, and events that happened on the current day in history.

4. Find Your Painting Doppelgänger-I had to try out the trend of using the app to find a work of art that looks like me. My result came back at a 65% match, but I've seen some people post matches that could be twins! Scrolling down in the app gives the user the opportunity to upload a selfie. Google scans the image and searches its database for several matches. This could create some great discussion the the classroom, but it is probably more trouble than it's worth. If you have a minute and are checking out the app, try it just for fun! Note: The app is a little different than the website, and you're only able to use the "selfie" function through the app.

How could you use Google Arts and Culture in your classroom?

Hands-on with iPads and OSMO

At the elementary level, iPads are plentiful and one innovative way to utilize these devices in your classroom is with OSMO. 

If you have not had a chance to try OSMO in your classroom, I highly recommend it! This tech tool uses digital apps and hands-on pieces that students can manipulate. The iPad rests in the OSMO base and the red reflector that attaches to the iPad reflects the movement of the pieces into the camera so the app can respond accordingly. Here is a quick overview of the apps already installed on the iPads and OSMO kits we have available in the elementary buildings:

Newton-Physics, creativity, and problem-solving-students work to manipulate falling on-screen balls onto various targets. The more students succeed, the harder it gets! 

Masterpiece-Art-students can use their device to help them draw pictures of their choice. The app helps keep proportions and perspective correct, so any student can be an artist!

Words-Spelling and Vocabulary, which can be connected to any subject area-Students guess and spell the word corresponding to the on-screen image. Great for color words, sight words, geography, and more!

Tangram-problem-solving and spatial reasoning skills-Classic tangram puzzles where the students arrange the 7 tangram pieces to match the on-screen shapes. Puzzles range from easy to hard and are perfect for students of all ages.

Monster-art and creativity-This app brings students creations to life. They will see what they've drawn on the screen and it will become an animated part of the monster's activities! The students can't get enough of this one!

Numbers-Math-This app is a great way for younger students to practice subitizing and for older students to practice their facts and composing and decomposing numbers. Students use either the dot or digit tiles to build numbers. Students gain confidence and flexibility in working with numbers.

Pizza Co.-Math-Students run their own pizza shop and get lots of practice working with money, addition, subtraction, and fraction skills. Students do not need reading skills in this game and it can be adjusted to meet their ability levels.

Coding with Awbie-Coding, logic, and problem-solving-Students are introduced to coding using physical blocks. Again, students do not need reading skills so this is great for K-5.

Note: Newton and Masterpiece only require the iPad app and the base. All other games also need the kits, which we have in each of the elementary buildings.

Teachers can set-up a free OSMO account and keep track of what activities students complete. Through this account, teachers can also download custom word lists for the Words app, access lesson plans for OSMO activities, and see how other teachers are implementing OSMO in the teacher forum. 

OSMO is definitely an engaging tech tool that students love and is perfect for small groups, centers, and independent work. If you need some help getting started, please let one of us know or if this is a tool you're already rocking the the classroom, be on the lookout for the OSMO badge-coming soon!

Everyone Loves a Shortcut!

Last month, the blog featured some great tips for using the Chrome browser. This week's post will focus on some specific tips and shortcuts you can use with Gmail and Google Docs and stems from a personal experience from last week! 

I had just finished typing a school-wide email and, as I was proofreading it, found an error I needed to fix. I have no idea what I hit, but my entire text of my email disappeared. Of course it was saving my draft as I was typing, but what was saved was now a nice, blank email. I was super frustrated and couldn't even remember exactly what I had typed to try to redo it. Unlike typing in Google Docs, there was no "undo" button in my compose email window, however, I found a keyboard shortcut to undo my last action, which brought back my email text!

Gmail:
  
We have a toolbar in our compose window that has a lot of features most people use, like changing the font or adding a bulleted list. There are additional keyboard shortcuts that can be accessed by turning them on in the settings menu.

To turn on Gmail's keyboard shortcuts in your account:

1. Click the Settings gear icon (⚙) near your Gmail's top right corner.
2. Select Settings from the menu that appears.
3. Go to the General tab.
4. Make sure Keyboard shortcuts on is selected under Keyboard shortcuts:.
5. Click Save Changes (if you did make any).

To see the entire list of shortcuts available, when you have Gmail open, hold SHIFT and press ?. 

I did find that I was able to undo my last action and recover the text I had typed in the email I referenced above by pressing CTRL and z. I did not have keyboard shortcuts enabled in my settings menu and this still worked, just FYI.

Google Docs:

There are also a lot of menu options in Google Docs. If you need to search these menus for a particular feature, you can use the ALT and z shortcut to pull up the search bar.

Here are a few commonly used shortcuts (similar to what you may have used in other word processing programs):

Copy- CTRL and c
Cut- CTRL and x
Paste- CTRL and v
Undo- CTRL and z
Print- CTRL and p

To pull up the entire list of shortcuts in Google Docs, press CTRL and /.  Note: You can also press CTRL and / while you are in Google Drive to see the full list of shortcuts that work with Google Drive!

Are there any shortcuts that you use often or would like to see? Let us know in the comments below!