Screenshare with the ActivPanel

Hey There ActivPanel Teachers! 

Want to go wireless with your device?  

Want to have students project from their Chromebooks to share with the class their findings, and discoveries? 

With a recent update the panels have a new screenshare app that works with the Promethean Screen Share Chrome Extension. 

Anyone with a Chromebook can mirror their screen wirelessly to the ActivPanel.

Watch my video below to see how to:

• find the Screen Share app on my panel
• get the Chrome Extension
• request to mirror my screen
• accept the request on the panel

Want help with initial setup?   Need alternative options?

jtamburlin.youcanbook.me

Be sure to post below how you already are using screen mirroring in your classroom!

SeeSaw Pin to Top

Pinning is super-popular in our tech world.  Pinterest, pinning tabs on our browser, and pinning posts on our Twitter feeds help to keep what is important in reach. 

Seesaw in September rolled out their version of a pinning feature which will keep a post at the top of the Journal or the Activiies tab. 

Some popular ideas for elementary pinning are: 

• Bitmoji Classrooms
• Frequently-Used Sites
• Lesson Plans 
• Today's Schedule / Specials 
• General Announcements 
• Lunch Menu 
• Google Forms
• Lunch Count
• Social/Emotional Check 
  
• Homework

• 

What activities or posts do you "Pin to the Top"? 

Have any pro-tips? Post them in the comments!

Give me your best One-Liner: for Google Classroom Rubrics

Today we aren't talking about these one-liners... 

 

 I changed my password to "incorrect". So whenever I forget what it is the computer will say "Your password is incorrect".

My email password has been hacked. That's the third time I've had to rename the cat.

My mom said that if I don't get off my computer and do my homework she'll slam my head on the keyboard, but I think she's jokinfjreoiwjrtwe4to8rkljreun8f4ny84c8y4t58lym4wawt4mylt4amlathn...

CAPS LOCK – Preventing Login Since 1980.

Source onelinefun.com 

Instead, we are going to put a twist on a post from earlier this year, "I love Google Classroom Rubrics" .

As teachers we are fans of using rubrics for efficient grading and feedback. However, we can sometimes cringe at the thought of developing them.  

What if I told you that not every rubric had to be 5 columns by 5 rows? 

Google Classroom Rubrics can be one-liners! Quickly assess the "little" things while staying consistent with point values.   By adapting this one-liner rubric, you will save time "counting errors" and quickly communicate to the student if he/she is on the right track.  You will also have more time for the real-specific, personalized feedback that they need.

Check out this rubric I made for some quick "I can" checks in Google Classroom! 

It is 5 option multiple choice that quickly lets me assign the grade of  "0" "60" "B" "A" or "100%"

Make a copy of the one-liner rubric HERE.  Make your changes in Google Sheets, then add the rubric to a new or existsing Google Classroom Assignment. + Rubric > Import from Sheets

Have you heard about the single-column rubric? 

This is a great place to start for assignments that are multi-step or have several elements that need evaluated separately. Click HERE for a template that you can edit to get started. 

Or, for all of you go-getters, click HERE for a customizeable 5x5 rubric in Google Sheets.  Remember that your rows and columns do not have to have the same quantity of descriptors, nor do they have to have the same point values. (E.g. Content can be worth way more than design or spelling.) Simply delete cells that you aren't using.

This is now my 5th post to the TechSpot about rubrics.  If you don't see what you are looking for in this post, check out the archives.  Included in these posts is a link to roobrix, a tool to help you give numerical grade values to your rubrics.

Join the Google Classroom Rubric trend with others from our #GoDutch family!

Need help with your first one? - Send me your criteria and I will get you up and running to see if you like it! 

Keep it techie!

Jen

Copy a Direct Link to an Assignment

The three dots are magical!  

Anytime you see 3 dots you know that awesome options are just a click away!

The 3 dots on Google Classroom posts lead you to a menu with the option to 

Copy link.

When could this assignment url be useful for teachers and students? 

1. Remind - For teachers who push out communication reminders you can add the direct link to the assignment in your post! 

2. Email - Keep the message clear. Include the url of the missing work right in the message to take them directly to the assignment! 

3. eSD - Use the description textbox to insert the link to the assignment.

4. SeeSaw - Have an awesome Googley assignment that you need collaboration or a copy for each student?   Make it in Google Classroom, but post it in SeeSaw! (tip: post the link in the instructions - not under multimedia)

4. Hyperdocs - Yes! This one is brilliant.  Hyperdocs offer a variety of learning activities for students, but as a teacher it can be hard to keep track of where all these great assignments are, designate sharing permissions and make each student a copy of files.   Hyperlink each activity and ta-da kids have the pedagogical benefits of the Hyperdoc and the organization Google Classroom simultaneously.

I have a worksheet.... now what? Update 2020

 It is now one and a half years after our first "I have a worksheet... now what?" post.   

Back in May of 2019 we spoke of formatting Google Docs with textboxes for responses, using Google Forms as well as leveraging Add-Ons Such as Alice Keeler's Pull Table for digital worksheet completion.

Earlier that year we also looked into ClassKick  which provided a way for students to draw on top of PDFs and access a toolbar with text, scribble and audio recording features. 

Wizer.me made its debut to the TechSpot in 2017 creating a more interactive experience for the student, but with perhaps more upfront work for the teacher. 

Remote learning heightened our awareness and increased the need for taking our paper tasks and enabling their access digitally.  Previous mentioned methods became more popular, and Google Slides allowed us to create backgrounds with our activities and have students respond on top. 

But then, here last month TeacherMade came out with a web application that is exactly what teachers had been looking for.  A quick and easy way to upload a worksheet and have students write on top with little to no prep. 

Here in today's TechTuesday, instead of just introducing TeacherMade, I decided to take a paper worksheet that I had given my students this week as a pre-reading activity and put it to the test of 4 top digital worksheet tools. 

You can view the Google Slides presentation alone to see some screenshots of my results and/or follow along with me as I test each one in the Loom recording: 

Intro: 0:02   TeacherMade: 1:03   Google Slides: 7:00   ClassKick: 12:22  Google Forms: 16:58

Elementary teachers now have SeeSaw which enables them to push out a PDF for students to complete.  The above applications may have some features that could further enhance some of  your activities and certainly be assigned through your SeeSaw platform as well.   Is there anything that stands out to you? Let us know in the comments below! 

Have you been able to try any of these applications yet?

How did it go? 

Would you mind sharing a sample with us? 

As always I would love to hear how I can help you brainstorm new ways that technology can enhance and amplify what you do in the classroom! jtamburlin.youcanbook.me

Managing Make-Up Work - Teacher Showcase

 Here at SMASD we are very fortunate to be able to see our students 5 days per week.  Our face to face instructional time is valuable, and we still do many activities in class, not on a device.  

That said, we want to provide assignments digitally for students when they need it.  Many times students are absent and/or they left the work in their locker. 

Posting every activity that we have done in class online, is no small feat.  It can also clutter up your Classwork page, making true digital assignments hard to find. 

Mrs. Erich and I are brainstorming and piloting a new approach to make-up work for tasks that would typically be done in class. 

The approach involves a Resource Doc full of links to activities that she uses in class.  However we have hacked the urls of these files to "force a copy". 

This document is listed under her Resources topic in an assignment called "Make-up Work".

I then, in a demo student account,  created a How-To video to help students use this resource, and submit Make-Up work for prolonged absences.   Students only access and submit what they need.  You as a teacher have 1 place to check for makeup work. You can see, share and use this tutorial below.

 

This will also create a communication space in the private comments for students who are absent.

We all as teachers are unique. Certainly workflow systems are something that inevitably vary from teacher to teacher. 

What system do you use for providing make up work?  

Are there any aspects of this process that could be useful for you? 

Add to the conversation in the comments below. 

Emailing Groups of Students and Parents through eSD

It's about communication.  Feedback, parental involvement and teacher clarity are all proven influencers on student achievement (Hattie).  One way we can foster those influencers is through communication. 

eSD has an email feature that will allow us as teachers to email:

• an entire class
• a small group of students and parents
• indivdual students or parents

with information to encourage, redirect or focus families on what we have going on in our classrooms.  We certainly found this communication to be essential in the spring with remote learning, and can continue that practice here in 20-21. 

Follow the infographic below to see where to find the Email Students & Parents feature in your Teacher Connect gradebook. 

If you have tried this in the past without success, watch the video that follows the infographic. 

It will show you how to set up a windows device to have gmail.com as your default handler/application. 

Having trouble getting gmail to open after following the above steps?  

Follow this tutorial for a 1-time setup on your Surface, Windows laptop or desktop. 

https://www.loom.com/share/079ad0a5611f46938339cc70719de865?sid=3447c119-a050-4553-aba6-ed8d7c69b1b4

Remember - we are happy to help, via email, virutally or in person!

jtamburlin@smasd.org  jtamburlin.youcanbook.me