Friday, November 1, 2024

Google Docs ~ Document Tabs

 

Google Docs Document Tabs

Organize your lengthy Google Doc with Document Tabs!






Created by Scott Aten, November 1, 2024
Recently Google added a new feature to Google Docs called Document Tabs.  You may have noticed when you open a new Google Doc there is an icon in the left margin. 

If you give this little icon a click you will see you now have th option to create "document tabs" within the doucment itself.  Think of it like a notebook with many different pages.  The process will look something like this...


As you can see it is very easy to do and it essentially give you a new blank doc every time you create a new document tab.  There are a lot of practical uses in the classroom.  Here are a few ideas:
  • Organize notes for a class.
  • Create a class notebook where each student adds their content on a specific tab.
  • Breaking down large document into more managable pieces.
  • Presentation of data in its own area
You can also add some visual organization to the tabs by adding an emoji in front of the title.

The emoji can be added by clicking the three dots to the right of the tab title.  Here is a link to a Google Doc that I made that has Document Tabs added.  Feel free to add your ideas on how Document Tabs could be used in the classroom on the "Ideas" tab in this document for everyone to see.

If you would like me to come and help you please feel free to schedule me to come and assist you.  I am always ready to come help.  


For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.


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Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Adding Co-Teachers in ClassKick

 

ClassKick

Adding a Co-Teacher to ClassKick is easy!




Created by Scott Aten, October 16, 2024
This will be a short update, but one that many of you will be happy to learn.  ClassKick now has the option for you to add a Co-Teacher to your class.  There are many applications for this that you will find helpful, so it is awesome that this feature is now a part of ClassKick.  The video below demonstrates how to set this up and how to use it.




If you would like me to come and help you please feel free to schedule me to come and assist you.  I am always ready to come help.  


For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.


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Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Friday, May 10, 2024

Translate Any Document with Google Translate

 

Google Translate

Translate entire documents for students who need them


Created by Scott Aten, May 10, 2024
It seems like we have more and more students coming to us that English is not their native language.  Now with Google translate, it is possible to upload a document and have it translated into whatever language you need.  The great thing is that this includes PDF documents.  Following these simple steps will allow you to take an existing document and convert it into the language needed by your student.  Then once you have the document in your google drive, you can simply share it with them.

You are able to translate documents up to 10 MB in any of these formats: .docx (Word), pdf, pptx (PowerPoint), xlxs (Excel).  PDF documents must be less than 300 pages.

Here are the steps:
1. Go to Google Translate (note this is blocked for students)
2. At the top of the page, click "Documents"
3. Choose the languages to translate to and from.
4. Browse your computer or Google Drive
5. Select the file you wnat to translate
6. Click "Translate" and wait for the document to finish
7. Click "Download translation" to save it on your computer or in your Google Drive

It is that simple.

If you already have a document created in as a Google Doc. You can use the built-in translator tool found under the "Tools" menu.

This is a great little tool to keep in your pack pocket should you have ELL students in one of your classes in the future.

If you would like me to come and help you please feel free to schedule me to come and assist you.  I am always ready to come help.  


For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.


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Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

May the 4th ~ Fun Star Wars Themed Activities

 

May the 4th

Fun Star Wars themed activities to do post testing



Created by Scott Aten, May 1, 2024
With testing winding down, I thought you and your students could use some fun and educational activities that can be integrated into your content area.  I ran across this article from Tech & Learning that has a lot of activities for May the 4th.  What is May the 4th?  It is the day Star Wars fans celebrate the Star Wars franchise (May the 4th be with you - get it?).  Below are a list of some activities suggested in the article that you may be able to use or tweek to use with your students. You may want to have a student try the links to be sure nothing is blocked before you do it with the class. 

Here we go...

Award-winning English teacher Katherine Mulrooney offers great ideas for relating Star Wars to classroom subjects, including engineering, social studies, music, math, and literature. Each standards-aligned digital teaching resource is shareable via Google Classroom (get the links and you can use them in Canvas)  and forms the basis for a complete lesson.  

Create Star Wars Art
As an art or graphic design assignment, have your students focus on an aspect of Star Wars they find meaningful, such as good vs. evil, relationships and community, or mythic heroism. Then ask them to illustrate this theme, either by creating their own artwork or developing a specific prompt for AI-generated artwork (some of these may be blocked) . To complete the assignment, students write an essay (but not AI-generated!) explaining how their art exemplifies their chosen motif.

Starwarigami
What does origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, have to do with Star Wars? Strictly speaking, nothing at all. But that’s where the novelty (and fun!) lies. Combine the intricate paper engineering of origami with the futuristic spacecraft design of Star Wars and you will have a lesson that appeals to your entire class. The brainchild of software engineer Martin Hunt, Starwarigami provides 18 printable fold-and-crease patterns in addition to a gallery of finished artwork and links to other patterns. 

One of the most iconic features of the Star Wars movie franchise, the inclined scrolling text lends an air of historic importance to any words. Users simply replace the existing text with their own, and share the generated URL. Let your students show off their creative vision with this free, fun and easy-to-use Star Wars movie introduction generator. 

Star Wars Trivia
Test your knowledge of Star Wars—and yourself—with these online quizzes and polls. Whether matching the quote with the correct movie or pondering which Star Wars device you can’t live without, rest assured that any result is a good result. The greatest teacher, failure is.

A high-energy, feel-good exercise program that asks kids to choose between two Star Wars choices, then perform the indicated activity. 

Ashley Eckstein, who voices Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, leads youngsters in a brief guided mindfulness lesson. Just as Luke Skywalker faced his fears in the dark cave, so must everyone explore their own dark spaces, illuminating them with calm acceptance rather than anger.

What do Star Wars, NASA's Dawn spacecraft, and Newton's Laws of Motion have in common? From the renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, this Star Wars-inspired, standards-aligned lesson about ion-propulsion includes background, student activities, example spreadsheets, and more. Want to go deeper into the physics? Check out the fine collection of force and acceleration lessons here. 

Transform your students’ Star Wars enthusiasm into genuine learning with this extensive collection of STEM-teaching resources for K-12 and beyond. Included are lesson plans, educator guides, interactive multimedia learning modules, contests, challenges, and much more. Searchable by grade level, subject, and type of activity. 

A lesson about latitude and longitude based on Star Wars fictional planetary locations and their Earthly analogues. Students learn how filmmakers used various extreme Earth landscapes as the basis for other-worldly Star Wars scenes, then map latitude and longitude of the real-world locations. Includes follow-up questions.

A wealth of Star Wars STEM activities can be found here, from creating colorful lightsaber greeting cards to building robots from junk. Many of these excellent resources are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. 

In the Star Wars saga, the most valuable lessons extend beyond technological advancements. Rather, they explore life’s problems and solutions, whether in a distant galaxy or right here on Earth. Star Wars authority and educator Dan Zehr thoughtfully delves into timeless themes such as dedication, resilience and effective leadership.  

Teaching ‘Star Wars’ With The New York Times
The Times takes Star Wars lessons to a level above Cloud City with its Shakespeare, history, physics, science, math, and yes, economics, Star Wars-themed lessons. An exceptionally strong resource, especially for middle schoolers and above.

This Yodish speak translator just for fun, try. Even better, use it as the foundation for an English grammar lesson.  For computer science classes and advanced students, the Yoda translator API allows users to integrate the Yoda speak translator right into their website or application.  

John Williams’ Star Wars score is one of the best known movie themes of all time. But what about other avenues to combine Star Wars and music in a single, thought-provoking lesson? Teacher Jessie Powell, the force behind the popular YouTube channel Music and Motivate, provides a detailed narration of her favorite Star Wars music lessons, as well as a link to her blog, where the interactive lesson can be accessed for free. 

Hopefully you can find something useful in this list.  Have a happy May the 4th day and "may the force be with you aways."


For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.


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Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Monday, December 4, 2023

Magic School AI

 

Magic School AI

Your personal AI assistant for all things teaching.





Created by Scott Aten, December 4, 2023
It seems like AI has become one of the fastest growing technologies in recent memory.  While we block AI content for students, as staff members you do have access to AI tools.  MagicSchool is an AI platform designed to assist classroom teachers develop content to use with students.  MagicSchool has over 50 tools that are designed to help teachers perform different tasks.  For example: lesson planning, differentiation, communication with parents, rubric design, and many more.

Give MagicSchool a try by visiting magicschool.ai/. The best way to experience it is to just experiment with it.  By providing your content area, grade level you teach, and some specific topic information, the AI generator will provide you some suggestions.  For example I ran the "Real Wold Connections Tool" to help me get some examples for a 6th grade math lesson.  I provided this information to the tool...

So by simply providing the tool with my grade level and in this case a specific content suggestion from 6th grade math, I was provided these suggestions...




You can then easily click the copy button and paste the content into a Google Doc to be used or edited.

Next I tried the "Song Generator" with some grade 2 Social Studies content on maps and Cardinal Directions.  I provided the topic, a few key details I wanted in the song and then an artist and song title...


And here are the results...




There are a lot of tools to use including:
  • Social Emotional Learning lesson planning
  • Multiple Choice Assessment Generator
  • Report Card Comment Generator
  • Lesson Plan Generator
  • YouTube Video Question Generator
  • Student Work Feedback Tool
  • Informational Text Generator
  • Math Story Problem Generator
  • Text Leveler Tool
  • Text Translator
  • Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Questions Generator
  • Sentense Starter Generator
  • Choice Board Generator based on UDL
  • Social Stories Generator
  • Vocabluary List - Topic Based 
  • Coach's Sports Practice Generator
And these are just a few examples and they are constantly adding more.  Right now this is all free to use.  With anything AI, it is always good to fact check and make personal changes to the content.  AI is very smart but it is not 100% foolproof.  Nothing can take the place of a good teacher.

I will leave you with this...Why did the teacher want Christmas break to come?
Because she was tired of all the "elf"-abetizing!

Yes, this was generated by the Teacher Joke Generator set to 7th grade level.  So if you are looking for some time savers, this tool may be a nice addition to your lesson desgin process.

If you would like me to come and help you please feel free to schedule me to come and assist you.  I am always ready to come help.  


For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.


bulldogstrong.jpg

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team