Black Menu for Google

This productivity extension will give you quick access to your favorite Google tools from any webpage.  

I want to thank Marc Clendaniel for showing me this extension.  If you have not added any extensions to your Google account, this would be a good one try.  Black Menu is a productivity extension, so its main role is to help you do things faster and easier.  

What does it do?
Black Menu is an extension, so once added, it lives in the upper right corner of your browser.  That means it is always available on any webpage you visit. Black Menu is a drop down menu that has a customizable list of Google Apps.  It will give you the ability to use the app from within the menu itself without leaving the page you are visiting.

What Google Apps are available?
Black Menu comes with some of the common apps already listed, but you are able to add ANY Google App that you want to the menu.  You can also remove any apps that you feel you don’t use enough to have listed in the initial menu. But the nice thing is that ALL the apps are available from the “Search Google Shortcuts” area.   

Samples of things you can do:
Here is a quick list of some of the things you can do with Black Menu.

1. Easily add your other Google accounts to the menu.  This makes it easy to bounce back and forth between your personal account and your school account.
2. Change the order of the apps to put the ones you use most often at the top of the menu.
3. Remove apps from the main menu that you don’t use.
4. Add apps to the main menu that you do use (i.e. Google Classroom)
5. Do a Google Search from within the menu.  This keeps you from going back to the Google homepage to do a search.
6. Gives you quick access to your Google drive AND quick access to creating new Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms all from within the menu.

This video shows how to add Black Menu as well as demonstrates how the items listed above work.   You can view the video [Here].

For more helpful information and the archive of previous Check This Out! Digests, go to http://www.greenlocalschools.org/technology.aspx

Google Keep

Google Keep can help you and your students with organization, note taking and reminders.

Maybe one of your New Year’s resolutions was to become better organized. Or better yet, wouldn’t it be great if your students had made that resolution?  Google Keep may just be the tool you and your students have been looking for to help with that organization. Google Keep essentially helps replace the post-it note with the added benefit of also being able to give you a reminder at a specific time.

What can Google Keep do?
Google Keep allows you to create a note, set a reminder to any day or time, add collaborators to the note, add images to the note, add a functional check list to the note, and create a category label for the note to help you find it later.  This can all be done very easily from your computer or mobile device.

How can I use this with my students?
There are a lot of practical uses for Google Keep with students.  Here are a few ideas;

1. Students could make note cards of key vocabulary terms.  With the Google Keep extension they can get definitions right off of websites that you recommend. 
2. Students can create a reminder to bring something to school.  By creating a note with a reminder set to go off when they get home, students can be reminded to get a library book to bring to class the next day, get something for a project to be done at school, or even that you asked them to do problems 1-10 in math.
3. Students can take notes in your class.  The nice thing about taking notes in Google Keep is that the student can then color coordinate topics. For example all vocabulary is yellow, chapter main ideas are green, and Review questions are orange.  Students can also add labels to help organize and find notes quickly. With notes typed in Google Keep the student could also use the search feature to locate key words or concepts written in their notes.
4. Students could create a checklists.  The checklist feature allows students to make a list of steps they should follow when completing an assignment.  As the task is completed they simply click on that step and it is removed. This can be beneficial for students that have difficulty following multi-step directions.  

Do you have some ideas on how to use Google Keep with students?  Share your ideas here.

Show me how this works!
If this all sounds too good to be true, here are a few short videos showing you how it works.

• Finding Google Keep and adding a basic note
• Use the Google Keep extension to make vocabulary cards
• Create a reminder note
• Create a functional checklist

Well maybe this is one New Year’s resolution you can “Keep”.

For more helpful information and the archive of previous Check This Out! Digests, go to http://www.greenlocalschools.org/technology.aspx