Append Assignments with Google Classroom Mobile

Google Classroom Mobile

Students can write on their assignments with the new feature on Classroom Mobile

Created by Scott Aten, December 14, 2018

One of the great features of Google Classroom is giving assignments to students to do their work on and then turn back in to the teacher. For the past few years we have been using tools like Kami to allow students to write on top of worksheet type assignments (often PDFs). There is now another option for teachers who like to assign work in this manner. If the students download the Free Google Classroom app on their phones, they can now make edits on top of the assignments. Students will be able to underline words, highlight text, draw shapes and type text. This feature works on Docs, Sheets, Slides, Office Documents, JPGs and Gifs, and PDF documents. Right now this feature is only available on the Mobile App (not on the Chromebooks or desktop computers.

Watch a demo of the tool in action - my demo is on an iPhone, but will work on all phones.

Here is what the teacher would get when I turned in my assignment. This was the actual thing I made in the video.
Practical Uses

• Assign any PDF worksheet and the students can complete it on their phones
• Since the phone is touch screen, makes doing math problems a possibility
• Students can do an illustration with drawing tools
• Draw lines and label something
• Type short responses on a worksheet
• Highlight main ideas on a piece of writing

Write and save notes

1. On your phone tap Classroom  pick the class.
2. Open the assignment for the file you want to write on.
3. To open a file, choose an option:
   • To open a file that is already attached to the assignment, tap it.
   • To open a new file, tap Add attachment, upload the file, then tap it.
4. To open the note tool, in the top-right corner, tap Edit .
5. Make any notes or drawings.
6. To save your notes, choose one:
   • On an Android device, click More  Save.
   • On an iOS device, tap Save.
7. (Optional) To discard your changes, choose one:
   • On an Android device, tap Back  Discard.
   • On an iOS device, tap Back  Discard.

The notes will be saved differently depending on the type of the original document.  A Google Doc

will be saved as a PDF.

The tool comes with several options:

Tool	Use it to
Select	Select a note to resize or move it.
Erase	Erase a note.
Write	Write or draw lines with a pen.
Mark	Write or draw lines with a marker.
Highlight	Highlight text or images.
Add text	Add a text note.

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Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

PDF Candy - Your One Stop PDF Resource

PDF Candy

One Solution for all of your PDF needs.

Created by Scott Aten, November 30, 2018

We all use PDFs. They are a great file type to provide to anyone because they can be viewed on any type of device. That being said, they can also be frustrating to work with as well. They can be challenging to edit.
Adobe is constantly changing their licensing making it difficult for schools to continue to purchase the software that will do some of the advanced editing.  Enter PDF Candy, a tool developed by Leslie
Fisher.

What can PDF Candy do?:

• Rearrange pages in a PDF
• Extract text from a PDF
• Convert the PDF into other files (Word, docx, Tiff, Png, Jpg, and more)
• Merge two PDFs together
• Delete pages from a PDF
• Convert docs to PDF
• Add a watermark

And much more!

You can begin to use PDF Candy today by visiting the site: https://pdfcandy.com

Happy PDFing

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Tech Integration Team

Activity Dashboard in Google Docs Editor

Activity Dashboard in Docs

See who and when people have viewed a doc

Created by Scott Aten, November 15, 2018

Ever wonder if a document you have shared with someone has been viewed by them? What about an assignment given to your students? Have they even opened it? One little known feature of Google Docs is the Activity Dashboard. By accessing the Activity Dashboard you will be able to see who has accessed the document and when they last viewed it. You can also see who has NEVER opened the document.

Practical Uses:

• See if all of your students have accessed an assigned reading.
• Check to see when a colleague has looked at a file to inform them that it has been updated.
• Email a followup on a document that is being collaborated on from within the Activity Dashboard

Here is where to find the Activity Dashboard:

• Open a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slides file
• From the Tools Menu
• Choose "Activity Dashboard..."

The Activity Dashboard will open giving you data on that documents viewing history.  You are also able to see view trends and change the privacy settings for the view history.  A lot of good information is right at your fingertips.  Yes, this is available in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Give it a try on a document today!

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Tech Integration Team

Turn Forms into Checkout

Looking for a way to keep track of what students have signed out your resources?

Created by Scott Aten, October 15, 2018

Keeping track of what students, or other staff members, have borrowed from you can be tricky. By using the
"CheckItOut" add-on for Google Forms, you can create an easy checkout system that will help you keep track
of all your classroom resources. Possible uses...

• Classroom library checkout
• Science materials checkout
• Classroom calculators checkout
• Magazines, newspapers, etc checkout
• Classroom supplies checkout

I have created a video that demonstrates how to get the "CheckItOut" add-on, as well as, how to use it. In less
than 10 minutes you can create an easy checkout system that your students can use. NOTE- Be sure to get the
updated version of the add-on. The picture will look like the one above.


[Demonstration of the CheckItOut Google Form Add-on] - complete instructions for setting up your
form including getting the add-on and using it.

Once you have the form finished, I would just add a link to it in your Google Classroom so that students can easily find it when they want to use one of your resources.

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Tech Integration Team

YouTube Restricted Message

Some changes to YouTube have been causing some of you to get an error message when you try to play a video. Here is how to fix it!

Created by Scott Aten, September 20, 2018

If you have recently tried to play a video or watch a live YouTube stream and gotten a message similar to the one above. I created a short video that shows you how you can avoid getting this message (see below). Remember
You should always be logged into YouTube with your Google account to be able to watch videos as a staff member. Once logged in you have the ability to see ANY YouTube video and can "Approve" videos. Students can watch any "Approved" video. If you forget how to approve videos, refer to this video I created awhile back.

[YouTube Video Unavailable Fix September 2018]

[Approve YouTube Videos for Students]

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Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Add Classwork to Google Classroom

Add "Classwork" to Classroom

If you created your Google Classroom in the Summer before school started, you can now add the "Course Work" section to your existing Classroom.  

Created by Scott Aten, September 19, 2018

For those of you that are Google Classroom users, you know that it has undergone many changes for the start of the school year. If you created your Classroom prior to the start of school you will notice that your Classroom is missing the new "Classwork" section. Google has made a way for you to add this section in your existing Classroom without starting all over. See below for visuals...

1. Open your the Google Classroom in which you want to add "Classwork". 
2. Look in the lower left corner for the ? and click it.
   
3. Once you Click "Add Classwork page", this message will appear.
   
4. Be sure to notice that any content in the "About" section will have to be added again.  The About section doesn't work the same way in the new Google Classroom as it did in the old.  See my earlier blog post on ways to deal with this change.
5. You will now see that "Classwork" has been added and any assignments that were in the Stream are now moved into this section.

You are now ready to continue with adding content in your Google Classroom and it has been updated to the newer version.

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Tech Integration Team

Book Creator

Create eBooks with Book Creator

Looking for an engaging way for your students to practice their writing?  

Created by Scott Aten, September 14, 2018

Last Spring I attended the ITIP Ohio Summit and went to a session on Book Creator. I had seen this App/Site before, but had forgotten about it. The session was very interesting and the teacher had many examples of students using Book Creator as a part of his class. Basically what it will do is allow you or your students to create your own eBooks. Once created the books can be shared via a link for others to "read". One awesome feature of the published book is the "Read to me" option which will read the text that was added to the book.

Students will be able to add images, text, backgrounds, stickers and more to the pages of their eBooks. Books can be standard books or comic books complete with comic cells. There are many really neat features of this app that makes creating books a creative and fun experience.

Here are a couple books that I created:

Pets! - Basic Book with images, backgrounds and text boxes.
You've Got a Friend in Me - Comic style book with images, stickers, and speech bubbles

There is also a feature that allows the book creator to record their voice onto the page as well as a camera option to access the web cam on their device to take pictures for the book.

When using sites like this, it is important to verify that the data they are collecting isn't being used in some way
that violates FERPA or other student protection laws. Even though this site has a free component it is important
to verify how the data is used, especially if you are allowing your students to create accounts. The Book Creator site makes the privacy information easy to find (read their privacy statements).

The free version of this site allow you to create 1 library and store up to 40 books. Students can connect to your
library as well, making this a great resource to share between students as well as going home to parents.

How could I use this?

• Science - have the students make a review book of the concepts covered in your unit
• Math - a book that explains the process for solving a particular type of problem
• Foreign Language - Take an existing book and translate it into a new language with students recording their voice reading sections.
• Social Studies - create a book that illustrates the sequential series of events of a particular event in history.
• Health - a book of nutritional facts around various food groups
• Language Arts - Too numerous to mention

There can be application for any content area at really any grade level. Look for PD opportunities coming in the near future.

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Tech Integration Team

New Google Contacts, Distributions Lists, and More

The NEW Google Contacts

Time to setup your distribution lists and organize your NEW Google Contacts.  

Created by Scott Aten, August 31, 2018

If you have converted your Gmail to the NEW look then you will have noticed that Contacts have changed as well. I have put together a series of video to help you navigate your way through the NEW Google Contacts as well as how to use them in Gmail. Many of you are probably putting together contacts of parents or setting up department distribution lists so this should be valuable information to get you started this school year.

• Intro to Google Contacts - Shows you how to get to convert to the new look of Gmail, how to find Contacts, and how to make a single new contact.
• Import Multiple Contacts - Using an Excel template, this video shows how to import multiple contacts all at once into your Contacts and rename the Label that gets created when you import them. This is perfect to bring in all your parent contacts quickly and easily. You will want to download this TEMPLATE to use with the video. Open the template as a Google Sheet and then download it to use in Excel.
• Use Contact Labels to Send an Email - This is essentially the Google equivalent of using a distribution list.
• Share Contacts by Exporting Them - Do you need to give a colleague one of your groups of contacts? This video shows how to export the group. They will then go back to the "Import Multiple Contacts" video to see how to bring them into their Contacts.
• Make a Contact from an Email - Built into Gmail is the ability for you to make a contact from an email you have received.
• Make Distribution Lists (Labels) from Gmail or Contacts - This video demonstrates how to make distribution lists (in Google they are called Labels) both from Gmail and Contacts.
• Adding a Contact to an Existing Group (Label) - Did you forget to include an email address in your group or has new come into a situation that you want to include them in a group? This video shows how to add them to a contact to an group or label that you have already made.

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Tech Integration Team

ProgressBook Updates

GradeBook items to be aware of for the start of school.  

Created by Scott Aten, August 16, 2018

Below are a couple items in ProgressBook GradeBook that I thought would be good to know for the start of school. Both items have a video demo as well as a quick reference card that you can print or save in your Google Drive for future reference.

• Updated Grid Features (video) - Quick Reference Card
• Weighted Grades 80/20 (video) - Quick Reference Card

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Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Google Classroom Updates

For the start of the 2018-2019 school year Google has updated Classroom.  

Created by Scott Aten, August 10, 2018

You will notice some significant differences in Google Classroom when you begin to create your classes for this school year. This post will help you understand all the new features and how to best utilize them for you class and students.

• New Classwork Page - Use this section to post assignments and questions. Using topics will allow you to group work into modules, units, or chapters.
• New Grading Tool - When grading things students have turned in through Classroom, you can now toggle between students. You can also save common feedback in a comment bank.
• New People Page - Replacing the "Student" page, the "People" page is the place to view the students in your class, from this page you can invite students to the class, invite co-teachers to the class, and guardians.
• New Settings Page - The gear found on most Google products is now present in Classroom. As always this refers to "settings". The changes you can make in settings include: Title and description of the classroom, the class code to join the Classroom, what students can do in the stream, turn on/off show deleted items, and turn on/off guardian summaries (there is also a link to see a sample of the guardian summaries).
• Copy a class - From the "Home" screen of Classroom you will see an option to "copy" from the three dot on each Classroom in your list. This is perfect for teachers who have several sections of the same class. Here is what will copy from an excising or archived class: Title, Section, Description, Course subject, Topics, and Classwork posts (copied as drafts with no schedule date). The following will NOT copy: Teacher announcements, Deleted classwork items, students and co-teachers, student posts, attachments that you don't have permission to copy. This process might take a while, so you will get an email notification letting you know when it is finished.
• Control notifications by class - Both teachers and students can turn notifications off for any class.
• Teachers can change grade point values when creating or edition assignments of questions.
• Teachers and students can see updated labels—assigned, turned in, graded—for the status of a student’s work.

The one thing that you will notice right away that is not available is the "About" tab. If you go to the "Stream" you you will see a link to "About" in the upper right corner of the Classroom. However, you can't add content to this section like handbooks, syllabus, or other resources like we have in the past. In all the groups I am a part of, this has been a complaint about the new Classroom. It may come back at some point, but for now we are going to have to find a different way to provide this material. The "Stream" now only allows you to add announcements Or reuse announcements from other classrooms. All assignment information is found in the "Classwork" section. In the Classwork section you will be able to add Assignments, Questions, Reuse posts, and create Topics. To do this look for the "Create" button at the top of the Classwork screen.

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

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team