Random Name Selector

Use the Mobile Google Classroom app to randomly select students.

Created by Scott Aten, January 17, 2020

Just heard about this cool feature available on the phone app version of Google Classroom. It has the built-in "Student Random Name Selector" that uses the names of the students in your Google
Classroom. It will keep track of what students have been called on, who is absent in the class, allow you to skip a student until later, and show you how many students that have not answered a question. If you use Popsicle sticks with names on them to randomly select a student to answer questions, then this may be a nice alternative. Here is how it works...

1. Just download the Google Classroom app on your phone
2. Open your Google Classroom
3. Click on the "People" button
4. In the upper right corner you will see this buttonclick it.

[See a video walktrhough of the app on my phone] Another option that I have talked about in the past is to use Flippity.net and use the random
name selector from that site. Here is a demo of what the random Name Picker looks like using Flippity.

If you would like help with Flippity, please feel free to schedule me. Both are great options to ensure you are getting all of your students involved with the discussion.

[Green Google Training Center]

[Click here to go to the YouTube Channel]

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

Google 2019 Year in Review

What were all the new additions to Google in 2019

Created by Scott Aten, December 20, 2019

With the end of 2019 at hand, I thought it would be a good idea to show all the new features that have been introduced in G Suite during this year. I have listed them by product.

Google Facts

• Chromebooks are the #1 selling device in the US K-12 schools
• 90 million students and teachers use G Suite for Education
• 30 million students worldwide use Chromebooks
• 40 million students and teachers use Google Classroom

Google Forms

• June - question import in Google forms (see image to the right)
• August - locked mode for quizzes finally arrives
• October - fresh new look to Google Forms

Google Slides

• April - Add audio files from Drive into Google Slides (they had a little trouble with this and I don't think it made the April deadline, but is there now)
• October - new accessibility options for closed captions

Google Docs

• April - comparison in Docs allows you to compare two Google Docs and review the differences as suggested edits.
• May - grammar suggestions added (underlined in blue)
• July - new grammar tools in Docs to help students with spelling and grammar
• September - you can now see the word count while you type
• September - new fonts introduced to improve reading speed (see Lexend)

Google Classroom

• February - move posts to the top added in Classroom's Stream
• April - topic filters on the Classwork page is added
• April - new items will post to the top of the Classwork page
• April - thumbnails for the way that attachments appear in assignments
• June - rubrics added in Google Classroom
• June - grades section added to get a holistic view of students grades over time
• June - ability to sync grades to ProgressBook (Biggest new add of the year!!)
• June - rubrics now embedded in the student view of Classroom
• June - teacher can now archive a Google Classroom on iOS devices
• August - originality reports introduced to reduce plagiarism
• September - classroom celebrated its fifth birthday
• September - rubrics on mobile devices (beta)

Google Drive

• April - you can now edit Office files from Docs, Slides, and sheets without converting file types.
• April - you can now edit the metadata in Drive to better organize and search by tagging files

Google Sheets

• April - connected sheets will let you collaborate on up to 10 billion rows of BigQuery data - FINALLY :-)

Gmail

• April - added the ability to schedule send email

Hangouts Chat an Meet

• April - classic Hangouts in Gmail is replaced with new Hangout Chat
• April - live captions now available in Hangouts Meet

I am sure we can expect more great features to come in 2020!

[Green Google Training Center]

[Click here to go to the YouTube Channel]

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

Cool Stuff from OETC 2019 Part 2

Cool Stuff from OETC

Color By Numbers Sheets Activity

Created by Scott Aten, February 21, 2019

Google Sheets is always the app that students (and really teachers too) have the least amount of experience using.This activity can be used in one of two ways:
1) Teacher creates the activity for students to do as a review of material
2) Students create the activity for their classmates to do as a way to review material.

This Google Sheets activity uses the "Conditional Formatting" feature of Google Sheets to build a pixel image within the Google Sheet. Once you have the general idea of how to make a basic formula in Sheets the activity comes together fairly quickly.

[Try my demo] - when prompted "make a copy" Answers: 5 - amount - carnivore - 13 - nitrogen - 3 (I tried to demo questions in many content areas)

What your students will learn if they make their own?

• Your content - simple review questions of your unit of study
• How conditional formatting works in Google Sheets
• How to setup a formula in Google Sheets
• Creative thinking in designing a pixel image
• Not to be afraid of Google Sheets

For younger elementary students, they will begin to be exposed to Google Sheets and have fun seeing the image begin to appear as they answer your questions. The activity can serve to provide immediate feedback to their responses.

If you would like to schedule a time for me to come and help you setup one of these or assist your class in making one as a review for a unit, please use my scheduler to pick a time.

[Schedule me to come and help]

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

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!

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

Roster to Slides

Quick way to provide a slide for each student in your class in the same Google Slides presentation.   Collaboration made easy!  

This is a great resource created by Alice Keeler!  This add-on will create a slide for each of your students allowing your class to work collaboratively on a single Google Slides document.  Simply follow the steps below and you will have a Slides presentation ready for your class to build  together on any topic you choose.

Roster to Slides

1. Make a copy of this Google Sheet - Click here to make a copy
2. From the add-on menu choose “Roster to Slides” - give them  a second to load
3. Choose setup
4. Authorize the script by clicking continue
5. Choose your Google account and click “Allow”
6. Paste or type your class roster into column A in the Sheets document
7. From the add-on men choose “Roster to Slides” and choose “create slides”
8. Script will run and create a Google Slides presentation in your Google Drive
9. Go to your Google Drive and open the new Google Sheet called “Roster to Slides”.  
10. You can rename this file by right clicking and choose rename if you would like.

This Google Slides document now has a slide with the student’s name followed by a blank slide for them to work on.  You can make the Google Slides available to your students through Google Classroom.  Simply make a new assignment and use this document, but be sure to NOT give each student a copy.  This will allow them to all work on the same presentation and add content to the slide you made for them. This is a great way to make a collaborative class assignment where each student is able to add their own specific piece to the overall project.