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

Pull the Paragraph Add-on

This is an add-on that will allow you to see all of your students google doc written assignments in one place without opening each of them individually AND let you easily provide written feedback to them.

I have had several teachers tell me that one issue they have with using Google classroom with assignments is that it takes too long to open each student’s document to look at it and make comments. This Add-on script allows you to grab what students wrote into a Google Doc and put all of the responses into a spreadsheet. This allows you to save time from opening each Google Doc individually.  The add-on was created by Alice Keeler, but it has not been formally added to the list of Google add-ons at this point, but the steps below will show you how to get it and start using it with your Google Classroom assignments.

Step 1: Create an assignment in Google Classroom
The first thing you need to know is that this only works with Google text docs (not with sheets or slides).  Create your Google Classroom assignment and either give each student a copy or allow them to upload a google doc to the assignment.  Again they have to do the assignment in Google Docs.

Step 2: Download the Pulltheparagraph template
Since the add-on itself is not one that you can get yourself through the normal method, you will need to make a copy of the template created by Alice.  Here is a link to make a copy for yourself to use: [Make a copy of the template].  This sheets document will have the add-on already set up.  You will use this document every time you want to see student work and leave comments for them.

Step 3: Run the Add-on
Open the Pull the Paragraph Template.  Go to the add-ons menu and choose “Pull the Paragraph” then “start”.   You will be asked for authorization, choose “continue” and then “allow”.  

1. On the right side you will see a button that says “Choose a folder”.  Click this button and ”select folder” to choose the folder inside your classroom folder that has the assignment in it. Remember every assignment you make in Google classroom will automatically have a folder created for it inside your Classroom folder.
2. You will be given a reminder that you can provide feedback in column C.  Click “Ok”. The sheet will be created in which each row represents the work typed by a student.  
3. Scroll through the document to read each paragraph they typed.  
4. When finished add your comments in column C for any student you want to provide feedback.  This feedback could include the grade you have given them.
5. When all the feedback has been added, click the “Send Feedback” button on the right.  This will add your feedback to each student's document.

Step 4: Return the student work
In order for the students to see your comments, you will need to go back into Google classroom and return their work.

If you would like to see a video of me performing these steps it is available [Here].

To see Alice Keeler’s description of the Add-on visit her site.

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

Clipular

Great tool for grabbing images off the web to be easily used in G-Suite or other online applications.

As we say goodbye to 2016 and look forward to a nice long winter break, I thought I would share another easy to use Chrome extension that will make grabbing images off the web easier.  The extension is called “Clipular” and it will run directly from your Chrome extensions.

Step 1: Add the Clipular Extension to your Chrome browser
Login to your Google account and go to the web store (here is a reminder of how to access the webstore).     Search for Clipular and choose “Add to Chrome”, Then “add the extension”. Be sure that you are adding the extension, not the app.

Step 2: Using Clipular
Once Clipular has been added, you will see a teal box with the letter “c” in it sitting in the upper right side of your browser window.  You can now use this extension to grab any image off a webpage or to copy an entire screenshot. Once you find an image or page that you want to copy, click the “c”.  The scissors will allow you to grab a single image and the camera will allow you to take a picture of the entire page. If you click on the camera a screenshot is taken and saved.  If you use the scissors you will have to click on the image you want to copy then it will be saved.

Step 3: Using the images you have saved
All of the images and screenshots you save are stored in the “My Clips” area (green notebook).  From the “My Clips” area you can download the images, copy and paste the images to use in another application, or if you have the “Save to Google Drive” extension you can use it to get a copy of the image saved in your Google Drive.

If you would like to see a video of this tool in action, I have created a demo for you to watch.  Please note - you should always consider copyright when using images off the web.  It is possible within Google to search for images have various usage rights.

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

Google Communities

Introducing Green’s Tech Integration Showcase.

If you have not used Google Communities before this may be one tool you want to investigate.  Google

Communities are groups created on a specific subject. They provide a place for people to interact with each other.  In a Google Community you can post something you would like to share with the rest of the community OR post a question to the community that they may be able to help you find an answer.  To find the google communities:

1. Login to your Google Account
2. Click on the Google Apps Button
3. Click on the Google+ App
4. In the left menu click on “communities”

From here you can search for communities to join that match your interests.  Allow me to recommend a few that are good resources for all things Google.

• G Suite for Education (255,000+ members)
• GEG Ohio (local people)
• Google Apps in Education (144,000+ members)

Just go to the community and click the green “join” button on the left.  These Communities are great places to post questions and get answers from other users of Google tools.

I would also like to recommend that you join the “Green Technology Integration Showcase” community.  My thoughts here are that is will be a place for you to share projects and ideas you have used with your students.   This will be a place that Green staff can get ideas from each other on how to integrate technology into their classrooms.  Click Join and post some of your ideas. This is a quick link to the Community: http://tiny.cc/techshowcase

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