Technology Tips

Last year, Google Classroom announced that you can make student groups in Google Classroom. Recently, they released a few new features with groups in Google Classroom. Now you can:

• Email groups

• Sort by groups when grading on the Student work page 

• Edit student groups on the fly when creating an assignment 

Want to learn more about creating groups in Google Classroom? Check the help page here.

There's a new and exciting update in Read Along inside Google Classroom! Google announced last week that now you can upload your own content in the tool, giving you the option to have guided reading support with data! for your own uploaded material. Check out this video (5 mins) to see how to do it. Or, if you're a Read Along pro, find the "Create" option inside the tool!

From the vault!

If you've ever found yourself writing extra practice questions or problems for a concept you're studying, you'll find this tip helpful! 

You can use AI to generate practice questions for you! You can use any generative AI tool (ChatGPT, Gemini, or Raina in MagicSchool) and tell it your skill, learning target, or standard. Then ask for practice problems on that standard at your grade level. It'll give you questions that you can copy and paste! It'll also provide, if you ask, an answer key and directions to support students as they solve the problems.

Here's a video demo that might help. And, as always, please reach out if you'd like to meet to talk about how to use AI or technology in your environment! 

There are so many great ways to use AI to support student learning, and if you're looking to offer students some additional resources, I highly recommend checking out MagicSchool's MagicStudent tool.

One of the things I love about this platform is how flexible it is—you can launch just one tool or a customized set, depending on your assignment goals. Even better, you can tailor the tools with specific guardrails to guide how students use them, helping keep their work focused and appropriate.

Here's a great video for an overview of the tool! (2 mins). They've created some templates for student rooms, and you can see the list of room templates here.

Let me know if you’d like help getting started or want to brainstorm ways to integrate it into your classroom!

If you're looking for additional spelling and vocabulary practice, check out Spokabulary! There's no account for students or teachers, so it's super easy to set up. Just type the words you want to practice (or type just a few and then have AI come up with the rest), then the tool will create a vocabulary list and up to 6 games to practice the vocabulary 

and spelling. You'll get a custom link to post to Google Classroom for students to play and practice. See step-by-step directions here

There are some limitations. You can't copy and paste a list of words, and you can only have a list of 10 words at a time.

If you've ever been to a website that has just too much clutter, you might want to check out Reading Mode. Reading Mode simplifies web pages, removes distractions, and helps improve focus.  Once enabled for a website, it removes ads, some graphics, and messy distractors. It also includes a read-aloud, allows you to change the font and size, and shift the line spacing, maing for a more readable experience.

It's super easy to turn on! Here's a quick (1.5 minute) tutorial. Or follow these directions:

1. Click the three dots (the snowman!) in the right hand corner of Chrome

2. Click More Tools

3. Select Reading Mode

You might be using Draftback as a tool to see students' progress on a Google Doc. If so, you'll notice that they're going behind a paywall. If you're looking for a tool to watch how students are interacting with a Google Doc, I recommend a few alternatives:

1. Revision History extension is basically the same as Draftback

2. Brisk is a chrome extension that can do a whole SLEW of things. It's an AI-enabled extension that  can help craft a rubric, give feedback, and create slides. It also has an Inspect Writing feature that will show how students interact with a Google Doc

3. You don't need any extension to see revision history. Just click "File" and "Version History" to see how students worked in their file. This works on every google tool, not just docs!

Maybe you're the kind of person with a million tabs open. No judgement! But when your tabs shrink to tiny icons, and you can’t tell which Google Doc you're opening, it’s time for a shortcut. 

In that case, try clicking the little arrow in the corner of your Chrome screen (mine is in the right, but I've seen it appear on the left side of some screens). You can quickly click to the tab you need or you can search to find the tab you need.

During testing season, I hated the 800th time I needed to practice (and grade) written responses before the end-of-course exams. If you're in the same boat, you might want to check out a tool called Short Answer. This is a tool that could be used with students grades 4-12, in any content area.

With this tool, teachers input a writing prompt and a set of success criteria. The teacher launches the question to their class and the students respond. Then, using a game-like activity, students give each other feedback. I think this tool (free for 3 questions at a time) would give me a break from grading and offer students an opportunity to practice their writing skills in a competition style without a lot of prep work on the teacher's end.

If you want to learn more, check out their teacher resources page.

Last week, Google announced a new feature in the Google Classroom gradebook to "grade all," adding to the ability to mark work as "missing" in Google Classroom. If you don't see it yet, the feature should roll out to you in the coming days.

The new "grade all" feature allows teachers to grade all student work at once, perfect for completion-based assignments like exit tickets or classwork. This feature also allows teachers to override existing grades and automatically return them to students.

To set it up:

1. Go to Google Classroom > Gradebook > In the 3 dot menu for an assignment click “Grade all” In the dialog that opens, input the bulk grade.

2. [Optional] Select “Override existing grades” to override existing grades with the new bulk grade.

3. [Optional] Select “Automatically return after grading” to return all grades after submitting the new bulk grade.

Did you hear that Magic School now allows you to create a custom tool (link)? If you find yourself using a tool regularly and are spending time giving custom directions over and over again, you can use the Custom Tool to create a tool beyond those pre-set options. 

For example, if you regularly use Magic School to help you write DOK level questions for each level, you could customize that tool to give information about your class this year, or the style of questions you like, so you don't have to re-write them every time.

To learn more, check out this YouTube video (1 min), or follow step-by-step directions here.

Storyvoice is Scholastic’s free, online platform for live author events and read-aloud shows for kids. Each Friday, Storyvoice offers a free read-aloud from an author or illustrator! 

The videos are live on Friday, and available to stream on Monday. In January, the read-alouds are Bryan Collier reading We Shall Overcome, Anastasia Magloire Williams reading You Are A Star, Martin Luther King Jr., and more!

If you're as engaged with your Spotify Wrapped or Apple Music Replay as the students are, check out these Spotify Wrapped-inspired templates from Ditch That Textbook for an activity this week. This could be a cool way to recap the past semester or the end of a unit, and the templates are pre-created for Google Slides and Canva.

Recently, Google Forms made a change to their share settings. Now, in Google Forms, you'll see two icons -- a Share icon (person with a plus sign),  and a Publish icon.

When you publish a form, responders can access it. If the form is unpublished, responders with the link can’t access it. In order to share a form for people to fill out, you MUST HIT PUBLISH.

When you tap publish, you can choose who can respond to your form. I typically change my setting to "Anyone with the link" and then just email or post the link for people to submit. 

While this isn't a huge change, it does look a little different! This change is on a rapid rollout, so you might need to wait a few days before you see this on your end, but it's coming fast!

Recently, Pear Assessment (Edulastic) released a new feature allowing you to import a Google Form or Document. It's super simple to set up - click here for a walkthrough.

A great feature of Edulastic is the standards mapping and data reports. If you're interested in mapping student growth over time on a specific standard, consider using Pear Assessments (Edulastic) rather than Google Forms.

If you've ever pushed out a copy of Docs or Slides to your students through Google Classroom, only to later find out that you need to make a change or add something, there's now an add-on that will let you make a change instead of starting over!

Magic Exercise book allows you to create the new content in Slides or Docs, then run the add on to add the new content to all of the students' copies. Check out their tutorials if you want to learn more.

If you're looking for a pre-made activity ahead of Thanksgiving, check out this neat "What I'm Grateful For" activity with Google Slides, courtesy of Eric Curts. It comes with directions!

Also, just a reminder that Canva has a lot of pre-created slides and other activities that you can use. Here's a direct link to the Thanksgiving presentations in Canva, but you can explore all their activities by just searching in the Canva search bar.

Google has rolled out a new tool, called Google Vids, as simple way to create videos!

Google Vids is really similar to Google Slides and doesn't require a ton of video editing knowledge. If you were hoping to create videos with your class, Google Vids is worth the try! Check out this one-pager from Google to learn more!

Last week Google released a new question type that could be really fun! The RATING question option allows you to ask respondents to give a star ⭐ , heart ❤, or thumbs up👍  rating. You can also change the number of ratings, with any number between 3-10. 

To add the rating, just open a Google Form and choose the question type RATING, then choose the number and style. 10 ⭐!

K-5 teachers, this is a tip mostly for you! This is a bit more complicated, so here's a video walkthrough (9 minutes).

We have access to Read Along, a speech-based reading tutor built into Google Classroom. With this tool, teachers can assign reading tasks (they have both decodable texts and leveled reads) right in Google Classroom. Students access through Google Classroom (no extra log-in needed) then practice reading aloud. An in-app reading buddy named Diya guides them when they struggle, and teachers receive data about key metrics like accuracy, speed, and comprehension, as well as common mistakes.

• Assign reading materials

• Track students' accuracy, speed, and comprehension

Today's tech tip is a slides-generator AI tool called Alayna AI that creates a Google Slides slideshow based on your prompt. To access, you'll install the add-on. From then on, you'll find it in the "Extensions" menu in Google Slides. 

Once you open the add-on, you'll be prompted to type the subject and a few sentences about your slides. You can also link an article, Youtube Video, or PDF to get even more specific information. Alayna will generate your Google Slides, and from there you can edit them as you see fit!

The tool allows you to generate 3 slideshows per day, 10 slideshows total each week.  

For a full walkthrough, watch this video (5.5 minutes).

I open the same websites every morning, and it can be cumbersome to click on each bookmarked site individually, especially after I've restarted my chromebook.

So I created a folder in my bookmarks bar (directions) and added each site that I want to open each day (directions). Now, I can right click (two-finger click) on the folder and choose "Open All" and all of those sites will open in just two clicks!

Did you know that you have a built-in pen and laser pointer inside Google Slides? To access it when you're in presentation mode, click the three dots next to the button to advance slides, then see "turn on the laser pointer" and "Turn on the pen." Likewise, you can tap the "l" key when you're in presentation mode to turn on and off the laser pointer or shift and "l" to turn on and off the pen. 

These are great features when you just need to add quick emphasis or want to do some light editing.

In the summer Science of Reading training, I regularly saw a recommendation to support students who struggle with reading -- text-to-speech programs. There are several tools, but one that is pretty universal is the Read&Write with Google. This is an extension that can be added on all staff and student devices, and includes a whole host of tools to support students. There is a tool to read aloud any site, including PDFs. Additionally, the tool has a picture dictionary, translator, a highlighter, and more. You can see all the features here. If you'd like me to stop by your class to talk to your students about how to use this tool, let me know!

Over the summer, we had two big MagicSchool updates.

1. AI Image Generator: Once you log in with Adobe, you can really quickly generate an image right inside MagicSchool! It's super easy to use and great for a quick image. Here are the directions to set it up!

2. Presentation Generator: Just type your topic or standard OR upload a chapter from your text, select your grade level, and how many slides you want. MagicSchool will generate the content for each slide, then you can directly export to Google Slides. These slides aren't perfect, but could be a great place to start. They will be plain slides, where you'd add your images or theme. See a sample here -- I just prompted grade 9 and said "symbolism"

There are a few really helpful keyboard shortcuts that can save you some time. Try them out!

• Turn Caps Lock on or off: Press Search (the circle key on the left side of the screen)  + Alt. 

• Reopen the last tab or window you closed: Shift + Ctrl + t

• Extend your screen or mirror your screen: Ctrl + monitor (key that looks like a rectangle, above the number bar)

• Switch windows between screens (when your Chromebook is in extended screen to quickly move a window from your display to the projector):  Launcher  + Alt + m

• To see all the keyboard shortcuts: Press Ctrl + Alt + ? on your keyboard.

Major update from Google Classroom this month! Now you can make groups inside your class! This feature will make assigning differentiated content easier, as now you can quickly assign classwork to pre-defined sets of students without having to select individual students. Once you create a group, the group is saved in that class for future use!

For information on making a group in Google Classroom, check out these directions.

I know many of you rely on Flip (formerly Flipgrid) for adding student voice into your assignments, so you are sad to see Flip go away. I have some recommendations for you below:

You can download all your Flip videos until Sept. 30. To download your Flip videos, follow these directions

Looking for a Flip substitute? I think there are a few good options:

1. Screencastify Submit: This is a great option for quick assignments. Teachers can create assignments in Google Classroom, and students can easily record and submit their videos. While it doesn't currently allow for student interaction, this feature will be added in the future. If you log in and it's asking you to upgrade, let Mike know. We just need to move you into our group!

2.  For those seeking higher-quality videos, Canva is a fantastic choice. While it doesn't offer direct student interaction, it produces professional-looking videos. If you have a bit more time to dedicate to video creation, I highly recommend Canva. Directions for recording here.

3. Padlet allows for limited interaction between students through video or text comments. It's a user-friendly platform, but please note that you can only have three active pads at a time.

One big update over the summer to their Guardian Summaries. In addition to the list of missing work, upcoming work, and class activities, families who receive guardian summaries also will receive preview links to each assignment. They can see the assignment title, the information provided in the "details" section, due dates, and the attachments. Click here to see a sample of a Guardian Summary email.  By default, these are turned off, but you can turn those on in the class settings (directions). 

You can set up guardian access in the People tab. Next to each student, just copy and paste the guardian email addresses next to the student. More detailed directions here.

Some of you might be leaving or shifting roles next year, and might want to move your files over to your personal Google Drive. Google Takeout is your best bet -- it's super easy, especially with a personal Google account. Simply type in your personal email, then confirm a verification code, and it will transfer your drive files to your personal account! You can decide if you want all your Drive and email files transferred or just Drive (I recommend just Drive, email files can be too much)

One note -- this won't move your contacts or Google photos, if you have any of those. If you're looking to move Google Photos, reach out for an alternative plan!

Looking for some flair to add to your communication? Check out emoji kitchen -- a tool to combine two emojis to create one brand new one! Emoji Kitchen could be a part of a cool creative writing activity, fun communication with your classes, or just a fun activity with your students.

Until recently, if you wanted to share your Google Classroom with another teacher you needed to add them as a coteacher to your class, which can be a bit annoying! Google Classroom recently added in the Share Classwork feature, where you can create a link to your classwork and share with teachers. Teachers you give access to will be able to preview and export classwork into their own class, but are not able to see student work, grades, or comments.

To access this feature, visit the Classwork tab of your Google Classroom. Click "Share classwork" in the upper right corner. This feature is turned off by default, so you'll slide the feature on, then copy the link to share with your colleagues.

This is a great feature for teachers who collaborate with one another. 

I know many of you make videos for your classes for end-of-year celebrations. Google Photos can be a great resource for this! Here's a video walkthrough on how to make this happen (time 3:30).

Sometimes your chromebook screen goes dark when you're presenting, but it doesn't have to! Using extensions like Keep Awake (sun icon) or Keep Awake (coffee icon) [yes, same name], you can keep your screen awake. Just add the extension and click the icon to keep your screen on or click it again to allow your chromebook to go to sleep.

One thing to note -- this might drain your battery a bit faster! 

Did you know that every chromebook has a screen reader built right in? And it's super easy to use. 

Select-to-speak is an accessibility feature that activates when a student requests it. To set it up:

1. First, you will need to enable select-to-speak from the accessibility system menu on your Chromebook. Video directions here

2. Once enabled you will see a new icon appear on the shelf (the bar at the bottom of your Chromebook).

You can enable select-to-speak in two ways:

3. Press the speaker icon on the Chrome Shelf and then drag to select the text you want read aloud.

4. Highlight some text on your screen and press search (the little circle next on the left side of the keyboard) + s

Select-to-speak can help you meet one of the most common accommodations listed in IEPs – having text read aloud. It even works in Google Forms during a locked quiz!

Until recently, if you wanted to share your Google Classroom with another teacher you needed to add them as a coteacher to your class, which can be a bit annoying! Google Classroom recently added in the Share Classwork feature, where you can create a link to your classwork and share with teachers. Teachers you give access to will be able to preview and export classwork into their own class, but are not able to see student work, grades, or comments.

To access this feature, visit the Classwork tab of your Google Classroom. Click "Share classwork" in the upper right corner. This feature is turned off by default, so you'll slide the feature on, then copy the link to share with your colleagues.

This is a great feature for teachers who collaborate with one another. I hope it saves some time and cleans up some clutter for some of you!

Today's tip features the MagicSchool for Students tool. MagicSchool now has a student-facing option, called MagicStudent. To access this feature, visit MagicSchool and click "Launch to Students," found on the left side of your screen. There you can launch a room with specific tools for students to use. For example, in 7th grade social studies, students are conducting research and are using the Real World Connection generator, the Research Assistant, and the Summarize It tools to help them with their work,

Not sure which tools you might use for your project? Magic School has a tool for that too!  Check out the MagicSchool for Students Ideas tool. Select your grade level and a description of your activity, and MagicSchool will generate some tools that might work for your assignment!

Today's tech tip features a Quizizz update -- Accommodations! With this new feature (currently in Beta, so there are a few hiccups), you can assign a Quizizz assessment or lesson with accommodations for specific students. You can:

• Provide extra time for questions 

• Enable the Read Aloud feature and other reading supports

• Translate the quiz

• Reduce answer choices from 4 to 2

• Hide the leaderboard

• Enable Redemption Questions

• Set the number of participant attempts (1, 2, or 3)

Once you set up those accommodations for the students, those accommodation groups are saved for the next time you assign a Quizizz for that class. 

If your students are losing focus when they're on chromebooks, you can help them manage by creating a scene in GoGuardian. A scene is a list of allowed or blocked websites that students can access during your class. Once you create a scene, you can schedule it to run during every class period, or just apply it when you need it. Students will not be able to visit any sites that are blocked by a scene, nor will they be allowed to go to ANY other site than what you allow.

MagicSchool has released (or, if it's not in your view yet, will release it this week!) a student facing AI tool called MagicStudent! Now when you're in MagicSchool, you'll see a toggle to view MagicSchool or MagicStudent. In MagicStudent, you can select specific tools you want students to be able to engage with. Then you share a link to students who type in just their name, no student account needed! Students can engage with AI in a safe environment, while teachers have access to the student work.

Watch this video demonstrating how to set it up! And if you have any questions or would like to try this with your classes but want support, please let me know!

If you've ever spent too much time digging through Google Images for just the right picture, try using Canva's Magic Media to generate an image instead!

Just type a description of the image you need (e.g., "a solar system with 8 planets") and choose a preferred style (realistic, cartoon, etc.). Magic Media generates an image you can directly add to your projects.

To get to Magic Media, open any Canva design, then scroll down on the left-hand toolbar to "Apps." Search Magic Media.

You might have noticed that Google Bard has changed their name to Gemini. It has all the features that Google Bard had, under a new name. Gemini works similar to ChatGPT, but it's powered by Google. My favorite feature of Gemini is that I can export to a Google Doc or Gmail with one click. Just click the share icon at the bottom of the output to select Docs or Gmail.

MagicSchool had a big update last week and now you can upload PDFs into most tools! No need to copy and paste, just click the paperclip icon where you see it and find your PDF to upload. Then proceed as usual to get your output.

One note: the tool only allows up to 4000 words. I tried to upload an 11-page short story and it would only use the first 4000 of the 6500 words.

Are you looking for a fun district buddy activity? What about animating illustrations?

Younger buddy classes draw figures -- the drawings could be anything -- and send them via interoffice mail to the older class. Using the Animated Drawings AI tool, older students could take the younger students' drawings and add animation, all without making an account! The students could send back the animations for the class to watch! Check out an example here.

Are you looking for a fun district buddy activity? Try using ChatGPT to help you write a story for the two classes.  If you need help getting started, try using this prompt as your guide. This could be a great way for one group to write some of the story and the other to write the second half, or for one group to write the story and the other to illustrate the pages!

Ever dream of ditching time-consuming quiz creation? Meet Quizziz AI, your new formative assessment superhero!  This tool uses AI magic to instantly generate formative assessments from website links, uploaded documents, and more!

Here's how it works:

1. Paste a website link, upload a document, or type your learning objective.

2. Quizziz AI analyzes the content and automatically generates a variety of question types - from multiple choice to open ended. 

3. Edit the generated questions, add your own, and adjust difficulty levels. You're still in control!

If you're looking for something fun to do for a brain break or a quick activity at the end of class, check out Quick, Draw! Post the link for students, and they'll get a prompt to draw something. They have 20 seconds to draw it, with Google's AI guessing all the while. They have 6 rounds, so this game could be done in 2 minutes! 

One great feature in MagicSchool.AI is the Data Table Analysis, where you can generate data tables along with questions to ask students to analyze that data. With this tool, write a prompt requesting the data you'd like to generate, then watch as a table is created! Use the  + Actions button to add questions or type in the message bar to get more choices. Then export the entire thread to Google Docs to have a complete activity in just a few minutes!

As we approach the end of the year, you might have a big stack of work to evaluate. One tool that might support you as you work through that stack is the student work feedback generator in MagicSchool. You provide a bit of context about your assignment, then paste in the work. MagicSchool then provides some feedback detailing areas of strength, growth, and writing tips. This tool could be a great resource for giving comments on student work when you feel a bit overwhelmed.

Last week, MagicSchool announced some exciting new features! The website got a refresh, Raina is embedded in each tool so you can customize your output, you can write custom prompts and save them in a library, and now you can export multiple choice assessments to Google Forms!

You can learn more about the changes in this video (5 minutes)

'Tis the season when you might be searching for just the right gift. Check out MagicSchool.AI's gift suggestion generator! You'll provide a bit of information about the recipient of your gift, along with your budget, and get a list of suggestions in return!

Much of the AI tools we've been sharing lately have been staff-facing, but today I want to show you a student-facing tool. SchoolAI is a free tool for teachers (limited t0 150 users per teacher per day) that allows students to chat with an AI chatbot in Spaces. There are a lot of pre-generated spaces (historical figure chatbot, exit ticket chatbot), or you can make your own (create your own, sidekick). Students can only access it when a teacher sets it up, and teachers are able to view how students used the AI tool. All you need to do is start the session, post a link, and then students can rock and roll!

Students don't need to make an account, so this is a tool most students in our district can use. Amy Acton and Bryan McKenzie tested this tool with 5th grade science (studying ecosystems) and Brooke Campbell used the historical figure chatbot with her 8th grade history students.

I think this could be a great tool for students preparing for a test. You could open a space, tell the space what students should be learning, and then students could chat with it like they would a private tutoring session. Try it out here (you're studying the first law of thermodynamics in this session).

MagicSchool.AI had an exciting announcement last week -- now you can export your multiple choice assessments directly into Google Forms!

In any tool in MagicSchool that outputs a multiple choice assessment, now you'll see a Google G. Click it and export to Google Forms! These are tools like the Multiple Choice Quiz Generator,  Youtube Video Question Generator, and SAT Practice Test Generator

You might want to extend your screen to project one set of information to the board while you have a different site on your screen. This is great for taking attendance, monitoring GoGuardian, and much more!

There are two methods to extend your screen. First, you can click CTRL + monitor (the square key next to the refresh key) 

OR

• In your shelf (bottom right), select the time

• Select Settings

• In the "Device" section, select Displays.

• Select Mirror Built-in Display. This option will only appear when your monitor is connected.

• You'll drag the windows you want to be on the screen, and you can work from your computer while something else appears on the classroom display.

Bonus Tip! To move tabs or windows from one screen to another, on your keyboard, press Launcher (the circle icon above shift on the left)  + Alt + m.

One fun way to use AI is to create a story based on the vocabulary you're studying. MagicSchool.AI has a Vocabulary-based text generator, where you plug in the grade level, topic, vocabulary list, and length of your text output, and it'll generate a text for you! High School Spanish teacher Lisa Fetterman tried this last week and it saved her 120 minutes! Wow!

MagicSchool.AI's chatbot, Raina, is trained to work with educational prompts, so if there's something you want related to school, Raina can help! Lisa Dugach asked for a reading passage about Force and Motion for her 2nd graders. It gave her a passage, which she prompted to shorten. She proofread it and shared it with her students, saving her 30 minutes! Great job, Lisa!

Now you can do even more with the MagicSchool.AI extension. 

Watch this video (1.5 minutes) to learn how to use MagicSchool.AI right inside your docs and slides!

Have you tried the AI features inside Quizizz? This makes creating a formative assessment SO easy! Watch the walkthrough here

We have a premium Quizizz license this year, so if you use it be sure to check out the helpful data you get after each round.

If you've ever found yourself writing extra practice questions or problems for a concept you're studying, you'll find this tip helpful! 

You can use AI to generate practice questions for you! You can use any generative AI tool (ChatGPT, Bard, or Raina in MagicSchool) and tell it your skill, learning target, or standard. Then ask for practice problems on that standard at your grade level. It'll give you questions that you can copy and paste! It'll also provide, if you ask, an answer key and directions to support students as they solve the problems.

Here's a video demo that might help. And, as always, please reach out if you'd like to meet to talk about how to use AI or technology in your environment! 

Here's another MagicSchool.AI feature: Clear Directions. This tool is great when you feel your directions are vague. Simply copy and paste directions for an assignment and choose the grade level, and MagicSchool will provide clearer directions that you can adjust to suit your needs. 

In my example, I put in directions for an assignment where I often had to clarify. The tool took my 3 slides of directions and condensed them into three simple paragraphs

The Youtube Video Question Generator in MagicSchool.AI can help you make a quick formative assessment. Simply choose the Youtube Video Question Generator and complete the prompts - what grade, how many questions, what kind of questions, and a link to the video, and you'll get questions and answers in seconds! You could pop those questions into a Google Form or an EdPuzzle and have a formative assessment ready in moments. You can watch a demo here!

NOTE: this only works if the creator of the video has allowed closed captions on their video. 

MagicSchool.AI channels the power of generative AI but focuses it on specific education needs, making it easier to use and save time.

Go to MagicSchool.AI and log in with Google and you'll be all set to start. Explore all the tools - there are a ton - and see what works best for you. My favorite tool right now is the Text Leveler, where you can copy and paste in any text and indicate the grade level you want it rewritten for. At the end of most tools, you can also get comprehension questions and translations for the work.

Conker.ai can save you some real time! This tool takes a topic or reading material and creates a quiz, fill-in-the-blank, or read and respond activity based on the grade level you teach. For example, I could plug in that I want a 5 question read and respond passage on gravity for a 4th grade student and it would generate, in about 2 minutes, a passage that students can read with the quiz questions. Then it takes just one click to put it in Google Forms.

NOTE: You can save 5 quizzes each month under the free plan.

Here's a 6 minute video demo of the tool. I think this tool could save you in making substitute plans, differentiating in your class, and taking some work off your plate.

Brooke Campbell shared some great tools to add to your toolbox! Check them out!

This website includes a bunch of Chromebook resources, ideas, and tools. Visit whenever you have some time!

Do you want to back up your Google Drive or save your Drive to a different device? Use Google Takeout to save your material! Check this help guide for extra assistance.

Have you ever had trouble searching for items in your Google Drive? Let me help you by walking you through how to do an advanced search in your Drive. This feature has saved me a lot of time looking for various documents.

In the tutorial, I share two ways to search in your drive. Check it out here.

I like to create links to bookmarks within my document right in my table of contents. That way, if someone only needs a small bit of my document they don't have to feel the need to scroll through looking for their needed info.

There's a Chromebook shortcut to add emojis to gmail, docs, slides, and more! Check out the video here.

If you don't have a quick minute to watch the video, the shortcut for Chromebooks is:

shift + ⚫ (above the left shift key) + space bar

Today's tip is useful when there is a lot of extra information on a webpage.  You can create a shareable link that goes directly to specific highlighted text on a page that you want students to read.

See the steps below or watch the video. 

To create a link that opens directly to highlighted text: 

1. On your computer, open Chrome. 

2. Go to a page with text you want to share. 

3. To highlight the text you want to share, click and hold, then drag your mouse.

4. To open the context menu, right-click on the highlighted text.

5. Select Copy link to highlight. 

6. If you can’t select this option, this feature may not work for the selected content.

7. Paste the link on google classroom or any other site. 

Here's a simple tip: check out this list of keyboard shortcuts! Once you use the shortcuts a few times you'll be good to go. 

Dive into the world of Google Fonts and Icons.  The options can be overwhelming, but Google has a great resource, fonts.google.com to help you narrow it down.  This week's tip shows you how to navigate all the options to find what may work best for you.

Today's tip focuses on how to manage large data sets in Google Sheets by creating a filter.  There are so many great ways to use filters once you dive in, but an easy use is to quickly sort your data or limit the data you see.  Check out this week's tip to help you set up your first filter.  You may just find it saves you some time!

Sharing a Google Folder is a great way to simplify working with co-workers and teams.  This video will walk you through sharing a Google Folder with someone else!

This week's tip is how to create a template in Gmail.  This is great if you need the same email format over and over again.  Save yourself time and trouble by creating a template.

Freezing columns and rows when working in Google Sheets is super cool!  Try it out to keep you from going crazy when working with large data sets.  Check out the video to see how it's done and why it may be helpful

 For those who shy away from rubrics because you think they have to be a big multi-point, huge project thing, this tip is for you.  

Try using a "rubric" as more of a checklist, a simple the student got the point or they didn't.  It's an easy way to provide feedback without having to write tons of comments.  And, it totals the points for you!

Check out the video for a "how to".  Special shout out to Emily Moore for the idea!

Did you know you can customize your Google Apps menu?

Click on your Google Apps menu (waffle icon in the top right corner)

Then click and drag the icons around to your preference!

Watch this video for additional help!

Are you looking for a better way to organize your Google Sheet? Try shading the alternate rows and changing the colors! Watch this video to learn how!

 GoGuardian Student Reports are a great tool to use when you want to have one on one conversations with students and parents about a student's computer usage in your class.  It also allows you to email the reports directly to yourself or others! Watch this video to learn more! 

The Data Gif Maker is a really easy way for students or teachers to make gifs of their data. You can use the data gif maker in any place where you might add a pie or column chart, presenting the data in an animated image. 

Watch this video to  see how it works, and reach out to me if you'd like to try it out with your classes!

 Be Internet Awesome is a digital citizenship program by Google to help students K-6 to be more smart, alert, strong, kind, and brave while interacting online. 

The program has lessons, slides, and a game to help teach and reinforce good digital citizenship!

 tinywow.com has a ton of different tools including PDF converters, video editors, image editors and more. It is similar to smallPDF.com, however it is 100% free and there are no limits or restrictions on how many times you can use it. 

Here is a brief video to show you the site. 

Tired of wasting time having students open Google Classroom, find an assignment, and open it.  Why not do it for them?

Using the new feature in GoGuardian, you can force open new tabs for assignments (along with each student's individual assignment).  Check out today's video for this nifty, time saving technique.

I often get annoyed by ads on unnecessary content on the pages that I need to print, so I use the Chrome extension PrintFriendly to remove the pictures, ads, or text that I don't want before I print. Simply navigate to the page you want to print then click Print Friendly from your toolbar. Click to remove content from the page, then print or save as a PDF! Watch this video for step-by-step instructions.

In this video, Brooke walks you through how to set your Google form settings to make each question a specific point value by default. This is a time-saver when creating a Google form for a graded assignment or an assessment.

Quizizz is a gameified formative assessment tool with a HUGE libary of pre-created material. The tool, which is similar to Kahoot or Gimkit, allows for a self-paced mode where students can answer questions at their own speed. 

It's a great way to make a self-grading multiple-choice assessment a bit more fun!

If you are looking for reading materials and to practice multiple choice questions for your content,  consider CommonLit.  

You can assign pieces to Google Classroom with both the reading and multiple-choice questions and they will be graded for you.  You can include a discussion feature as a final question provided by CommonLit, too.

Video Tutorial

RoomRecess.com is a site of learning games geared toward an elementary audience. The games are aligned with learning skills and teachers can share the entire site with students or share the link directly to a game. The site doesn't collect any user data, but does have ads on the page. For more information, watch this video!

Running out of room on your bookmark bar? Rename your bookmarks to see only the icon for the site! Watch this video to learn how!

Google Docs updated their table properties to make organizing your tables so much easier! Watch this video to see all of the new features in Tables (including table headers and sorting your table!)

This week's tip introduces a way to create a GIF using Screencastify.  The possibilities are endless if you use your camera, screen, or document camera.  You could use it for student feedback, to share solutions, or jazz up your website.  The possibilities are endless!

Move the filmstrip in Google Slides out of your way for a cleaner view of your slides! Click the arrow at the bottom left side of your screen to hide, and click it again to show it! Watch this video to see how easy it is

For some Middle School and High School teachers, this week marks the end of a semester, which means you'll want to clean up your Google Classrooms. Eric Curts has a great guide for 6 (optional) steps to clean up your Classroom.

Easily add your own audio to Google Slides using ScreenCastify.  This is very useful if you want to give instructions but don't need to share any video since the info is already on your slide.  Check out the video to get started. 

Google Slides is a great way for students to practice their mouse skills. Check out this winter-themed drag and drop activity.

 Cleanup.Pictures  removes distractions from your photos. This can come in handy for a variety of purposes, like making a Spot the Difference game or removing stray information from images.

Slidesmania is a great resource for teacher-created or student-created presentations and notetaking.

See these notebook templates for the following:

Student Planner

Student Organizer with Leisure Goals (these have Social/emotional outlets included to embrace balance)

Digital Ring Binder

The notebook templates are great for long-term projects and both provide teacher-directed information and student feedback and interaction. 

Google Arts and Culture is an web-based platform with high-quality images and videos from museums and cultural sites all over the world. The site, where you'll find a lot of the features that were once in Google Expeditions, includes experiments, lesson plans, and works of art. The site is a great supplemental activity for your lessons - check out material for Art, History, Science, ELA, and more! Here's a sample hyperdoc using a Google Arts and Culture lesson.

Hyperdocs can be engaging and effective for every subject.  

Here are some resources to hyperdocs from teachers all over the nation!

Intro to Hyperdocs

Hyperdoc Livebinder

Sometimes you forget what your username or password is for a website.  If you've saved your username and password in Google, you can easily retrieve it.  Check out how here.

Peardeck is a great tool for engagement for both teacher-led and student-led presentations in Google Slides.  It's an easy add-on and now has content-driven slides as well as social-emotional check-in slides.  

Guardian Summaries are a great way to include parents and guardians in Google Classroom.

Auto-schedule your GoGuardian sessions so you don't have to remember to set it up every class.

Make a custom desktop background for your chromebook!

Activities in SeeSaw can allow students to interact with their material in a cool way!

TeacherMade is a great way to take your PDF and Microsoft Documents and convert them to an interactive format

Convert any website into SeeSaw so students can interact!

Because you're a teacher, you get all the Canva Pro features for free!

A fun math practice site!

Book Creator is a neat way to create picture books with your students!

Chromebook App Hub is a great resource for learning about apps available to teachers and students. The site is organized by grade level and features, and has an ideas tab for inspiration.

Mote is a extension that adds audio to sites. This video features how to use Mote with Google Slides.

Watch this video to learn about enabling or disabling auto-save in Google Forms

This video explains how to play a Blockout game with multiplication facts. Click here for a template

Watch this video to learn how to make a copy of a Google Site. This is a great tool for making a template for students!

Use Mote and Google Slides to play a fun game of Connect Four. Check the template here!

Google Slides is a great way for students to practice their mouse skills. Check out this Halloween-themed drag and drop activity.

Remind is a great way to communicate with students and guardians in a secure and private place.

Parlay is a great platform for hosting online discussion activities! Watch this intro video to learn more.