Google-y Secrets

Use the Explore button in Slides, Docs, and Sheets to ask for help, display your slide information in a pleasing way, or work more efficiently. (Think of it kind of like Clippy for Docs.)

💡Use in Slides to help with layouts.

💡Use in Docs for research and citing works.

💡Use in Sheets to look more into your data or easily finds sums, averages, etc.

Opening the Revision History in Slides, Docs, or Sheets allows individuals to see who has made edits.

💡 This is great to hold students accountable during group work or to identify who has deleted a Slide when working in a collaborative nature.

💡 Name current versions to show the writing process or easily identify stopping points in your workflow.

Tag others in comments to draw attention in Slides, Docs, Drawings, or Sheets to content by typing a + or @ and then their email. (IE: +jlangel@mgusc.k12.in.us or @jlangel@mgusc.k12.in.us) You'll get notifications to your email and you can reply from there - no need to open the document! (You can also do this in Drive on PDFs and image files!)

💡Use this to give feedback to students. Require them to reply back to you or assign the comment to them so you know they've seen it.

See who has viewed or shared your Slides, Docs, or Sheets, as long as you are an editor. Use the Viewing History to see comment trends as well. (Click the upward arrow trend arrow to the LEFT of the comment and Blue share button.) More info here.

💡Use this to monitor productivity in group work.

You can manipulate the URL of Slides, Docs, Drawings and Sheets to force a copy of a document with or without comments, give a template or preview of a document, or force a PDF export with your link.

*Make sure your link is set for anyone to view in order for this to work.

💡Did you forget to make a copy for each student in Classroom? Force a copy and add that into your assignment instructions.

Move icons that you use frequently to the top for more efficiency.

Insert>> Table>> 1x1 square

💡Do you get Google Docs back where students haven't answered all of the questions?? Add a 1x1 table. Fill it in with a color. This visual representation ensures students reply in all the places they need to, always!

If you open a Word Document in Drive and open with Google Docs it's still technically a Word Document. If you see .DOCX to the right of the title, it's Word. To convert this, you'll need to go to File>> Save as Docs.

💡(If you try to add the document to Google Classroom, it'll still be viewed as a Word file.)

Change your page margins to .2 if you are not printing. This allows for you to use more of the page. (Go to File> Page Setup.)

Utilize outlines for your students to easily find/ access information in Docs.

💡 Have your students use proper headings for note taking.

Bookmarks are great to use if you need to draw attention to a specific part of your Google Doc. Find these under Insert. Highlight text in your Doc and link it to that bookmark.

💡 Create a scavenger hunt in Docs with Bookmarks!

💡 Students can write "Choose Your Own Adventure Stories" using Bookmarks.

The Chrome Omnibox/ URL address box is a powerful search tool. You can use it to search for GSuite for Education items you've recently opened, Google ANYTHING, find meters to feet conversions, and more!

There are several awesome extensions out there. As we continue to create/ design lessons, we need to be cognizant of how our content looks. I love this extension because it allows me to match colors and stick to a main scheme of 2-3 colors.

Each Slide in a Google slide deck has it's own URL address, which means that we can link to a slide individually. To link information on Slide 1 to Slide 5, for example,

1.Choose the text or image you want on slide 1.

2.Right click OR hit CTRL+K OR from the menu, click Insert>> Link to insert link.

3.Select Slide 5 from the drop down menu.

💡 Use this feature for Choose Your Own Adventure stories, Hyperdocs, or Choice Boards!

Google Slides truly is the Swiss Army Knife of GSuite for Education. Need to print? Change the Slides to 8.5 x 11 inches. Need 120 x 120 pixels? Change the page size!

File>> Page Setup>> Custom>> Type and APPLY!

The default view in Slides is the traditional filmstrip view. Would you like to see your Slides tiled in a grid? Below all of your slides in the bottom left hand corner, click the grid icon.

💡 Use this to see all students working/ collaborating in the same slide deck! (Click here for an example.)

Are you wanting to select/move more than once item at a time? Press and hold SHIFT to select multiple items.

STEP 1: Save your audio file to your Google Drive

STEP 2: Insert audio into your Google Slide (Insert> Audio)

Audio files can be inserted but NOT created in Slides. (My favorite tool for creating audio files is Online Voice Recorder. You can also pull audio files from Flipgrid or Screencastify videos.) The file must be an .mp3 or .wav file type and it MUST be in your Google Drive.

💡 This is great for students that need to listen to directions but perhaps don't have enough bandwidth to play video.

Copy a Slide when you want to paste it into another slide deck. Link the slides so the copy reflects any changes made on the original.

💡 Use this for ongoing journals in Slides. Students (or you!) copy a slide from the teacher slide deck and paste it into the student slide deck. Build from there!

💡 Want to use Slides collaboratively? Have students create in their own slide decks first, then copy/link in their slides into a class deck!

Need to make a copy of a slide in your next? Save a few clicks by duplicating slides. Right click on a slide (on the left), then click duplicate slide.

Want multiples?

>Press and hold SHIFT to select slides in a row.

>Press and hold CTRL (or Command) to select slides not in a row.

Right click on a slide so viewers don't see it while you are presenting.

Select the slide you'd like to download.

File>> Download as JPEG

Share your image file wherever you need!

💡Have students create slides about themselves or about a topic you've been learning about. Download the slides as JPEGs and create a poster with them on Canva!

In Slides, click the arrow to the right of "Present". You can present Google Slides on your projector and have students access a link that will allow them to ask questions/ type responses to your Slides.

💡 This allows for interactivity from students. If you love this feature, I'd recommend checking out Pear Deck!

Do you want to see two windows at the same time? Split your screen! (Mac directions here, Windows directions here.)

>> Press CTRL+N to open a new window.

💡Have your gradebook open on one side and and what you are grading in the other window!

Appointment slots are useful when you don't know who needs to meet with you, but you want to make yourself available. You can offer people a block of time on your calendar that they can book time slots within. For example, you can set aside 2 hours that you're available to meet with people in 30-minute slots. Others can then book one of the 30-minute slots within that time that works best for them.

💡Use this for students to sign up for additional help.

Conditional Formatting in Google Sheets can be used to highlight/format cells based on the values in it.

💡For example, if you have the scores of 50 students in a subject, you can quickly highlight the students who have scored less than 35 in the exam.

This tool is a HUGE time saver if you need to copy the same data in several cells, repeat a pattern, or total/ average numbers, just to name a few tasks!

Add checkboxes to easily mark tasks/ items off.

💡Three ideas to using Sheets checkboxes here. (Create Dynamic Charts, Create a To Do List, Show/hide hints and solutions to a test)

Freeze rows and columns to view your data without losing your headings/ titles.

Use this feature to view your data in different ways. (Hint: You may want to freeze a row if it is your heading!)

In a Meet, share a single Chrome tab (under "Present Now") so that your students see your video and hear the audio properly. (You can be muted and go to other tabs if you need!)

💡Pause a video to talk to your students/ ask questions.

This is a feature for teachers AND students.

💡 Use this to see what you still need to grade/ review.

💡 Students can use this to see what work they still need to complete/ turn in.

Have you ever had students type in their name wrong, creating inconsistent data? Perhaps you are looking for a better way students can evaluate others in group work. use a Prefilled Link!

1. Create your form.

2. In the upper righthand corner, click the three dots.

3. Click "Get a Prefilled Link".

4. Complete the Form for whomever you want.

5. Copy/ Paste the link wherever you need.

💡 Give students a prefilled link of a quiz that has right and wrong answers. Can they resolve the issues?

Google Forms is a powerful tool that can collect data and reteach! Create sections in your Form and have questions direct users to a specific section based on their response.

💡 If students respond incorrectly, they can go to a section that contains a video that reteaches a concept. If they respond correctly, they get to skip over that question!

Use data validation to ensure students are on the right track with their short answer responses. When you are creating your Form, click the three dots in your desired question and select "Response Validation". You should see the options number, text, length, and regular expression to validate.

💡 Use this to guide students in the learning process.