Lightspeed Renaming, Hiding, and Rearranging of Classes
Lightspeed Systems, our district's monitoring software, is a way to see students' activity on their computers as well as manage what they see. It's a great classroom management tool to use, and I have used it every day for the past two years.
I used Lightspeed on the daily because it is a powerful tool. However, as a teacher, I always hated the way the classes were listed. Because it's imported from Powerschool, the names are convoluted and confusing. It's also frustrating how the classes are not listed in the right order, and classes I don't teach (like building operations, prep period, etc) were listed unnecessarily.
The video on the left (about a minute) shows how to rename, hide, and rearrange your order of classes on Lightspeed.
Open All Bookmarks at Once
Open all of your daily websites at once! Do you need your email, Google Classroom, Class Dojo and more open every day? You can save time by opening them all at once with just two clicks.
On your Bookmarks tab, create a Folder by right clicking and then choosing Add Folder…
Either drag and drop your most used websites into the folder or bookmark your favorite sites by clicking the star on the URL box.
In the morning, right click the folder and then click Open All to open all the websites at once!
OR…
Make a folder for each subject/class so that you can easily switch between classes!
Make Groups with Class Dojo
Class Dojo has a simple Group Maker tool that allows you to quickly put kids into groups of 2 or more!
The Group Maker tool is located on your main class page. Go to TOOLKIT on the bottom left of the toolbar and then
click “GROUP MAKER.”
This tool is good for random groups, and it also gives you an option to not pair certain kids together for whatever reason. It’s quick and easy and you can display it on your board for kids to see who is in their group!
How To Group Your Chrome Tabs
Tab management is seriously a problem for all of us. We live in a world where we need to have so many things open, and largely, that's because we are afraid we are going to forget a missing component, and it's too scary to close it out. A useful feature on Google Chrome is the ability to create "Tab Groups." It's sort of like putting them into a folder so that everything you need for one category is in one place. You can color-code, name, add a cute emoji (if you dare), and then collapse and expand the group as you need it. No one needs all their tabs open at once, even if it feels that way most days.
For visual learners: in my video, I show you how to group and customize those tab groupings.
For those who rather read than watch: Right-click the tab you want to organize and then click "Add Tab To A Group." If you want to select more than one at a time, click "Shift" for each tab you need to put in a folder and then click "Add Tabs To A Group."
P.S: One caveat I've found through testing and research: The tab groups only last as long as the Google Chrome session. So it's not a permanent grouping like a regular "Bookmark" would be; however, Google will be soon releasing a way to make groups permanent. If you are impatient like me and would like to make these groups last forever now, the work around is going to be the tip below this which is to reserve your tab groups across sessions.
How To Keep Tabs Open For Later
If you want to have the same websites open each day and/or you need to reserve your tab groups that you made from before, here is a setting you can change:
Click the three dots “more” menu at the top right of your Chrome browser. It looks like this:
Go to "Settings"
Click on "Search Engine"
Under "On Startup", change the radio box from "Open a New Tab page" to "Continue where you left off." That way, the tabs you have open remain open. This goes for all tabs you have open--not just the pinned/group ones.
Google Keep for Idea Organization and Reminders
If you're like me--you're always on the go, and writing down a list on a post-it doesn't suffice as it doesn't follow you everywhere you are. With Google Keep, you can store all your ideas, notes, and tasks as well as be reminded of what you need to do very efficiently. To find Google Keep, go to your Google Waffle and scroll down to Google Keep or go to keep.google.com:
In my video on the left, I show you how I use Google Keep to stay organized, complete more tasks, and now I (almost) never forget something that needs to be done. I show you how Google Keep connects to your Google Calendar seamlessly. It's a game-changer!
Reading List (Variation, But Useful Alternative to Bookmarking)
We've talked a lot about tab management over the school year; many of us are afraid of what would happen if we close any of them. Grouping tabs is great for when you're actively working, but what about if you want to address something later?
Bookmarking a website is good; however, that's only useful if you're going to refer to the particular website often (like your e-mail). If there's a specific email, article, or small matter that needs your attention later, just add it to the reading list which is built into your Chrome browser!
You need to find your side panel by going all the way to the right of your web address bar (it's next to where your extension button (the puzzle piece), your Chrome profile picture, etc.
Steps to Access Reading List
Click on your side panel.
Click "Add current tab".
When you have time, open up your side panel again, and the list will be there!
When you're done reading, mark it as done or delete it.
Your reading list will stay active until you mark the articles as "read", so no fear if you close out your windows or tabs.
Stop Accidentally Closing Tabs!
In Google Chrome, if you right-click on a tab, you can select "Pin Tab." This will lock the tab so it can't be x-ed out by accident.
Jump to Specific Tabs!
I want to share how you can switch from tab to tab without clicking with your mouse. We all have multiple tabs open all the time, so if you want to toggle between one versus the other, simply click CTRL + 1 for the first tab, CTRL+ 2 for the second, CTRL +3 for the third, and so on--this works for the first eight tabs...
Quick Glance: Jumping to Specific Tabs: CTRL+ 1 through CTRL + 8