Jamboard is a an amazing tool for encouraging collaboration and creativity in your classroom. The best part is Jamboard is already included in your Google Suite (I always look for the icon that looks like a pair of headphones). However, getting started with a new tool can be difficult, so this curated document from Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) is incredibly helpful. 60 pages and over 1,200 Jamboard templates are available to anyone who makes a copy. I have only tried a handful, but most have been very interesting and exciting (however, make sure that you check your materials before you give them to your students). Check out the copy link below:

https://t.co/XS0kcYck6v

This morning, and really this whole week, really made me want Spring. For a lot of people that means Spring planting. In our GEGUtah Meetup this week, I shared Pollinator Pathmaker, an amazing resource for planning gardens with pollinators in mind. Beyond being a beautiful Google Arts and Culture Experiment, it teaches about pollination and is absolutely beautiful. It also makes me want Spring even more. Check it out:

https://pollinator.art/

For today's resource share, I thought something lighthearted and fun might be in order. Students might need a quick break in class and need something interesting and engaging to do. Quick Draw is a great option. Users are asked to draw objects and have an artificial intelligence guess the object. It is silly, fun, and has students interact with AI which is an interesting experience for them. Check it out below:

https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/

Today we have our Meetup hosted by Jordan School District's Kelli Cannon. The theme is Love Letter to Google and our leadership team will be sharing our recent favorite tools, updates, or lessons using Google. We will meet at the following link from 4-4:30 PM, but if you cannot make it, the session will be recorded for future viewing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qII2U4SR0Fo

Also, we have our February Newsletter out today as well. Join us for reminders about the Google room at UCET 2022, a great series of videos about Google's Applied Digital Skills program, an announcement about our next video series starting on March 18th, and a quick tutorial on Google Jamboard. You can find the newsletter here:

https://www.smore.com/8943xj

For our share out this morning, I thought it would be great to share Google Maps and its feature that allows students to explore maps of other planets. At the link below, you will find a Keyword blog post about the Google Maps project to provide more access to planetary mapping systems. The project keeps growing and now boasts over 20 maps from around the solar system including maps of planets, moons, and a great interior shot of the International Space Station. Enjoy and explore!

https://blog.google/products/maps/space-out-planets-google-maps/

Its Friday and I thought I would share a fun set of music education resources courtesy of Eric Curts' Control Alt Achieve. This document has dozens of great tools for music instruction, making music with students, and some just for fun materials great for a Friday afternoon. If you have never heard of Chrome Music Lab or Blob Opera, take a few minutes and enjoy! Here is a link to his collected resources:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QpyDvHFE09lLTWI11jTMjVmzqyEFjnFOy1IoieF5V9Y/edit

For today's resource share, I wanted to include some new lessons for Google's Applied Digital Skills program. If you are unfamiliar with the program, it has hundreds of lessons that teachers can use with their students to teach the technical skills in Google while the teacher can focus on content with their students. We just wrapped an eight-lesson video series at UEN & GEGUtah walking through eight different lessons with templates and remixes:

https://sites.google.com/pd.uen.org/gegutah-uen-skills/home

However, this week in preparation for Digital Learning Day on Tuesday, February 22nd, Applied Digital Skills are releasing a new set of lessons. This includes a favorite of mine: Create a Community Map. It uses Google My Maps to help students map out their neighborhoods. It's a super fun, easy lesson to do for storytelling, geography, and more. They are also releasing a few lessons on Artificial Intelligence coming up, so keep an eye open. As always share it with any educators in your community.

I love superheroes; I have since I was a kid. This past week I was going through some stuff at my house and found some vintage Marvel trading cards from the 90s and I thought how fun it would be to recreate a trading card in class. So, below you will find links to a Google Slides template and a Canva template for a trading card I made this weekend. Feel free to make a copy, share it at your school, and build it with your students:

Google Slides Template - Right-click on the design on the left and choose apply layout for four different options

Canva Template With Text

Canva Template Without Text

Today I wanted to share an amazing resource for science classrooms. One of my favorite parts of going to a science classroom was always seeing a periodic table hanging in at least one corner of the classroom. In one of my favorite teacher's classroom, he had a business-sized periodic table hanging from his wall. However, adding some interactivity really helps students see the purpose of understanding the periodic table and how to use it across curriculums. Below is a link to Google's 3D periodic table, an interactive periodic table with 3D elements. Feel free to share it with all your science educator friends:

https://artsexperiments.withgoogle.com/periodic-table/

With the Olympics in high gear, this is a great time to do some fun activities with students. This HyperDoc, courtesy of Google Trainer Nadine Gilkison from Franklin County, Indiana, is full of great activities covering many Olympic events with many different technologies. Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sXBnZUfhck9qr1nWt7O3SXSnHKXLZNCVLZhnGAGaq4k/edit#slide=id.g11284576406_0_26

I am at Utah Council of Teachers of English Conference today (if you are there, say hello!) and I thought it would be great to share a resource that is not only for English but also an amazing idea. Below is a link to Verse By Verse, which uses artificial intelligence to help you write poetry in the voice of some of the great poets like Whitman, Frost, Dickinson, Poe, and more. It is really fun and amazing to see, even if you don't teach ELA or poetry. Check it out below:

https://sites.research.google/versebyverse/

I recently had the pleasure of attending FETC and to sit in on some sessions from Eric Curts from Control Alt Achieve. He has a fantastic presentation called Hipster Google that is full of lesser know Google programs and tools for education. Below you will find a link to his Google Doc with all of the materials from his presentation:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fUdtqfqhtb6We_eDkBxvJJOcw0C8VWEuLGf-SmFQKjQ/edit

Yesterday I was exploring the Google Trainer forum and found an amazing list of over 250 Digital Breakouts compiled by Brandy Nichols, a Google Trainer from Georgia. If you are interested in creating a digital breakout or are interested in exploring how other teachers are using the concept in their classroom, this is a great list to explore. FYI, looking through a few, there are some broken links, so just be aware and as always check the content before you use it in class:

https://sites.google.com/morgan.k12.ga.us/classroomtoolsdigitalbreakouts/breakout-list?authuser=0

If anyone has been on a Meet call with me, you know I love music. I decided to do a quick resource share on an album review template I made a while back. I loved having my junior high school students write album/song reviews and it always was a favorite assignment. The template is a Google Slide deck and/or a Canva file template. Feel free to use it and/or share it with your fellow educators.

Google Slides Template

Canva Template with Text

Canva Template without Text