Using Google Tools for Distance Learning

Learning to Comment on student work (digitally and possibly real-time!)

Commenting and Suggesting

Tagging Users in a Comment

**Creating Customized Comment Shortcuts in Google Programs!

NEW!! Originality Reports for MS teachers in Google Classroom - check for plagiarism

And...for my Google SuperGeeks - Check out What’s new in Google Classroom regularly here.

Differentiating in Google Classroom:

A link to a blog on how to do this is here.

You can assign different versions and different resources to different groups of students. It looks like this to you:

But your students will not know anything differently, as they will only see the version you assign to them.

How to do this:

If you are in the create assignment mode in Google Classroom, go to the right side where you choose the due date, points, and all that jazz, and click where it says “add students”. Choose which students receive the assignment and then SAVE.

To make a different version for other students, just click on Create under the Classwork tab and choose “Reuse Post”. Now choose the class where you made the original assignment and it will make a new copy of the assignment in your class. Modify resources, response sheets, requirements, etc, choose what students receive the modified version and hit SAVE. Instant differentiation!

Lesson Ideas with Google-based Programs

Use Google Slides for a Choose Your Own Adventure

Nonfiction - here is a link to my non-fiction demo

Fiction - here is a link to one a student did for me a few years ago

Using Google Sheets for research

This is a general page about interesting ways to use Sheets, but scroll down to #4 to see how you can use Sheets for students to document their research. We use this all the time in Computer Class. Students in grades 4 and up have used this as a tool.

Link to a 4th grader’s research page

While you are Screencastifying it up...Some BASIC things you could teach your students to use (or remind them about it!)

Using Explore within Google Docs and Slides

Basic image editing in Google Slides

Adding Video to Slides

Customize your page size in Slides (including orientation)

Adding audio to Slides

(if you choose this, remind them to use Creative Commons Licensing rules and cite the source. Websites the older students use: bensound.com and Incompetech.com )

A fun one...New Slides themes (more for you than your students right now)

Download new Slides themes at Slides Carnival

Here are some links that include more advanced suggestions that will add interest to your assignments:

Ways to enrich Google Slides

Scroll down and check out “Caption This” and “Student Collaboration in Google Slides”