Everything you need to know about using Google's online suite of tools. Including, but not limited to: Docs, Chrome browser, Sheets, Drive, Slides, extensions, and more!

3.24.25 - Google Update

Exciting Google Updates

If you’ve been using Google’s suite of tools, you may have noticed some updates that can enhance both instruction and organization. Let’s take a look at a few key changes that can make our lives as educators a little easier!

More Control in Google Forms

As of December 2024, Google has introduced improved access controls for Google Forms, making it easier to determine who can fill out a form. This works similarly to how we share Google Docs or Slides—meaning we can now assign access to specific groups, such as individual classes.

For example, if you create a Google Group for each of your classes, you can now restrict a form’s access to just that group/class. This could be a game-changer for quizzes, surveys, or assignments! Pair this with a timer extension like FormLimiter to manage when a student has access and the need for passcodes may be eliminated. 

New Google Slides Templates

Google Slides has also received an upgrade with new, built-in templates. Accessing these templates is now easier than ever! Simply navigate to INSERT > TEMPLATES or click the new "Templates" button in the toolbar.

These templates can save time when creating presentations, interactive activities, or student projects. Whether you need a quick lesson layout or a visually appealing student collaboration board, these templates offer a great starting point.

Introducing TABS in Google Docs

One of the most exciting updates—TABS in Google Docs! If you’ve ever wished for a more organized way to navigate through long documents, this feature is for you.

Think of TABS like a digital table of contents, but instead of being at the beginning of the document, they are located on the left-hand side of every page. This allows us to quickly jump between sections without endless scrolling. Each tab can contain multiple pages, similar to chapters in a book, and even better—tabs can be printed separately!

For even more organization, sub-tabs can be added. This feature might be useful for collaborative documents - think PLC forms, lesson plans, and student portfolios.

🆕Dot New

Google has created a streamlined way to start something new within the Google Suite of applications. Once the new Doc, Drawing, Form, Sheets, Sites, etc. is created it will be housed in your Google Drive. You may want to move it to a folder by clicking on the folder to the right of the title.

Here is a comprehensive list of other sites that utilize the .new shortcut.

Which of these features are you most excited about? 

12.10.24 - {PPersonalizing Google Docs and Slides with AutoCrat - Sarah Thomas

Now that a template is made, you might want to personalize it. Instead of typing into each and every certificate, try out AutoCrat. This add on created by Alice Keeler merges information from a Google Sheet into Google Docs and Slides. It's pretty slick and has many uses. For instance, I used AutoCrat to create passes for the blood drive. I'm guessing that you might have several uses for it too.  Here is a video explaining how to use it.

12.10.24 - Boarder in Google Docs - Sarah Thomas

This time of year, certificates of various kinds are awarded. They may acknowledge projects, the number of books read,or be funny.  And recently I was asked how to make a certificate template with a border on a Google Doc.  Since this is not an innate feature within Docs, we have to get creative. This video provides 4 different approaches. Maybe one of them will work for you.

12.4.24 - Wrapping Up a Google Classroom  - Sarah Thomas

When it comes to closing out a Google Classroom at the end of a semester, follow these instructions.

10.14.24 - Sarah Thomas

This unusual week starts out with our regular schedule then moves into Student Led Parent Teacher conferences Weds. evening. Typical Parent Teacher conferences round out Thursday. Checking our MyConferenceTime account will show us who is planning on meeting with us and whether they will attend this meeting in person or remotely. In case they are meeting remotely, you may appreciate knowing about some improvements Google Meet has made.

1.  A picture within a picture feature has been added. When we enter a Google Meet we will see ourselves and all of the participants on the same tab. If you are familiar with Zoom, this update has a similar look. 

2. When a document is shared like a progress report, we will now see the shared screen and the participants. Prior to this upgrade, the participants were in a different tab from the shared screen. This upgrade makes it much easier to monitor nonverbal communication and the shared document.

3. There are also enhanced visual effects. When we are in a Google Meet session, hover over the center of your image, and click the center icon of a screen with a star in the corner. This opens the  EFFECTS options.  

   1. Under the backgrounds tab there is a blur feature. This can be helpful to focus the discussion and/or ‘hide’ a cluttered background.

   2. Computer generated backgrounds are available. Caution is advised because there is shadowing when we move. This is more pronounced in some backgrounds. You may want to experiment.

   3. Under the Appearance tab there is an option to automatically adjust video lighting to make it easier to see you against a bright background. I recommend turning this on. You may want to explore the additional lighting options.

If you would like someone to test out your Google Meet link and/or practice using some of these features, please let me, Marcy, or Vicky know.

With today being the 1st day of the 2nd quarter, it might be helpful to ask students to update their Chromebooks. Click this link for the guide. And it wouldn’t hurt for us to do the same, maybe during conferences.

Find this post, and all our others on our TEACH and TECH TALK page. Find links to TEACH and TECH TALK on Classlink, the WRHSLibrary Homepage, under Staff Favorites on the District Webpage,WaRuPd or by clicking here! 

Wishing you all the best with conferences and a restful, enjoyable three day weekend.

08.29.24 - MVW Sandberg

See THIS GOOGLE DOC for steps for Reserving space via the Google Calendar at WRHS.
Ask Victoria, Marcy, Sarah or a library clerk (Karen Pierron or Diane Sakers) if you have any questions. 

8.20.24 - MVW Sandberg

Teachers using Google Classroom may "Set Up Guardian Email Summaries" on that platform. Here are instructions for how to go about that task.

5.13.24 - Google Transfer & Takeout - H. Stessman

Congratulations to our graduates and retirees!  If you have items in your Google account that you want to take with you, there are a couple of ways to do that are much easier than downloading individual files.

Google Transfer is the easiest if you just have items in Drive and/or Gmail that you want to keep.  How-to video here.

Google Takeout facilitates taking almost anything Google with you; think Photos, YouTube videos, etc.  Video here. 

Especially if you choose to use Takeout, do NOT procrastinate as the process can take up to days to complete if you’re transferring a lot of data.

Good luck in your future endeavors and thank you for being part of the WRHS community!

5.3.24   Grade sync between Google Classroom and Infinite Campus going away as of July 1, 2024 - Heather Stessman

article here

4/5/24 - Make Online Articles Easier to Read with Just Read Extension  - Finney

Have you ever been working with students on a content area and thought, I could really use a current event article from a local news source to supplement this, but I don’t want to deal with all the ads on a webpage? Well do I have a resource for you!

The “Just Read” extension allows you to modify any webpage with a click of a button. While the ability to share a modified webpage with your students is limited only to premium, there is a print feature that allows you to print copies of an article for your class. Or, if you’re feeling extra fancy, our printer preview page, under the destination dropdown (at the very top), has a Save as PDF feature that you could then upload into your virtual classroom.

Let us know if you try it out in your classes!

3/25/24 - How to print a Google Doc with Comments - Finney

Have you ever been helping a student with a paper, or maybe working on a project yourself, and you would like to have the comments printed along with the document? Well, there’s an easy way to do it!

1. Go to the toolbar and select “FILE.” 

2. Select “Download” and “Microsoft Word (.docx)”

3. From there, print as normal in the Word window. This will print both the document and the associated comments along the right hand side. 

Additionally, Google is in the process of rolling out a few workspace updates that will make it easier to sort and manage comments in Google Docs. Click here to learn more! 

3.20.24  Helping Students with Executive Functioning using GMail, Google Calendar, and Google Keep

Find this post, and all our others on our TEACH and TECH TALK page. You can find it linked in Classlink, the WRHSLibrary Homepage, under Staff Favorites on the District Webpage,WaRuPd or by clicking here!

Thank-you for  assisting students with any of the email, calendar, or Keep videos before spring break!  Using these tools will help with executive functioning. We have heard positive feedback from you and students. It seems that the video on mass deleting of email was a favorite.

Feel free to direct students to those videos anytime. You can find them on the WaRu PD site:  Effective Teaching > Technology Integration, copy the link then post it for students. Or use this link. 

When talking about this advisory activity, I’ve been asked about the differences between Google Keep and Google Tasks.  This video is helpful. 

2.15.24 Google Slide Features- Sarah Thomas

Google Slides has become a favorite of many teachers because of its flexibility and functionality. For those of us who love a Google Slide, even more functions have been recently added!

~It’s now easy to insert GIFs and Stickers into a slide deck.  Go to Insert > Images > GIFs and STICKERS. Then search in the bar at the top of the page.

~ABOUT THIS IMAGE gives us an easier way to check the credibility and context of images before we include it on a slide deck. Find an image in google search and click on it. Click the 3 horizontal dots in the upper right corner and select About this image.

~Create vertical sides by manually doing the following. 

Step 1: Open your Google Slides presentation.

Step 2: Go to File > Page Setup

Step 3: In the Page Setup window, select Custom Orientations from the Orientation 

           dropdown menu.

Step 4: In the Width and Height fields, for example 8.5 x 11 inches. You can adjust these 

          dimensions as you wish

Step 5: Click Apply to save the changes.

 Vertical orientation is easier to read on mobile devices. Or if we want to copy a slide, we can make it fit the size of the paper. These are just a couple reasons why we might want to use vertical orientation.

1/29/2024 - Revision History Google Chrome Extension

The REVISION HISTORY extension was built for teachers to view additional details about a students' edit history in a Google Doc, BEYOND the Version History built into Google Docs.

Revision History is meant to help teachers guide their students through revisions, as well as to ensure that students are not just copy/pasting text from AI/LLMs/ChatGPT or other sources.

With Revision History, you can see:

- how many edits students made to their essays

- how long they spent writing

- what snippets they copy/pasted

- watch a video replaying the document being written (NEW - in beta)

It also works with documents submitted to Google Classroom (as long as they were drafted in Google Docs).

10.29.23 - Sarah Thomas

Google Users  A few updates are coming that you may be interested in. 

• There will be a new HOME PAGE VIEW in GOOGLE DRIVE. A new streamlined homepage for Drive has been developed and it is called Home. The goal is to make it easier and faster for you to find files that matter most. Read all about it here.

• For those of us who use the Google Drive mobile app to scan physical documents, there is an upgrade. Read all about it here.

• Automated data entry has been enhanced in Google sheets. This feature is called Smart Fill. Read all about it here. 

10.27.23 Chrome: Setting up spell check - Heather Stessman

Work aid here.  Full post here.

10.5.23:   Continuous Improvement at Google (Updates)

Continuous Improvement is a hallmark of Google!  Here are some updates from the world of Google.

5 Updates to the Chrome Address Bar include 1) smarter autocompletion, 2) Automatic typo corrections, 3) Searches within bookmark folders, 4) Suggestions for popular sites, and 5) Faster, easier-to-read results.

Emojis can now be added to comments within Slides. Use these 3 easy steps: 1) open Google Doc, Sheet, or Slides, 2) Hover over the comment you want to react to, 3) Click ‘Add Emoji Reaction. This might be an interesting way for students to give feedback to each other. 

Edit Photos on a Chromebook. This function has been enhanced and includes the ability to add handwritten marks and/or comments to photos. Students can also make movies using uploaded photos and/or videos.

Updated Search in Google Chat. Many of us educators use Google Chat and the long list of chats can get challenging to shift through. This update may help with that!

If you haven’t heard, Jamboard is going away at the end of 2024. Google is focusing on collaboration within Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. They (and others) are recommending Figboard.

That’s it for now. I’m sure there will be more in the future. Stay tuned.

9.14.23  Google Keep

My jaw dropped when Mrs Finney mentioned that the end of the quarter is a month away.  Wow! And I bet our students may be feeling the same, especially when it comes to getting the best grades possible by the end of the quarter. One tool that can help students (and us) organize their lives is Google Keep. This is a handy tool that I use daily so all my to do lists and projects are as close by as my phone.

To help students up their organizational game, consider sharing with them this video from Richard Byrne where he highlights 5 features they could/should use to support their learning processes. 

If you or your students want more information this video, Google Keep Ultimate Guide, is lengthy but explains each and every feature Keep has to offer.

Wishing you a well organized and smooth month before the end of the quarter!