Every year Google hosts a competition that allows students to use their imagination and submit a drawing to Google to be featured on the Google Homepage.

Introducing Doodle for Google!

This year's challenge: What Inspires You? Here is the gist: Students in grades K-12 are invited to take part in the 2018 Doodle 4 Google contest, and create an uplifting doodle that tells the world “What inspires me.” From crayons to clay, graphic design, or even food, young artists can utilize any materials to bring their creation to life. Like all Google Doodles, each doodle must incorporate the letters G-o-o-g-l-e. One national winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, a $50,000 technology package for their school/non-profit organization, and a behind-the-scenes experience with the Doodle team to transform their Doodle into an interactive experience on Google.com. The contest is open for entries from January 8th – March 2nd, 2018 – only 8 short weeks!

Check out their overview and entry directions on their blog: https://doodles.google.com/d4g/index.html


They also have a library of teacher guides and resources - https://doodles.google.com/d4g/classroom.html

The version history in Google docs is a very powerful tool. It allows you to track changes, name versions, and see where students have made changes and when they made them. Within each revision you can expand the drop down arrow to see more detailed revisions. If you are looking at a document and you see one large block of text in blue with no revisions, chances are the student pasted that text. A typical paragraph can have up to 20 revisions. Also, if you have assigned a Google Doc through Classroom you will get a notification when students try to share that doc with others. Watch the video below to see how to access and use version history.



Additionally, there is an exceptional extension called Draftback that will compress every change made in a document into a live video. You can view the changes that are made in the document in real time. Here is how it works:
Install Draftback Extension

Once you have installed the extension, click on the Draftback button in any turned in Google Doc



Once you generate the Draftback you can watch it as a video:

The new Google slides features just rolled out and we are super stoked about the #perfectpear - Pear Deck add-on for Google Slides... WHAT!!!!!

Need I say more?


-Open a Google Slide, Powerpoint or Keynote with Google Slides

-Go to the Add-ons menu and install Pear Deck

-Once installed - Select from pre made formative assessment slides or make your own.



-Use the awesome features of Google Slides to Trick out your Slides

-When you are ready present with Pear Deck

-As you advance your slides your questions and their answers will appear on your teacher dashboard in real time. Answers can also be displayed anonymously in the classroom on the projector




Here is a little how to!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!
With the kids Chrome OSing,
And Google updating you be of good cheer.
It's the most wonderful time of the year!
It's the hap-happiest season of all,
With those new Classroom codes and quiz score importing
When students log into Chrome,
It's the hap-happiest season of all.
There'll be Google Classrooms for hosting,
Google Forms for testing,
And reordering your classes galore.
There'll be Classroom ownership transfer,
And tales of the glories of the
missed assignments, long, long ago.
It's the most wonderful time of the year!
There'll be much app integrations,
And hearts will be glowing
When decimal point grading is near.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Google has 10 back to school updates to get you back into the work state of mind. Here is the rundown:
1. Track student progress with a single page view of student work
2. Reorder the classes in your homepage so your most used classes are on top
3. Decimal grading
4. Transfer classroom ownership
5. Mobile profile pics
6. New app integrations: Quizziz (Check out my post here!) Kami, Edcite (I'm excited to check this one out)
7. Full screen class code display
8. Import Google Forms scores into Classroom
9. Feedback for Question by Question Quizzes in Forms
10.School Directory Sync (not sure if this one is necessary)

Check out their fabulous post here: https://www.blog.google/topics/education/10-ways-were-making-classroom-and-forms-easier-teachers-school-year/

Remember as those review videos are being watched and rewatched and rewatched again, you and your students might find it useful to use VideoNot.es. Research is made easy with VideoNot.es after you sign in with your Google Drive. It is a very simplistic, bare-bones way of note-taking based on videos. Notes are taken with the time stamp of the video and can be useful in research, flipped-classrooms, inquiry learning and projects.

It is an extremely simple tool that you can use without any tutorial.

It is all on one webpage, and your notes will automatically live sync to your google drive into an automatically created doc in an automatically created folder.



Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

• Taking notes on review videos
• Research
• Inquiry lessons
• Noting examples of a theme
• Video source analysis
• Students note, comment, analyse or critique videos created by other students

Available on Chrome and Online (it'll work in Safari, but it is kind of a struggle)! Talk to your friendly local instructional technology teacher for more help.

Here are three great tools to use with Chromebooks to maximize your productivity!
1. Doc Hub - A great PDF annotation tool that also gives you some PDF tools that will make your life work! Another pretty great tool is Kami.




2. Google Keep - The ultimate notes tool that follows you whereever you go!
Use Google Keep like an agenda, keep track of your assignments, set reminders, make to-do lists, share with others and sync to your Google Cloud.



3. Inbox by Gmail - A clean and streamlined email app that lets you create bundles for messages. Get rid of your Clutter with Inbox.

• Download the app from the Chrome Web Store
• Launch the app and select your bundles. I recommend that you create your own bundles for Classes
• Pin the app to your Shelf. Right click on the app to pin it to your Shelf

Google Updates to Calendar and Slides are live in your GA account.

Google Calendar Reminders are a great way to manage your tasks and to do's. Last week the update went live on our Google Apps domain.

To enable this feature in your Google Calendar:

• Go to your Google Calendar
• Scroll down your My Calendars list until you see "Tasks"
• Click the dropdown next to tasks and select "Switch to Reminders"

We'll be putting together some training and support on how to integrate Calendar Reminders into your classroom workflow

Google Slides Q&A is Live!

Interested? Here is a quick guide to get you started

Virtual field trips are all the rage these days! Now you can have students apply their learning on a topic and have them curate their own museum exhibit. David Lee Ed Tech has created a beautiful Google Slides template that provides students the space to curate two exhibits per room in a four room virtual museum. The template works by hyperlinking visitors between rooms and in depth looks at each exhibit. The best part is... It's Google Slides! It works on iPads, Chromebooks, and laptops and students can work together on the same exhibit by sharing their presentation with one another.

Click the link to create your own copy of the Google Slide Template: Virtual Museum Template. Reach out to your Instructional Tech Teacher at your building to get rocking and curating your own virtual museum exhibit with students.


Here is what the slideshow would look like:



If you would like to read more on how to utilize the template here is David Lee Ed Tech's post on the virtual museum template:
Virtual Museum Guide

Students at Northwood are Coding with Hour of Code.Mr. Donnelly has offered lab time and support to students interested in getting their feet wet with code to get started with the Hour of Code this week! Mrs. Thompson's class got started with the Hour of Code on their Chromebooks yesterday. Mr. Sutton has been working with different classes at Village and at Quest with Hour of Code. After break, fifth graders in Mr. VanEpps and Mrs. Humphreys are also going to get started with coding using Hour of Code's Minecraft puzzles.

It is super easy to get started and students can continue to learn from home on their own. Check out their tutorials and support student's learning and extension outside of the classroom. Click Here for more info

Northwood students doing Hour of Code

Hour of Code Promo

The Cadet Tech Chromebook pilot is up and running and off to a good start. Last week all six of our fabulous Chromebook pilot teachers came to training on Chrome OS and familiarizing themselves with the new devices.

Last week Chromebooks were officially rolled into classrooms and are being used with both elementary and secondary students. Here are some of the great features of Chromebooks:

Here is an overview of Chrome OS

HCSD Chromebook Pilot Process and Application

The HCSD Chromebook pilot looks to evaluate Chromebooks as a viable student technology in both the 1:1 and shared environments.

Pilot Program Particulars

• Three classroom sets of chromebooks will be distributed throughout the course of the pilot
• Each teacher will have 100% access to a classroom Chromebook cart for 8 weeks
• We will select 3 teachers for session 1 (10/20 - 12/21) and 3 teachers for the session 2 (1/4 - 3/11)
• The pilot program is open to all teachers who submit an application
• Selection process will be based on application to achieve a representative group of all types of users
• Support will be provided throughout

Chromebook Pilot Timeline


Program Requirements/Time commitments
Upon applying for this program please keep in mind that all selected candidates must do the following:

• Attend training sessions on October 19th and December 14th
• Fill out a midterm reflection form
• Complete final reflection and data collection survey and interview

Application

Please fill out this application to apply for the chromebook pilot Chromebook Pilot Application


Please contact Jacquie Gilmore with any questions pertaining to the Chromebook pilot program and application process.