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What is Colorzilla? To put it simply, Colorzilla lets you select colors from images or any website so that you can match the exact color. Well...not necessarily does it let you select the color, but it allows you to select the hex code necessary to match a color. Not sure what I mean? Look at my banner above. Notice how the colors of the text match the colors emitting from Godzilla's mouth and back. Colorzilla is digital eyedropper that allows you to grab any color on your display so that you can match it accurately.  I love using Google Slides and Google Drawings. I use at least one of the two on a daily basis. Those that know me best are aware that I'm not satisfied with prepackaged themes. I prefer to customize and display information to my liking. Colorzilla works perfectly with the Google suite of apps as Colorzilla automatically copies the hexcode to your clipboard when you capture a color from your display. You can then easily select a custom color in Google Sl...

Guardian Summaries are Here! I'm very excited about the opportunity to connect family members with Google Classroom . It has been a major piece missing since Classroom debuted. Parents were reliant on students to open their classroom and decipher the information teachers put in there. To a person that has never seen/used Classroom, it could seem pretty overwhelming. If you look at the example above, you can see that Guardian Summaries will provide an overview of all classroom activity. With Guardian Summaries, caretakers can choose to get a daily or weekly summary of their child's classes. It arrives in their email so no account setup/password is required. Teachers merely attach a guardian's email address to the students and an alert will be sent to them to confirm the address. Once the parent is attached to a student, other classes will automatically add the same email address.  Not so Fast! This is not yet available for teachers in MSD of Steuben County....

What Teachers Need... Eight years ago I was still teaching fourth grade and was getting a brand new building. I remember how excited I was because of how amazing it would be that I would have a projector that I didn't have to share with other teachers and wheel in on a cart. I was even more surprised when we were going to receive a tablet PC that would work completely wire-free. It completely changed my style of teaching: I no longer taught with my back turned to the board.  I experienced less interruption because I could better locate myself in proximity to a student that needed to refocus. (I rarely had to stop a lesson because I had my laptop in my hands.)  I could pull up an unlimited amount of content at any moment.  For the last couple years, Apple TV has given iPad teachers the same experiences I had several years ago. Now that all of my teachers are going to be utilizing Chromebooks in the classroom, what options do teachers have?  What is G...

Early Release! Toward the end of June, MSD of Steuben County gained access to the early release of the New Google Sites. It is a very exciting opportunity as our teachers can start to get a feel for how to implement it as a key communication tool and implementation in the classroom. Due to the upcoming changes, I've already canceled a training I had planned for a blogging template I had created using Google Sites. Now that there is a new version, I ultimately decided that it was a matter of time until that training would be obsolete. So I'm excited to present the new version of Google Sites to the administrative team on Monday, August 1st and teachers Thursday, August 4th.  MSDSC was also planning on utilizing Google Sites for school websites. That plan is now on hold as the transition takes place. So for now, teachers and administrators get to test and get familiar with the new format as we prepare to make the transition along with Google.  What's in the New ...

Brainstorming Race Brainstorming Race is a fun Google add-on where the teacher can give temporary write access to a document. Students can quickly collaborate and generate a brainstorm list. As soon as the time is up, the students can no longer write on the document. The teacher can then highlight the responses and create an instant Google Form so that students can vote on their favorite response. This is a great way to engage in an interactive lecture.  Believe it or not, a developer came up with this idea in collaboration with his/her child. What a great idea! Here is their tutorial if you are interested in an overview .  The only trouble is the time and effort it takes to share the document with the students. You would need a list of usernames to copy and paste when you are ready to share the document to streamline the whole process. Then you would need to figure out how to share the link to the Google Form with them as well. Share to Classroom to the res...

Why a multiple choice question? The question feature in Google Classroom now provides the opportunity to ask a single multiple choice question. I'm not a fan of using multiple choice questions for assessment. I question the accuracy at which they measure learning. I am, however, a huge fan of polling an audience to lead a discussion. This works especially well in the Google Classroom environment as a user can add a video, document, or link to a website along with the question. This would allow the teacher to gather quick data on thoughts and feelings on the subject matter. For this reason, I see a lot of value in the multiple choice option.  Another option would be for a super quick exit slip. I believe the original short-answer question was a better fit for an accurate read of student learning, but if you needed a quick data set for tomorrow's lesson, the single multiple choice question would work.  See it in action I attempted to mak...

Can you add music to Google Slides? This is a common question I receive from individuals that prefer Microsoft Office over Google. The simple answer is...no. None of the Google Apps products are as robust as their Microsoft counterparts. They aren't intended to be either. When using Google Apps, collaboration is king. If an educator really wants to make the most of the Google line-up, fancy transitions and additional features will not be found here. Take advantage of the fact that students can work on a project simultaneously.  This topic all came about because one of my teachers had created a Slides presentation with text and images for an event after school. They merely wanted the information posted in slideshow format so that music could play in the background. I needed to find an alternative option quickly because the event was the very next evening!  Need a photo slideshow?  Something to consider is that Google Slides is not necessarily intended to be ...

What's a Teacher Tech Tip? I decided to start a new series dedicated to quick technology tips that teachers should know. The idea is that it will somehow streamline and simplify the life of a teacher. The idea came to fruition due to a saying one of my dear former colleagues ( Angie Sibert of North Side Elementary) used to say to me every time I showed her a little trick on her device. Angie would always say, "After a few minutes with you, you've changed my whole life!"  Every week, I will push out a technology tip that will help to improve your work environment with technology. I promise that it will only take you five minutes or less to view. I would also like for teachers to submit their techie tips. I'd be happy to edit and publish them for you. Feel free to send a message my way if you want to submit a teacher tech tip! Gmail Priority Inbox Just using the Inbox in Gmail is messy. It is hard to keep track of items. You read emails get all mixe...

Hyperdocs are more fun when they are One of the simplest and most powerful ways to integrate Google Apps for Education is to utilize a hyperdoc. It provides a collaborative space for students to work. It creates a space for students to stay organized not overwrite on each other's workspace. There are a lot of great options for students to work together in an online space, but Google Apps for Education schools have a simple solution already in their possession...the Google Doc. ( Start here if you've never made a hyperdoc .) Last week, I posted about including a Google Drawing right within a hyperdoc . With Google Drawings, students can quickly annotate an image and insert it directly into the Google Doc. This speeds up the process so that students do not have to create a completely separate Google Drawing, download it and drag it into the document. The other big advantage is that students can edit the drawing directly in the document if a mistake is m...

Big report to type? Speech Recognition is a great asset if you are a Google Docs user. Students can dictate their sentences and speech recognition puts the text right into your doc. There is no separate app. There is no need to copy and paste text into your document. It works right within Google Docs as an add-on. This works well in scenarios where a student is at home working on a report or off in a quiet area of the room. If whole class attempts to use Speech Recognition simultaneously, the students might get some interesting sentences popping up with all of the commotion going on in the room.  Here is how to get started: Foreign language application Another practical application came about a few weeks ago as I was chatting with the French teacher at Angola High School, Deb Blaz . She wanted a tool that would type exactly what someone was saying in French. Not to shortcut the typing process, but for the purpose of pointing out when a student committed a mis...

Students using Google Tour Builder to create their own European Vacation. #msdsafari @Mr_Yoder @leadlaughlearn pic.twitter.com/scw0rbEW6Y — Mike Winters (@AHSWinters) January 8, 2016 As you can see from the Tweet above,  I recently had the opportunity to visit Mr. Winter's class. Here they were to plan out an entire European vacation (not related to the movie) with destinations and total cost of the trip. Students did quite a bit of research about locations, airfare, hotels, points of interest, etc. Interested in what it looks like? Check out this example . Why Tour Builder Tour Builder with Google provides a unique map exploration experience where the user can pinpoint specific locations, add detailed information, images, and utilize Google Earth/Streetview images all in a format similar to using a Slides Presentation. It is user-friendly and fun as users can create a learning experience far greater than the traditional report.  Get Started with Tou...

What is Boomerang?  Boomerang for Gmail  adds some pretty cool features to your Gmail account. When you install Boomerang, you'll instantly notice that you have an additional send option when you go to compose a new email. In this post, I'll cover a couple options you have with using Boomerang for Gmail. The first covers receiving confirmation emails. The second covers how to schedule emails or create recurring emails.  Confirmation Emails Have you ever wanted to know whether or not someone has opened your email? With Boomerang, you can select the span of time someone has to open your email. You can then get a confirmation email letting you know when the message had been opened. You can even have it send you a response regardless of how someone responds to your email. This is a great way to remind yourself of a conversation that you initiated and will require followup. To do this, check mark the box below your typical send box, set your time and parameters, an...

Keep Parents Informed How do you keep parents informed about assignments in Google Classroom? This is a question I frequently receive and it is a legitimate issue. Having the students sign into their Google Classroom account and showing it to their parents is about the only advice I have given. However, if I were a parent that had never explored Google Classroom before, it would appear to be an unorganized mess of assignments and announcements. A Google Calendar may provide a solution that would be less intimidating for parents. Google Classroom Calendars in Google Sites Earlier in the 2015-2016 school year, Google Calendar started integrating with Google Classroom. This provides an opportunity to keep those communication lines open. The key is that you must make good use of your teacher website to be able to do so. In the video below, I demonstrate how you can import your Google Classroom calendar into a Google Site. (Please keep in mind that would need to create a separate c...

Why Google My Maps? Within Google Drive, students and teachers can create and save customized map s. It is a great resource for mathematics and measuring distances, adding details to a report on a specific location, or studying locations on various time periods. (By no means are individuals limited to these three ideas.) My Maps Features In this post, I created a video to demonstrate how to add various features to your customized maps. We'll first start with the features available. Search  The first basic function is search a location. Google is notorious for search in all of their resources. Quickly search regions on the globe and it will more than likely pop up with a variety of options. Select the one you want; the map will zoom in on that region. Points You'll also have the option to save specific points directly on your map. You can customize these points by adding color and selecting a shape/symbol to coincide with your specific location. Once you crea...

Teachers are always looking for good ways to "keep" students organized. Google Keep provides a platform by which students can do just that. Looking for a place to take quick notes? Need to import images and jot related ideas? Try Google Keep for those quick notes and checklists. A couple years ago when Keep was first launched, I enjoyed using it to keep track of lists of tasks. It worked great as it synced directly from my Android phone to my Chrome browser. I also frequently used it for taking notes during a meeting. These notes typically weren't items I was going to keep in the long term. Otherwise I would have just used a regular Google Doc. I really enjoyed the simplicity of Keep since I was already a user of more robust note taking tools ( Evernote and OneNote ). Google continues to add to and improve features, but not to the point of the more feature-rich note taking applications out there. Since it has first launched, they have added the ability to add colla...

The separation of Google Photos and Google+ happened awhile ago, but I have found it to be extremely useful to the point that I think it is a necessity for teachers. Google Photos is now clean and very user friendly. Not being mixed in with Google Plus will help me as a technology integration coordinator provide a location for teachers to house images and share with community members. There is no better way to communicate what is happening in your classroom than through images and videos. Google Photos also has applications available for Android as well as iOS . The apps are easy to use and have some features that the web-version doesn't have. For example, users can create slideshows with their images and put them into a movie format. This was already possible with tools such as Youtube , but the clean interface streamlines the whole process as the videos can later be exported to your Youtube account. Uploading Photos from Your Mobile Device and Sharing Create ...