Google Hangouts in your Classroom - Free Online Conference

How can you use Google Hangouts in your classroom?

Join Simple K12 for their FREE Online Conference on Saturday, June 11th, to discover ideas on ways Hangouts can be used to connect and engage your students.


Learn how to use Hangouts for:

1. Conducting "hangout" sessions

2. Mystery location or mystery number calls

3. Connecting with experts

4. Collaborative projects including peer editing and researching

5. Broadcasting school events

6. Podcasting in the classroom

And so much more!


Click Here to Register

BONUS: Register today and receive their new Free Resource Guide!

Inside you will find a sampling of some of the best Google tools for your classroom...

And ideas on how to use them!

Using Mail Merge with Gmail

If you are like me, you use mail merge when you want to send the same e-mail out to multiple people, but personalize it with some information. For example, you may want to send an e-mail and personalize the name in each e-mail or you have a different word or phrase that needs to be in each e-mail.

 In Microsoft, it's easy to send a mail merge, but it's just as easy to send one via Google.  The first thing you'll need to do is set up a spreadsheet.  In the spreadsheet you need to have headers for each column for the mail merge to work well.  One of the columns needs to be e-mail.  The other columns can be any of the personalizations that you want to much (such as names).

Next, you'll need to go into Gmail and type up the e-mail you want to send and save it as a draft.  To enter personalizations you need to insert a placeholder.  For example, if you wanted to enter the person's name in the e-mail you'll have to use the word that you titled the column.  I probably would have called it name, so then I would find the spot where I want the person's name and type in <<name>>.  Basically you just put the column heading name in between the arrows (<< >>).

Lastly you'll need to install the add on called Yet Another Mail Merge. To do this you can click on this link which will bring you to the installation page. Once you have done this, go back to your spreadsheet and click on the Add-Ons menu and then Yet Another Mail Merge and run the add-on.

You are all set!  The add-on will sent the e-mails to the list of people in your spreadsheet.  It will also tell you who read it and who didn't and even let you target those people will follow-up e-mails.

If you have questions or want more clarification just let me know!

Set expiration dates for access to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides files

I just read Google's Blog and they talked about a new feature when sharing files with others.  You will be able to set an expiration date when give someone commenting or viewing access to a file; you will not be able to do this to someone you give editing access too.  It will probably be rolling out around the end of the school year, so you can really take advantage of it next school year.

I like this because I often give students access to view a file of mine for a specific reason, but don't really want them having access to it for an extended period of time.  Yes, they might be able to make a copy of it for themselves, but you can turn off that feature.

What are your thoughts about this update?

Getting Organized with a Planner

I always feel like I have a million things going on and I have trouble focusing on what needs to get done and what is just fun to do.  I now have two planners: one I use for personal stuff that I carry around with me and another I use for school related stuff that stays on my desk at school.  I have recently started decorating my personal planner with some functional stickers that help me organize my thoughts.  I was contacted by the great people at Oh Hello Co about doing a blog post about how I could use their stickers in a school planner.  I love their stickers and use them in my personal planner so I decided that they would be great in my school planner as well.  Below is a quick video on how I plan a week in my school planner.  If you are interested in checking out these stickers, click on this affiliate link that will take you to their shop.  As a thank you, you will get $5 off your first order.

What do you do to stay organized? 

Disclaimer: Links used in this post are afflilate links. 

Amazing Google tips and tricks from the EdTechTeam

Today I spent the day virtually attending the EdTechTeam GAFE summit at the University of Hawaii.  There were four sessions along with the keynote and demo slam that were streamed lived via Google Hangouts.  I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about Google, but I learned so much in the various sessions today.  Lucky for you, EdTechTeam recorded everything and you can go back and watch it.   I highly suggest that you add these to your YouTube watch later list.  You can get to the links for all of the sessions by going to bit.ly/hawaiionair.

If you don't have time, or interest, in watching all of the sessions I highly recommend the Chrome Secrets and Google A-Z sessions.  These are the two session that I learned the most in.

Have you every been to an EdTechTeam GAFE summit?

The Best Pencil Sharpener EVER!!!

This year I started using the BEST PENCIL SHARPENER EVER!!!  Ok, this may seem dramatic, but as a teacher you know that pencil sharpeners can be a big pain in the classroom.  You may also be asking what this has to do with technology.  Technology is not just the electronic technology we think of.  Technology is defined as the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. (source)  I would definitely classify this pencil sharpener as technology.


In my classroom there were two choices - the old fashion pencil sharpener that has been bolted the wall for the past fifty years or the electric sharpener that always gets jammed or makes so much noise.  I had hear about the pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies last year and, though it looked good, wasn't sure if it was really worth it.  I finally took the plunge and bought a sharpener.  I am so glad that I did because it really is the best sharpener.  It's super easy to use, quiet and works great.  I recorded a short video so you can see how it works.

I know I mentioned this is the video, but while it comes with a clamp I would suggest that you don't use it.  I have used it with and without the clamp and I think it's better without the clamp.  It falls off and then the kids think they broke it and it just takes up time.  There is a permanent mounting bracket you can get if you want to permanently mount it somewhere.

So since writing is not my strong suit and I'm not good at conclusions, I'm just going to leave you with this:  You need at least one of these sharpeners in your classroom asap.  I regret not getting one sooner.

Classroom Friendly Supplies has provided me with this sharpener for purposes of providing a review. I received it at no charge to me and I am under no obligation to return the product but can keep it for me own personal use. In addition, the above link is a referral link.

A playlist of video tech tips

If you aren't reading Richard Byrne's Free Tech for Teachers Blog, be sure to add it to your feed.  He recently put together a collection of soem of the videos he has made into a YouTube playlist.  There are a lot of great videos for a variety of tech tools.  Take a look at it and see what new thing you can try.  Click on the three lines on the top left of the video to see a list of all of the videos in the playlist.




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