G Suite Training Chrome Extension

If you are new to using Google Apps, or you know people who are struggling using it, this extension is what you (or they) need! You simply visit this webpage in your Chrome browser (it does have to be Chrome) and install the extension. Now, that extension will be waiting for you read to give you advice and help when you need it. Once you are in any app that you need help in (Sheets, Drawings, Doc, etc.) you just click on the extension and you can access step by step written tutorials, video tutorials, product features and most anything else you would need to help you out. While it is fully functional in English, it does offer some limited support for Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Lastly, if you are the domain administrator you can customize your domain’s’ training by installing the G Suite Training App in the Admin console.

If you want a quick visual of how to install it check out this post. 

What is one of your favorite places to look for edtech training (other than this blog of course ;-)?


If you would like to view a walk through, take a look a this quick walk through that I did.

Digital Exit Tickets

Many of us use exit tickets in our classes.  Exit tickets can give us valuable information about students understanding of the topic and how we can adjust our instruction to help students.  While paper based exit tickets are a simple and easy way, they can be time consuming to correct.  Electronic exit tickets can be a great alternative.  There are a number of different ways you can go about this and here are few of my favorites.



1. Google Forms
I would say that Google Forms is the simplest way to collect exit ticket data, but depending on how link will give you more information on creating a Google Form quiz.
you use it, it may not be any easier to grade than a paper exit ticket (although easier to collect).  If you construct a quiz that consists of multiple choice, checkbook ro drop-down questions Google Forms can automatically grade it.  This

2. Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere is a great tool if you are looking for something simple.  You can create multiple choice questions, true/false and short answer questions.  What's unique about Poll Everywhere that your students can answer via text if they don't have internet access.  You can even put your polls right into your slideshow so polling students is even easier.  If you decide to project the results you will see them update in real time.



3. Socrative
Socrative is fun way to collect feedback (as well as do a review).  They have four different options to choose from and one of them is called exit ticket.  For this purpose, I would suggest that one.  If you are looking to use it for other purposes, the space race is a fun one and quick questions are good when you want to do an assessment on the fly.
You can learn more about using Socrative by checking out this post and this post.


4. Plickers
If you love the idea of student response systems, but your students don't have individual devices to use plckers is for you! To use Plickers in your classroom you only need one device (apple or here.
android). Students each get a card (that you can print) that looks like a QR code. Depending on the orientation that students hold the card they are presenting a different answer. All it takes is a quick pan across the room with your device and you'll get all of the students responses.  Read my full blog post about plickers

This post is cross-posted on my science blog Savvy Secondary Science

PhET sims can now easily connect to Google Classroom

Yay!! PhET has added support for Google Classroom for all HTML5 and Flash sims. Less focus on tech, more focus on teaching.  If you aren't familiar with PhET, you can read my past blog post for more infomation.

To add a sim to your Google Classroom, click the  link on a sim page.  Sims can be added as assignments, supplementary materials, or homework.

Do you use pHet?  Which sims do you like? 

5 Things To Explore in Google Calendar

Another of my favorite EdTech blogs is Alice Keeler's blog Teacher Tech.  She recently posted about five things to try in Google Calendar.  She talk about Appointment Slots, dragging events, Agenda view, toggling calendars on and off and using Google Hangouts from Calendar.  You can read her whole post by going to this page.

Are you a big Google Calendar user? 

G Suite Google Apps Training Chrome Extension

Synergyse is a company that Google purchased some time ago. What's great for us is that they integrate G Suite training right into the apps. When you add this extension to your chrome browser tutorials pop up that direct you on using the program. This makes it really easy to get the training and constructions you need right when you need it.

Add the G Suite Chrome extension from the Chrome Webstore.  (Remember, you must be on a chrome browser for this to work.)

300+ Ed Tech Tools Tutorials

If you've been a long time read of my blog you know that I love the blog Free Tech for Teachers.  Over the last couple of years Richard Bryne has published at least one new tutorial video each week. While most of those videos end up being featured in his Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week, they all end up on his YouTube channel. He has more than 300 ed tech tools tutorial videos on his YouTube channel. Check out what he has to offer; I'm sure there will be something there for you to learn.

Google Tone - easily sharing link with groups of people

 Google Tone is an easy way to share links with a large group of people.  Yes, you can use sites like bit.ly or TinyUrl.com to shorten a link, but I have found that some schools actually block these sites because questionable site could be shortened and the filtering system wouldn't catch it.  What Google Tone does is use the speakers on your computer and the microphone on your students computers to send and receive a tone.  Your computer will make what I'm going to call a robot noise (beep, bop, bop) and the students' computers will hear that sound and go to a specific website.  You and your students do need to be logged in to your Google accounts and have this app installed into your Chrome browser.  If you are looking for more information, you can view the video below.