Google Tools

This week I learned about some "tools" Google has to offer. In this post I am going to talk about two tools I dug into this week to learn more about: Google Calendar and Google Hangouts.

First off, let's talk about Google Calendar. Google Calendar is a feature that comes with your Google account. The great feature about Calendar is that you can create as many calendars as you want, while still having the ability to sync them all together. This is a great feature for teachers, especially if you are teaching multiple classes. Calendar gives teachers the opportunity to add events to their calendars and share their calendars with whom they wish (possibly the students/parents of that class).

Here is a basic tutorial on Google Calendars to get you started:

My favorite part about Google Calendar was the ability to share it with others. This tool allows you to share with others if you have their email, or you can also embed your calendar to your class webpage. 

Want to see it in action? Check out my classroom webpage here to see my classroom calendar. Just click on the "Calendar" tab at the top and go to the month of August 2014 to see a couple events posted. 

Have you used Google Calendar before? Check out the video below to learn about 5 more tips that you may not have known about before regarding Google Calendar. 

Google Drive Tips and Tricks

A few weeks back I posted on the basic features of Google Drive. Need a reminder? Check it out here. This week I want to focus on some of the more advanced features within Google Drive that you may or may not know about. Here is an article that talks about 16 top features within Google Drive.

I am going to talk about 3 of my favorite things about Google Drive.

1. One of my favorite things about Google Drive is how accessible it is, no matter where you are. Google Drive has an application that can be downloaded to your computer, an application that can be downloaded to your mobile device, and also an online site to access all of your files. Google Drive is similar to another file storage service known as Dropbox. Not sure which one you should use to access your documents more conveniently? Check out this video for a comparison between the two.

2. My next favorite thing about Google Drive are the tools that are free and online to use as a user. This includes documents, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, etc. You can create these documents directly through Google Drive and they will be saved to your Drive for easy access. The great thing about these documents --it doesn't count against your storage capacity within Google Drive! 

3. I also love how simple it is to save gmail attachments directly to Google Drive with one click! Long ago are the days that you have to right click and "save as." Now it is as simple as clicking the Google Drive logo that is on the email attachment. Check it out:

As you can see, Google Drive has a lot of great features that make it user-friendly and beneficial to use. Check out another testimony about some of the other great benefits about Google Drive:

Do you use Google Drive? What do you think of it?

Gmail Tips

Gmail has quickly become one of the most popular email services. There are many basic features within Google that are similar to other email services. Today's post will be about some of the more advanced features within google that you may not have been familiar with.

First things, first. If you do not have a Google account, simply go here to get started.

This will not only give you access to Gmail, but also allow you access to the other great things Google has to offer (Drive, Maps, Google Earth, etc.). 

Now on to the advanced features...

I read a great article today about 8 great hacks that Gmail has to offer that a lot of people may not know about. You can find that article here. 

I will be talking about two of my favorite hacks within that article. My first hack is #2: Undo Accidental Emails. Have you ever had that moment of, "uh-oh" when sending an email? If you are like me, the answer is "yes." Luckily, Gmail has a solution for those moments. Check out the video below to learn how to enable this feature. 

Another great hack that I learned in the article was about was the ability to insert images directly into an email. As a teacher, I send many images to other teachers with lesson ideas, anchor chart ideas, etc. Many times it can be time consuming to attach these images into an email. Thankfully, Google has come up with a solution for this. Check out the video below to learn more about this feature:

A final trick that I found to be very useful within Gmail was the ability to download attachments within emails directly into Google Drive. Many times if I get an email with an attachment I do one of two things. (1) I take the time to save the document to my computer or (2) I quickly skim the email, forget to save the attachment, and delete the email. Most times, it is the later of the two. Google developed a new feature to make it easier to save attachments. Now, you simply have to hover over the attachment and click the Drive button. To see more detailed instructions, watch the video below. 

Got more great tips to share about Gmail? Leave a comment below!

Custom Search Engines in Google

This week I learned about creating custom search engines within Google.

Custom search engines can be very useful to teachers, like myself. Many teachers assign research projects to their students. The Internet is a vast combination of websites, videos, and pictures that are not always appropriate for student eyes. Custom search engines allow teachers to filter out unwanted websites, while still allowing their students to gather the research information they need.

To learn more about custom search engines, check out this video:

Every year, my kindergarten students are assigned the task of choosing an animal to research and write a book about. I expect my students to use both books and the Internet to gather their research on their animal. I believe it is important for even my young students to be knowledgeable about the Internet and be allowed to use it in a way that will better their education. Google can be a great tool to search for facts, but as everyone knows, it doesn't always kick back the most accurate sites.

To address this issue, I created a custom search engine for my students to use during their animal research.

Let's use a scenario to show how helpful a custom search engine could be.

5-year old Miles wants to do his animal research report on "cougars." The student goes to google.com and types in "cougar." These are some of the results that Miles might see:

Miles's idea of what a cougar is, and Google's idea is not always the same thing. "How to Know if a Woman is a Cougar-10 Steps" is not a website I would want my students visiting. With a few clicks, I can create a custom search engine for my students to facts about their animals on appropriate websites. Try it out yourself with my custom search engine below:

(Note: Google Ads appear at the top of the search engine because it is a free edition. This would need to be addressed with your students so they don't click any of the ads that may not be appropriate. For example, when typing "cougar" in the custom search engine, dating ads appear at the top of the engine. It is always an option to upgrade your account for a fee).

Google Chrome

This week I learned a lot about Google Chrome. Google is an Internet browser with many more features available than most browsers. To install Google Chrome on your computer, click here and follow the instructions listed.

Google Chrome has many great features. Below are a couple of my favorites:

• Apps- Google Chrome allows users to have apps listed on their home page within Chrome. These apps are similar to the apps on the App Store on Apple products. These apps range from education apps to business apps. These apps can be found in the Web Store. You can find the Web Store here.  

• Google Drive- Google Drive is one of my favorite things about Google! It is such an easy way to store files on your computer, and easily retrieve them on other devices. Not familiar with Google Drive? Watch this introduction video to learn more:

Check out 100 more tips and tricks in Google Chrome here. 

Google has also developed a great feature called Gone Google Story Builder. 

Gone Google Story Builder is a publishing tool that will digitally publish your writing using characters and even music! It is very user-friendly to get started. The great think about Story Builder is that it puts the whole presentation together for you when your writing is completed! 

I love this demo video they put together to show how it works:

I even made my own story! 

http://goo.gl/wtfAlj

Gone Google Story Builder creates so many possible lesson ideas for the classroom. It is a great tool to show students the writing process. It demonstrates a great lesson about editing and adding dialogue  to stories.

This is also a great tool for digitally publishing. As a kindergarten teacher, one of the standards that I am responsible for teaching in the Common Core is listed as K.W.6. The standard states:

• With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. 

There are many other grade levels that require students to digitally publish their writing.

Gone Google Story Builder is a great way for students to publish their writing that uses characters. I would recommend this tool for older grades simply because it may be too complex for younger grades because it does not include pictures and/or speech.

I plan on demonstrating this tool for the other teachers in my school. I think it has great potential in the classroom. I also love how easy it is to share stories with others! A simple link and your story can be shared with anyone in the world.

These are just a few reasons why I continue to love Google as much as I do.


Happy publishing! :)

Looking Back..

It's hard to believe that my Issues and Ethics in Technology course is almost complete. I have learned a lot over the course about new technology and tools that I can utilize in my classroom. I have tried to implement some of these tools over the past few weeks. During week 1, I posted about the ISTE NETs and my goals around these standards. You can find that post here.

1. My first goal was Standard 1d which states: Teacher will model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
   
   My goal that I wrote to go with this standard included using Skype to connect with authors, researchers, other classes, etc. This will allow my students to construct new knowledge with others in a face-to-face virtual environment.
   
   Today was the first day I tried this. I must say, it was AWESOME! I couldn't believe how engaged my kindergarten students were. We are working on doing some animal research and we are also learning about fish. I found a shark researcher on Skype that gave my class information about how he researches  sharks, and also general information about sharks. It was so neat to pull in lots of curriculum in a different way. My students loved getting to ask a real shark researcher questions they had been asking me (who doesn't always know the answers)! I am planning to do this again with my class before the end of the year is over. If you are interested in Skype for Educators. The link to sign up is: https://education.skype.com

I feel that I am now meeting this standard of using face-to-face environments to allow my students to collaborate new knowledge with others.

 2. My second goal was to address standard 2b: develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. My goal was to get more technology in my classrooms for students to use. I have been slowly trying to make this goal happen. I have not yet written the grant to get an iPad for my classroom, but I have been trying allow my students to use other types of technology in more meaningful ways. This week I will be bringing in the small laptops on a cart (from our EMINTS room) to use for our animal research. Typically we go to the computer lab to do this research, but I want to try something new. This will allow us to research in the comfort of our classroom and not have to haul all of our stuff that we will need to do research. I also want my students to have exposure to different types of computers that they will come in contact with in the future. I am curious to see how they do with computers that do not have a mouse! 

I feel that I am still approaching this standard, but will be meeting it by the end of the school year.

3. My third goal was to address standard 2d: provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. My goal was to begin using technology to help assess my students. I have been doing this using a tool that my students already use. The software my students already use includes: Raz-Kids, Reading Eggs, and Xtramath. These programs all have assessments at the end of each "unit." I have been using these tools to collect data on what skills students are still struggling math. The data is graphed and organized in a simple way for me to use. This definitely helps save me time on organizing my data! 

This is a standard that I feel I am now meeting.

4. My fourth goal was to address standard 3b: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

 My goal was to create a teacher blog and post at least once a week. Well, I have been writing this blog once every week so I feel that I am on my way to meeting this goal. I hope to continue this blog after this class and continue to post information for other teachers, as well as promote some of my products on TeachersPayTeachers. 

5. Finally, my last goal was written to address standard 5d: develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools. To meet this standard, my goal was to do a research project once a year with another classroom. This goal is still in progress. I plan to do a plant research project with a classroom located in Florida for later this year, but we are still working out all of the details. I will keep you posted on this blog about it! 

This class has opened my eyes up to the world of technology in the classroom. Kindergarten and technology do not always go hand in hand, so it was nice to learn some new ideas and tools in this class that are kindergarten-friendly. This class has given me a confidence to allow my kindergarteners to at least try something related to technology, and most of the time they succeeded. For example, I had never taught my class about using the @ sign on a computer before today. This symbol was used in one of our log-ins today. In the past, I have gone around and typed in the user name for everyone. Today I hesitantly taught them how to type it and viola! It was amazing! It made my life so much easier. This class has reconfirmed that we are in a digital era, and technology should be used to enhance lessons. It is not something that should be avoided. 

Thanks for reading! 

Copyright Laws

This week I learned a lot of information about copyright laws in regards to education. After reading up on copyright laws, I felt shocked and slightly embarrassed at just how many copyright laws I was in violation of. For those of you that need a brief review of copyright laws, check out the video below.

Luckily, copyright isn't as strictly enforced in education. Copyright can be a friend to education. I also found the following charts to be very helpful to reference in regards to using material in my classroom.
Cick on the following links to review the documents and print a copy for easy reference in your classroom.

Copyright Laws for Teachers

Administrator Copyright Scenario Checklist

Among these copyright laws, I was quite surprised at a few things I discovered. The most surprising thing I found was that showing a movie to students for entertainment or a reward is considered to be a violation. This surprised me because we use movies a lot for entertainment in my school. We use them for indoor recess in the cafeteria, as well as occasionally during popcorn parties. I had no idea this was a violation! I also found it very interesting  that no copyright characters may be used for nay school purpose unless it is relevant to instructional use, and there aren't many situations where that applies. One of the articles stated that "permission is a virtual impossibility." 

I have three tips for teachers in regards to copyright and fair use laws. I think many teachers are unaware or misinformed about copyright and fair use, so I hope my tips are helpful to some teachers. 

1. Be sure to monitor software installed on student computers. Teachers must NOT install the software on more than one computer unless multiple licenses are purchased. The software must legitimately be purchased before installing. 

2. Teachers may post copyrighted material on the internet IF the material is instructional AND behind a password protected site that is managed. Managed implies that the site is only active during the unit of study-- it can not be archived! Be sure to take down the site when the unit is no longer being studied. 

3. If you are going to show a movie during reward time, you have two options. Your first option is to secure a license. These can be obtained through companies like Disney, usually for a price. In the case of Disney, you can pay $25 per tape use. The second option is to show more educational videos, such as Reading Rainbow, with a permit. These are the better option in my opinion because they are more educational and certainly cheaper. 

I think the biggest mistake teachers run into is simply being unaware and uneducated in regards to copyright laws. Many teachers aren't informed about all of the regulations that revolve around copyright. I think every school district is responsible for educating their employees on copyright and fair use. Unfortunately, many teachers break these laws every day. I believe that many teachers aren't even aware they are doing it. I have printed these documents and have posted them in my classroom to use as a quick reference and to avoid any potential problems in the future. I hope that you do the same. 

On a personal note, I got engaged this weekend! :) 

Have a great week!