HOTSpot - Sean - Marrying Google Docs & Drawing

A lot of times we want our students (or even ourselves) to be able to communicate and display their knowledge in both written and visual formats. Google allows us and our students to do that very smoothly by integrating a seamless way to use Google Drawing INSIDE of a Google Doc. Check this video out to see how easily this can be done!

HOTSpot - Shona - Bitly URL Shortening

Utilizing Bit.ly is an easy and effective way to share a URL without writing the lenthy website address. Go to Bit.ly.com and sign up. Once you have signed up with your school account, you can start to create your shortened URL and customize it so it is easy to remember. Please note that your new URL is case sensitive, so keep it simple. You can either remind your audience of this feature, or make sure you don’t capitalize anything. Personally, I like to capitalize each new word and remind the audience that the URL is case sensitive.

HOTSpot - Chris - Welcome to the new Google Sites

The dark ages of having to know html and web design are gone now that Google has revamped their Sites platform. If you have been hesitant before to create your own website, fear no more. The newly redesigned Google Sites uses a very easy drag and drop method of web design that was made popular by other web design companies such as Squarespace and Weebly. The benefits of using Google now are 1) its free 2) it works well with all other Google products and 3) it is now stored conveniently in your Google Drive with all of your other Google goodies. Check it out today and stop by the HOTSpot for more help.

HOTSpot- Amanda- Video Response and Student Reflection for Assessment

Giving your students opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned via video can be challenging not only for students but teachers as well, but look no further- Recap to the rescue! Students can easily create an account that is connected to their Google login and join a class section that teachers have set up. Teachers can create up to 10 questions in a single assignment, and students respond to each question at their own pace. At the end of the assessment, students can reflect on how well they feel they have learned the information, and teachers are able to send the video links to parents, co-teachers, etc. Teachers are able to leave written feedback and commentary on student videos. Check it out today at https://app.letsrecap.com

HOTSpot - Sean - Reversing Order Of Forms Data Collection To “Newest On Top”

I am not a fan of Google forms collecting data by putting the newest entries at the bottom. I often reuse forms with my students (I have some that I’ve been using since 2012) and can’t stand having to scroll to row 750 to find today’s entries. However, if you create a second tab in the spreadsheet and plop a simple formula in cell A2...all can be fixed. The formula pulls from the original data entry tab. So, if you make sure that tab is named “ENTRY”, just use the following formula in cell A2 of the new tab and you’ll be good to go: =SORT(ENTRY!A2:H,1,FALSE)

The only thing you’ll really need to pay attention to are the items in red. 1. “ENTRY” needs to match up with the exact name of the original data collection tab. 2. “A2” is in fact the top left cell from which you want to start pulling data. 3. “H” is the furthest right collumn from which you want to pull data. Don’t put a number after “H” so that it will continue to pull data ALL THE WAY down column H, even as new entries come in.

HOTSpot - Cory - Pre-quiz Questions to Quell the Anxiety

So, a student comes in and tells you that they did the reading you asked, but they just have a few questions before the quiz/work for the day. The challenge is having an outlet to address student questions without having a class conversation that gives away ideas or summaries that you want to assess on a quiz. A simple Google Form allows you to get an automatic email when someone has taken the time ask a specific question (with pg. reference) so that you can choose to address that with the class or simply with an individual. It is a helpful tool for the students to have at their disposal, and an opportunity to gauge preparedness.

HOTSpot - Chris - Reinforcing vocabulary with competition and collaboration

Vocabulary is a big part of my curriculum and teaching it in an exciting way has always been a challenge. Usually it is done via lecture or just assigning kids to make flashcards to prepare for some sort of quiz. Enter Quizlet Live! Quizlet Live creates an exciting and competitive gaming atmosphere by having kids work in teams to try and answer all the vocabulary based questions the fastest. What is great about the set up is how the teams work together. Only one member of the team will have the correct answer on their device, so it creates instant collaboration and conversation. Quizlet Live also keeps track of which terms were confused with each other the most and can be shared with the class following the game. It is a great way to spice up that boring vocabulary lesson.

HOTSpot - Shona - Using Google Slides to crowdsource

Using Google Slides as a tool for crowdsourcing has many benefits in your classroom. It can be utilized in various ways with various tools as showcased in Sean’s video. This two minute video specifically outlines using crowdsourcing with Google Slides. The following are some benefits of using Google Slides as the tool: 1). Creating a structured platform where students have some autonomy within their slide, 2). Having an automatic presentation platform when they teach the rest of the class content, 3). Giving students access to all content when the slide show is complete.

HOTSpot - Amanda- Assigning Tasks in Google Docs, Slides, and Forms

A recent update to Google Docs, Forms, and Slides allows you to assign tasks to individuals without opening any other programs or apps. You can do this by typing + or @ sign and then the individual's email address. After you add the comment you can click “assign,” and it will automatically send the individual an email with the assigned task. This feature could be used to follow-up with students who are designated certain parts of an assignment and remind them of the tasks that need to be done, or you can use it to remind co-workers that they need complete certain tasks. Google Docs also will pick up on certain words and turn them into suggested tasks. Although this doesn’t work all the time, it does work for certain task oriented words.

HOTSpot - Sean - Casting Student Screens to Projector

A recent update to our Chrome browser now allows us to smoothly, with a small amount of setup work, fling student Chromebook screens (or any device running the Chrome browser) to the teacher computer. Assuming this teacher computer is connected to the projector, this means you can project a student screen to the class with this cool tool! Just check out the video for a quick look at how it works and then dig in. It plays VERY nicely with Google Classroom. So...if you have students set up in your classroom, you can connect them all with one click. Good luck and happy casting!