TwosDays - Sean - New Gmail Features

Do you want to check if you have the new gmail features? Here’s a video to help you get those features set up. If they are not displayed in your gmail you can click the little arrow at the bottom right to see the options.

TwosDay - Mandie - Gmail And Tasks

There’s no better feeling than crossing off something on your to-do list. Take it digital by using tasks that are built into Gmail. You can drag and drop an email directly into Tasks, set a reminder to follow-up and add a note with just a few clicks.

TwosDay - Bob - Google Canvas

Sometimes we need students to make drawings, flow charts, or other images to illustrate concepts. Two of the tools that Google currently offers to accomplish this task are Google Drawings and the Google Canvas Chrome App. In this video, we’ll take a look at the basic tools of Google Canvas.

TwosDay - Sean - Easy Drawing With AutoDraw

Illustrating is such a great way to demonstrate a concept. Sometimes I want to draw and show something, & sometimes I want my kiddos to draw a concept to show how they are picturing it. However, I draw pictures as well as United Airlines draws passenger names “randomly.” Luckily, our friends at Google have tapped into some awesome artists to make a super simple, magical drawing tool that can make anyone look like DaVinci. Just go to autodraw.com and start drawing. Your task options are in the bottom right corner, color options are located in the bottom left, and the smart images from which you can choose are located in a row along the top. Once you’re done with your masterpiece, just click the 3 hot dogs in the upper right to get action options where you can download it or share it through a variety of ways, including the simple “copy / paste” move. Enjoy!

HOTSpot - Cory - Hapara: Guided Browsing

There are definitely times when there are a few students in the class I would like to keep tabs on, but I do not have the time to sit there and watch their browsers for fifty minutes.  Hapara Highlights does not have to be a time thief for you if you can master the Activity Viewer and Focused Browsing.  Discover a few ways that you can have a digital presence for your students in our Chromebook age of (un)accountability.

TwosDay - Brandon - Hapara Highlights

Manage your classroom without interrupting student discussion and learning.  Hapara Highlights allows you to see and document student productivity without hovering over their shoulder.  Use these tools to gain more control over your students digital devices and help refocus their efforts in class.

TwosDays - Cory - Google Classroom Rubrics

Google has recently pushed out the new feature of being able to attach a rubric to an assignment.  Thankfully, you can reuse rubrics and change them as needed.  If you are already doing a little grading on Google Classroom, then you likely will want to take the next step and see if using the rubric feature would streamline the process for you and your students.

TwosDays- Cory - Google Drawing Rubrics

If you know what it is like to see your rubric tossed into recycling bin with nothing more than a glance at the grade, then you might want to take a peek at this.  It is hard to press against the argument that grading/ circling  points on a sheet of paper is the easiest approach, but we are inching ever closer with options that keep the ease and attempt to up the access for students and teachers.

TwosDay - Sean - Google Drawing: The MultiTool

Google offers a bunch of tools in which teachers can create, or more importantly, ask our students to create. Sometimes, however, it doesn’t feel like there is the “right tool” for us to do what we want. But, I challenge you to give Google Drawings a chance.

Google Drawings, in my opinion, is the most under-rated tool in our teaching tool box. And I’m not talking about drawing (sorry art teachers). Google Drawings can be a canvas for all sorts of creation, exploration, manipulation, and so many more things you may want your students to do!

TwosDays - Sean - Google Drawings For Labeling Activities

Drawing can be a blast. Google Drawings is a way we can use the manipulation of drawing to move text and shapes around for learning purposes. Check out a throwback here to see how we might leverage Google Drawings to create templates for labeling activities for our students.

TwosDays - Amanda - Online Course for PD

If you are looking for PD opportunities for your ISBE recertification check out this flyer to view  Online Courses that are offered through The Learning Technology Center. These Illinois State Board of Education programs are free learning opportunities and a self-paced option for completing your required hours. Check out this website for more information or feel free to stop in HOTSpot for more information. www.ltcillinois.org

TwosDays - Bob - Credit Hours for ISBE

Still wondering how and where to enter your PD hours? Follow these steps in this video in order to finish the process and receive those much needed credits.

HOTSpot - Cory - Keep YouTube Videos Inside a Google Doc

Google Docs is a great place to house so many assignments and graphic organizers, and I recently shared how hyperdoc-ing is a wonderful way to connect a myriad of resources in a lesson.  Alas, you don’t always want your hyperlink whisking your students off to YouTube with the endless ads and rabbit trails for them to follow. This workaround is a simple and effective way to keep videos viewable inside the document and avoid the trap of wandering the web.

TwosDay - Bob - YouTube Shortcuts

Many classroom teachers use YouTube content to supplement their lessons. Hidden within a right-click menu are some useful shortcuts that will allow you to loop, link, embed, as well as speed up and slow down video content.

TwosDays - Brandon - Edpuzzle Live

Keep your classroom fresh and exciting by adding interactive video as part of your lessons.  Edpuzzle has added the ability to watch a video as a class and collect individual feedback from all students.  You can hold your kids accountable and freshen up your lessons at the same time!  Use a video as a core part of your lesson and then pause at times to lecture or teach live.  As you go, Edpuzzle will collect student responses that you can use to go more in depth or even a different direction if needed.

TwosDays - Chris - Edpuzzle Notes

Using video can be a powerful piece of anyone's curriculum. Whether it's a video of you or something you grab from YouTube, giving students the ability to watch, rewatch, and pause can make a big impact on students who learn at a different pace from their peers.  With the help of our Literacy Coaches, I realized that this piece of technology offered a whole lot more than what I was using. Using the comment feature of Edpuzzle allowed me to purposely pause my students at key points in the video to take notes, reflect, and record their understanding so that they now had something they could take away.

TwosDays - Cory- Audio in Google Slides

Trying to put audio in a slide was, at best, a workaround by inserting a Youtube video off the displayed screen.  Thankfully, Google has added an audio feature that allows you to throw an audio clip on a slide and automatically play it as you go through your presentation. Better yet, it hides the icon so that you know it is there, but it will not show in presentation mode.  No more spinning wheels and advertisements to wait for your sound to play on a video.  Think of all the clips you could store on your daily slide as examples and artifacts for the coming year!

TwosDay - Cory - Student Side of Audio in Slides

Everyone now has the audio in Slides feature that you may have thought about employing for some of your own presentations in the classroom.  Start trying to think about how your students might use it to show some authentic work or the process that they went through.  The power for audio in collaboration, feedback, and even reflection can be a useful tool for your curriculum.

TwosDays - Amanda - Mastery Manager and PDG Help

It’s that time of year again where we get a lot of questions in the HOTSpot regarding Mastery Manager and PDGs. Check out some tips in this video and stop in for help! The first tip is pretty basic but important: where do you find the reports option for creating and working with your PDGs? The other tips involve how to use the other functions that are available within an individual assessment. As always, stop by if you would like help with Mastery Manager!

TwosDay - Sean - Cleaner Email Communication

Email chains can get out of control but still contain important information. Sometimes we want to loop someone else into the info exchange that’s happening, but adding them to the conversation can get messy and may not actually be appropriate.

Maybe we exchange a few emails with a student and want to send the parent an email that references that exchange? Maybe we have an email conversation with a few colleagues and now we want to ask our department sup a question about something throughout that exchange.

Now there’s an easier and, in my opinion, most importantly, cleaner way to do that by attaching an email to an email.