Give your emails an upgraded look with this simple extension

Check out this recent BetterCloudMonITer post on designing your important emails in Google Doc and then converting them to an email while maintaining all the formatting. You will no longer be confined in design options in Gmail's limited formatting options.

HOTSpot - Sean - 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 - YouTube in Gdocs

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.

HOTSpot - Shona - Upping you slide presentation game

It’s important to share information learned at conferences, and I have used this resource as a guide when creating my new slide presentations or updating previous presentations. Here are my notes from the 2016 ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) conference where I learned the psychology and research behind various ways to present content. The notes explain much of the presentation. You can use these guides for yourself or use them for resources for your students when they present to the class. I have also tried to stick to the guidelines for conference presentations.

HOTSpot - Chris - Google Keep Integration in Google Docs

I love using Google Doc for the majority of my assignments, but there is still a part of me that misses adding those reinforcement stickers I used to buy at the beginning of the school year. Well now that Google Keep easily integrates with Google Docs, I’m bring stickers back! Not only does this provide that same positive reinforcement the old fashion, (yes 4 years ago is now considered old fashion in the edtech world) but the new integration between Keep and Docs also allows teachers to easily insert comments instead of having to retype the same ones all the time. I’m sure there will be more ideas people think of with this new connection. If you have some cool ideas, please let me know!

HOTSpot - Amanda - Breakout EDU

At every conference I’ve attended the last few years I’ve seen sessions on Breakout EDU. I was intrigued but overwhelmed about how I would use it in my own classroom. Finally, I decided to give it a try, and I’m so glad I did! The students were engaged the entire time and were so excited to participate, even students who usually “tune-out.” The library has 4 breakout boxes you can check out. They include locks, blacklights, blacklight markers and smaller locked boxes. I made my own lesson for the causes of World War II; however, there are tons of pre-made lessons at Breakout EDU website, and there’s a great Facebook page with shared lessons as well. If you are interested in digital breakout lessons, there are tons of resources out there as well! Let me know if you have any questions and if you would like help setting up your first Breakout lesson!

HOTSpot - Sean - Open ClipArt

I love free stuff, and one thing I miss the most about using Microsoft Office is clipart and the ability to grab any of its amazing, royalty free images while staying INSIDE the document. I know, kind of weird...but it’s one of those things where “you don’t know what you got 'til it’s gone.” There are definitely ways to get clip art for Google Docs, but here’s a cool way for you and your students to quickly get it, for FREE, WHILE staying INSIDE the doc. Check this out...just go into any Google Doc and click “Add-ons” up top. From there, choose “Get Add-ons” and type in “Open Clipart” in the search bar. Choose the Add-on and it will install. To use it, just choose this Add-on anytime you need to use it, and it will pop up on the right hand side for you.