Thing 14.2 -- Productivity; Google Calendar

So why a shared class calendar? Keep students and parents up-to-date with all your classroom happenings.  Standardized test dates, field trips & guest speakers, assignment details & due dates, and, most important of all,  VACATIONS! You can also link files and class resources via Google Drive. You could create one standard (school) calendar that links to all your calendars and then a separate one for each class or content area as needed. 

I created and shared a Google calendar for my Website. I've used shared calendars via 30 Boxes. I like a lot of the features in 30 boxes; it seems more robust. But the Google calendar is more convenient as it comes with the whole Google package and if you check out the google calendar labs you can see how to add 'flair' (event icons) and access other gadgets to beef up your calendar items. I'll have to return to this after exploring more. 

The West Mi Ed Tech calendar is public on google. Follow this link to access the html version.

Thing 13.1 -- Interactives; Google Earth

Loving Google Earth! This is one of those tools that truly crosses all content areas. As a tech specialist, I strive to find resources that work in multiple areas. This assists staff in collaboration, and helps students envision how tools apply in multiple areas, rather than 'this is a [fill in content area] resource only'. Placemarkers are especially useful for this in establishing location for history, literature, famous figures--and their lives, discoveries, etc. Here are my two examples. 

 

 

 

Lake MacDonald in Glacier Natl Park. The exact spot we got married at last summer!

 

Princess Juliana Airport beach in St Maarten. Look for the placemarker -- we weren't actually on the beach, but in a catamaran off shore -- which is why I missed the Adobe session! ;)

Thing 12.1 -- Google Forms for Assessment

Google forms makes it easy to collect, store & analyze data. I use it primarily for formative assessment and reflection. I get valuable feedback from my students that directs my instructional practice. I tweak my presentations, follow up with individuals and choose what future PD to create all based on information gathered in Google forms.

I especially like the live form updating. Projecting the live results as users take the poll really helps my students become comfortable. Tech PD intimidates a lot of people. As they complete the Google form opening survey, they see they really aren't the only ones who aren't 'tech gurus'. Smiles, shared chuckles and self-acceptance instantly create a much more relaxed atmosphere.

Google forms also gives me an easy way to create district-wide polling tools on topics such as Internet safety, student access to technology etc. I create one form, share it with staff who can then customize it for themselves. By requiring students to include their name & class information on the form as one of the 'questions' it allows teachers to easily filter results as needed. 

Here's an example of a Google form I created on Internet safety. 

Thing 3 -- Extra! 5 step Process: Add Contacts from G-Spreadsheet

Ok...this is one of the fun wonders of all things Cloud / Internet. Today I wanted to add all my cohort-mates to my gmail contacts via the spreadsheet shared by our facilitators, however, I had no editing rights to the document. So...

My first thought:  

Save a copy of the spreadsheet so I can copy / paste emails. 

But this isn't really what I want to do. I want to upload all the info from the spreadsheet to my gmail contacts (first name, last name & email). I don't want to have to toggle btwn screens laboriously copy / pasting.

My second thought: 

There MUST be a way to auto-upload this. It IS a Google spreadsheet, I AM using Google Drive and I DO want them in my Gmail contacts. Surely the mighty google can connect all those dots for me. 

Third thought: 

Google: 'add contacts to gmail from google docs spreadsheet' :)  

Thought 3.5:  Top return looks good-- click on that...

#4

huh?? That's not English! 

Final Thought: 

Who needs English? This guy made a screencast that I can easily follow regardless of the fact that I do not recognize his spoken language.  And what does that say about communicating with kids? (ELL, or otherwise), and the true power of tech tools?

Voila! :)