One Tech Tool That Solved Two Problems:

cloudHQ Gmail Label and Email Sharing

@joe_edtech/
@LisaBerghoff

I've always been a fan of serendipity. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Over the summer, a friend of mine said that she really needed to share a folder of emails (in Gmail, it is called a Label) with a colleague. She wanted to be able to do that without opening each email individually and forwarding it. I did a quick search and found cloudHQ, a Chrome extension with great reviews that purported to do just that. So, I installed it - then I found out it was even better than advertised.

Once installed and activated (it may ask you to sign in and authorize it multiple times) you'll see a new button at the top of your Gmail inbox.

It is pretty simple to use. Once you have authorized the extension and click the button, you'll get a pop-up box prompting you for the name of the label you want to share and the email addresses of the people with whom you want to share. 

If that were the end of the story, it would be good enough. But it gets better. When you install the extension and open an email message, you'll see an entirely new set of menu options:

In addition to the usual choices, you have the option to change the name of the email (the pencil icon), share a link to the email (the chain link icon), or SNOOZE the email (the alarm clock icon). I personally don't have any use for the first two, but I've been looking for a good option to snooze emails for a long time. If I get an email in my inbox that requires some action on my behalf, but the action isn't required for a significant amount of time I can click the snooze icon and hide the email until it is important. 

You can choose from a list of preselected Snooze times, or you can select an exact date and time. The email will be hidden until that time and will then appear at the top of your inbox. 

cloudHQ is a "freemium" service, but I only use the free stuff. If you run your own business or have run an organization outside of school, it might be useful to look into the paid services for syncing and backing up emails. I would love to tell you that I researched this tool and knew all of this in advance of sending it to my friend. But I didn't. It was just serendipity.

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If you've found a better way to share labels or snooze emails, tell us about it below.

If This Then That... Do More With Your Apps And Devices

Do you ever wish you could clone yourself?

I spend a lot of my time thinking about how to streamline, be more efficient, make better use of my time, and get more done without adding hours to the day. It seems impossible. There are always emails to respond to, Twitter feeds to check, weather reports to look at, photos to catalog. Now that I have found IFTTT, I almost feel like there are two of me:)

IFTTT stands for If This Then That and it is a free platform, launched in beta back in 2010,  that helps you do more with your apps and devices. It uses a formula called an "applet" that connects a service (everything from email, Twitter, Facebook, Time Magazine, Fitbit, etc.) to a "trigger" or a condition and then another service. I know it's tricky to understand at first but this service has amazing possibilities. I worked with a teacher who was teaching an outdoor adventure-type of physical education class. He wanted a collection of his students' photos on their camping trip and he wanted a way for them to comment and share. He had them post to Instagram using a specific hashtag he created. He used IFTTT to automatically upload the photos with that hashtag to his class blog. AMAZING!

Here are 5 examples of applets that already exist that you might find interesting.

1. If you get an email with an attachment, then it will save to your Google drive. This applet can be

helpful when you are trying to organize attachments that you get via email. This applet will automatically save those attachments for you. Once the applet is active, you don't need to do anything except enjoy your great new organization system!

2.  Sometimes the best information comes not from the conference, but from the tweets sent out using the conference hashtag. But who has time in the day to load, 

look at, and read all of those tweets. They come fast and furious once the conference gets going. This applet will automatically load tweets with a specific hashtag to a Google spreadsheet. You can look at them when you have time or just save the spreadsheet for future reference. 

3. I happen to love quotes! I use them in my classes with students and I share them with friends and colleagues. I don't always have time to look at or save the quote of the day from BrainyQuote. This applet automatically archives quotes for you in a Google spreadsheet which is automatically saved in your Google drive.

4. Not sure what to do with all of those photos on your camera roll? They are taking up space on your phone. This applet will automatically upload your camera roll to your Google drive. Automatic storage solution! I also happen to take a lot of screenshots on my phone. There is another applet (bonus) that will save those screenshots into their own folder. 

5. This is one of my favorites. Every day at 6pm, or whatever time you specify, the weather report will be automatically added to your calendar. Never get stuck without your umbrella again!

Ok, hopefully you get the idea here. These are just a very few of the many, many applets that IFTTT has to offer. If you don't see what you are looking for you can easily create your own. IFTTT walks you through how to make your own applet by connecting your services and devices by a trigger. If you are someone who uses any social media, there are many applets to help you streamline those posts. There are applets for voice assistants like Alexa or OK Google. I highly suggest that you take a look at the applet collections by clicking here. 

Are you using IFTTT? Post in the comments below and let me know what applets you have activated.

Newsela Helps Make Reading the Most Powerful Learning Tool. 

Reading is one of the most powerful learning tools we have. It is also one of the greatest barriers when it comes to our students who struggle. Students who have difficulty reading often cannot access the curriculum they need in order to learn. Newsela is one of those magical tools that makes it possible for struggling students to hang in there with the class in a way that empowers them, instead of belittling them. I can remember being in elementary school and we had reading groups. It was very clear who were the great readers (the barracuda group) and who were the not so great readers (the minnows). I'm glad to see that those days are over but teachers still struggle with how to get content to our students in a way that they will understand.

Newsela  is a website that has a huge collection of current events articles from real sources like the Associated Press and Washington Post. Each article can be adjusted to 5 different reading levels. The students can select the level, or language, that is most comfortable for them. The content is the same.The articles come with eye catching photos and it shows you how many times the article has been assigned. The article also has grade level information and the word count. Students are able to adjust the reading level right their on  their own  screen. There is also an easy print option. 

Newsela is free and works seamlessly with Google Classroom. They also offer professional development webinars on literacy in addition to supports and resources for teachers. In addition to the latest news, you can search the Newsela library for content-specific articles. The students are in control of the reading level and the content doesn't change so even your minnows will be able to chime in during class discussions and activities.

When you sign up as a teacher, you can either create a class or import from Google Classroom. Newsela also allows you to create text sets or choose from the ones that are already created. This way, you can offer your students a whole group of articles to choose from. This will help you get some instructional time back if you were planning on having students search  on their own. There are even activities included where you can have students write by responding to a prompt, or take a short quiz.

Do you  already use Newsela? Write in the comments feature below and let me know how you have been using it!

Google Forms Turned Up A Notch! 

Password Protect and 4 Other Amazing Google Forms Tricks

Google forms are arguably the most transformative edtech tool in use today. They can be used for so many purposes. From submitting assignments, formative and summative assessments, and good old fashioned surveys,  to taking attendance at club meetings and opinion polls, Google forms are widely used by both teachers and students. It's no wonder, they are simple and fast to create and user friendly for the responders. The team at Google has been making a few adjustments to Google forms that you might not know about.  Some features are still being rolled out. 

 Sit tight because these 5 tips might make your head explode!

1. Password Protect Your Form With Response Validation

Don't want just anyone to be able to access and complete your form? No problem, you can create a "password" by using response validation.  This one isn't really so new but many people don't know about it. 

Here's a pictorial of the 3 steps to follow:

1.Just click the three dots next to the Required tab and click response validation. Make sure you are in short answer mode. Don't forget to make the question required. 

2. Here is where you can set the parameters. 

3. For a password, set it to "Text" "Contains" and then enter the password EXACTLY how it must be entered to use.  Where it says "Custom Error Text"  write in something like- wrong password, try again. 

2.  New Question Type: The Checkbox Grid

This new type of question option allows your respondents to choose from multiple options in a table. This is really helpful for things like finding meeting times. You set the rows. The example here shows the days of the week. You then set the columns. The image here shows one with class periods on it. 

Here is what the checkbox grid looks like to the respondent. I could see this being used in many ways for multiple disciplines. I'm thinking characters and traits, equations and properties, figures in history and events. I know you will put this one to good use! 

3. File Upload Capabilities:

Finally! Our suggestions have been heard and Google has added the ability for respondents to upload a file into the form. When you add a question, just choose "file upload". You will see the options below. Everything from an image, PDF, video, audio file and more. You can have them add multiple files and set the maximum size allowed.

4. Give Feedback In Quiz Mode:

Of course you know that Google forms now has quiz mode where you can assign points and even give an answer key. The form will grade itself! If you set the grades to be released manually, the email addresses will automatically be collected AND you can give feedback within the quiz. When your students get their grades, they will see the feedback you left for them within the questions. 

Here is what the quiz settings look like:  

5. Set Preferences that will apply for ALL of your forms!

Are you sick and tired of marking every question as required? Well now you can set preferences for your forms. You can automatically collect respondent's email addresses, mark all questions required, and even preset point values for quiz questions. Once you set your preferences, that will be the default setting for all of your forms. Click the three dots in the upper righthand section of your screen and open Preferences. 

Here is what the preferences options look like: 

Coming Soon! Look for Intelligent Response Validation.

How are you using Google forms? 

Go ahead and post in the comments below.

Want to work on these together? I'm happy to work with you and show you how to use these features in a way that makes sense for you and your classroom. 

Everyone is Flipping For Flipgrid!

I can hold it in no longer! My plan was to slowly roll out tools this fall so we could ease ourselves in to trying some new things. Here it is, week #2 and there is nothing slow about this. The truth is, teachers around the world are going nuts for Flipgrid and I just could not stand the idea that our staff is missing out.

There are always teachers who are looking for simple ways for students to express themselves via video. Teachers want to have students share and give each other feedback in a safe way that doesn't take up a ton of time. There are a few tools out there but many are clunky or require accounts to be created.

If you are one of those teachers, Flipgrid is the answer to your prayers. 

Here's what you need to know about Flipgrid. 

• The grid is extremely simple to set up. You put in a topic, students record their thoughts. You as the teacher can moderate the content, you can give feedback to individual students, you can even share videos with parents privately so they will only see their students' work.

• Even with the free version, you get 1 grid but unlimited topics. Ask away! You can add a youtube video or image to inspire creativity and/or give everyone some background knowledge. 

• This tool is designed for maximum student engagement. Everyone adds a video, not just the two or three students who always raise their hand in your class. Students can also add files or links to their videos. There are also drawing and custom sticker features. 

• Flipgrid has a free app for ios and android phones. It also works great with chromebooks! #noexcuses

• BONUS! Flipgrid integrates with Google Classroom and other learning management systems. 

Find out what all the fuss is about from other teachers. On Twitter, check out #flipgridfever

(If you're not on Twitter, I would LOVE to help you get started!)

Ready to give Flipgrid a try? You don't have to go it alone. I'm happy to help you and your students get started. Have you used other video tools for student engagement and feedback? Post in the comments section below and let me know your favorites. 

Google Classroom Turns 3!

Wow! Its hard to believe Google Classroom was launched 3 years ago. On the one hand, I feel like it was just yesterday when we heard Google was launching this amazing new product to help teachers manage workflow of Google apps in their classes. Since then, a lot has changed. But what has stayed the same is that Google Classroom continues to be simple and quick to learn and use. Using Google Classroom helps teachers with organization, communication, and overall time saving which means more time to spend with our students and less time digging around searching for files and folders.  Our students are asking teachers to use Google Classroom because it helps them keep their materials organized which means maximizing class time.

One big recent launch is called #FirstDayofClassroom. This is a hub that houses easy to follow tutorials, videos, tips, tricks, and resources for getting up and running with Google Classroom. The beauty of this hub is that all of the resources are created and used by teachers. There are live training sessions that you can join and a forum where you can post your specific questions. If you are on Twitter (Why are you not on Twitter??) check out #FirstDayofClassroom for updates in real time from the vast community of teachers using Google Classroom.

Click HERE to go to the First Day of Classroom Hub. 

If you are new to Google Classroom, here are 5 of the basics:

1. Google classroom allows you to quickly and easily create an online location for your students to access digital work in your class. You can push out announcements, assignments, and questions to your students. They can respond, turn in completed assignments, and ask questions, all within the confines of the classroom. 

2. Parents and guardians can get an update of their child's progress in your class automatically if you activate the guardian feature. 

3. There are many many free, online apps that work seamlessly with Google Classroom. For example, EdPuzzle allows you to create video assignments and push to your Google Classrooms right within EdPuzzle. It's so convenient because your students don't need to bounce back and forth. 

4. You can organize your posts by topic so in February, when your classroom is chock full of assignments, etc., your students will be able to find work from previous units. 

5. You can set up a class in less than 3 minutes by going to Classroom.Google.com or by clicking the Classroom icon in your apps doc. 

Haven't looked at Classroom since June? Check out the latest updates here:

You have probably seen that little question mark in the bottom corner of the screen when you use Google Classroom. You can click that question mark to see what is new, send feedback to the Google Classroom team, ask a question, or get help. It's a small icon but it's mighty and the folks at GoogleEdu really listen to teachers and the updates are the direct result of teachers providing feedback so don't hesitate to click and make suggestions. Ok, here's the latest.

1. New API features. Basically, this means that third party developers can build tools that interact with Classroom to make it that much more convenient for teachers and students. Read more about API here. 

2. You can now schedule coursework to post at a date or time in the future. PLEASE do not push out assignments at 9:30 at night. Either save it as a draft, or schedule it to push during your class time. 

3. You can now see a list of work by student and not just by assignment. The students can now see a list of all their work for a class in one convenient spot. There is even a filter so you can adjust the list by what is due or by grade.

4. Teachers can now re-order their classes on the Classroom dashboard. Now that we've been using it for 3 years, we have lots of "cards" for our classes. This feature makes it easier to organize. 

5. Decimal grades. Enough said. Thank you Google! 

6. When you are enrolling your students in a class, you can now display the class code in whole screen mode. It's a small adjustment that will make a difference.

7. Teachers and administrators can now transfer ownership of a class to another teacher. Last minute adjustments to teaching assignments? No problem!

8. The Google apps (now called GSuite) dock, that little icon with nine squares, is now located on the Google Classroom bar at the top of the screen. This makes switching back and forth in between GSuite apps much easier. 

Google Classroom has made adjustments and updates each month, which shows that they are reading the teacher feedback and listening to suggestions. Click here to see all of the updates for Google Classroom. 

#GoOpen with OER Commons

@LisaBerghoff

open sign board by MarkMoz12

Yes, it's the end of the school year. There are signs everywhere. The other day I saw students cleaning out their lockers, collecting what is left of their school supplies and stacking their textbooks for the end of the year "buy-back book sale". This is where our students take the books that they purchased in the fall and attempt to exchange them for cash. I can't help but slightly cringe when I see the price tags on many of these books. Did they get what they paid for back in August?

I am increasingly intrigued by teachers' and learners' use of Open Educational Resources, or OER. If you are not familiar with OER, allow me to introduce you to the world of free, high quality, adaptable resources that can be used in and out of the classroom. 

OER is not just about giving away information. It's about reducing barriers to high quality materials and education for all kids. What makes an open resource different from a free one? 

Free resources may not actually be free forever. Often, you are given a free trial or limited access for free. Also, if a free resource may not be changed or adapted to meet the needs of students, it is not OER.

Finding open educational resources is actually quite easy. I think  the best place to start is

 OER Commons Finding open resources online can feel unwieldy. OER Commons makes it simple with their search functions and extensive library. They even have collections "curated by digital librarians"!  In keeping of the OER spirit, there is also a way to connect and add content to the OER world. School districts, state boards of ed., and groups of teachers have created OER Commons groups. In these groups, there are shared resources and discussion sections for members to interact. 

Getting started with OER Commons only requires that you register by entering your name, email address, and password. 

As you are thinking about organizing your texts for next school year, I hope you will consider #GoOpen options like OER Commons.

Do you use #GoOpen resources? If so, please share in the comments section below.