Using Find A Time In Google Calendar

Image generated by Gemini's NanoBanana

@LisaBerghoff

I consider myself a generally patient person. I do have some pet peeves that drive me nuts but none of them are so overwhelming that they interfere with my day to day existence. One thing that interests me is problem-solving ways to save time and be more efficient and many of the things that bug me are really just things that could be taken care of more efficiently. Since time is so precious in our school day, I just hate to see it wasted by people either in person or via email trying to figure out a time to meet. We are spending time trying to find a time? This makes no sense to me. That's why I am a fan of the Find A Time feature in Google calendar. I'm often surprised to find out how many people don't know this exists. Our administrative assistants definitely know how to use this feature and all of you should too. 

What Is Find A Time? 

This is a feature that is built into Google calendar events. It is designed to make it easier to book times that everyone is available without needing to contact them. 

How Do I Use Find A Time?

• Open Google Calendar and click Search For People on the left.
• Start typing the person's name and choose who you want to meet with.
• At the top left click Create + and choose Event.
• Click Find A Time. 

This will open your guests' calendars on top of your own so you can see when there is an opening for all of you. As you move through the calendar, everyone's calendars will move as well.

What Needs To Happen For This To Work Well?

There are a few things to consider. 

First, the people you're looking to meet with must have their Google calendars up to date. If your Google calendar is not up to date, I encourage you to take care of that as soon as possible. 

Next, you should see their calendar times as free/busy. This is a setting within your calendar. If you don't want your colleagues to see every detail of your day, go into your calendar settings and adjust this. You will see it under "Access Permissions For Events".

Finally, this will work with anyone in our domain (district) and anyone who has shared their calendar with you. If you are trying to schedule with someone from outside the district and they have not shared their calendar with you, you will not see the Find A Time feature. 

That's it! I love when there is a simple feature that can help solve for a time consuming problem. Want some help figuring out how to get the most out of your Google calendar? I'm happy to connect and work on it with you. 

Incorporate More Play With Gimkit

@LisaBerghoff

I am so fortunate that I get to be in many classrooms over the course of the school year. When talking about their students, teachers will often say something like "this is a really good class". I somehow know what they mean, but also would like to spell it out more clearly. What makes a group of students a "good class"? It tends to boil down to two things, and these things are often confused as the same thing. These two things are engagement and compliance. I would argue that you need some amount of both to make a good class but I think it is important to define these terms.

Compliance refers to performing required behaviors such as following rules or completing assignments. Engagement is referring to a cognitive and emotional investment in learning involving active participation, curiosity, and a desire to understand. The argument could be made that you need a level of compliance in order for real engagement to happen. That is why it is so important to really think about what we know about our students when we are preparing lessons and activities. Will they be able to follow the rules and will they be engaged are two main questions I would ask. Then, what tools do I have to maximize both of these?

That's where Gimkit comes in!

What Is Gimkit?

Gimkit is a classroom game-show style platform where students compete by answering questions on their electronic devices. Instead of earning points, students earn virtual currency, which they can "invest" during the game to boost their score. Games can be played live or can be assigned as independent practice. Students connect via game codes  and can play in a web browser on any internet-connected device. They can compete against each other or collaborate in teams or as a whole class. When teachers launch the game, they choose from a variety of play modes and set in-game parameters. In KitCollab mode, students help build the game by submitting questions before play begins. Teachers can view and download detailed student reports after every game.

Gimkit gets a rating of 4/5 on Common Sense.

How Do I Get Started with Gimkit?

Start by going to Gimkit.com and logging in with your school Google credentials. That will take you to our premium license.

The games are called Kits and you can start from scratch or you can click Discovery and search from more than 30,000,000 kits that have already been created. Yes, you have the ability to edit and adjust to make it your own.  You can also begin by importing or creating a set of flashcards. The flashcards created from Pear Deck's Flashcard Factory are perfect for this.  

If you are starting from scratch, click Add Question and choose from multiple choice or text input. You can add images, audio, and equations to both types of questions.

Of course, there is now an AI generator that will help create questions for you as well. Enter a prompt, and watch the questions appear.

What is KitCollab?

If you really want to level up the engagement of your lesson and go beyond simply review, use KitCollab and have students create the questions. You will have the opportunity to decide which questions actually get added to the kit.

What Happens When The Gimkit Game Ends?

After your game ends, whether it was live or assigned outside of class, you have the opportunity to view a report. This report has a breakdown by question, overview by student, and also some quick statistics that can give you valuable insights into how well your students understood the material. This makes Gimkit an ideal formative assessment tool.

Ready to give Gimkit a try? Let me know. I'm happy to help.

New Launches In Canva 2025

@LisaBerghoff

Canva is once again making a big splash with several new launches. I know that for some educators, Canva is a dream come true, for others, it's a bit overwhelming. I definitely fall somewhere in the middle. I love Canva when I have a project that involves design and I want it to look fantastic without spending hours on it. I will also say that I have lots of other tools that are working just fine and I don't necessarily need to jump into Canva to replace them. I'm looking at you, Google Docs. The capabilities within Canva are moving ahead at warp speed and the AI tools are now really embedded in a way that you almost forget you are using AI. Let's jump in and take a look at some of what is new.  They launched so many new items but these are the stand-outs for school use in my opinion.

1. Canva Forms

• When you are in a design, go to the Elements tab and where it says Browse Categories choose Forms. You will see several forms templates, all of which can be customized by you. I could see using this within a Canva presentation. You could have some content and then a slide with a question or several questions. You have several question types to choose from: Short and long answer, multiple choice, checkbox, email, number, poll, single choice quiz, multi-choice quiz, mood meter, linear scale, and star rating. You can click and see the responses from your design. You can also open responses in a Canva sheet. Your students are logged into Canva so it can automatically saves their response with their email or it can be anonymous.

Check out this mood meter. It could be a wonderful way to start or end a class.

2. Grab Text

• This is a new feature within the photo editor. Similar to Magic Grab but this is specific for text. If there is text on your image of any kind, you can grab it and reposition it, change the font, edit it, delete it completely, or whatever you need for your design. 
• Click on the photo and select Edit. Then choose Magic Grab from the Magic Studio options.
• The AI tool will highlight any text that it recognizes. You can have it select all text or click on what you want to edit.

3. Visual Suite

• This is a workflow solution that I think is going to be life changing for some of you. You no longer have to choose one design type. You can create a presentation, sheet, doc, and whiteboard all in one. It looks like a slide deck timeline across the bottom, but you can add a new page of any type. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you give it a try you will completely understand. You can create an entire lesson package all in one file that includes slides, graphics, videos, sheets, and more.

4. Canva Video 2.0

• I'm trying to temper my expectations, but the new Canva video editor looks more robust and should give our students more capabilities without being overly complicated. You will see that the editor now has layers, giving you the ability to edit and adjust at a more granular level.

5. 3D Images

• How many times do we give students a drawing and say "imagine that this is three dimensional"? Canva elements now has a 3D option. When you are in editing mode, you can actually manipulate and move them around. This can be a huge help for prototyping, or any sort of design or geometric planning. 

This is a very short list of all that is new in Canva. If you are a Canva fan, I highly encourage you to check out all of the new launches. If Canva seems overwhelming to you, please don't walk away. Try using Canva for one, small, specific task and see how it goes. Want some help getting started? You know where to find me.

 

Five Tips For Searching Gmail 
So You Will Actually Find 
What You're Looking For 

*image generated using Gemini's Nano Banana tool

It is interesting to me how when something gets spoken aloud often enough, it just becomes recognized as fact. I did a little research and learned that this is called the Illusory Truth Effect. Familiarity can overpower rationality and our brains start to process the repeated information as truth. The way to avoid falling into this trap is to stay skeptical and do your reasearch. I found myself caught in this loop recently as I had multiple conversations with people who had been struggling to find what they were searching for in gmail. The Illusory Truth Effect is even stronger when the information comes from multiple sources. I had similar conversations about gmail with teachers, friends, and family members. 

Then, I reminded myself of one simple fact: Google is a search engine. 

I'm not saying that my friends, family members, and colleagues were wrong. I believe that searching in gmail has been a struggle. I have experienced this myself. But I decided to do some research into ways to combat the black hole of my gmail inbox, and figure out how to take matters into my own hands so I can get the results I want. 

I'm happy to share what I have learned with you.

First, a short primer on what happens when you start typing into the gmail search bar.

• To help you search faster, Gmail suggests search terms as you enter words. These search terms are based on information from your gmail account. These are suggestions, NOT the search results.
• Searches that you make in gmail that return no results will show related results instead. It's important to understand that you will always get something, even if there is nothing there. 
• When you use labels (some people call them folders), you are not actually moving messages, you are setting a filter for those messages. 
• By default, emails in spam and trash are not included in a standard search. To include spam and trash, use the advanced search feature.

Tip 1: ALWAYS Press Enter/Return

This is the number 1 mistake that people make! When you are typing in the search bar, it is so tempting to think that those suggestions that pop up are the actual search but they are not. Enter your search terms and then make sure to press Enter or Return, depending on your keyboard, then look at the results. This one simple change will make an enormous difference.

Tip 2: Sort Your Search Results

After you search, you may be confused by the order of the results shown. This can quickly be remedied by sorting your results by chronological order instead of relevancy. Depending on what you want, select Most Relevant or Most Recent.

Tip 3: Narrow Your Search Results

There are a few ways to do this. You can use the search chips or advanced search.

• Enter your search criteria and press enter
• Under the search box, select a chip:
• From: Search for anything from a specific email address
• Any Time: Search for anything that's sent within a certain date range or on a specific date.
• Has Attachment: Search for anything with attachments or have a specific type of attachment- Google docs, sheets, PDF
• Exclude Calendar Updates: Search for anything that is not a calendar update
• To: Search for anything you sent to a specific email address
• Is Unread: Search for anything currently marked as "unread".
• Is Encrypted: Search for emails that use client side encryption
• If you use Chat, you can find additional search chips so you can search for emails, conversations in chat, or spaces in chat. 

Advanced Search gives you some of the same options as the chips but also some are different.

• Subject: Search for anything that matches the subject line of an email.
• Has The Words: Search emails that match specific words or phrases.
• Doesn't Have: Excludes emails from your search that match specific words and phrases.
• Size: Searches emails that match a certain size.
• Search: Search emails listed in other areas of Gmail like custom labels, spam, and trash.

Tip 4: Learn What Happens When You Delete A Message:

To keep your inbox clean you can delete unwanted messages. It is important to understand what this means.

• When you delete a message in Gmail, it is moved to Trash.
• Up to 30 days after deletion, you can find the message in Trash, recover it, and move it back to your inbox.
• After 30 days, the message is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. If it is deleted from one device it will be deleted from all other devices that are synched to that account. 

Tip 5: Star Important Emails 

When you star emails in gmail, you mark them as important. This helps you remember to look at them later. 

• From your inbox, go to the left of the message and click the star. If the message is open, click More > Add Star.
• If you have multiple stars, keep clicking the icon until you see the one you want to use.
• You can add more star options. In the top right, click Settings > See all settings and scroll down to the "Stars" section. Drag stars between "Not in use" and "In use". 

Lock In Your Assessment And Assignment Security With LockDown Browser

@LisaBerghoff

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I read A Tale Of Two Cities when I was in high school. It was required reading. I didn't love it. I also didn't really understand most of it until I decided to reread it as an adult. While we are not experiencing the French Revolution, we are certainly experiencing a time of contradictions in education. We have new AI tools coming at us at a frantic speed while also understanding the need for our students to have their own thoughts, ideas, and understanding of the new content they are learning. We want to be innovative, to encourage utilizing resources and maximizing what we have at our fingertips, while also clinging to our own experiences of teaching and learning. 

This duality can be frustrating when we need to plan for a group of eager and not so eager students in our classrooms everyday. Here is a perfect opportunity to practice dialectical thinking, a way of accepting that two things can be true at the same time, even when they seem to contradict one another.

I generally intend for this blog to push the boundaries and promote innovation and newness. Today, I'm pulling it back a bit to highlight a tool that I first wrote about in 2018 and haven't highlighted since 2021. I'm excited to share information about LockDown Browser in Schoology. 

What Is LockDown Browser?

LockDown Browser is a custom browser that integrates with Schoology to lock down a testing or assignment environment, preventing students from accessing other applications, websites, or files. When lockdown browser is enabled, students are unable to print, copy, visit other websites, access other applications, or close an assessment or assignment until it has been submitted. I say assessments AND assignments but in Schoology, it only works with the assessment tool on your materials page. However, you can use those assessments as assignments whenever you want, it's really a matter of semantics.

How Does LockDown Browser Work?

Step 1: Create your assessment in Schoology and deploy it to your course.

Step 2: Select the LockDown Browser dashboard on the left side menu of Schoology. You will see a list of your assessments. Here is where you can configure the LockDown Browser settings. 

Step 3: Have students click on the assessment. LockDown Browser will launch automatically.

Within LockDown Browser, there is a getting started guide, video tutorials, as well as guides and support. 

Here is the dashboard:

It is HIGHLY recommended that you have students use their school-issued chromebooks when using LockDown Browser. If you allow students to use their own devices, they will need to download the program. 

There are several options within LockDown Browser. If the choices seem confusing, just hover your mouse over them and an explanation will appear. 

Here is an introductory video for students that explains what they need to do.

I have many thoughts on students cheating. I have thoughts on why they cheat, how they cheat, and what would get them to stop cheating. I welcome any conversation about this topic. Until we have some sort of a solution, it's good to know we have LockDown Browser. The fact that it is embedded within Schoology makes it even more secure and easier to use.

Want some help getting started?

Just let me know. I am always happy to help.

 

How To AI The Right Way!

NotebookLM

@LisaBerghoff

AI is claiming to do a lot in education. From personalized learning, to tutoring, to differentiating. Yes, AI is an incredible tool and we absolutely need to understand it and teach our students how to be responsible with it. But if we're being real, at the end of the day we really just need our students to learn, to think critically, and to produce high quality responses to our questions and directions. At this point in the school year, assessments are ramping up and this is when we realize that many of our students are lacking basic study skills. As educators, we know the secret to deep learning isn’t just reading over the material—it’s interacting with it. But turning a dense PDF, a long research article, or a set of lecture slides into engaging study aids and accessible summaries is incredibly time-consuming and can be overwhelming, especially if the student has waited until the last minute. That's why I am beyond excited about NotebookLM, which is included with our Google license.

What Is NotebookLM?

This is Google’s personalized AI research and study assistant. I wrote a post about NotebookLM last spring, you can find it here. It gives a nice overview of how NotebookLM works. But at that time, it was not approved for all ages. 

Also, NotebookLM has recently rolled out some very impressive and useful features designed specifically for educators and high school students. This is NOT a generic chatbot; it’s an assistant that is grounded exclusively in the source materials you upload, ensuring every generated response is accurate and directly cited.

To get started, go to NotebookLM.google. Upload up to 50 sources. You can add anything from PDFs, video links, web links, slides, grab files from your computer, or grab files from your Google drive, or copy and paste. 

Then, let NotebookLM work it's magic. When it is ready, you will see three sections. On the left are all of your sources, in the middle is the chat. There will be a brief summary of the resources you added and at the bottom you can ask questions and it will respond based on the information you loaded. On the right is the studio. Click any of the tabs to have it create a study guide, flashcards, a video overview, an audio overview (podcast with 2 speakers), a mind-map, a quiz, and so much more. Within the reports tab you can choose from many options or you can customize and create your own.

Yes! You can share an entire notebook.

Yes! You can down load and share specific elements, like the audio overview. 

Ok, let's focus on what's new here.

What Is New With NotebookLM?

These new updates make it the ultimate tool for teaching and learning. 

1. Instant Study Aids: Flashcards and Quizzes

One of the biggest time savers is the Flashcards and Quizzes feature. Imagine uploading a full unit’s worth of readings, and having an entire, customized study set generated instantly.

• Flashcards: NotebookLM automatically creates digital flashcards from your sources to help students memorize key terms, dates, and core concepts. If a student struggles with a definition, they can click “Explain,” and NotebookLM generates a detailed overview, citing the exact location in the source material.

• Quizzes: You can generate comprehension quizzes customized by topic and difficulty level. This allows for targeted practice before a test. Even better, when a student gets a question wrong, the platform explains why the answer is incorrect, providing direct feedback and citation links for immediate review.

This is a powerful tool that aligns with tier 1 strategies, allowing you to share pre-made, high-quality study sets for every source used in class.

2. Dynamic Learning: Audio and Video Overviews

The new Audio Overview and Video Overview formats encourage students to engage with complex texts outside of the classroom.

• Audio Overview: This turns your uploaded documents (such as historical primary sources, scientific papers, or even class lecture notes) into engaging, podcast-style discussions. New formats include:

  • Brief: A single AI host delivers a concise summary of the core ideas.

  • Critique: Two AI hosts review material, offering constructive feedback—perfect for analyzing a student's essay draft or a complex policy paper.

  • Debate: Two AI hosts discuss different perspectives on a single topic, providing a fantastic pre-discussion activity for class.

• Video Overview: For a visual learning experience, NotebookLM can create video-like summaries complete with voiceovers and slide-deck visuals, perfect for sharing complex information in a format accessible to digital learners.

Practical Applications for Your Classroom

Here are some ways you can use these features. The following chart was generated by Gemini.

Application	NotebookLM Feature	Benefit for Teachers & Students
Lesson Planning	Use the new Report formats (like "Blog Post" or "Study Guide") to quickly outline key talking points for your lectures from new research.	Saves hours of content aggregation and summarization.
Primary Source Analysis	Upload complex historical documents or scientific literature. Generate a Critique Audio Overview.	Makes sophisticated, complex texts accessible and encourages critical thinking before the student even reads them.
Formative Assessment	Instantly generate a customized Quiz after a reading assignment.	Provides immediate feedback to students and helps you quickly gauge class comprehension.
Research Projects	Instruct students to upload all their research articles into one Notebook, then use the chat feature to compare and contrast arguments across sources.	Models advanced research and synthesis skills, all while maintaining strict citation integrity.

Are you ready to explore all that you can do with NotebookLM? Want a personalized demo? I would love to show you!