It Doesn't Have To Be So Hard!

Flippity

@LisaBerghoff 

I was recently asked about what it is that makes me want to do things that are physically and mentally demanding. Actually, the words that were used were "what's wrong with you?". I guess I like the challenge. I like to set a big goal and then see if I can accomplish it. This comes with a downside though, sometimes I get stuck in this mode where I think for something to be worthwhile, or to succeed, the process must be at least a little bit painful. In other words, if it doesn't feel hard, it must not be working. While we know that being pushed out of your comfort zone is where real progress happens, sometimes we take this too far. You can be out of your comfort zone and not be completely miserable the whole time. This reminds me that in school, we can be working hard without feeling like we are drowning all the time, if we employ the right tools to help us. 

That's why I often turn to tools like Flippity. The site is packed with small, simple classroom tools that can have a big impact. 

What Is Flippity?

Flippity.net is a free educational website that turns Google sheets into interactive, customizable learning tools. This includes flashcards, quiz shows, digital games, classroom management tools, digital breakouts, and more. There is no registration, login, or account needed. You don't need to have Google sheets set up because there are templates on Flippity that are already formatted for you to use. 

How Do I Use Flippity?

1. Go to Flippity.net to get started. Take a look at the options. New activities are being added regularly. 

2. For each activity, you can click on "Demo" to try it out yourself. This is very helpful and highly suggested. You will get to see exactly how the activity works before setting it up and using it with your students. 

3. When you have decided what activity you want to use, click on "Instructions". Some of the activities have a "quick and easy" method. Others have very easy to follow step-by-step directions followed by a FAQ section. 

Each activity is self contained and you will have a link ready to go to use in class. 

When Should I Use Flippity?

The tools within Flippity tend to fall in a few categories. These might help when making decisions about when to pull these activities out of your toolbox. 

• Study Aids: Flashcards, matching games, memory activities
• Games And Activities: Jeopardy-style quiz, bingo, crosswords, breakouts
• Classroom Tools: Random name pickers, randomizer wheels, scavenger hunts, seating charts
• Organization: Leaderboards, progress indicators, certificate creators

What Flippity Activities Should I Try?

I'm so glad you asked! There are a few that I have been using on repeat lately.

Random Name Picker: I call this the spinny wheel. So easy you can set it up in less than a minute. You don't have to put names in there. Add characters, numbers, settings, or anything where you don't really care what the outcome is. Click on the wheel and watch your students get invested. I don't know why it works, but it does. 

Flippity Flexcards: These are 10-sided multimedia flashcards and they are a powerful study and organization tool. Click on the demo first to see how they work. 

Flippity Randomizer: This reminds me of a slot machine for words or symbols. You could add numbers, math symbols, or anything else that fits with your content. This is a powerful tool for practice. 

Mobile Friendly Leaderboard: Sometimes you need a cool leaderboard for your students who are motivated by seeing their name climb to the top. This one has a spreadsheet template that is easy to follow so you'll have your leaderboard up and running fast.

Are you using Flippity? What are your favorites? Ready to get started with Flippity but want some help? Let me know. I'm happy to help get you up and running with Flippity. 

What To Do With AI

EduGems- created by Eric Curts

@LisaBerghoff

It's not just us, living in the education space, that are being inundated with AI powered products. In every possible category, AI is finding its way and creeping into some of the most unlikely places. AI enhanced bottled water? AI powered bird feeder? AI designed perfume? Yes, these all exist. When we are confronted with the ridiculous it is easy to want to turn away, excuse it all as a marketing scheme, and go back to doing things the way we have for the past 5, 10, or even 20 years. I have the benefit of many years of life experience and I can confidently say that absolutely nothing is all good or all bad. I'm open to being challenged on that if you want to have a conversation. Many of the educational tools that we are seeing very much rely on sound pedagogical practices, clear learning goals, and high expectations. As Gemini is quickly rising to the top as the generative ai tool of choice for education, (we'll see if it stays there), you might be wondering what it is that you are meant to do with it.

I'm excited to share with you a site that was created to help you.

It's called EduGems and it was made by my friend and colleague, Eric Curts. 

What Is A Gem?

Gemini is the generative AI tool created by Google and it meets our privacy standards so that means that it won't use your information to train its models. It also has a pedagogical lens that makes it ideal for teaching and learning. A Gem is a pre-made prompt that can be saved so you can use it over and over again. There are some pre-made gems that you can find when you go to Gemini. You can also create your own. Gems that are created can be shared with others. While in Gemini, you will see Gems in the left side panel. Click to open it and take a look at what is already there. 

What Is EduGems?

EduGems is a site built by the amazing Eric Curts from Ohio. He's smart, a great teacher, and an all around great guy. He built several Gemini Gems designed for educators and he put them all on this site. When you click on one of the links, you will see a link to try out the Gem, another link to copy the Gem, and then also a short description. When you make your own copy, you also have the opportunity to edit and tweak the Gem to make sure it fits your needs. These custom prompts can turn your Gemini into an AI assistant that will do what you want without needing to be a perfect "prompt engineer".

He has the Gems organized by categories: curriculum, literacy, student activities, assessment, support, and professional tasks. Because he's Eric, he also has a tab for his tutorials if you want to learn more. He also has a form where you can submit your own Gems for sharing on his site. More collaboration, less frustration, that is the way to win at this AI game.

How Do I Access EduGems?

Just go to edugems.ai/home to check them out. 

Here is the Bell Ringer Gem in action:

Want to learn how to make your own gems? Want to talk about AI and appropriate use? Want help talking to your students about AI? I'm here for all of it! Feel free to reach out. I'm happy to help. 

 See It All At Once! 

Split Tabs In Google Chrome

*Image created using NanoBanana Pro

@LisaBerghoff

There are so many technological advances that are appearing at a lightning fast pace, both in education and also just in our everyday lives. Remember when gps needed to be updated and it did not account for traffic? It wasn't that long ago. There are some changes that are huge, like the emergence of AI. But I really like to appreciate the little things. Those small but powerful adjustments to tools that we already use that just make them better, easier to use, or more conveniently located. Those are the ones I get most excited about. I had someone in my office about a week ago and I said: "Want to see something fun?" and she replied, "Will I think it's fun?". Fair question! I showed her this feature and she did in fact agree that it was fun, and also useful. 

That's why I am thrilled to share the Split Tab option that is now available in Google Chrome.

What Is Split Tab View?

Split view in Chrome allows you to see multiple tabs all on the same screen. It lets you choose two tabs that will both occupy space on your screen. You can also adjust the ratio of each tab in case you only need to see a smaller section of one tab and a larger section of another. 

How Do I Use Split Tab View?

1. Move your cursor up to a tab that is already open in Chrome.

2. Right click on the tab (or 2 finger tap if you are using a trackpad)

3. Choose "Add Tab To New Split View"

4. You will see your screen split into two sections. Now you can click and choose the other tab you want open on the other side. 

To configure the ratio, hover and then click in the center and slide over to make one side larger or smaller.

To go back to regular view, go to the tab and right click and choose "Arrange Split View-> Separate Views". From the Arrange Split View menu, you can also reverse the views, close just the left or just the right.

Why Would I (or my students) Use Split Tab View? 

Ok. I hope you hear no judgment in my voice when I tell you that I know we all have tons of tabs open. I do too. Think about what our students are dealing with. Some of us have an assignment sheet or a calendar with dates and links on it. Going back and forth between instructions and actually doing the work is a barrier that we absolutely can remove for our students. Maybe you would like your grade book open while you are grading. Perhaps there is an article that you are reading or a video you are watching and you would like to take some notes. My guess is that I haven't even scratched the surface of what is possible with this cute little feature. 

Are you ready to give Split Tab View a try? Can you think of other helpful uses for this tool? I'd love to hear how you and your students are using it!

Keep Curiosity Alive!

The Kids Should See This

@LisaBerghoff

It used to be that it was challenging to find content to show and use in the classroom. It was a problem. Educators had to know just the right search terms, dig through catalogues, and watch countless hours of junk to finally get to a video that was worthy of showing to students. Often, the topic or the content of the video would be excellent, but the production quality would be terrible. Sometimes the opposite was true. Now, we find ourselves in the reverse situation. It is so easy to create high quality videos quickly. Videos are being created at such a fast pace that it is hard to keep up. There are so many videos out there that are good, and the length is right, and the content is on point; but we once again find ourselves spending so much time vetting these videos because anyone can look like an expert.  YouTube has become a valuable resource, but also a huge source of frustration. Our students spend so much of their time consuming videos without intentionality that much of their curiosity seems to have gone by the wayside. 

I recently was introduced to a site that houses a library of curated videos designed to spark curiosity and start conversations. The Kids Should See This stands out as a site that has engaging videos but also one that is designed around all of the things we want for our students: to promote awe and wonder, to lift up the work of real people, museums, and universities, who are doing incredible things. There is no algorithm here, every video is vetted by a real person who is also an educational media curator who is also a mom. 

What Is The Kids Should See This? 

The Kids Should See This is a website that houses over 7.000 short-form videos designed for the classroom. There are over 2,700 searchable topics spanning STEM, the arts, nature, history, culture, and more.  Over 2,000 featured museums, artists, universities, experts, innovators, and creators are represented. The videos are organized by topic, searchable, and it is easy to find the most recently added content. 

Why Should I Use The Kids Should See This?

The site sets itself apart from other video creation sites because it is completely independent, free, and embodies all that can be good about utilizing technology in education. The site is guided by public media's mission- universal access to quality educational content. There are no adds, no distractions, and no extras. Each video is accompanied by a short piece of text to provide some context. The Kids Should See This is on a mission to turn screen time into genuine discovery time and encourages co-watching as a springboard for face to face discussion. There is no need to log in. If you want to support the site, you are encouraged to make a donation but there is nothing required to use it. Since there is no login, you can safely ask your students to use it because no information is being collected. 

How Do I Use The Kids Should See This? 

This is very simple. Just go to thekidshouldseethis.com and start exploring. Hover over the topics to see a drop down menu of subtopics in each category. You can also use the search feature to look up a specific topic. If you think there is nothing there that is relevant to your content, I highly suggest you click on More Topics, where you can see an A to Z menu of all video collections. I did a fun activity for myself where I typed in many many topics that I know are covered and discussed in our classes. I also tried to see if there was a search term that would yield no results at all, the word "burpees" came up with zero hits. It took me a long time to find one. 

When you find a video you would like to use with your students. All you need to do is click the link icon in the green sidebar and share it. That will take your students directly to the page you want them to see. This streamlines the process for your students, allowing for more time to just watch and think about the video, and less time searching. 

This is an excellent tool for:

• The beginning of a lesson. To spark interest and give everyone some baseline knowledge.
• The middle of a lesson, when students are struggling and could use a bit of a brain break without completely checking out.
• Towards the end of a lesson or unit as a wrap up, review, or extension to build on what has already been learned.
• During class, to help students reengage and to split up the time.
• As homework, to get students thinking about and wrestling with information in a way that is not high stakes.

Here is just one example, it's a three and a half minute long video about someone who built a prosthetic arm using legos. I can think of at least three different departments that could use this in class. 

Are you ready to get started with The Kids Should See This? You don't need any help with this one, but if you want someone to bounce ideas off of and think about the possibilities, I'm here for it! Feel free to reach out to me.

 

A NEW Way To Use Brisk!

And save time with "Batch Feedback" 

@LisaBerghoff

Happy 2026! It's a new semester and this time of year tends to be the most challenging for many of us. Back when we used to grade on quarters I can remember always seeing my students' grades slipping during the 3rd quarter. The shiny excitement of the holidays is behind us and we are staring in the face of a long, cold, dark winter. But I have good news! The days are actually getting longer, though it will take a little while for us to notice. Instead of hybernating or complaining about the cold, I vote for leaning in to this time period and using it to find some systems that can make us breath a little easier. Time is such a precious resource and it is important that we preserve it for what we prioritize most. That's why I'm excited to share about a new way to engage with Brisk! Yes, the extension is still there and it is wonderful. Brisk Boost, the student-facing assignment tool is also still very much available to you. Now there is a third way to interact with Boost: It is their website, Brisk Next. 

What is Brisk?

Brisk is an AI powered tool designed as a teaching assistant. It started as a chrome extension, and it still is, with super helpful capabilities. One of the favorites is the inspect writing tool, which plays the revision history of your students' documents like a movie. You can see how long they spent and any copy/paste action that was going on. This is a perfect place to start a conversation about appropriate AI use and academic honesty. Within the extension you can also create lessons, content, slides, change reading levels, languages, and more. It works with all of our Google tools. Check out the video to see a 1 minute overview.

What's New With Brisk?

One of the things that Brisk is famously good for, is giving feedback on writing. Now, you can ask Brisk to give feedback on writing as a batch. You no longer need to go page by page. You do this by going to Brisk Next and clicking on "Batch Feedback". Upload your student work from your Google drive and let it work its magic. This is great for the most tedious parts of grading. Of course you will look everything over and give it your stamp of approval, but it can save you from writing the same statement over and over again. 

What Else Can I Do On The Brisk Next Site?

This is a great launchpad for when you are really starting with a blank slate. Using the extension, you first need a document, slides, or video. Head over to Brisk Next to start from scratch. Also, your library is housed here. Find everything you have created with Brisk all in one place.

Brisk is constantly updating based on our feedback. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up. If you want to see what is new, you can look at the "what's new" page from Brisk Teaching.

Here you can find all of the new capabilities, along with step by step instructions on how to use them.

Want to get started with Brisk but feeling uncertain? Reach out to me. I'm happy to help!

 

Gmail Smart Compose- 

What You Need To Know 

*Image created by NanoBanana Pro

@LisaBerghoff

The automations that exist in our everyday technology keep getting more and more "helpful". One issue that I run into is that what is meant to be helpful may actually go against what it is that I am trying to do. There are assumptions made when smart technologies are created and fortunately for us, they are often correct. However, it is always helpful to be aware of these automations just in case the technology is designed to do something that you really don't want. This is also a good reminder to slow down, pay attention to what you are doing and look over your messages before you press send. So you can learn from my mistakes, here is some helpful information about Gmail Smart Compose.

What Is Gmail Smart Compose?

Gmail Smart Compose is an AI powered feature that provides writing suggestions as you type to help you compose emails faster. It uses machine learning to predict and suggest phrases or sentences based on what you have already written. The goal is to save time and reduce repetitive typing. There is a personalization setting that allows the feature to learn your unique writing style and suggest phrases you use frequently. The default has this setting turned on. See below for how to turn it on and off. 

How Do I Use Gmail Smart Compose?

This is a feature that you can turn on and off in your Gmail settings. 

1. Click the gear -> See all settings

2. Under "general", scroll down to "smart compose" and "smart compose personalization" 

3. Select writing suggestions on or off, personalization on or off. If personalization is turned off but writing suggestions is turned on, then you will see generic suggestions as you type. 

When you are typing, you will see words appear in gray. You can accept these suggestions by pressing the tab key on your keyboard. They will be ignored if you just keep typing. Smart Compose works in many languages. 

 What Else Do I Need To Know?

Google gets a LOT of use out of the @ symbol and there are new features being updated constantly. If you use the @symbol in the body of your email, and you choose an email address, it will auto-populate into the TO section of your email, sending the email to that address upon pressing send. 

Watch below and see what happens:

BONUS! Hidden feature in Gmail:

I recently learned about the Gmail "plus" trick, also called email subaddressing. This lets you create unlimited versions of your email address by adding a + sign and any text before the @. The messages will still get sent to your base gmail address. This also makes it easy to filter. For example, I could ask for Charity Drive questions to be sent to lberghoff+charitydrive@dist113.org. Those messages will appear in my school gmail inbox, but Gmail will treat them as separate gmail addresses. Think about the categories of emails that you get. Using these subaddresses can help you organize and also make sure nothing gets lost.

You're welcome!

If you want some help with Gmail, or any other edtech tool we use, please contact me. 

 Using The New Google Assignments App 

In Schoology

@LisaBerghoff

There is an updated version of the Google Assignments App that can be found when adding an assignment in Schoology. This will eventually replace the Google Drive Assignments App. This is a recent development, just rolled out in October, and while there is some information available from PowerSchool, there are also lots of questions coming in from teachers and administrators. This post is intended to be an introduction to the new app, along with some instructions on how it can be used. In the coming weeks and months, as the engineers are working out the bugs and we have more information about what is "expected behavior", I will update you. Here is what I know at this point.

What Is The Updated Google Assignments App?

This is an app within Schoology assignments that enables teachers to add Google files that will make a copy for each student. The student can then complete the work and submit it within Schoology. Here is what is "updated" according to PowerSchool's information. 

The following information is taken from PowerSchool's support site: 

• Dual Grading Options: Choose to grade your assignments in Schoology or directly in Google assignments. This is supposed to give you flexibility based on your preferred workflow.
• Enhanced Rubric Support: Unlike previous versions, this new one allows for both Google rubrics and Schoology rubrics.
• Improved Submission Monitoring: Submissions can be tracked through Google assignments or the Schoology submissions tab.
• Improved Visibility For Parents And Co-Teachers: Submissions can be reviewed in the Schoology Submissions tab. 

Here is the link to the PowerSchool Google Assignments App Instructor Guide. This gives detailed instructions for how to use the app, including screenshots. 

Here is a WONDERFUL resource made by Sara Hewitt, one of my PowerSchool Champion Council colleagues in Hastings, Minnesota. I will be connecting with Sara soon to get more information from her about how her school is successfully using the app.  I made a copy for you to view here.

You can also see it here:

When is the original app going away?

The PowerSchool information indicates that it will be around until summer 2026, then we must say goodbye.

Ok. More soon! If you want to sit down with me and troubleshoot using the app, or if you would like me to come to your classes to help problem-solve, please reach out. I'm happy to help!