Hello EB!

COULD THERE BE A BIGGER WEEK IN ED TECH???!!!!!  In my role, I have never been so busy! It’s AWESOME!  A quick recap: second grade has now joined the Google party, Pear Deck had a huge announcement this week, Google made a HUGE announcement also and released “Add-ons” in Google Slides, and Front Row is really taking off with grades k-6, but wait…theres more!  Let’s take a look below:

Catch of the Day: Google Slides Add-Ons  

On Thursday, 9/27 at 11am, Google announced that it is launching add-ons for Google Slides. This is going to really transform Slides and allow much more versatility to an already amazing, FREE, product!  You can read more about this release here.  The rollout will start  on 9/27, and continue over the next month, so you may not see the add-ons menu yet, but it’s coming. Guess who is going to be one of the FIRST add-ons….PEAR DECK!

The BIGGEST fish in the small pond – Shout out Grade 2!  

A really big shout out to grade 2 teachers and students! You all did such an amazing job getting on your Chromebooks this week and accessing many amazing programs and sites! I am so proud to say that ALL OF GRADE 2 PLANS TO USE GOOGLE CLASSROOM! This is simply amazing to watch our oldest, little Vikings using Google Classroom. My heart swells with excitement! I’ve enjoyed coming into each and every one one of your classrooms this week (and a few next week).  You’re doing GREAT!

Pear Deck add-on for Slides – WHAT?!!!! I KNOW IT!!!! OMG!!!! 

Gone are the days of importing a Slide presentation into Pear Deck and not having the ability to edit! Now, with the Pear Deck add-on for Slides, you can work directly in Slides to create your Pear Deck interactive presentation. Anyone using and/or creating Pear Decks knows how tedious it can be to import images and change backgrounds….No more!!  This is great news! Please click the link below to really see the fine details with this add-on! It is AWESOME!

Read more about it here.

Front Row 

Thank you to the fourth grade for showing me this amazing program! If you haven’t checked out Front Row, it is a great FREE program for grades k-6 (although it does go up to 8, and they’re adding High School math soon).  Central school is using it this year and the children love it!  This is a great program that can run in the background for skill development, and as the teacher, you really can have as little or as much to do with it as you’d like. It’s not too game-based, and it still has a motivator with “coins” and shopping in the Piggy Shop!  It differentiates and levels children as well. See the video below to see it as a child….

Google Docs Newsletter Template 

You can do some pretty amazing things with Google Docs!  By manipulating tables, and inserting drawings, you can create some pretty cool looking templates!  Check out the video example below of Jen Rosher’s Newsletter which she created in Publisher and I was able to replicate in Docs. This now allows her to work on it anywhere since it’s in the Drive! If you would like a template to use for your own classroom please click here.

Quick Tip: The “redo” function saves so much time! ⏲⏲⏲

Thank you Amy Schleinkofer for this one!  She booked me for an appointment, and asked if there was a function within Google Apps that performed the F4 function in MS Word, Excel etc.  On the hunt we went, and she discovered Control Y!  Take a look at the video below! So simple, yet saves so much time!

 

You are doing AMAZING things Vikings and I’m so honored to be a part of it!  Please reach out anytime with your tech needs! Find my calendar in the Contact tab of the blog! Until next week…

oFISHally Yours,

Erin Fisher  🐟

 

Hello Everyone! I hope you’ve had a great week. I had the most wonderful opportunity to start integrating technology over at Central with our Little Vikings this week! Great work Jen Rosher and Sarah Beberman in being the first to “dive in” and have me assist the children with using the Chromebooks! I’m so excited to be integrating with Central School this year!

Let’s see what we’ve got this week:

Catch of the day: Assistive Tech – New Tool – SPEECH TO TEXT 

This was my BIGGEST find this week, and it came from another Google Certified Trainer from my certified trainers’ group.  The extension VoiceIn allows students to dictate into all platforms, including Pear Deck, Kami, Forms, Slides, and Docs!  This is an incredible tool for those needing assistive technology. It is the first tool I’ve seen that works across all platforms. Check it out on video here.

Quizizz 

If you’re an iPad classroom (PreK, K, and some of 1) you may want to check out the Quizizz app. It has a read-aloud option only on the Quizizz iPad app.  Quizizz is great “quiz style” game that will give you awesome data at the end of the completed quiz. Students enjoy this app because it has fun music, cute pictures, and is game based.  Quizizz also updated this summer and has GREAT Google Classroom Integration. You can see each student’s progress right from Google Classroom, and it will even show if the student took the quiz multiple times! Quizizz has many pre-made quizzes and questions in the bank online, so you don’t even need to create! It’s already there for you to customize!

KaHoot! 

Students can play Kahoot Challenge Mode on their phones in a student-paced mode (not teacher paced, on the board). This may work well in some of our JRSRHS rooms where students are using phones for technology integration (while the Chromebook issue is being resolved). Click here to see a video on this mode.

 

Clever 

Did you see the “C” on your Chrome Browser this week? It’s Clever, and I must say it certainly is clever! This extension will store passwords for both you and your students. It will then act as a single-sign-on. Please let us know if there are any apps you would like to add to the Clever portal.  We’ve even added SchoolBrains community portal.  It’s nice because, on the Clever portal, the district school brains portal is automatically chosen which is the common error students and parents face when trying to log in (they don’t choose the right district). For privacy purposes, however, SchoolBrains is the only application that will not store passwords. It’s simply a shortcut. See a video here for an overview of Clever.

I’m really looking forward to PLC’s next week with you, GWMMS! If anyone would like to book me, find my calendar on the Contact tab of my blog. Have a great weekend everyone!

oFISHally yours,

Erin

 

PS: Today is the last day to register for my course that I will be running through PCEA titled: Teaching and Learning with Google Applications.  It’s sure to be a great time and I look forward to seeing some of you in it!