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Improving Communication with Guardian Summaries

google classroom setup flyer

The  year is underway and you’ve set up your Google Classroom. That’s great! Now it’s time to take it to the next level. While teachers and students have access to Google Classroom, parents do not. Give parents and guardians access to Google Classroom in a few quick steps!

  1. In Google Classroom, select the People tab
  2. Next to each student, add the guardian’s email address. You can find the addresses in TAC
  3. Click Invite

That’s it! Now parents can receive daily or weekly summaries of their student’s work in ALL of their classes! And if a guardian has more than one student, the guardian will receive one email with all of their information. Parents can see their student’s missing work, any upcoming assignments, and the announcements you make. It’s a great way to stay connected!

Check out this flyer you can share with parents to help them get started:

google classroom setup flyer

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Use Google Docs to Support ESL and ELL Students

I was recently having a conversation with a friend who has a student that just moved to The United States from a Spanish speaking country. As I listened to my friend tell me how they were copying and pasting worksheets and documents (line-by-line) into Google Translator to help this student, I almost feared to tell them the following statement: You can translate an ENTIRE document in Google Docs with just six simple clicks of a mouse.  Here’s how…

Click 1: Open the document you want to translate.

Click 2: “Tools”

Click 3: “Translate document…”

Click 4: “Choose a language”

Click 5: The language you are translating the document to.

Click 6: “Translate”

After the final click, a new document will open with your original document completely translated!

¡Espero que esto ayude!

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Z Drive & Network Storage Update (August 2018)

Hello everyone!

THE BAD NEWS 🙁

The Z drive network storage disk died this summer and became unusable mid-July. We were unable to access (from our end) any of the data, and all the tricks we had up our sleeves didn’t work (which included techniques like putting the drive in the freezer to cool off for a bit…)

THE GOOD NEWS 🙂

We contracted with an outside vendor (more on that later, in a separate email, because we setup a partnership with them should you ever need data recovery services yourself) and they were able to recover 99% of the data for us! Continue reading “Z Drive & Network Storage Update (August 2018)”

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Cultural Connections – Learn About Fika, a Swedish Tradition

Standards Connection

Ohio’s Social Studies Standards, grade 2

  • CS 8: Cultures develop in unique ways, in part through the influence of the physical environment.
  • CS 9: Interactions among cultures lead to sharing ways of life.

What is fika?

via http://www.swedishfood.com/fika

Fika is often translated as “a coffee and cake break”, which is kind of correct, but really it is much more than that.

Fika is a concept, a state of mind, an attitude and an important part of Swedish culture. Many Swedes consider that it is almost essential to make time for fika every day. It means making time for friends and colleagues to share a cup of coffee (or tea) and a little something to eat. Continue reading “Cultural Connections – Learn About Fika, a Swedish Tradition”

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Improve Literacy with Read&Write

Have you noticed a little purple puzzle piece decorated with the letters “rw” appear while you are navigating on Google Chrome? That puzzle piece is the Read&Write Google Extension that has been added to all Chromebooks, grades k-12, in the Streetsboro City Schools.

So, what does this extension do? Read&Write is a software created by Texthelp that offers the support that many students need with their reading and writing.  This tool has over 80 features that help student literacy including text-to-speech, a picture dictionary, translators, and various study skill aides.

To learn more about how you can maximize usage of Read&Write in your classroom, click on the following links for resources from Texthelp.

Read&Write Introductory Video

How-To Guide for Students

Read&Write Accommodates Every Learning Style

How To Create A Dynamic Reading Experience

Psst…Math teachers… Don’t feel left out!  Texthelp also has a math program, Equatio. To learn more, click here!

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Thinglink your Images

thinglink

So many of my students find it easier to explain their understanding with pictures than with words. My challenge, though, is that I don’t always understand what they might be trying to say with those images. Thinglink is a content platform that allows students to upload photos and add annotations. Those annotations can be text, images, links, other images, and much more. Thinglink images can then be shared via Google Classroom or added to Google Sites or other platforms. It’s a powerful tool that’s easy to use!

Image result for thinglink images

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“Keep” Yourself On Track

If you are like me and need to check tasks off to prove to yourself you are actually done, Google Keep is a great tool for you. If you are also like me and fill your planner and calendars with assignments, birthdays, family events, and everything else going on in your life, Google Keep is for you.

I recently started using Keep as a weekly checklist/ pacing guide to keep my classes on track.

It’s simple. I add a list for each week in the quarter. I then color-code the quarter so that I can easily find where I am in the year. From there, I add the tasks that need to be completed each week with my classes; this eliminates my mind from wandering to everything else going on in life! When I’m done with a task, I simply click the box to check it off! If I don’t get something  done that week, I simply move the task to the next week. If I think of something I forgot, I just add it!

This tool has really helped me stay on track.  Keep has also helped a few of my students who get overwhelmed balance workloads from multiple classes.

Simply look for the Keep icon in your Google waffle grid and start making lists!  I can truthfully say there are very few things that feel better at 3:00pm on a Friday than a Keep list that is completely checked off!

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Quick Formative Assessments with The Answer Pad!

It is pretty common for a teacher to say to their students, “Put your thumb on your chest. If you feel like and expert on this topic, point your thumb towards the sky. If you’re feeling pretty good about the topic, point your thumb to your heart. If you need more help, point your thumb at your desk.” Yes, this method is good for a quick formative assessment, but we know that students are sometimes afraid to show their level of understanding in front of classmates. So how can we easily give our students a formative assessment that is more private? Welcome The Answer Pad into your classroom.

The Answer Pad is an interactive website and app that teachers can use for free (there is an upgraded version for under $20) to check student understanding at any point in a lesson or unit. Therefore, this app-website combo can be used to administer formative assessments to students directly to their own device whenever the teacher feels a checkpoint is appropriate.

Connecting with students is simple. The Answer Pad generates a code for students to join a “Quick Connect” session.  Once students are in, the teacher can present a question verbally or visually on the board, and simultaneously send a question response style to the students that will show up on their device.  The response styles range from true/false all the way to plotting on a coordinate grid! The variety of response styles is one of the major reasons I would choose this site over other similar response systems.

You can create an account by going to The Answer Pad.  However, I am warning you, once you create an account, you will play around for hours testing out all the awesome features!