Multiple Teachers in Google Classroom

A useful feature in Google Classroom is that you can have more than one teacher in a class. This could be great in situations. For example, a specials teacher may have a class in Classroom and is collaborating with the homeroom teacher. 

Or a grade level team decides to create a class for one subject since they work on the same projects and each teacher is added as a teacher in order to contribute and monitor student work/discussions, etc. In this situation, the entire grade level of students could join this class and collaborate and communicate using the discussion feature. 

Start with one teacher creating a class, and adding others as teachers. Learn how here!

Communicating and Collaborating in Google Docs: Suggested Edits

You may already be familiar with the comments feature in Google Docs that allows teachers and students to communicate and collaborate about the document without typing within the document. Did you know that Docs has a feature that allows for suggesting changes or additions? This feature inserts the suggestion in green rather than just making the changes for someone else. This allows teachers and students to peer edit and collaborate on a document. You or the student can also respond to the suggestion by typing in a comment below it.

Click here to read how to suggest edits.

Digital communication and collaboration made easy in a tool many of our students already use!

Text to Speech on Macbook Airs

You may not know this quick trick for text to speech that your MacBook can do. Simply highlight text you'd like read to you, and right click (or control + click.) Choose "Read the selected text."

How might this be helpful?

• In a whole group setting, students get to hear a different voice reading text to them on your teacher screen and it will catch their attention.
• Students using Macs can use this feature to have unknown words read to them when selected one at a time, or sentences that aren't making sense to them.
• Students struggling to read a text at grade level can use this to remove the difficulty of decoding, vocabulary, etc. and focus on comprehension.

You can also change the settings to allow for this with the press of one or two keys, as long as you are still on the Mavericks operating system, anyway.

Do you have other ways this might be useful in the classroom?

Tips for Using iPads Learning Centers

Since our primary classrooms use shared iPads, I wanted to share some tips for using iPads in stations or centers.

Sharing with teacher:

• Make sure an email address is set up on each iPad, as many apps allow for sharing via email (Holmes teachers have accounts created by grade level and can submit a tech ticket if not set up on an iPad.)
• Add your teacher email address in the Contacts app on each iPad. This will allow students to quickly choose your email when auto-populated and ensure it is accurate.
• Teach the habit of including the student name in the project or email when sharing. 

Organizing:

• Set a different number or image of your choice as the background on each screen (homescreen behind the apps and lock screen before being unlocked) to easily differentiate iPads.
• Organize apps in folders for students.
• Drag most frequently used apps to the dock at the bottom of the screen. Move in new ones when needed. 

Miscellaneous:

• Project student work directly from a student iPad using the Apple TV. 
• Use a QR code to give directions or reminders to students- can link to plain text, a video, etc. 
• Use Guided Access if needed to lock a student in an app. I recommend Holmes teachers use our cart code in case another staff member needs to exit out of Guided Access.

Do you have any other tips for using shared iPads in stations or centers?

Book Creator App: Allowing for Collaboration

Book Creator is a great tool for student creativity, as they can create any kind of book you can imagine. It also can be a tool for collaborating. It does not offer real time collaboration like Google Drive does, but it allows users to combine books.

Our third graders are currently wrapping up a project using Book Creator in which students worked to research a Native American tribe. Some students worked in groups to research together but divided up the creation of sections of their group book. Each student created pages on their own iPad and then combined the pages from their teammates to create one final, collaborative book. Students used Airdrop on their iPads to share their pages with one another before combining. Click here to view a PDF of one group's book. The PDF version to share here on the web does not contain the audio recorded or "flippable" pages the students were able to see by opening their books in the iBooks app.


This process could also be used for creating class books.

Click here for directions on combining books. Keep in mind that each page or book started on a separate iPad needs to start the book with the same orientation so that the final pages will all be combined.

What ideas do you have for a collaborative project using Book Creator?

Hide Distracting or Inappropriate Material from Your Apple TV Menu

Our district is fortunate to have Apple TVs in each classroom so teachers and students can mirror their devices, MacBook Airs and iPads, via a projector.

But unfortunately the Apple TV menu is aimed at users at home for entertainment and not aimed at students at school. Movies for rent and apps like Netflix can be distracting and inappropriate for students.

Here are directions on how to hide those movies and apps. Our district's practice has been to use the 0000 code for any Apple TV restrictions for consistency's sake, and you'll see that in the directions.

Google Education on Air Online Conference

On May 8 & 9th, Google for Education is holding a free, online conference called Education on Air. The 8th is a Friday, so many of you will be in classrooms, but the 9th has sessions throughout the day you can watch. Best of all, the sessions are recorded so you can watch just the sessions you'd like afterwards if you register.

A lot of the sessions center around Google Apps for Education (Drive, Docs, Slides, etc.) but many include other topics, such as app smashing (combining apps), flipping lessons, Nearpod, etc. I'm most looking forward to Day 2's sessions- register and check them out!