Learn more about the NYC19 Google for Education Certified Innovator Cohort Application in New York City October 2nd-4th

“Become a Certified Innovator and join a community of more than 1,700 passionate educators in over 50 countries who are excited to grow professionally, advocate for innovative technologies and drive school transformation.”

“The program kicks off with an in-person three day Innovation Academy focused on helping new participants define, design and eventually launch a transformative project. After the Academy, Innovators stay engaged through mentorship, ongoing learning and development trainings, and special opportunities from Google to advocate for transformative technologies and practices.”

To learn more about the application process, please sign up for this webinar: Certified Innovator Workshop

To learn more about the Certified Innovator Program: https://teachercenter.withgoogle.com/certification_innovator

Instagram, Middle School, and Digital Citizenship

Read about how one middle school teacher is using Instagram in her ELA and Social Studies classes to address a real and present need in Digital Citizenship. It’s no secret that kids have Instagram accounts, and potentially multiple accounts as early as elementary school. 6th grade teacher Sara Landis notes: “I think it’s so important for them because they’re going to wade into that pool anyway. So, you’re either going to teach them to swim, or you’re going to watch them drown. So we need to give them the information that’s going to help them make informed decisions.”

Read more to learn how she is addressing this issue in a very real and practical way. LINK

Google Tour Creator in the Elementary Classroom

“Last year, Google released the web-based Tour Creator that allows users to create interactive 360 degree tours right from their computers. Photographs may be uploaded from the Google Street View app or directly from a computer. Users may add points of interest, photos, text, audio recordings, and ambient music to their tours which may be published as public or unlisted. Teachers and students have been really excited about using Tour Creator as they may now create their own virtual reality experiences. https://vr.google.com/tourcreator.”

Read on to learn more about how you might use Tour Creator in the Elementary Classroom: https://flippedtechcoaching.com/2019/01/24/tourcreator/

For a basic tutorial on how it works in less than eight minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s4rhDbyYo4

Even MORE ideas: https://techycoach.com/2018/07/27/google-vr-tour/

EDU in 90

EDU in 90 is a video series from Google for Education, with new episodes three times each month. Each episode, Google focuses on an important topic for educators, administrators, and school leaders – things like product updates, new programs, and helpful resources for the classroom. Subscribe to the Google for Education channel to make sure you don’t miss an episode!

Link to Google EDU in 90

Improving Writing with Google Tools

As teachers, we know that timely and frequent feedback for students is one of the most important aspects of how we support student learning. But sometimes, it can be very difficult to keep up with that task among all the other things on our plates. Never fear! Eric Curts has created this FANTASTIC resource with TONS of suggestions and options for providing students with timely and robust feedback This document is an amazing collection of tools that can really support your students in the writing process in ANY class. Follow this LINK for the full resource. Here are some highlights:

For more Eric Curts awesomeness, navigate to his famous blog that is always relevant and chock full of great resources: https://www.controlaltachieve.com/

FormRecycler useful Form tool

Did you ever want to just reuse a few questions from a Form in your Drive? Now you can, just pick the Form in the popup window and it will populate with the questions from that Form. It even will show you which questions were required in the original form and make them required in your new one! Select the ones you want to insert and the formRecycler will automagically insert them at the end of the Form!

Now also supports Team Drives and will recycle quiz questions preserving the point values. It will not recycle embedded images or section headers right now.

FormRecycler is a Google Forms Add-on that makes it easy to reuse questions from one Google Form into another form. Watch this quick video to learn how to use it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwgJpov6BA4

BoCLIPS Offers Access to TWO Million+ Educational Videos

Boclips hosts more than two million educational videos from more than 100 vetted video producers. In Boclips for Teachers you can search for videos according to keyword. Boclips for Teachers is still in beta. As part of that beta Boclips is asking teachers to complete short surveys in exchange for unlimited, lifetime access to the Boclips library.

Sign up for lifetime access! https://www.boclips.com/teachers

FREE REMC Virtual Courses for April

The REMC Virtual Courses are free and open to Michigan school personnel. You can take courses “just to learn” or complete the course and assignments and earn SCECH credits. 

All the courses are facilitated by Michigan educators.  They last three weeks and consists of two one-hour webinars and four to eight hours of resource review, assessment development, discussion boards and written reflection.  SCECHs range from 6 – 10 depending on the course.

These courses provide a convenient way for education professionals to connect and collaborate while reducing time and expense. Our courses are available throughout the school year and are open to all Michigan school personnel. Best of all, all our courses are free and offer free SCECHs when completed.

Seven courses begin on Monday, April 8.

Each course is open for three weeks and consists of two (2) one-hour webinars and four (4) to eight (8) hours of resource review, assessment developments and written reflection. SCECHs are available, ranging from 6 – 10, depending on the course.

  • Here are some suggested options:
  • Literacy Instruction and Technology: Foundational Elements, Level 1
  • Inquiry & Questioning: Igniting Student Curiosity with Technology, Level 1
  • Media Literacy: Fake or Real
  • Authentic Student Learning & Gamification
  • The What, Why, and How of Open Educational Resources (OER)
  • Social Media: Professional Development through Social Media, Level 1
  • Dynamic Presentations

Please click this LINK to navigate to the course offerings.