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.

Wayne RESA Maker-STEM Summit 2019

The first annual Wayne RESA Maker-STEM Summit will engage participants in the maker mindset of “learning through doing” and ways to expand maker and STEM opportunities for students. Attendees will learn from educators who successfully integrate making into their teaching. They will explore maker-centered tools and trends, gain valuable resources, collaborate with maker-minded educators, and learn about partnerships available across the state to help build capacity for hands-on learning. If you’re interested in the maker movement and finding new ways to infuse hands-on learning within your classroom or school, then the 2019 Wayne RESA Maker-STEM Summit is for you. 5 SCECHs available.

Learn more and register here: https://www.smore.com/7a2pm

Increase grading and assessment productivity with Google Docs rubric tools

Orange Slice: Teacher Rubric

Easily and quickly make rubric selections and convert the Analysis or Holistic rubric into a percentage or points grade.

Teacher Rubric is an add-on that will increase your grading productivity and it professionally presents a scored rubric and grade for your students.

Google docs and Classroom are fantastic applications to create, distribute and receive submitted assignments from students. However, the grading process seems to bring the efficiency to a screeching halt. Where can the grade be placed so it stands out from the assignment? How can rubric selections be made easily? I like rubrics but the final grade can be tedious to calculate. It takes too many highlights, clicks and time to format grades on 125 submissions.

OrangeSlice: Teacher Rubric increases the teacher’s grading productivity by eliminating repetitive clicks, presenting the rubric selections in an easy to use format and presenting the final grades in a consistent, professional format. More time is created for the teacher to provide the needed constructive feedback their students need for success.

Get Teacher Rubric here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/orangeslice-teacher-rubri/hfbffoacepkeklpippgijnoemfmiondo?hl=en-US

Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-peeiWmHs1g

🙂 中文, Español, हिंदी, العربية, português, বাঙালি, русский, 日本語, Deutsche,
français, ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਦੇ

CoRubrics

CoRubrics, an add-on for Google Sheets helps teachers in the assessment process. It is used to assess students (or groups of students) with a rubric designed by the teacher and also allows students to assess other students (coevaluation).

CoRubrics automates the entire process. First, teachers design the rubric they want to use in Google Sheets, then they add the students’ names and their email address. (These can be imported from Google Classroom). Once this is done, the add-on will:

  • Create a Google Form with the contents of the rubric.
  • Send the form to the students by email or simply provide the link to the teacher.
  • Process the data once the form is filled out (by the students or by the teacher).
  • Finally, send the results to the students (each student receives only their results) with a personalized comment.

In addition, CoRubrics allows:

  • Insert comments when answered.
  • Allow Co-evaluation, self-assessment and teacher assessment with one link.

Get CoRubrics here: https://corubrics-en.tecnocentres.org/home

Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hAPkbdm29Q

Bring History Alive with DocsTeach

DocsTeach is an online tool developed for teaching with documents from the National Archive. It has a rich access to thousands of primary sources  — letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, videos, and other document types — spanning the course of American history. We’re always adding more!

Borrow from an ever-expanding collection of document-based activities created by the National Archives, and teachers around the world. Copy and modify activities for your students.

Create your own activities using the online tools. It’s as simple as: (1) selecting a tool, (2) choosing your primary sources, and (3) customizing instructions. Learn more > 

UPDATE: Remind WILL Work with Verizon After January 28, 2019

Remind previously announced that their service would no longer work with Verizon after January 28, 2019 due to increased cost of Verizon text messaging services. It appears that Remind and Verizon have come to an agreement, which will prevent any interruption to Remind notifications sent to Verizon customers. While this is good news for now, we encourage staff to promote the use of the Remind app for notifications to avoid any potential future interruptions to text message notifications.

For additional details, please visit: https://www.remind.com/blog/verizon-update/

How to Create a Self Grading Quiz in Google Classroom

This resource comes from Richard Byrne. Richard is an Edtech expert and former High School social studies teacher. He is the lead author of https://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Use Google Classroom and Google forms to your advantage with creating quizzes that can be auto-graded. When students complete the quiz you will get a Google Sheet of all of the student’s answers and their scores from the quiz. And because it was created in Google Classroom, it will also allow you to assign a particular due date.

Enjoy!