Students and staff can visit https://doodles.google.com/d4g/vote/ to help pick who will go on to become the National Winner.

For past Doodles, visit the Google gallery.

FAQs

What is the “Doodle for Google” contest? Doodle for Google is an annual art contest open to students in grades K-12. Students are invited to create their own Google Doodle for the chance to have it featured on Google.com, as well as win some great scholarships and tech packages for their schools.

Why is Google doing this contest? Doodles are meant to surprise and delight people when they visit Google.com. Past Doodles have celebrated some of the most brilliant, talented, and passionate people throughout history. The Doodle for Google contest offers students K-12 an opportunity to display their own Doodle creativity on Google.com and win some awesome prizes while doing it!

How long has Google been doing this contest? We’ve been hosting the Doodle for Google contest every year in the U.S. since 2008, so this is our fifteenth year. This website shows details for the U.S. only contest, but the Doodle for Google contest takes place in other countries throughout the year as well.

• Expanding upon Gmail security with Brand Indicators in Messages – Users will now see a blue checkmark icon for senders who adopted Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) in Gmail.  Brand Indicators for Message Identification, or BIMI (pronounced bih-mee), is an email specification that enables email inboxes to display a brand’s logo next to the brand’s authenticated email messages. This will help users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators.
• Replace images quicker in Google Slides with new drag and drop feature. Previously, to replace an image in Google Slides, you could either use the menu toolbar or right-click on the image you wanted to replace and select “Replace image.” Starting this week, you’ll have the additional option to easily drag and drop images from anywhere to replace images in your Slides presentations.
• Add emoji reactions to existing comments in Google Docs. You now have the ability to add emoji reactions to existing comments in Docs. This new feature increases collaboration by enabling you to quickly and creatively express your opinions about document content. 
• Coming later in May, there will be a dedicated spam folder within Google Drive to host unwanted files that are shared with you containing spam or abusive content. When an unsolicited file is moved to the spam folder, you will be unsubscribed, preventing all comment, sharing, and mobile push notifications for the file. Once unsubscribed, you will not be able to find the file anywhere in Drive outside of your spam folder.

Check out Google for Edu’s latest monthly newsletter HERE. Some highlights are noted below.

Introducing the Future of Education
What might the future of education look like? Check out Future of Education, our new global research report featuring insights from 94 education experts across 24 countries, conducted in partnership with Canvas8 and advised by American Institutes for Research.

Safer Internet Day Grants from ConnectSafely
Our partners at ConnectSafely are offering grants to help teachers purchase supplies or resources for student programs and activities for Safer Internet Day. Applications are due on December 31, 2022, so be sure to apply today!

Choose Your Own Adventure with Applied Digital Skills
Our most popular Applied Digital Skills lesson just got an update!: In Write an If-Then Adventure Story, students can collaborate with each other to create an interactive story using Google Slides. Check it out today.

Arts & Culture: Ukraine is Here
Explore the arts and culture of Ukraine, from architecture to traditional crafts and food. Discover music, art, design, heritage and nature conservation through stories, videos, virtual tours, and 3D models to understand the history and creativity of the Ukranian people.

Arts & Culture: La Baguette
Discover the “staff of life” in France and around the world, the French bread stick, la baguette. Explore the science, the history, what makes a good loaf, regional bread, the language, a fun game, career ideas or bake your own loaf.

New Google Sheets Tutorial for Beginners
We recently published a new video covering How to use Google Sheets for Beginners. This video covers basic functionality all the way up through VLOOKUP and pivot tables – check it out on YouTube!

Looking for past issues of the Google for Education newsletter? Find them below, and sign up to hear from Google for Education.

• This week, Google announced Chrome users can now search their tabs, bookmarks and history in the Chrome address bar. These new shortcuts let you quickly search your tabs, bookmarks, and history. To do this you simply type “@tabs” or “@bookmarks” or “@history” followed by your search term to search within your tabs, bookmarks, or Chrome browser history.
• The Florida Center for Instructional Technology hosts two great resources for teachers and students in search of free clipart and pictures for classroom projects. One of those is ClipArt ETC and the other is Clippix ETC. Their catalogs are arranged in thematic collections and sub-collections. Simply pick a collection then a sub-collection to find the resource that you want to use. The resources are available in three file sizes to meet most needs.
• This video reviews three helpful features within YouTube including adjusting the size and color scheme of subtitles, accessing and saving a transcript of videos, and clipping sections of YouTube videos.  A reminder that inserting a dash between the “t” and the “u” in a video provides a video that is playable without ads, comments, and is in full screen mode. https://www.yout–ube.com/….