If you or your students are looking for practice and immediate feedback, look no further than Google. For example, if you type “FOIL practice problem” in the Google search bar, students and teachers can find topic explanations and practice problems right on the results page. See the image below for sample results from such a search.
These particular problems are sourced from ck-12, a reputable open-education resource.
Other topics you search for may come up with practice problems from other recognizable resources like Kahoot!
This can be a quick resource for students that need some extra support or are studying for upcoming tests. Math and science topics seemed to be most successful in getting results.
No joking, there are exciting updates that have come to popular Google tools.
First, Version History is finally available on Jamboard! Now, if you or a student accidentally clear a frame, you can easily restore it. Also, if you re-use a Jamboard with different classes throughout the day, you no longer need to create a version for each class. You can name each version and restore the original. If you need some ideas for how to use Jamboard, check out these great templates for SEL activities. For a quick video on how to use Version History, check out this video.
Second, when you click present on a Google Slides presentation you will have a cleaner menu for advancing slides. The old version was rather big and had a tendency to get in the way. Below is the new menu in the bottom, left corner. If there are other controls you need to access, click the “More Actions” option (three dots, snowman, TimBits).
issue 37 highlights include:
Some of the offerings available through the Google Teacher Center, including tips on their various apps and the option to sign up for their 8-week email training series that delivers video tutorials to your inbox every Tuesday on core Google tools. Lessons take less than 10 minutes to complete (choose Education Fundamentals).
Designed as an entry point into the wealth of resources, Learn with Google Arts & Culture highlights subject related content including lesson plans, stories, videos, high resolution images, 3D models, and more from museums around the world. Check it out!
The latest installment of the Black History and Culture project celebrates U.S. Black artists, music makers, and pop culture icons. Plus, check out seven new downloadable lesson plans covering history, music, politics, and sports.
Discover Kandinsky’s life, art and synesthesia with the Centre Pompidou. You can ‘listen’ to one of his paintings or project his works into your home in AR. A lesson plan can be used in class or given to students to work through.
John Sowash’s monthly EDU newsletter always lists ten or more links he briefly describes and commends for educators to check out. Some recent ones he’s called out are:
On February 17th Google announced several updates for Google Workspace for Education. John’s newsletter has organized some of them into infographics shown below.
FOR CHROMEBOOKS….
The screen recording updates are very exciting, encouraging students to press record for formative and summative assessments which can be very powerful and now more easily done on a Chromebook! Stay tuned to see if this will also allow students to record their screen via Canvas Studio.
FOR GOOGLE DRIVE….
There are also several updates apparently coming soon to Google Drive. The two that will most likely impact students and teachers are Form draft responses and revision history in Jamboard. In Google Forms, students will be able to stop and return to a form at a later date and time. Please note this is set to launch, “later in 2021” so do not plan to utilize this functionality just yet. One of the biggest frustrations with Jamboard has been the fact that frames can be easily removed and those changes are very difficult to track. Soon, it will be much easier to track changes and revert to previous versions in Jamboard.
Issue 36 was just released today. Below are some of its notices for your consideration.
Be Internet Awesome presents Safer Internet Day 2021
Join Be Internet Awesome on @googleforedu Twitter and Facebook for the 7-Day Internet Safety Challenge – promoting online safety all week long. We’ll share four new activities and tools for educators to use with their students.
Code.org celebrates Black Voices in Computer Science
Although computer science is foundational to every industry and field of study, representation and participation in CS is still far from balanced. Watch and share this inspiring video from our partner Code.org, advocating for greater access to CS education for Black students.
Arts & Culture: Blob Opera
From Google Arts & Culture’s Lab and artist David Li comes Blob Opera. Exploring the original musical instrument: our voice. Play four opera voices in real time. Explore pitch then record and share your musical composition. No singing skills required.
Arts & Culture: Preserving Egypt’s Layered History
Brings to life the archaeological discoveries, the archaeologists and preservation processes. With stories, 3D and AR models, Quizzes, videos, virtual tours and Choose Your Own Adventures, the project brings the treasures of Egypt into the classroom.
Wakelet & Google for Education: Showcase Challenge
Get involved in the Wakelet & Google for Education: Showcase Challenge! Share your ideas for making the most of Google for Education tools and showcase your expertise inside a Wakelet collection to get your hands on our exclusive digital swag pack.
Missed an issue of the Google for Education newsletter? Check out past issues here.
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February is Black History Month. Wayne RESA has put together several resources that teachers can use this month and throughout the school year to help infuse Black History in the curriculum.
Additionally, Flipgrid has curated several topics for students to engage with on their platform.
Wide Open School by Common Sense has linked several Black History and Culture lessons organized by grade, Preschool-12th grade. Google for Education has also released several new lessons in their Applied Digital Skills curriculum.
Our email inboxes can become quite difficult to manage, creating a filter is a great way to clear the clutter without removing important messages that we may need to access later. For example, you may get LMS notifications that you want to filter to a specific place. Follow these steps to help your inbox manage itself using filter rules.
Suppose you get Exit Ticket response emails. You want to move them all to one folder (Gmail calls them labels) to view all at one time.
It is best to identify the sender and/or subject of these emails to type into the Search bar. You’ll do an advanced search, so click the drop-down arrow.
Add as much information as possible to ensure you get the right messages filtered. Then click, “Create Filter.”
Select any filter rules you see as appropriate for that kind of message. You should apply the appropriate Label (or Create one). You may also want to select “Skip the Inbox.” If the case, rest assured, archived emails in Gmail are not deleted permanently after 30 days. They are permanently stored in your email (and now labelled) until you delete/trash it.
You can always remove or edit your filter in Setting by clicking on the wrench icon in the upper-right corner.
When you are ready to view the filtered emails, access the Label on the left-side menu.
The Webby Awards annually note websites with interesting design and elements to explore. Here are some sites you might want to check out, in no particular order:
Future of Tech hosts a free & growing library of resources to get you up to speed on what’s new & next.
Poly is an online library where people can browse, share, and remix thousands of 3D models or scenes.
People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North
Canvas is a Chrome/Google supported drawing app.
Applied Digital Skills reviews digital skills needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow with Google’s free video lessons.
Ted-Ed lessons
AFT’s Share My Lesson
John Sowash offers five Jamboard templates work for all ages and subject areas! Check them out HERE.
Three of these Jamboard activities work well as whole-class assignments. Two more work best as individual or small-group activities.
These Jamboard lessons work with Chromebooks, tablets, phones, and laptops.