10 Google Tools That Make Your Life Easier | Learn2Earn Blog By Maria Sellers Google has a wealth of tools, but finding those tools that work specifically for a teacher requires some thought and research. As an eLearning Specialist, it’s my job to be a digital detective and find what’s truly worth the time and consideration of a teacher. I’ve developed this list of must-have Google tools based on the following criteria: Does it perform a task that used to demand a lot of my time? Add these tools to your arsenal of teacher apps and programs—they may just make your life a little easier. 1. Google Keep is my new found treasure. 2. Traditional quizzes and assessments pose two problems: they take a lot of time to grade and don’t make it easy to analyze and assess the data for later use, which administrators want teachers to do. Luckily, creating assessments with Google Forms is easy and can include one question or one hundred questions, depending upon your needs. 3. The solution, Flubaroo, arrived many years ago, but was still a complicated tool. 4. 5. 6.
Google Removes Reading Level Filter Last month, Google removed search filters for visited page. Now it's time for a new advanced search feature to be removed: reading level. This feature was introduced back in 2010 to let you find search results that are better suited for you. "Sometimes you may want to limit your search results to a specific reading level. For instance, a junior high school teacher looking for content for her students or a second-language learner might want web pages written at a basic reading level. A scientist searching for the latest findings from the experts may want to limit results to those at advanced reading levels," explained Google. In February, I noticed that the reading level feature had a bug and no longer allowed you to restrict results to "advanced reading level" pages. Reading level is no longer available in the search tools dropdown or in the advanced search page. Here are some screenshots from last month:
The Ultimate Guide to Books for Reluctant Readers Ages 12 to 13 While we at the Riot are taking this lovely summer week off to rest (translation: read by the pool/ocean/on our couches), we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Wednesday, July 8th. This post originally ran May 26, 2015. Here in New York City, I’ve observed a distinct mood change around the schoolyards. While some of us welcome summer (more relaxed schedules, wearing tank tops, going to the beach), others dread it (kids are not in school, family reunions, it’s hot!). Here at Book Riot we’ve had a lot of questions come in about this very topic, especially among kids ages twelve to thirteen. Book Suggestions After a school year full of analyzing texts, drawing sentence diagrams, and writing persuasive first paragraphs, kids need books that will draw them in and keep them interested. Fiction: The Blackwell Pages series by K.L. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper: Melody is not like most people. Oh.
Google Drive: Select Multiple Files In the new Google Drive you single click a file to reveal toolbar options and to utilize the info pane to find out information about the file. (1) Click on the file (2) Reveal toolbar options such as link to file, share file, preview file, trash file, locate the folder it is in and more options to copy the file and more. (3) Notice on the right hand side of the toolbar is an i in a circle to reveal the info pane which will (4) tell you which folder the file is in. In the new Google Drive the checkboxes on the side of the file names are gone. In order to select multiple files click once on the first file you wish to select. Hold down the SHIFT key when you click on the last file. To choose selected files hold down the CONTROL key instead (Command key on a Mac). Like this: Like Loading...
11 Helpful Hints for Combining Google Drive With Symbaloo Last week I received an email from Travis Towne in which he described how he is using Symbaloo arrange and share Google Drive files. I thought it was a great ideas so I asked Travis if he would be interested in writing a guest post. One of the problems I run into when trying to find documents, videos, or folders that I have saved in my Google Drive folder is trying to find them again quickly without having to dig through the myriad of my created folders. I also want the ability to quickly share with my students folders that have documents or videos without having to send them a link to each one. With these concerns in mind, I felt that combining one of the best visual web resources (Symbaloo) with one of the best storage resources (Google Drive) was the best way to go. Click the examples for several ways that Symbaloo has been combined with Google Drive. 1. Here are a few other Symbaloo Webmixes that I have created but don’t use Google Drive. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Rewordify.com | Understand what you read Google Doc Tip: Find Revision History If you are using Google Docs, Sheets, Slides or Draw you will notice next to the menu options is a message letting you know that your document is saved in Google Drive. This message is a hyperlink that will launch revision history. Revision history lets you see who made what changes when. It also allows you to revert back to an old version if you are not liking the current changes. Like this: Like Loading... Google Forms: Streamline your Data with FilterRoster Script If you re-use a Google Form for attendance, turning in homework, daily warm-up, peer evaluation data, or anything where there are multiple rows per student in your Form data my script FilterRoster may be helpful. It creates a tab for EACH student with a filter to show just that students data. Rather than filtering the Google Form data one student at a time, this will filter ALL of your students at once. I have known JavaScript and Google Apps script for about 2 weeks now, I am still playing around with it. This will take you to the code for the FilterRoster script. This script should work with a Google Form data that has a unique student identifier such as student ID number or if students have different names (ie: you do not have 2 Amy’s in your class.) Spreadsheet The script actually goes with the spreadsheet data. In the spreadsheet with the Google Form data go to the Tools menu and choose “Script editor.” Close out of the splash screen. Like this:
How ‘Deprogramming’ Kids From How to ‘Do School’ Could Improve Learning One day, Adam Holman decided he was fed up with trying to cram knowledge into the brains of the high school students he taught. They weren’t grasping the physics he was teaching at the level he knew they were capable of, so he decided to change up his teaching style. It wasn’t that his students didn’t care about achieving — he taught at high performing, affluent schools where students knew they needed high grades to get into good colleges. They argued for every point to make sure their grades were as high as possible, but were they learning? “I felt I had to remove all the barriers I could on my end before I could ask my kids to meet me halfway,” Holman said. The first thing he did was move to standards-based grading. “The kids realized this made sense,” Holman said. “It turned my students into classmates and collaborators because I didn’t have a system in place to deny the collaboration,” Holman said. Holman didn’t just change his grading policies. “Students clearly learned in Mr.