Google Sheets: Explore!

Video Introduction to Google Explore - found within Google Sheets

"With the Explore panel in Google Sheets, you can now spend less time trying to decipher your data, and more time making a point. Explore creates charts and insights automatically, so you can visualize trends and understand your data in seconds. It’s like having an expert analyst right by your side."

Once your data has been entered, click the button in the lower right hand corner of your screen to show the 'Explore' results.  Graph styles will be automatically chosen for your based on the type of data provided.

New Google Templates

Google has recently revamped its templates for products such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.  The templates are now much easier to find and use.  Please share this with students as these can help them with their assignments and projects (as well as yours!).

Examples of Templates:

Docs:  brochure, resume, reports, letters, lesson plans

Sheets:  calendar, schedule, budget, to do list, planner, roster, time sheet, expense reports, purchase orders

Slides: book report, field trip, photo album, certificates, portfolio, lesson plans, recipe book

There are two ways to access these templates. 

Method 1: 

In any of the applications, once open:  >File, >New, >from Template

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Method #2:

Use the app button to access the application and these templates will be the first thing you see.  

Select Docs for example,

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Students could then bookmark the app and use it instead of starting the document from within My Drive.

Drawing is Great for Your Brain!

Drawing and Artwork Importance

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a tool in Google Apps for Education that helps teachers create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and easily communicate with their classes.

Visit https://classroom.google.com/ to sign up as a teacher or student.  School must be a member of Google Apps for Education.

New features (Fall, 2015)

Reuse Posts (from archived classes)

Discussion (start threaded class discussions)

Calendar Integration (see article)  add to student or parent Google Calendars

Share to Classroom (push out websites live to entire class or as an Announcement that appears in the student stream).  All individuals at LPSD now have this extension added to their Chrome accounts.

Storage of Files (store by unit of study all files, URL's etc that students would need for review)
This is found in the About tab.

• Remember that all members of LPSD have the Synergize training modules for all Google products built in to their Chrome accounts.  
• Google Classroom Support

What Was There

http://www.whatwasthere.com/

This is a very interesting site full of archived photos from around the world.  Just search for a location, and select an archived photo you would like to view.  You can look at the photo information or select Google Street View to access a slide that will overlay the photo on top of the current Google Maps view.  You can fade in and out of the archived photo to see which buildings used to be in that spot.  Some cities do not have many photos as this app relies on people uploading their own photos into the website.
 You are also able to use a magnifying lens to zoom in on the photo itself.

What a great social studies project this would make for those grades studying local communities! Or what a great project for someone who has access to archived community photos.

New York City - present day Broadway

Reading about the sinking of the Titanic, 1912 at the Sun newspaper building

Kahoot! - Game Based Class Response System

Kahoot - Game Based Class Response System
This is not just a clicker!  Students can both respond and create.
Create, Manage and Share Students
Answer Questions Through a Powerful Management Tool
"Using our simple and speedy ‘drag n drop’ creation tool, create and manage ‘Kahoots’ in the form of quizzes, surveys or polls related to specific topics; either asking quick questions ‘on the go’ to get feedback or opinion, or more in depth questions for formative assessment. Content can be shared with educators, learners or colleagues globally."


"Launch Kahoots on the screen at the front of the room, and learners join through their personal devices. In real-time and with gaming elements to increase engagement and motivation, learners answer questions through their personal devices. Educators get an overview of the current knowledge levels of everyone in the room for formative assessment, and can adapt their teaching accordingly."

Mentimeter

Mentimeter

Online, cloud based polling.  Free sign up, easy to use.

"Mentimeter is a cloud-based tool that lets you engage and interact with your audience in real-time. You set the questions and your audience can give their input via a mobile phone or any other Internet connected device."

•  Real-time results of voting
•  Unlimited number of voters
•  2 questions in a row
•  Multiple choice question
•  Open ended questions
•  (trial) 100-point prioritization
•  (trial) 2 dimensional ranking
•  Grids (BCG, ADL, etc..)

Tiki Toki Online Timeline Generator

Tiki Toki

• Free (one timeline only) Paid version allows for more.
• User friendly
• 3D or 2D timelines
• Can add photos, videos or audio files

Samples:

Tower of London (3D) - click on each picture to reveal more information

Tiki Toki History (2D)

TalkTyper - Online Text to Speech

TalkTyper
Speak into microphone (built in or attached) to have the program convert speech to text.  When sentence is done, click the arrow to move into a text box below.  From there you can email entire text or copy to clipboard to be used in another word processing program for example.

EdShelf - Digital Directory of Digital Tools for Educators

EdShelf - great resource for finding information on a variety of topics and subject areas.  Collection of apps (mobile device) and web-based.  Each application has a written explanation and either screen shots or relevant video on how the app works.  It is a digital directory for educators.

Free sign up, ability to curate your own collections, share and use collections of others.