Keyboard and URL Shortcuts

Keyboard and URL Shortcuts

Today, we are going to dive back into keyboard shortcuts and also hit on some url shortcuts you can use
in and out of your classroom. Some of these shortcuts are specific to Chromebooks, but most are
universal, especially the url shortcuts.

So first, let’s dive back into keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts are a vital part of my productivity.
Even if they are just shaving off a few seconds, that time adds up. 

Keyboard Shortcuts

The first shortcut we are going to talk about is one that opens a new tab. To open a new tab, simply
press CTRL + T to open a New Tab. To go with that, to close your current tab, press CTRL + W. If you
accidentally closed a tab you did not want to close, press CTRL + SHIFT + T to open last closed tab.
If you want to open a new Chrome window, press CTRL + N to open a New Window. If you want to
open a new incognito window, press CTRL + SHIFT + N to open a New Incognito Window. If you
want to view all of your open windows, simply press ALT + TAB to see all open windows. 

If you want to view all of you downloads, press CTRL + J. If you are wanting to share the link of either
the current site you are on or a link to a document, press CTRL + L. This will highlight the link. From
there, use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + C to copy the link and then CTRL + V to paste it wherever
you wanted to paste it.

If you want to find text on a doc, sheet, slide, press CTRL + F to Find text on a document. Have you
ever had to copy text from one doc and pasting to another but both docs are using different fonts and
sizes? Then you paste in that text and have to highlight the text and change it to the font and size of the
current doc. What a pain right? Well, I have some good news for you. If you press CTRL + SHIFT + V,
it will paste the text in the doc but keep the formatting of the current doc. That one is one that I use all
the time and is a game changer for me!

Keyboard Shortcuts specific to Chromebooks

Okay, now let's dive into some keyboard shortcuts that are specific to the Chromebook. If you have
multiple windows open and you want to set them up side-by-side, press ALT + open bracket([) to
Dock the window to the left. To go with that, to dock a window to the right, press ALT + closed
bracket(]) to Dock a window to the right. Did you know you can pin apps and website to the
Chromebook shelf? To open these, you can simply click on the icon at the bottom of your screen. If
you wanted to use a keyboard shortcut, all you have to do is press ALT + 1-8 to Launch apps located
in Chromebook Shelf. ALT + 1 would launch the first app, ALT + @ would launch the second, and so
on. To rotate your Chromebook screen, press CTRL + SHIFT + ↶: to rotate Screen 90 degrees. CTRL + App Switcher will allow you to take a Full Screen Screenshot. CTRL + SHIFT + App Switcher will allow you to take a partial screen screenshot.

URL Tricks

To create a new document/slides/Sheets, simply type in slides.new, docs.new, sheets.new into the url
bar. In URL, replace edit with copy to force a “make a copy”. Also in URL, replace edit with template/preview to allow visitors to view your temperament document and then if they want to make a copy, they can click on “Use Template”.

What keyboard shortcuts or url trick do you enjoy? Share them in the comment section below!

All Things Wakelet

What is Wakelet?

Wakelet is a site where you can find, organize and share content. Using Wakelet, you can organize content into Collections. You can then share these collections either on social media (facebook, twitter, reddit), Google Classroom, or just by simply sharing the link. You can also simply share the link to your profile where people visiting your profile will be able to see any collection you have set to public. We will get into collections here in a minute. You can also find other Wakelet users and follow them to always stay up to date on the collections they are creating.

How to Create Collections and Customize Them

So depending on what platform you are one, creating a collection is a little different but really easy. If you are using the desktop version, once you long in, to create a collection all you have to do is simply click the green plus button that says “create a new collection”.



From there, you can give your collection a title and a description. You can also customize your collection by adding a cover image to your collection. Something that I do is I make custom collection headers with my Bitmoji to add a little personalization.



On mobile, when you open the app there is a green button at the bottom that is labeled “create collection”.

How to Add Content to Collections

So you have your collection made, personalized your header, and now are ready to add content. To add content to your collection, when using the desktop version, simply click on the green plus sign to add content. When you click the green plus button, you get the options to add either a URL, text, a video from YouTube, Tweets, an image a PDF, a file from your Google Drive, or a video from Flipgrid.



On mobile, you get a green button labeled “add an item”. After clicking on that, you get the option to either add a link, write a note, add an image, add from twitter, or add from bookmarks in Wakelet.

Also, on iOS you can add to a Wakelet collection via the share sheet. For example, you can be on a website, click the share button which is located at the bottom. It is the icon that looks like a box with an arrow pointing up. When you click on the share button, choose Wakelet. After that, you can see all of your collections and add the website link to the collection you want.

Once you have all the resources added to your collection, you can set the collection’s visibility to either public where everyone can see the collection, unlisted where only people with the link to the collection can see it, and private where only you can see it.

Uses in the Classroom

So there are tons of ways you could use Wakelet in the classroom. Currently, the way I am using Wakelet as an Ed Tech Coordinator is as a way to share information and gather resources for teachers. Currently, I have collections based around using Twitter as an educator, Digital Citizenship resources broken down by grade level spans, Amplifying Student Voice, EduProtocols Resources, and much more. Check out my collections at https://wakelet.com/@MarshallBeyer.

I usually put a collection together and then share it a few ways. One way I share is through Twitter. I will tweet out links to a specific collection. Another way I share my collections is through my work email signature. I have a link in my signature that goes straight to my Wakelet profile page. Matt Miller from Ditch that Textbook wrote a nice blog post on 12 Ways to Use Wakelet in the Classroom. In that post, he talks about ways students could use wakelet. Everything from creating a collection to use as a work portfolio to novel studies. He also talks about how teachers could use it for professional development. For example, creating podcast playlists or reflection collections.

App Showdown: Kahoot vs Quizizz

VS

In this post, we are going to put Kahoot and Quizizz head to head to see which one fits your classroom the best. So these two apps have a lot in common. They both do a lot of things the same thing, but they also do a lot of things differently. We will put them head to head through 5 categories: Interactions, Integrations, libraries, collaboration/sharing, and results/data.

Interaction

Kahoot:

One way to play Kahoot  is live via game pin. You can choose either classic or team mode. You would go through the game together as a class; everyone is on the same question at the same time. The question and answers are displayed on screen with a corresponding shape. The shapes are on students devices.

Quizizz:

One way to play Quizizz is live game mode or homework mode. Both modes are self paced. Once you answer a question, you can move on to the next question and do not have to wait for the rest of the class. As a teacher, you also have the ability to print out a hard copy of quiz. This is nice for students without a device or  ones who need accommodations whether it be via an IEP or 504 plan.

Integration

Kahoot:

Play and access through Kahoot website or app with game PIN. You can also share a link to your Kahoot quiz to Google Classroom.

Quizizz:

Play and access through Quizizz website or app. You can also post quiz in Google Classroom as an assignment. Doing this will give students two links: a web link or mobile link.  So depending on what type of device they are using, they can access the correct format. You can also set a timeframe for when the quiz needs to be completed. Also, you can have the score your students got on the Quizizz quiz imported into your Google Classroom grades.

Libraries

Both Kahoot and Quizizz have libraries of premade quizzes that teachers can search for and use with their classes.

Kahoot:

Thes premade quizzes can be found under the Discover Tab. You can filter by subject, grade level, who it was created by (teacher, student, business user, social users), type of Kahoot (quiz, survey, jumble, discussion), and language.

Quizizz: 

These pre-made quizzes can be found under the Find a Quiz section. You would type in what you are looking for then you can filter by either grade, subject, number of questions, and language.

Collaboration/sharing

Kahoot:

You can share Kahoot quizzes via link, directly to other Kahoot!’ers, or via social media.

Quizizz:

You can share Quizizz quizzes via email to another teacher, direct url link, to social media, or to Google Classroom as either an assignment or announcement.

Results/data

Kahoot:

After your students take a Kahoot quiz, you can extract results/data from that quiz. This would be found under the reports section. From there, you can sort by date played, title, or number of players. You cannot view reports within website. You would have to download them to be able to view them. Reports can also be saved to Google Drive.

Quizizz:

Reports would be found under the Reports section. From there, you would be able to see class accuracy, number of questions, and the number of players that took the quiz at the top of the report. You can filter by player or question. You can also sort by accuracy, first name, or last name. You also have the ability to email parents directly from reports page. You can print results or you can download results as a CSV file.

Bonus Category: Pricing

Kahoot:

Kahoot has a different plans with different access points. $6/month per teacher: Get slides, polls and image library in addition to everything from Plus; $3/month per teacher: Unlock folders, team space and detailed reporting on top of essential Kahoot! Features; Free: Essential features for creating, playing and searching games. Quizizz: Free

So which platform do you think would fit your classroom the best?

Google Sites Part 2

In this post, we are going to dive into part two of our Google Sites series. We are going to discuss some ways that you can customize your Google Site.

Adding a Logo

while in editing mode, simply head on up to the top left-hand side of the navigation bar at the top of your site and you will see a dialogue box that pops up that says Add logo. Clicking on it will bring up a box that asks you to either upload an image or select an image.

Customizing Accent Color

After you add your logo to your site, you will notice that you have some color options that you can now choose from.

Changing Header Image

To set a custom header image, hover over your banner and you will see a dialogue box with the following options: Change image, reset, and header type. Click on Change image. You then have the option to either upload an image or select an image.

Navigation

To change the navigation mode, hover over the navigation bar at the top of your site. You will see a settings wheel appear on the far left. Clicking on that settings wheel will allow you to choose between top navigation and side navigation.

Drop Down Navigation

To create drop-down navigation, head on over to the Pages section. You will see a list of all of your Pages. Drag a page onto another page and you will see a blue box appear around the page you are dragging onto. Drop your page and you will now see a down arrow next to the top page and the page that you dropped under that page. You will now see a down arrow next to the page title on your site as well.

Hiding Pages

To first hide a page from navigation, click on the Pages section on the right-hand side, hover over the page you want to hide and you will see the vertical ellipsis, click on that and choose “hide from navigation”.

Adding Alt Text

To add alt text to an image, first click on an image that you have uploaded to your site. After clicking on that image, you will see the vertical ellipsis appear in the image options section. From there, you can choose add alt text. Adding alt text allows screen readers to access the image for people who might have trouble seeing the content on your site.

Google Sites: The Basics: Part 1

In this post, we will be talking about Google Sites. This will be a multi-part series. In today’s post, part 1 of the series, we went over the basics of Google Sites. We will cover how to create a site, the controls on the site, and adding content to your site.

How to Create a Site

To create a new site, all you have to do is head on over to drive and click the “NEW” button in the top left-hand corner. You will see options like a folder, file upload, folder upload, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and more. Click more. From there, you will get a new drop-down menu. In there you will see Sites. Click on sites.

The Controls on the Site


Adding Content to Your Site

You will find the sections of where you can add content to your site on the right-hand side. The three sections are labels insert, pages, and themes. In the insert section, here is where you can find all the types of things you can add to your site like a text box, images, embed code, and items from your Drive.

Inserting a Text Box

Clicking on text box will add a text box to your site. After adding it, you can customize the size of the text box, change the text format so it is either a title, heading, subheading, normal text, or small text. You can also adjust the alignment of your text and, depending on the format you chose, you can bold or italicize your text. You will also find our chain link again where you can highlight text and add a hyperlink.

Inserting Images

Here you can either upload an image from your computer or select an image either from a URL, your album, your Google Drive or do a google image search.

Embed Code

This is where you can embed HTML code for widgets and online players. For example, on the podcast website, I use the embed code for the Anchor podcast episode player to post the episode on the site so somebody could just click and play the episode right from the site.

From Drive

Here, you will be able to add items from your drive to your site.

Adding Pages to Site


Themes

Updates to Google Classroom

Updates to Google Classroom: April 2019

Today, we are going to discuss Google Classroom. With all of the updates that have come to Google Classroom over the last few months, I thought we could dive into some of them.
Stream vs Classwork

So the first updates we are going to discuss is the new Classwork tab in Google Classroom. Prior to the update, anything you posted in Google Classroom showed up in your stream. This made it hard for students to differentiate between something that is an assignment and something that was just an announcement or a question. That is now fixed. When you are wanting to post an announcement in your Google Classroom, you can do so straight from the stream. You will see a box right in the middle of your screen on the stream that says “share something with your class”. Click on that box and begin typing your announcement. Reusing a prior announcement could not be easier now. You will see the reuse button in that box. The reuse button is two arrows with one pointing to the right and the other point to the left. Click on that and you will be brought to all of your current and previous classes. Find an announcement you want to reuse, click on it, and hit the reuse button. Now to post an assignment in your classroom, you will now head to the classwork tab. Assignment post will still show up on the stream but now have an updates icon to go along with them. If you post an assignment, students will see that you posted an assignment with an icon that looks like a clipboard. If you post class materials, which we will get into later in the episode, students will see a post with an icon that looks like a book with a bookmark. If you post a question, students will see it with an icon which is a box with a question mark in the middle. These posts basically just show the title, icon, and date posted. These show up almost like quick updates the students can just check to see what is going on. Students can access assignments and whatnot from the stream or they can head to the classwork section. There they will find their assignments organized by the topic the teacher has created making it super easy to locate.
Organization with Topics

Topics, in general, have been in Classroom for a while, but the ability to truly organize your classroom with them is a huge update. Previously, when you would post an assignment in Google Classroom and attach a topic to it, you would see a list of your topics on the left-hand side. As a student, I could click on the topic name and it would then show me all of the assignments that had that topic tag but by default, my stream would still show everything in chronological order from the newest post at the top to the oldest post at the bottom. So you could kind of organize assignments, but it wasn't great. Now, when you create a topic in Google Classroom, it creates a section where all of the assignments with that topic tag will fall under that topic section. This is a much better visual organization system for students. To create a new topic, head on over to the Classwork tab, click the big create button in the top left-hand corner, and choose topic. From there, type out the name of the topic you wish to add to your classroom and then click add. If you have some assignments in your classroom and add a topic afterward, you can easily add the topic to an assignment that is already in your classroom. To do this, all you have to do is hover over an assignment and you will see the vertical ellipsis appear. This is the verticle three dots icon. From there you will click edit. You will then see a section in your assignment where you can add a topic. Choose your topic and click save. Your assignment will now be organized in that specific topic section.

Another way you can organize your topics is you can control the order in which they appear in the classwork section of google classroom. To do this, once you have created a topic, click on the verticle ellipsis and choose the option of move up or move down.

Quiz Assignment

So if you have been using Google Classroom for a while, you know that you can attach a Google Form to an assignment. Also, if you attach a Google Form that you have created as a quiz, it will import the grades from that quiz into Google Classroom. In the past, you had to create your quiz outside of Classroom and then attach it to an assignment. Now, there is an option to create a Quiz Assignment. What this does is it creates an assignment and automatically creates a blank quiz form. You can then click on the form and edit your quiz right then and there. When doing it this way, Classroom automatically sets all of your Form settings to a quiz. Also, in my district, we are currently apart of the beta test for the locked mode on Chromebooks for forms. When creating a quiz assignment, you can toggle on the locked mode right within Google Classroom. Also, it will automatically toggle on grade importing. This makes it nice because you can create your form quiz and never have to leave Google Classroom. When creating a quiz assignment, classroom will organize your forms in your Google Classroom Drive folder.

Class Materials

The next update we are going to be covering is one that I really was looking forward to which is posting Class Materials. Previously, if you wanted to post some class materials, you could post it in the About section of Classroom. Then, students had to remember that they had to go to the about section to access class materials. Now, class materials are now posted right in the Classwork section of Google Classroom. What I do is I create a topic titled Class Materials and I post all of my class materials and tag it with that topic. Also, I move the Class Materials topic to the top of the Classwork section so it is the first thing students see when they open the classwork section of Google Classroom.

Grades

The final item we will be talking about today is the update grades received in Google Classroom. You have always been able to give students grades in Google Classroom, but now accessing them and viewing them is a whole lot easier. Now there is a Grades tab at the top of Google Classroom. When you click on this tab, you can now easily see all of your students and see what assignments they have turned in and what assignments are missing. You can also quickly see the class average for each assignment. Also, if you click on a student’s name, you are then able to just see their assignments. You can filter by assignments they have turned in, ones that have been returned with a grade, and assignments that are missing. Also on this page, you can email the information to the student directly or their guardian.