You can use Google Calendar to create appointment slots that can be used to schedule meetings and conferences, etc. A link can be generated and sent to various recipients so that they can choose a time that works best for them. The video explains how. Steve Matthews Instructional Technology Coach Middletown Public School
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Besides creating Google format documents from within your Google Drive, you can (and should) upload locally stored files so that you can access and edit from any device. Most teachers will have a plethora of Microsoft Office file types like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. You can choose to upload these files and retain the original file types, but this will present a problem when you try to share and collaborate, or push files out to students via Google Classroom. You can upload an individual Word document, but when you go to open the file, you are faced with a preview of the file, and a button at the top of the screen that says "Open with", prompting you to open the Word file using Docs. Upon opening the file with Docs, you are now creating another version of the file, adding to the potential confusion of "which file do I use for...". Then you will likely go into your Drive and delete the Microsoft counterpart. To save you the trouble of doing this incessantly, you can check one tiny box that will save you the trouble going forward. From within Drive, click the gear cog icon in the upper right>settings>check the box "Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format". This will automatically change Word files to Docs, Excel files to Sheets, and Powerpoint files to Slides. Note that in the cases of complicated formatting, some minor changes may have occurred, so check your documents before using them, rather than blindly trusting that they will look like you expect them to. The video shows how to navigate to the file conversion setting. Steve Matthews Instructional Technology Coach Middletown Public Schools
Sharing Docs will allow others to collaborate on a document with you. You can give different permissions to the document to allow editing rights, allow comments or only only users to view. You can share document with users who do not have Google accounts in the Advanced Features. You can also create a shareable link of the document and email, tweet or post it to your website to make available. Click on the Sharing Docs link to view a demonstration.
Although convenient, and imperative to the collaborative process for both teachers and students sharing documents and/or files in Google can often be confusing. Do you want to share a document so others can edit, provide feedback, or just view? Recently, @alicekeeler tweeted this useful sketchnote created by @sylviaduckworth to help us get a better understanding of Google sharing permissions. I recently read about Teach for Google on Alice Keeler's (@alicekeeler - if you are on Twitter, follow her you will not be disappointed) Teacher Tech website. She described Teacher for Google as a service that gives you tips for using Google Apps as well as instructional strategies for teaching. Keeler explains that if you sign up with your Google ID you have access to two courses, resources, and strategies related to skills taught in these courses. Additional courses, are (of course) a fee. Curious, I went to check out this site myself, and signed up. I going to explore the courses and their suggestions and let you know what I think. You can watch an overview of Teacher for Google below. If you happen to explore it, and find it helpful, please comment below. The MPS Tech Department is excited to host its first Tech Tuesday on July 14. We have several teachers signed up to attend from all grade levels. Tech Tuesdays will be participant-driven, meaning they are designed to meet the needs, answer questions, and provide support for those in attendance, however we do plan on providing some fun introductory activities to Google Docs that will help educators understand how Google Docs might be used in a collaborative setting. I am excited about two new changes to Google Classroom that just came out within the past couple of days, especially since teachers were asking about this before vacation, we submitted feedback to Google requesting these features-AND NOW THE CHANGES ARE HERE! AWESOME CHANGE 1: Saving Assignments as a Draft Before vacation a teacher asked if we could ‘pre-date’ assignments in Google Classroom so that the assignment was not posted until the teacher was ready to share it. The answer before vacation was no, but now teachers can now save their announcements and assignments as a ‘draft’ and publish at a later date: 1. Create assignment and save as draft 2. Click on draft and assign when desired AWESOME CHANGE 2: Creating Class Co-Teachers You can now invite a ‘co-teacher’ to your Google Classroom who can post announcements and assignments, and provide feedback to assignments. This can be exciting if you have a co-taught class, but could possibly be even more exciting if you consider the possibilities it opens up for collaboration throughout the building. For example, you and a colleague can become 'co-teachers' of a Google Classroom for a book both of your classes are reading, and then invite students from each of your classes to join. As co-teachers you can take turns posting discussion questions about the book, and ask both classes to respond. Instantly, your students went from hearing the ideas of 25 classmates, to hearing ideas and thoughtful responses of 50 classmates (other ideas include creating a co-taught Google Class on a current event, classes taking turns writing math problems and challenging the other group to solve them...all moderated by two teachers, instead of one...). AND this may also be a great way to share resources for your department! You can create a Google Classroom Department Class and invite all teachers from your department to be a 'co-teacher'. This will allow anyone from your department to post websites, documents, ask questions, meeting agendas-you name it! See the possibilities with this one are endless! To add a co-teacher, simply do the following: 1. Go to Google Classroom, choose appropriate class then click the ABOUT tab. 2. Next, click INVITE TEACHER 3. Once you click on INVITE TEACHER, this will open your contacts. You can search for the teacher by typing his/her name in the SEARCH FIELD or in the drop-down choose ALL CONTACTS and select the teacher you wish to invite. 4. Once you have selected the teachers you wish to invite click NEXT, then INVITE. The teacher will receive an email asking them to contribute to the class.
These recent changes to Google Classroom were done because of the great feedback provided by teachers. If you think Google Classroom needs additional features or can do something better, be sure to click on the Feedback Icon (?) at the bottom of any of your Google Classes. The features shared in this post demonstrated that if you ask, they will listen! |
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