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Happy Friday, everyone! This year was my first adventure with educational blogging. I know it has been a learning experience for me, but it has also been so helpful. It has made me really look at what teachers are doing in their classrooms, what they want, new opportunities for them, and a way to help them.
I am going to add content to my Website Collections and Resources this summer. At first I was not going to post at all, but I have changed my mind! At this point, this is my plan for posting: Mondays: Parents. These blogs will still happen through the summer. They may be short and sweet, but they will happen. Tuesday: Google Tip Tuesday. With our change over to gmail and teachers having to regularly login to Google, I feel it is important to keep this going. Many of these posts will focus on gmail because we are switching from our platform with GroupWise to Gmail. My teachers need some direction on moving contacts, organizing emails, etc. Wednesday: Web 2.0 tools. I am changing this from Website to Web 2.0. This is to partially prepare for my conference presentation in July. Also, these are easy to incorporate into everyday teaching. These are usually easy to explore and don't take much time to learn. Meaning that during the summer, teachers can learn something new in a quick time period! Thursday and Friday: I am leaving these days open. I am going to check in with the professional books I am reading on one of these days. Because I am finishing up my Masters in June and July and teaching summer school through June, I don't want to commit to too many days of posting. What am I reading this summer? Digital Leadership by Eric Sheninger, Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess, and 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom by Alice Keeler. Anyone interested in a book study on any of these books? Or discussing when we are done? Let me know! I would love to have a reading buddy!
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 As we start our switch to Gmail for our email accounts here at Hallsville, I know there will be many questions and concerns. I am going to start first with all the BENEFITS of Gmail. Benefits of Gmail 1. Access it from anywhere - phone, tablet, computer, home, school, field trips This means you can connect it to your Gmail app if you wanted to do that. You can switch back and forth between a personal one and your work one. 2. Allows you more options in Google Apps for Education You can create groups, name them, and email to just those groups. 3. Emails from Google Classroom can now go through! Yes, now when you leave a comment on a paper, students will receive the email. They can also use the link to email you now, too. 4. SAFE for students They can only send and receive emails from those with the @hallsville.org domain at this address. Using Gmail I am attaching a link to the Google Gmail training site. This is the best place to start. Then if you realize you need additional help from there, either Google it (haha) or email me! I will be more than happy to help you! Also, I am sending you to the introduction page, on the left you will see "Basics" and "Advanced". Use those as needed!
https://www.google.com/edu/training/get-trained/gmail/introduction.html *Quick note: I learned when using this before: There is a chat feature that only staff has (students should not). If you send a chat message to teachers during class time, that message pops up on the screen. Meaning, if the SB is on, students will see it. Always send a nice, generic message to start the convo! *Also, this site is GREAT for any training you may need on a Google feature like Maps, Calendar, etc. Honestly, this post will probably seem irrelevant to many people. However, I need one place that the teachers not returning and seniors can go to in order to get directions on closing their account with our school domain. But many other people may find these steps useful, too! If you have an Apps for Edu account I have found that I cannot transfer the data to an account that ends in @gmail.com. Am I frustrated by this? Yes. I think it is silly that a senior cannot easily transfer their work to their own account as they go out in the world. I picture resumes they create just being deleted, which stinks. Or that speech I did in high school and was able to reuse with improvements in college...yeah, having your past files can be important! Best Steps I Have Found 1. Open your @hallsville.org account in one browser. Open your new account in another browser or in an incognito (private) browsing window. You can only sign in to one account in a browser at a time. 2. In the @hallsville.org account, go to your Drive. Make a folder named "Move". Put all files and documents in that ONE folder that you want to save. 3. Share it with your new email - It will pop up a box asking if you really want to share it with someone not in our domain. Yes, you do. 4. Go to the @gmail.com account > Drive > Shared with Me. The folder will be there. Click it and at the top of the screen it will say "Add to My Drive". Click that. It may also be on the top right side with a symbol that looks like the image in the green box below.  5. Go to "My Drive" on the left side. It is there. You are still sharing it, so you are NOT done.
6. Go back to the @hallsville.org account. Go to the folder with all the files in it you just transferred. Right click on it > Share > Advanced (bottom right corner) 7. Change your @gmail.com account from "can edit" to "owner". Now you are done! Seems like a lot of headache to do this, but I can't help how Google has chosen to do the transfer. I'm sure there may be an easier way, but this is the best I can find at this time!  Photo: Denise Krebs. Flickr. One thing I would like educators to look at for next year is Genius Hour, or the 20% Initiative. I know, I know, how are you going to fit another thing into your day? I get it, we are busy. Good news, you only have to commit to 1 hour a week. A WEEK!
What is Genius Hour? Think about something you are passionate about or want to know more about. Then imagine that you get time set aside in your week to learn more about it, create a presentation, and share it. That's Genius Hour. I have seen this project modified for lower grades, even as low as 1st or 2nd. This project is also great for high school. We had a teacher work on this in her ELA class this year, and it went over great! Check out my Pinterest board for more about Genius Hour. Interested in getting started? I will send out more information at the beginning of the year to see who is interested so we can have a support group! There were some great projects I saw throughout the year. Teachers would have students submit their information to a Google Form, including a link to their blog where they would put their proposals and updates. This allowed for their teacher to send the link out via Twitter to get outside feedback. It was so awesome to see teachers from around the world comment and give feedback. It made their projects even more important and relevant to the students. Great resources to start Genius Hour website 20% Time in Education Engage Their Minds 2014 Genius Hour Projects - cool video on projects students are doing  How have I not put this into my Website Wednesday yet?! I have definitely passed this website on to others for the past couple of years. This is one of the best free websites I have ever used in a classroom. Not only do I use it in the classroom, I use it with my 4 year old at home! What is GoNoodle?GoNoodle is a website that has a multitude of brain breaks. Brain breaks are a way for students, or anyone!, to get up and get moving after they have been sitting for an extended time. GoNoodle has put all these videos in one place for easy access. Each player gets to pick a "champ", or avatar, that gets larger and stronger as you do more videos. Eventually they max out and you get to choose a new champ. Available VideosThere are a lot of videos to choose from, including Zumba, Kidz Bop, yoga, fitness, and YouTube songs. You can search them by those channels or they also have organized them into different categories including deep breathing, stretching, kinesthetic learning, etc. My favorite is the Koo Koo Kangaroo! Try some Pop See Ko! Signing UpPerhaps the easiest part is the sign up. All you have to do is register with an email address. You then can create multiple accounts under that username. It is all FREE, which is fantastic! Use this link to sign up, https://www.gonoodle.com/s/nschwartz.
There is a Plus option. The videos have a more academic feel, tied to Common Core. I have not tried this option, as it is $10 a month or $99 a year. There are some samples you can try though. Again, sign up for a GoNoodle account today! There is going to be a GoNoodle Camp that I will feature this coming Monday in my Parent section. Enjoy! Not using Word? Need clip art images? Tired of searching for them, making sure they are usable, saving, and then inserting them? If you said yes, I have a solution for you! In Google Docs (tried in other Google programs, but it is not an option), go to the toolbar > Add-ons > Get Add-ons  You will then choose to add (mine says "manage" because I already have it). It will show up in the Add-on drop down menu now.
Upon selecting it, you will be able to search fro over 50,000 images. Just search what you need and insert it by clicking on it. Easy peasy. Now, it doesn't have everything you could ever want, but it does have clipart you can use without copyright concerns.  Favorite new thing! Choice elimination in Forms. Need parents to sign up for a party in your class? If you dislike getting 3 bags of napkins, use choice eliminator to stop it! Ready to schedule parent/teacher conferences? Parents sign up for their time and it is no longer a choice for others. No more scheduling for the teacher! Planning a carry-in for lunch? Send out what you need and let people choose from a list. How To Make it Happen
Favorite new thing! Choice elimination in Forms. Need parents to sign up for a party in your class? If you dislike getting 3 bags of napkins, use choice eliminator to stop it! Ready to schedule parent/teacher conferences? Parents sign up for their time and it is no longer a choice for others. No more scheduling for the teacher! Planning a carry-in for lunch? Send out what you need and let people choose from a list. How To Make it Happen
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AuthorFifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom, sharing my journey with technology in the classroom Categories
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