Cool Chrome Extensions

I love using Google's Chrome browser for lots of reasons, one of which is the integration with the Chrome browser on my phone.  A tab that's open on my laptop can also be viewed on my phone, same with bookmarks.  But Chrome also has a lot of good extensions that take the normal browsing and surfing to a new level.  If you're using Chrome you'll notice a menu at the top called Window and then navigate to Extensions.  From here you can see extensions that might already be installed, delete extensions, or enable/disable them.

At the very bottom you can search for new extensions too.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• AdBlock - blocks ads on websites
• AdBlock for YouTube - same idea as above, but on YouTube
• Add to Flipboard - takes websites and drops them into my Flipboard magazine
• App Launcher Customizer for Google - lets you organize the Google waffle or app switcher
• Cite This For Me - cite websites in a bunch of different formats instantly
• Google Docs Quick Create - create a doc, sheet, slide, form or drawing quickly
• Last Pass - free password manager

I Flip for Flipboard

I am a news and information junkie and one of my favorite apps, and one that I always hit first thing in the morning, is Flipboard.  Flipboard gives you all of the news you want at your fingertips in a really great interface.  You choose the topics (like sports, news, financial, entertainment, rss feeds, Twitter) and customize the app how you want.  What I really like about the app is when you view content it's very intuitive and easy.  Just swipe between categories and stories or flip to read more when you're inside of a story.  The swiping becomes natural after you've used it for a little while.  If you're looking for a great way to integrate current events into your classroom, specific to the needs and wants of your students, Flipboard is a great avenue.

One great feature of Flipboard is that you can create your own magazines and flip stuff into them that you like or want to keep and read later.  Another neat feature is that other users can subscribe to your magazine, so anything you save can be read by them too.  This is a great feature for teachers who want to direct their students to specific content and it can be done quickly and easily from any device.

The real motive behind this post, though, is a great Chrome bookmarklet, or link in your bookmarks, is called Flip It.  This allows you to take a website that you see while browsing in Chrome and flip it into your Flipboard magazine with the click of a button.  See an article you want your students to pay attention to and have on their devices, just hit to button and it's there.  This is a great way to keep your classroom connected to what you want them to be connected to.

Copy Google Drive Folder

I came across this tip today and thought it was definitely worth sharing.  You can easily make a new copy of a single file in Google Drive by going to File > Make a Copy but I learned today that you can copy an entire folder.  In order to do it you need to visit this site and enable the script on the page and give it permission to access your Google Drive.  Once you do that you'll be given a new screen which allows you to choose your source folder and what you want to call your destination folder.

Once you hit 'Create' you'll find that you now have a new folder with a new name in your Google Drive with all of the contents of the source folder.  Pretty cool tip.

Research (and Cite) Right in Google Doc

Update: There is also a Chrome extension that allows you to do instant citation from a website you are currently visiting.

The ability to do research right in a Google Doc has been available for quite a while but this weekend I learned of the ability to cite that research with the click of a button.

To access the Research feature simply go to Tools > Research and a window will pop up on the right side of your document.  Within that window you can search Google and use the little drop-down arrow to search for Images, Quotes, and other filters.  The neat part is once you find your information and insert your information via a link into your document you then have the option to press the Cite button.  Pressing that immediately drops the citation into the bottom of your document and puts a little superscript citation button next to the link.  This is a great feature for students and others who are researching and writing papers and can't remember whether they're supposed to use MLA, APA, Chicago or whatever else is required.

Doc to Form Google Add-On

I discovered a great Google Doc add-on today called Doc to Form.  What it does it allows you to take a Google Doc and turn it into a form simply by highlighting the questions on the document and clicking some buttons in the sidebar.  The add-on then takes the questions and creates your form and gives you the opportunity to view spreadsheet or form.  I know for some teachers the Form template can seem daunting and this may be a way to help ease their fears.

The add-on was in testing and if the above link doesn't work you'll have to jump through one hoop by visiting this website.

Demo Video

iPad to iPad Mirroring

Sometimes it's nice when you have iPads to be able to mirror what's on your device to your students devices so you can control what they're seeing.  A few examples of this may be if you're doing a presentation or a read-along and want to know students are seeing what you're seeing, like a PDF that you've marked up.  A new website I just found via FreeTech4Teachers.com is called Preso.tv.

It allows you to upload a DOC, PPT, or PDF and then give your kids a code which allows them to see those documents on their iPad.  When you change pages on your screen it changes on theirs.  If you wanted to combine this with guided access you could lock students into an app and have complete control over what they see and do.  You can even schedule a presentation for the future plus there's a free iOS app, which worked a lot faster for me than having the students go to the website.  Plus, there's nothing to sign up for and you can import files from Google Drive or DropBox.

Since this only requires a device connected to the Internet you could do this with students in an part of the world!


Here's a bit from Preso's website:

Simply select "Open in" or select a file from either Dropbox, Google Drive or Box, and start broadcasting your presentation.

No account creation, no payments, no hassle. We don’t even ask for your email id! 

Features:
- Seamless real-time mirroring of presentations across any screen, over the internet or AirPlay
- Retina-quality graphics on the viewer’s devices
- Long tap to highlight a specific part of the slide
- Simply upload your presentation and share with anyone using a PresoCode/link
- Start a broadcast immediately or schedule it for later
- Safe and secure: Your documents are safely stored on the cloud and are permanently deleted 30 days after you upload
- Supports PowerPoint, PDF, and Word files

Hour of Code at Lincoln

For the past two days I've had the privilege of being in classrooms participating in the Hour of Code.  If you don't know what the Hour of Code is it's a nationwide initiative by code.org to introduce computer programming to 10 million students and encourage them to learn programming.  The excitement level is non-stop from the minute kids get their hands on their devices until they're pried away from them.

What I appreciate about kids coding is that learning a skill like coding is akin to learning another language.  When I was a kid writing code was one of my best computer memories and something I always remember doing.  Telling a computer to do something and having it react is a great feeling of accomplishment.  What the Hour of Code captures is that feeling, but with characters and activities such as Frozen, Angry Birds, and Flappy Bird that hook the kids and keep them entertained.  There's reading, math, and most importantly social collaboration.  Kids are constantly looking over their neighbor's shoulder to see what they're doing or showing off what they've accomplished.

"I just can't stop smiling!" was a quote I heard today from a student, leaning over her partner's Android tablet as they worked together on creating a Flappy Bird game.

"It's my life goal...to beat Mr. Birks  Even if it takes 10 years!" was another quote from a Isaias after he created and shared his Flappy Bird game with me.  You can play it here.

siteMaestro for ePortfolios

One thing I always struggled with as a teacher in a 1:1 classroom was having a place for students to share their digital work/life so they had a more real audience than me and their parents and the refrigerator.  I've looked at a lot of tools, like Three Ring and Moodle, but always kept coming back to the thought that Google Sites was a free, easy to use alternative.  But it seemed laborious to set them all up with the correct permissions for each student.  Enter siteMaestro!  This Google script add-on is attached to your Google Sheets and automatically creates a Google Site for each of your kids, gives them the sharing permissions so they can edit it, and allows you to control who can view the sight (in or outside of your domain).

First of all, it's free.  Second, it's very easy to setup.  You have to create one Google Site template first and then enter your students information into the spreadsheet.  But then you press the Create button and the magic begins and the script creates all of the sites, assigns permissions, and populates the spreadsheet with all of the students' URLs.  Whoa!  Blows my mind how cool that is.  The neat step about having it in a Google Sheet is that the teacher can publish that sheet and have one place with all of the students' URLs for their sites.

If you're looking for an easy way to have digital portfolios then take a look at siteMaestro.

Meeting Pulse - Connect with your Class

I saw a neat service by Microsoft that is in beta right now called Pulse that allows you to use some real-time tools to stay in touch with your audience.  But, it's only free for another month and then it becomes very expensive.  I mean VERY expensive.  My sense is it's built for bigger companies and organizations that don't care about their budgets.

So it got me to thinking whether or not there was a simple, free tool that would do the same.  I know Socrative and PollEverywhere will do these but I wanted something dead simple and especially one that kept the pulse on the audience.  A quick Google search turned up MeetingPulse which fit the bill perfectly.  What is has going for it is that it's free.  It's very easy to set up.  You can sign up with your Google account.  And it's easy for the audience to find and access your poll which allows your audience to interact with you during your presentation.

Create an account and an event with a unique URL and once you start it your audience goes to the site to see what you're asking them to do.  There are four options:

1. Pulse - the audience simply taps on their device Agree, Disagree, Not Clear, or Too Slow and the results populate on the presenter's screen immediately.  The responses only stick around for ten seconds and they pulse is reset.
2. Polls - the presenter can ask a simple question that they audience can reply to, like PollEverywhere
3. Questions - the audience can enter a question and the presenter gets a notification that someone has a question and can choose to address it or not.  Others can upvote the questions.
4. Raffle - this function keeps the audience engaged by randomly selecting one of them to win whatever you're giving away.  Conversely, it could be to choose a student to answer a question.  Their device will blink and tell them they've won!

Check out the video below:

Academic Help Site for Writing

I heard about this site from classtechtips.com.  If you are looking for a site that can help students with their writing then academichelp.net might be the place.  I've cut and pasted classtechtips.com's review below because they explain it pretty well:

Academic Help is a great resource to share with students preparing for mid-year or end of term exams.  Middle school and high school students will find that Academic Help has tons of guides to help young writers.  Their website provides free writing guides and samples of different types of papers.  This includes examples of critical essays, narrative essay, application letters, and even tips for creative writing.  The resources on Academic Help are totally free and work for a range of age levels.

There is a section of Academic Help’s site dedicated to general writing tips and do’s and don’ts for each type of writing assignment.  Teachers can use the samples on this site as mentor pieces for a writing unit or direct struggling students to Academic Help for extra examples.

Explore their website to see how they can help students prepare for exams this year!

Embed Interactive Elements into a Blog

I found this list of 50 free embeddable interactive widgets that you can add to your elementary blog to give students something to do when they visit besides just read.  They are also excellent if you have a smart board.  They include math, social studies, science and language arts.  I've dropped one below to give you an idea.