I also added the new version of my ebook about making comics with G Suite apps. That resource is based on my most popular conference session. It's a proven process that I've seen ignite a classroom as students discover the fun of creating. The normal price for the ebook is $4.00.
If you already have the free version I used to offer on this blog, you'll want to know I added a suggested rubric for the comics in the new edition. I also made some minor changes to the section about video projects.
If you have followed my work on my blog or elsewhere, I would greatly appreciate you at least downloading the free PDF about recorded slideshows and giving an honest review. That would help many other teachers discover them.
I love reflection activities that get students thinking about the learning in a deeper way. These usually amount to just asking good questions and they do not have to involve technology at all. As our district is using a lot more Chromebooks, though, I have been creating more templates that use Google Apps to make it easy for teachers and students to manage the work digitally.
When you click the links for the templates below, you'll get a copy in your Google Drive. From there, you can edit them any way you need to for your lessons. I also hope they give you ideas for other templates specific to your teaching style.
Learning Target and Reflection Journal
As our district is focusing on learning targets this year. Andrea Thelen, one of our English teachers, came up with some reflection questions to direct students to the targets. Her students complete the form below at the end of class a few times each week and they do a summary activity at the end of the week.
I put the original in this Google Document and we shared it with other teachers who have adapted it to fit their needs.
I created the Note-Taking Template as a Google Slides presentation because that allowed me to add a background image that wouldn't be edited accidentally when students typed in the text boxes.
A Slides presentation also makes it easy to keep multiple pages of notes in one place. To make more pages, students can just right click on a slide on the left of the screen and choose to duplicate it. Of course if they plan on using multiple pages, it's best to always duplicate the first slide before typing on it, so they always have a blank one to duplicate later.
Students will need to use the zoom tool to zoom in once or twice to easily read the template and their notes. The "presentation" that it refers to could be anything--your lesson, student presentations or a movie, for example.
If you want to edit the background image, on the Slides template, I created it as a Google Drawing. Just edit this Drawing so it looks how you want, then download it as a PNG file. Use that PNG as the background on your Slides template.
Lab Poster Template
I created this Lab Poster Template for a science teacher who wanted a simple way for students to report about their experiment. It's a Google Drawing and it serves as an example of how easy this tool is for making digital posters for any learning experience. (See this post on my other blog for another fun example.)
Students can add tables, clip art or even photos they take. To get those photos into the Drawing, I suggest uploading them to their Google Drive using the Google Drive app on their phone or tablet. Once in Drive, it's easy to import them into the Drawing.
See my video below if you or the students are unfamiliar with Google Drawings. It's a very informal tutorial I created so the teacher could help his students get started. It explains basic editing and how to insert images.
Over the course of this school year I created a few "Quick Tips" about Google Drive and other tools for the teachers I work with. My goal was to highlight easy, useful features in under two minutes.
First, a couple general comments:
Google updates the apps frequently, so even the more recent videos might show slightly outdated interfaces. The general processes are the same though.
Some of these are very informal recordings done quickly for other purposes. I trust they'll still be of use as a quick lesson.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or send me an email. I'm always happy to help and I'll add to this list as more information is requested.
Navigating Google Drive
Organizing files in Google Drive
Uploading files of any type to Google Drive
How to share files in Google Drive using Link Sharing - It's better than typing everyone's email address in that box!
Inserting images in Google Docs
Adding hyperlinks to Google Docs, Slides and Drawings
Adding comments to a document - This includes tips on doing this without taking your hands off the keyboard. That's really helpful when grading several papers!
A couple weeks ago I wrote about a creativity game template I made in Google Slides. (Read that post for details on how the games are played with a class.) Making the games in this flexible tool should allow a lot more teachers to take advantage of what they offer.
Now I'm going a step further and showing how to run the entire game with Google tools. These are the ones I'll be using:
Google Slides for the game template
Google Docs for the contestants to submit their responses to the teacher
Google Forms for the class to vote on their best response
Google Classroom for getting the Form out to the class when it's time to vote
I'll explain the process with two videos. The first shows how to prepare to play.
And this second video shows how to run a round of the game with the class.
Note: In case it wasn't clear from the video, the responses I copied from the three shared documents would be written by the contestants after they see the prompt for the round. They would each have their document open on a Chromebook or other device. When they're done, you copy and paste them into the slideshow so the class can see them for a vote.
