Tech Tool Tuesday: REMIND 101

October is all about parent communication around Emerson, with the opening of the Parent Portal and Parent Conferences.  The Board of Education has also made communication one of the district's goals.  Many of us are looking for quick and easy ways to get class information out to parents (and students).

 Last week, I showed you a quick way to send a mass email through Powerschool.  However, not every parent checks their email all the time, especially if it is sent to an account that is full of advertisements and spam.  Nowadays, many more people turn to text messages delivered right to their mobile phone screen to get information. Certainly, that is the preferred mode of communication of our students.  

Now, there is a FREE and easy way to text parents (and students, if you choose) without ever having to share your personal phone number or even have them share their number with you.  It is called REMIND 101.  Basically, teachers set up an account and create a class.  They print out the pre-made poster giving the parents an access code and walking them through the sign-up process.  (It could even be a posted outside your conference room door to get them to sign up while they are waiting for their conference time.)  Students can also sign up to receive text messages to their cell phone, without ever having to share their number with you or vice versa. 

The Sugar Gliders have been using REMIND 101 with great success.  Examples of messages they have sent out were to let parents know that the parent portal letter was coming home and to look for the pre-conference questionnaire.  You could also use it to remind parents about field trips, remind them to check the parent portal when you have updated grades or even to share positive news.  

CLICK HERE TO SET UP A REMIND101 ACCOUNT.

Watch the short video below for more information.  Let me know if you want my help to get it up and running.

 

Tech Tool Tuesday: Google Apps Reseach Tool

Did you know that you can search for information and images from right inside your Google Doc?

In any Google Document or Presentation, click "Research" in the "Tools" menu.

A Research panel will appear on the right.

Research Tool Example

For a general web search, type into the search bar and hover over one of the snippets until the buttons appear.
    Preview opens a snapshot of the site.
    Insert Link adds a hyperlink in your document.
    Cite adds a citation in the correct format to the footnote of your document!

For an image search, click on the gray square on the left of the search bar and choose "Images." Then type into the search bar.

To add the image to your document or presentation, simply drag it over to where you want it.  Google will automatically insert it and create a link to cite the image source!

While I love the citing and quick add features of the tool, the best thing about it is how quickly students can find Free Use images.  All they have to do is click on the little black arrow under that search bar and choose:

Free to use, share or modify, even commercially.

Now, students (or teachers) don't have an excuse why they can't give credit where credit is due, or take images that don't belong to them.  They can do what is right without ever leaving their document window.

Tech Tool Tuesday: Emerson Google Docs Naming System

Student: "I know I turned it in."

Teacher: "I don't have it."

Student: "But I know I turned it in."

Teacher: "Did you write your name on it?"

Student: "Ahhh...."

We have all this conversation countless times with students in our paper classroom.  One of the things that teachers struggle with is finding papers coming in from 100+ kids, whether by hand or electronically.  It turns out the solution is all in the Name.

As I have worked with teachers using Google Docs with their students, we have come up with a simple naming system that helps you, as the teacher, find documents that students have shared with you through Google Drive.  This EMERSON NAMING PROTOCOL looks like this:

Per#   AssignmentTitle  LastName

Per# is the two-digit period number (i.e. 02, 10).

AssignmentTitle* is the exact title assigned by the teacher, with no spaces. 

(i.e. IntroPaper).

LastName is your last name (i.e. Smith).

Assignment Example: 02  IntroPaper  Smith

Remember, Google is built around the search.  Whether images on the internet or documents in your drive, searching is what Google does best.  Once students create documents using the Emerson Naming Protocol, you can use the document's name to search inside your Google Drive.

-If you search "AssignmentTitle" (ie "IntroPaper"), all assignments from any class/student will appear.
      *For easy access later on, you could organize them in the folder by selecting them all and clicking the Folder Icon. For more on organizing Google Docs, see Monday's post.

-If you search "Per# AssignmentTitle" (ie "02 IntroPaper"), all assignments from that period will appear.

-If you search Last Name (ie Smith), any assignment from that student will appear.

Disclaimer: In order to make this work, the AssignmentTitle needs to be unique to that assignment.  Also, every student needs to spell things correctly and share the document with you when they create it.  I usually pull up the Per# AssignmentTitle search up on the smartboard so kids can check that their document was named and shared correctly.

Here are some Google Classroom Poster to help getting your students started.  If we can create some consistency across all Emerson classes, creating/naming a Google Document becomes as natural to students as putting their names on the paper.  It may not end the age-old question "Did you put your name on it?" but it may help Emerson students and teachers know how to answer it.