PPS Instructional Technology

KRESA is able to offer some great FREE PD opportunities to Administrators and Teaching Staff  during the months of May and June. Various programs are available with descriptions and registration links in the  Google doc linked here .

Lodge McCammon is a professor whose interests lie in engaging students through technology, video, movement and music. He has been slowly creating songs depicting the important events in states' histories. He now has a series on the Solar System , including a song, lectures and kinesthetic  movements for the song. The kinesthetic motions follow the lyrics and meaning behind each song helping students to remember and engage with the words. The video below shows students performing the Natural Satellites (Solar System) song. Here is one of his lecture videos that accompany the songs.  In the lectures he explains the science sung about in each verse of the song. This is definitely a YouTube channel I recommend you watch and subscribe too. I see many more engaging videos coming our way. All the Natural Satellites (Solar System) videos have been added to our YouTubeEDU account here at PPS, so feel free to point your students to Dr. Lodge and have them check him ...

In previous posts I shared how to share documents with your students using a distribution list and the GClassFolders script that can be found in the old version of Google Spreadsheets.  Here is one more way to share documents with your students, and possible my new favorite way! DOCTOPUS In the new Google Sheets you will find the Add ons menu.  This menu allows you to add features to your spreadsheets and documents, much like the script gallery used to allow you to do.  The great thing is that the new Doctopus add on is very simple to use and walks you right through the process.  The added bonus of sharing documents through Doctopus is that you can set up templates for your students to use, as well as grading them using the Goobric rubric feature. Check out this video to learn more, or check out Doctupus in the Add ons store :

You all have to check out the Lego City Comic Builder . This is a great way for students to quickly create a project to demonstrate their learning. I created one showing the differences between rural/suburban/urban. It is simple to use, fun and works on the chromebooks. Students can even print them to their Google Drives to save and share. Ideas for use: Have students show the beginning, middle, end of a story. Have students recreate various habitats Have students show a historical event ...the list goes on and on! http://www.lego.com/en-us/city/comic-builder/builder Here is what the interface looks like: I would love to hear how you are using this tool in your classroom!  Leave a comment and share!

I will be the first to admit that, despite the fact that I use Google Docs every day, it isn't the most full featured piece of software I have ever used.  There are many times when I would like to insert a graphic organizer in a Doc, or use a spreadsheet to easily create a mail merge.  Well, Google is changing things up and has introduced the Add-Ons menu to Google Docs and the New Google Sheets.  This new menu allows you to select certain tools that you want to use with your Google Docs.  Here is a brief introductory video: In addition to the Add-ons listed in the video above, LucidChart has also been integrated into the add-on gallery.  LucidChart allows you to create mind-maps and other graphic organizers.  I love this tool and have used with with students as young as second grade.  What I am really excited about is that I now can have my students insert their graphic organizer right into their Google document they are sharing with me.  I ca...

Last Week, I explained a way to share Google docs with your class without typing each email on every document by using the distribution/contact groups in Gmail.  Today we will learn how to use the script Gclassfolders to create assignment folders, edit and view folders for your class/classes. This is a great script.  What you need to do is enter your students names and emails one time into a spreadsheet, then the script automatically creates and shares folders for each of your students and two folders for the whole class.  I love this script and have used it multiple times.  It takes some time up front, but it saves me so much time over the course of the school year! You can find out instructions and more information about GClassFolders here .

When teachers first start using Google Docs, one of the questions I most frequently get is "How do I easily share my documents with ALL my students without having to type every single name in on each document?"  As a teacher, I completely understand the importance of this question.  Sharing documents is one of the most important features of Google Docs, but if it becomes a time and management nightmare, who would want to use it?  Well, I have some good news!  There are a few methods that you can use that will make it easy to share documents with your students all year long!  Here is the first and simplest method.  It involves setting up a distribution/contact group in your Gmail, then simply sharing any documents with that distribution/contact group. METHOD 1: Distribution/Contact Group Step 1: Begin in your chrome browser while visiting your PortagePS Gmail. At the upper-left corner of your gmail, you will see the compose button and above that the ...