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Google continues to improve Google Docs and the Google Workspace platform! In one of the newer updates, they have added the ability to do Smart Chips that add drop down menus to documents. While this is usually useful in project management, and if you have the students working on complex projects you could introduce these items, but you can also create standardized test like questions where students have to select the proper response.  To set this up, open up your Google Doc and then type a quick reading passage or text set for the students to review. Once you have that, figure out what words you want to remove from the text. Highlight the words and then high the @ sign on your keyboard. Then, create a new drop down list.  Next, add the words that you want to the drop down list. Don't forget to add a blank option first so as to provide the students with a blank. You must add a space or five to create the drop down option. Change the color to allow for easy, quick visual cues as you

Google Docs has recently added the Smart Chips to allow for more functionality in a document, allowing you to tag other people, pull templates, and have a document in a more collaborative environment. Now, Google has added the ability to draft an email in Google Docs and easily transfer this to Gmail for sending.  This update is extremely useful if you have an important email to send and you don't want to accidentally send it prior to it being done, you have an email to send as a team and you want everyone to have the ability to craft and have their say, or you have a list of running items that need to be included in the email over the course of time. Once you are ready to send it, click the Blue Gmail Logo and it will open in your Gmail. Once it is open, you only have to click send! No more accidentally sent too early emails! 

  Google Docs recently got an update that allows you to add a quick summary to longer documents that are in Google Docs format. Using Artificial Intelligence to scan and read the document and prepare a short summary of the document. If you are looking at it, and disagree, you can set your own! This is a cool feature. As students are writing an essay or paper, this tool can inform them if they are on topic and have written a comprehensive and understandable paper. If the summary is not their position, they might want to start over. From a staff standpoint, this is great to make sure that items match our intent and purpose as we prepare to share findings, data, and more!  To create, simply like the little icon in the corner and select summary. 

  Google Docs has recently launched a new feature that is perfect for a world in which our students are not printing! The Pageless Feature allows for larger photos, graphs, and tables without worrying about page constraints, as well as being able to move seamlessly through a document.  Applicable features in the classroom would be looking at large sets of data, large images, and formatting in tables without worrying about page breaks and how things might get messed up. In order to add it to your Google Document, you can use the GIF below to navigate to the Page Setup Menu and then select pageless. 

In our last post, we introduced the idea of adding a - between the t and the u in YouTube.  This got me to thinking about a few other cool URL tricks that I thought I would share.  If you or your students need to quickly create a new document, presentation, or spreadsheet, you can use this trick. Simply type in docs.new, slides.new, or sheets.new into your browsers URL bar, and you will be taken blank document ready for you to create! Try it out!  This can be useful when a thought comes to mind, or your class takes a turn for something amazing. I know that while I was in the classroom, we would take a turn for something and then have to get something to take some notes. 

Putting together an engaging and visually appealing slideshow can be a daunting task. While Google (and PowerPoint before it) provided users with templates to help the process, times have changed and the templates have not kept up! Enter some amazing resources to gather up some excellent templates. One great way to help me while I was in the classroom is to use a different template for each unit, so that if my naming structure was clear, I could visually see what was what.  Slides Carnival Slides Carnival was one of the first on the scene. They offer hundreds of slide show templates, including holiday templates, for free with no restrictions or account sign up necessary. (To provide credit to the creators, you have to leave the last slide providing credit to the creator(s) in your slideshow to abide by the license rules). You simply make a copy of the slideshow presented on the website and you are free to design to your hearts content. They offer plenty of options depending on what yo

Google Docs recently just added the ability to add a watermark, or an image behind the text of the document, to their already widely popular online word processor. A watermark can be useful for adding context to a series of documents, marking the specific order students are to work in, helping with branding, or, my personal favorite, creating “highly classified” documents for a social studies class simulation.  Check out how to do this in the video below! 

This week, we welcomed 8 new certified staff to our district and they spent some time becoming acclimated with the technology we have in district and some of the best practices associated with technology. While this is specifically geared towards our newest staff members, we wanted to make sure to share it with you as well! There are some helpful tips, refreshers, and ideas in this document to help you kick your year off right!  Download the document here!

One of the biggest complaints that I have heard from teachers and students is that Google Forms does not save responses if a test or quiz is accidentally exited, refreshed, or otherwise lost. Google and their engineers have been listening to requests and have a new feature available for Google Forms! Now, on by default and requiring no extra steps from teachers or students, Google Forms will now save responses as long as the students or respondents are logged into their Google Accounts. There is nothing else that needs to be done, but this is something that I thought was worth sharing! Check out the GIF of the action below. This is taken from the Google products updates newsletter!

 Google Meet has gone through another series of massive updates. Check out this document for all of the latest on Google Meet . 

Google Meet has grown exponentially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, changing many of the features and user experiences. In this update, Google Meet now has a "Mute All" option for the host of the meeting. Check out the how-to here .

Early in the pandemic and the move to remote teaching and learning, there was a lot of confusion around Google Meet links and how the meetings would end. Google has updated the teacher's view when exiting the meeting and included a "End the Call" option to make the link no longer active. Check out the PDF to learn about the steps . 

Google Meet has been getting a series of updates since the start of the Pandemic . In this post, you will find a document that lays out many of the changes that you will likely encounter in Google Meet.

 Ben and Dan talk about the differences between Google Workspace and Microsoft Office.    

 In a quick move at the onset of the pandemic, the Coloma Technology Department unveiled this quick guide to help prep for online learning and content delivery. Check it out below.  

Google Classroom has a new feature that we have access to! Originality Reports provide teachers and students with a report about the content that they are submitting or they are grading.  Originality reports run the content of an assignment against the search engine and provides both the student and the teacher with a report as to how much of the work is original. This is not a fool-proof plan to stop plagiarism, but just a new tool in the arsenal to help slow it. Check out the video on how to use this feature .

Google Classroom is extremely powerful and can help our students with distance learning. Here is a quick guide to Distance Learning with Google Classroom !

Google Docs and Slides offer lots of opportunities for you to connect with students. In this post, we want to highlight some ideas to help with distance learning using Docs and Slides . 

The third session was taking what we do so well in the classroom and making it work in the digital realm. Check out this video for a how-to get started on making your classroom instruction work digitally !

 In our second installment of virtual PD, the Coloma Tech Department offered a survival guide based on using Google Classroom with our students. Check out the video here .