The Electric Educator

Family Breakout: A new holiday tradition

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:12:00 +0000

Three years ago I accidentally created a family Christmas tradition. 😯

Let me explain...

My wife and I have five kids: ages 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.

As you can imagine, Christmas is a pretty big deal.

Fortunately, my wife is super organized and LOVES Christmas.

Each year we buy 5 different rolls of wrapping paper - one for each kid. This helps us keep track of which present belongs to which kid.

Our wrapping paper trick also inspired a new family Christmas tradition...

Just before Christmas, I had purchased a BreakoutEDU box and needed a chance to test it out.

(Watch this if you have no idea what a breakout box is)

I decided that Christmas morning was the perfect opportunity to give my breakout box a trial run! 😂
Here is what my kids saw when they woke up on December 25...

My kids had to solve a bunch of puzzles and follow clues (I had age-appropriate options for everyone) to open each of the locks and "breakout Christmas."

Inside of the breakout box was a small piece of all 5 wrapping paper designs with a name written on the back: the key to figuring out which presents went to which kid.

The first year was a big hit and now the pressure is on for me to create better and more elaborate breakout!

Perhaps a breakout game is something you should add to your family holiday tradition!

A breakout game is a fun addition to your classroom holiday party or family gathering!

Here are some tips to help you get started.

🧰 Purchase, build or borrow a breakout box

Purchase a breakout box from BreakoutEDU for $150. It has everything you need.
Assemble your own breakout box for $70 (or less) using these instructions
Borrow a breakout box from school during Christmas break!

Advice: a physical breakout box with combination locks and keys provides a unique experience, however dealing with the physical set up can be a pain (does anyone remember the combination?).

💻 Use Google Forms to create a digital breakout

If you would prefer a free option, you can use Google Forms to design a digital breakout by turning on the "response validation" option which turns free-response questions into a "lock".

The key to using Google Forms as a digital breakout is knowing how to enable "data validation." Watch this video (starting at 4:24) to learn more!

🔐 Find or create a breakout game

Designing the game is the fun part! Here are the essential elements:

Backstory - every adventure has a setting. Set up the story for your adventure (like my elf-on-the-shelf example).
Puzzles and clues - your breakout experience will require 3-10 puzzles. Each puzzle will reveal a numerical or alphabetical code that is used to open one of the locks. Check out this list of puzzle
ideas.
A reward or prize - What is the prize for solving the puzzle? Include an exciting surprise inside the breakout box (candy, movie tickets, and small presents work well).

💡Creating a good breakout takes a lot of time and testing. It is wise to use or modify an existing game for your first breakout. My Christmas morning breakouts are modified from the BreakoutEDU library.

🆓 Free games from BreakoutEDU
BreakoutEDU offers free and paid breakout games. The breakouts listed below are free, but you will need to create a BreakoutEDU account.

🦌 Reindeer games (2017)
🧝‍♂️ Elf in a box (2018)
🚂 Holiday express (this is the one I am using this year!)

🗝️ Sample breakouts using Google Forms

Google forms make it easy to build a digital breakout for FREE!

Digital breakout template (use this to make your own)
Sample breakout from the 2019 miGoogle conference
Digital CLUE game by Stephanie Howell.

💡 BONUS: The three examples above are included in my list of 30 ways to use Google Forms in the classroom. You can download the full list here.

I would love to know if you include a breakout in your classroom or family gathering this year.

Tag me in your Tweet or Instagram post!

5 ways to prevent cheating on your Google Form Quiz

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 16:18:00 +0000

If you are using Google Forms to give quizzes and tests in your classroom, you are likely aware that some students have figured out various ways to "game" forms to get a better grade:

Open a tab to look up answers
Preview your form before class to look up answers
Send questions to their friends
Share answers with friends
Take screenshots of your the quiz questions
View the HTML page source to find answers
Look at a friends screen to select answers
Right-click on words to check definitions and spelling
Share answers with classmates during passing time
Write down "cheats" on their hand or paper

The fact that students are looking for shortcuts to improve their quiz scores shouldn't come as a surprise. (You may have been this student when you were in school!!)

I believe that formative and summative assessments have an appropriate role in the classroom and that it is our duty as educators to take reasonable action to maintain the integrity of these assessments.

Google Forms is a tremendous tool for organizing and automating digital quizzes. Here are five tips for designing "cheat proof" Google Forms!

👉 Note: want to see all of these tips in action? Check out this demo form!

Shuffle answer choices to block screen creepers

When asking a multiple choice question, click on the "snowman" to find the "shuffle option order" feature which will randomize the order of the answer choices in your question.

Shuffling answer choices will make it more difficult for "screen creepers" to copy answers from a classmate.

Note: Google Forms does have a "shuffle question order" feature, however using it can lead to issues. I recommend shuffling answers over shuffling questions.

Use page sections to block assessment previews

Add sections to your quiz to prevent students from previewing a form before class. This is a common problem if you post your quiz through Google Classroom to all of your sections early in the day.

You can take this a step further by adding a "password" to your form to prevent students from moving ahead until you are ready.

An easy way to do this is to collect their personal information (name/section) on the first page of the form, but require a password before they can access the quiz question.

Set up a password by adding a short answer question and using the data validation feature to require a specific number or phrase.

Note: this is not a 100% secure solution and should not be used to protect sensitive information.

Use page breaks to create alternative assessment paths

Google Forms doesn't have a question bank feature to create different assessments for each student. However, you can create a similar experience by creating a branched form.

First, add an un-graded multiple choice question in your quiz: “pick a number”, “pick a color”, etc.

Next, set up 3-5 different sections to your quiz using the section feature mentioned in tip #2 above. Add as many questions as you like to each section.

Finally, add a "go-to" rule to direct students to a different section of the based on their response to the un-graded question that you added.

Prevent cheating by asking better questions!

Don't limit your self to multiple choice questions.

Sequence questions - use the "checkbox grid" question type to ask students to sequence or arrange items in a list.
Matching questions - use the multiple choice grid question type to create a matching question (great for vocabulary quizzes!)
Reading Passage - use the title/text element to add a short reading passage.
Video question - have students watch a video and then answer questions about it (great for math and world language.
Image question - images can be used as the question stem or question choices (great for science, math, social studies, and elementary students)
Free response / short answer - If a student can answer all of the multiple choice questions correctly, but can't articulate 2-3 sentences on the same topic...something is wrong.

Enable locked quiz mode

Locked quiz mode is one of many tools you have to protect the integrity of your assessments. When used in combination with the tips above, you have done your part to protect the integrity of your classroom quizzes.

Locked mode prevents students from accessing external resources while taking a quiz. Their tabs, extensions, chrome apps, and screenshot functions will be disabled during the duration of the quiz.

You can turn on this feature the settings page on your Google Form OR when assigned through Google Classroom.

I wrote a detailed overview of locked quiz mode here.

If you use some / all of the tips listed above, you have done your part to protect the integrity of your assessments and encourage your students to practice academic honesty.

There is no way to be 100% certain that students can't cheat on an assessment. Ultimately, they are harming themselves and their academic growth. Our job is to encourage, instruct and train them to do their best and show good character, even when they have the opportunity to cheat.

5 tips to design better forms

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 19:07:00 +0000

5 tips to design better forms...

Google Forms is a marvelous tool in the classroom. Get even more value out of form by applying these five tips that go beyond the basics.

1. Use validation to collect better data

Your Google Form is only as good as the data it collects. If your data is a mess, it won’t be very useful.

Many of the question types in Google Forms offer a setting called “response validation.” Use it to require a response to fit a certain criteria:

Checkbox questions: set a minimum or maximum number of choices that can be selected.
Short Answer question: use the Regular Expression feature to get consistently formatted phone numbers, zip codes, or state abbreviations.
Paragraph Question: set a minimum or maximum response length

2. Make your form look pretty!

While Forms has added the ability to change the header image, background, and some limited font options, with a little effort you can really make your form look nice!

I frequently split my form into different sections and use the image element to add graphics.

A good example is this conference registration form: http://tinyurl.com/y48js49p

I use Canva to create most of my form graphics. I discovered that the “Leaderboard” template works really well with forms.

Another trick you can try is adding emoji to your form questions and answer choices. I use the 🔥and 👉 symbols to emphasize important information or 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣ if I have a set of steps I want to clearly explain.

The Emoji One Chrome extension is what I use to access emoji icons on my Chromebook (works on Mac and PC too!).

3. Automate with Add-ons

Once you’ve mastered the essential elements of forms, you MUST dive into add-ons.

Add-ons are like apps for Google Drive. To become a true Form Fanatic you need to be familiar with add-ons for forms AND sheets.

Add-ons will help you work more efficiently and create automated systems. I use a LOT of different add-ons for different situations. Here are some of my favorites:

Form Add-Ons:

Choice eliminator removes MC options from your form after they have been selected. Great for sign-ups, volunteer opportunities, and reservations.
Form Limiter will set limits on how long your form is available or how many responses a form will receive before it is turned off. Great for forms with deadlines.
Use Email Notification for Forms to send out email or mobile phone notifications when a new submission is received.

Sheet Add-ons

Autocrat is one of my personal favorites! I use Autocrat to generate documents based on form data (certificates, invoices, meeting agendas, etc)
Copy Down isn’t super exciting, but it’s very helpful! I use Copy Down to apply formulas to incoming form data to create automatic calculations.
FormMule is an email merge utility that you can use to send customized emails based on form responses. I use FormMule when I need to run calculations on my form data before sending out an email.

There are a LOT more add-ons, but those are some of my favorites!

4. Filter, Sort, and Pivot your Data!

We use Google Forms to collect data. Once someone submits a form, the information gets dumped into Google Sheets...and things get interesting!

A spreadsheet is an amazing tool for collecting and organizing information. Here are three things that you should know how to do in Google Sheets:

Sort - Sort a column in your spreadsheet to organize your data alphabetically or numerically. This is basic, but very useful!
Filter - Filter your sheet to isolate the information you want to see. For example, you might use the filter option to hide quiz scores for your first and third hour classes so that you can review the scores from second hour.
Pivot - A pivot table lets you look at your data from a different perspective. This is especially helpful with things like test scores or survey information. For example, you might “pivot” your data to see if the 8th grade students who had failing grades in math also struggled in their ELA courses.

Data analysis is super important topic. If you want to learn more, I recommend that you connect with Ben Collins, the smartest Google Sheets guy I know!

5. Autograde and lock your quizzes!

Google Forms has a special quiz mode that will auto-grade student choices!

Stop wasting your precious time hand-grading paper quizzes! Auto grade them!

Don't limit your quiz to traditional multiple choice questions! Here are a few ideas you might want to try:

🖼 Image Questions - insert and image of a map or equation and and then ask comprehension questions (great for math and science!)
🎦 Video Questions - Add a short video to your quiz and then ask questions about the video content (great for world language!)
✅ Check Box Questions - Use the checkbox question and have students select “all that apply.”
📝 Matching Question - use the grid question type to set up a matching question.

Be creative... there are LOTS of possibilities.

You may have heard about the new LOCKED MODE for Google Forms.

I shared an early review a few months ago. When enabled, locked mode will prevent students from accessing other information during a quiz.

It's pretty awesome!

Locked mode is NOT available yet...but it should be very soon (March?)! Watch this video or read this blog post to see how it works!

Are you ready to become a Form Fanatic?

Each spring I teach a 5 week Google Forms masterclass. Join me for a deep dive into Google Forms!

I offered this course for the first time in the spring of 2018 and the feedback was outstanding:

"I was a casual user of Forms, but I was not using the data that I had collected to it's full potential. Now I am writing better Forms so my data is of higher quality and I am better able to analyze the results so I'm making decisions based on data...not just giving surveys." - Laura Foreback, middle school teacher

This course is perfect for classroom teachers, tech coaches, and school administrators!

Interested? Click here for details!

Do your students have these tech skills?

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 02:34:00 +0000

Before you can use technology to teach math...science...language arts...etc, you need to make sure that your students have mastered some basic skills.

Students may develop some of these skills in computer class (if your school offers it), but subject-area teachers will still need to teach some basics early in the year.

So what are the most important, basic, essential technology skills that your students need to master?
To help you answer this question I created a technology skills checklist.
This check list identifies the most basic things that you should teach in your classroom at the beginning of the school year.

These skills are so basic that most middle and high school students will be embarrassed to admit that they don't know them. You will need to think of a fun, creative, non-threatening way to weave these skills into the first 1-2 weeks of the school year.

Just because students are "digital natives" doesn't mean that they know how to use technology effectively. We need to help them.
One idea for teaching a lot of these basic skills is my "selfie trading card" activity. It's fun, easy, and will cross off a lot of the skills listed on my check list. Check out this video for details (the trading card template is in the description of the video!)!

If tech is an important component of your classroom, it's worth devoting some time early in the school year to help your students be successful.

Was this blog post helpful?

Each month I send out tips like this to my email subscribers. My monthly email features practical tips and suggestions for using technology in the classroom. Interested? You can subscribe below!

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Ultimate Resource Guide for the NEW Google Classroom!

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Thu, 09 Aug 2018 04:47:00 +0000

Google Classroom is an essential tool for any teacher using Chromebooks or Google Drive as a teaching tool. On the surface, classroom is a simple tool, but with a little creativity and ingenuity it can do some awesome things!

I have scoured the web to compile this ultimate list of Google Classroom resources!

Whether you are just getting started with Classroom or are looking to go even further with it, this ultimate resource list has something for you!

If you find something useful, make sure you thank the creator!

Note: this is a really long, detailed blog post. I've created a really nice PDF version of this post that you can download here.

What is Google Classroom? Should I use it?

How does Google Classroom compare with Schoology? Moodle? Canvas? Google Sites? What exactly is Google Classroom?

The Great EdTech Debate: Google Sites vs Google Classroom vs Blogger By Jeff Bradbury, Teachercast.net

A Teacher’s Take: Canvas vs. Google Classroom By Misty Joaquin, posted to Canvas LMS blog

Seesaw vs. Google Classroom: What's the Best Management App for Your Classroom? By Emily Major, Common Sense Media

Apple Classroom Vs. Google Classroom By Jonathan Wylie, Jonathanwylie.com

📽️ Video: comparing Google Classroom, Edmodo, and Moodle By Valerie Beilman, Plymouth Canton School, Michigan

Setting up your first Google Classroom

Brand new to Google Classroom? These resources will help you set up your very first class!

📽️ Video: Setting up Google Classroom By Google for Education
How to set up a Google Classroom By Jack Wallen, TechRepublic.com
Google Classroom Quickstart guide By Matt Miller, DitchthatTextbook.com

Understanding the NEW Google Classroom

There are some BIG updates to Google Classroom for the start of the 2018 school year. Here’s what you need to know!

Get ready for the NEW Google Classroom By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com
Taking a Peak at the New Google Classroom By Alice Keeler, AliceKeeler.com
Upcoming Changes to Google Classroom By Google for Education
📽️ New 2018 Google Classroom Updates (Detailed overview) By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com

Posting to your Classroom

You can post three things to Google Classroom: announcements, questions, and assignments.

📽️ Video: a fun way to use the announcement feature By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com
📽️ Video: Adding content to the NEW Google Classroom By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com

Setting up Guardian Access

The guardian feature helps keep parents informed about the progress of their student. Check out these resources to setup and use this feature of Classroom

Presentation: Guardian Access emails and notifications By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com

📽️ Video: 2 key things to know about guardian summaries By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com

How to configure your Google Classroom notifications

Google Classroom can generate a TON of emails and notifications on your phone which can be quite overwhelming and annoying. These articles will show you how to manage them and tell you which ones to disable.

Disable your Classroom Notifications By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com

How to manage Google Classroom like a boss with notifications By Matt Miller, DitchthatTextbook.com

📽️ Video: Managing Classroom Notifications By Travis True, True Techie Tips

Keeping Classroom Organized

You can post three things to Google Classroom: announcements, questions, and assignments. Here are some tips on using all three!

📽️ Video: How to organize Google Classroom By John Sowash, ElectricEducator.com
🎙️ Podcast: How to clean up your digital Classroom By Jeff Bradbury, Teachercast.net

Teaching with Classroom

These videos and articles will give you suggestions and ideas for teaching content area skills with Google Classroom.

📽️ Writing Instruction with Google Classroom By John Sowash - @jrsowash
📽️ Google Classroom in elementary classrooms By John Sowash - @jrsowash
🎙️ Podcast: Coding lessons using Google Classroom By Jeff Bradbury, Teachercast.net
60 Ways to teach Math with Google Classroom By Alice Keeler, AliceKeeler.com
15 Ways to teach PE with Google Classroom, By Alice Keeler, AliceKeeler.com

Student Guides and Resources for Google Classroom

Don’t forget, your students will need some instruction on how to use Google Classroom! The guides below can be shared with students to help them get the most out of Classroom.

📽️ Video: First day of Class! Introducing your students to Google Classroom By John Sowash - @jrsowash
📽️ Video: How to teach your students to use Google Classroom By John Sowash - @jrsowash
PDF: Parent and student guide to Google Classroom By Edbuzz.org

Templates for Google Classroom

Want to customize how your classroom looks? Check out these header templates!

Classroom header template with instructions By John Sowash - @jrsowash

Tie-Dye Classroom Header By Alice Keeler, @alicekeeler

📽️ Video: Design your own classroom header By Brad Dale, @bradjdale

Tips on creating your own header image By Kasey Bell, @shakeuplearning

Student resource template By John Sowash - @jrsowash

Free time activities listBy John Sowash - @jrsowash

Finished early choices By Tanya Nugent- @tcbnugent

Get even MORE out of Google Classroom with these Chrome extensions!

Share to Classroom

This Chrome extension lets you push content into Google Classroom from anywhere on the web. You can also use it to push websites directly to student screens.

⤵️ Install here

BitMoji

Students love stickers. Use the BitMoji Chrome extension like digital stickers to praise and reward students for their hard word! ⤵️ Install here

Emoji Keyboard

We use emoji all the time on our phones, why not on your computer as well? This Chrome extension gives you access to traditional emoji characters that you can use to express emotion or call attention to important notes and reminders. Use them anywhere you insert text. ⤵️ Install here

Screencastify

Use the Screencastify Chrome extension to record short videos that provide instruction, feedback, or tips. Recording a short video is far faster and more effective than writing out your instructions.⤵️ Install here

Google Classroom Experts

Need help? Here are the people you can connect with to learn more and get help using Google Classroom

John R. Sowash - John is the author of the Chromebook Classroom and full time Google Education trainer. Twitter | Instagram | Blog | YouTube

Alice Keeler - Alice is the author of seven books including two on Google Classroom.
Twitter | Instagram | Blog

Kasey Bell - Kasey is a technology integration specialist in Texas, author of the Shakeup Learning
Twitter | Instagram | Blog

Paul Limpert - Paul is a high school Lacrosse coach who is using Classroom to communicate with his players. Twitter | YouTube

Managing Comments in Google Classroom (2018 Update!)

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 17:40:00 +0000

Google Classroom is an under-rated messaging platform for teachers and students. When used effectively, the messaging / commenting capabilities in classroom lead to rich conversations and learning moments between teachers and students.

The 2018 update to Google Classroom significantly changed the location and emphasis of three commenting options in Google Classroom. I anticipate a bit of confusion on the part of teachers and students at the beginning of the school year as everyone adjusts to the new layout.

There are three different ways that comments / messages can be sent in Google Classroom: class comments, private comments, and question responses.

It is important that both teachers AND students understand when to use each of these three options.

Here's a quick overview of all three options:

🎥 Note: click here if you prefer learning via video!

Class Comments

Class comments are visible to the entire class. Google Classroom doesn't support student:student messaging, so the class comment feature is the only way that students can communicate directly to one another.

Everyone in the class can see class comments. Teachers have the ability to disable this feature entirely, delete an individual comment, and mute an individual student.

The class comment area is an ideal place for students to coordinate a study group, ask classmates for help on a challenging problem, or ask for a copy of a handout / resource.

Class comments tend to be the most problematic element of Google Classroom. "Hey," "Hi" and "Wasssup" tend to be the most common comment that is left! This is distracting and causes lots of annoying notifications!

I recommend that teachers allow students to set the policy for comments. Ask them what type of comments that want to see and how they would like this feature to be used. Once they have established their own ground rules, allow them to self-police their policy. If they are unable to use this feature in a professional, useful manner, it can be turned off entirely.

Private Comments

Private comments allow a student to ask a question directly to their teacher. The 2018 update to Google Classroom places a lot more emphasis on private comments.

Private comments are a wonderful way for students to ask for help, get clarification on an assignment, and receive personal feedback from their teacher.

Teachers will heavily use the private comment feature to provide feedback to students. Check out this video on using private comments to improve essays and other writing assignments.

Question Responses

If you use the question tool in Google Classroom to ask a free response question, students have a third way to respond through Google Classroom.

The response in this area should be directly related to the discussion question. Submitting an answer will mark this assignment as "done."

You have the ability to decide if you want students to be able to view the responses from classmates when you set up the question. You can also prevent students from editing their response.

Students won't be able to view responses from classmates until AFTER they have responded. This prevents them from making up an answer based on the class responses.

How are you handling comments in your classroom? What policies have been successful? Leave me a comment and share any resources that you have created!

Create group assignments in Google Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 18:56:00 +0000

Google Classroom makes it easy to assign individual work and whole-class assignments. But what about group work?

It takes a little bit more effort, but you CAN facilitate group work through Google Classroom.

Here's what I recommend.

🎥 Note: If you would prefer a video overview of this process click here!

1. Create a new topic in Classroom to organize your group project

2. Prepare your resources

For my project, two students will work together to research an injury to the human body and identify the proper treatment.

I created a Google Doc with the requirements and guidelines for the project.

This is my template file. It is organized in my class resources and templates. I use this file every year, so I don't want students editing my original.

That's why step #3 is important

3. Copy the resources for each group

I make a copy of my template for each group. I have a smaller class so I only need three groups. I make a copy and rename the file for group 1, 2, 3, etc.

You will want to put these files somewhere you can easily find them. I usually stick them into the Drive folder that is linked to my class.

4. Create your assignment in Google Classroom

There are a few unique things that we are going to do with this assignment:

Add "group 1" to the assignment title
In the instructions, list the member of the group
Attach the document for group 1 that we copied in step 3
Make sure you chose the "students can edit" option for your resource

DON'T POST THE ASSIGNMENT...

5. Select your Group Members

We only want the members of Group 1 to get this assignment.

Click the drop down for "students" at the top of your assignment and select the members of the group.

Now you can click the assign button!

6. Copy the assignment for groups 2, 3, 4, etc

Now we need to send the assignment to the rest of the groups.

This is the easy part!

Use the "reuse" option in classroom to copy the assignment you just posted!

Don't forget:

Change the title of the assignment to include "group 2..."
List the members of group #2
Remove the Group 1 document and replace it with the group 2 document

Repeat for the remainder of your group!

The end result is a nice list of the assignment for each of your groups!

7. Monitor your groups

Each student will only be able to see the documents assigned to their group.

You (the teacher) will have access to all of the group documents.

Click on a group assignment to:

Open their document and observe their progress
Send private comments to everyone in the group or individuals in the group
Enter grades for each member of the group

This is one of many different ways to organize group projects in Google Classroom. If you have suggestions or modifications for my process please leave a comment!

Get ready for the NEW Google Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 03:35:00 +0000

This past week during the 2018 ISTE conference in Chicago, Google made quite a few announcements that will impact you this fall when you return to school.

The most notable announcements involve Google Classroom. Here's a round up of what we know and when you can expect access to these features:

Introducing Classwork...

Google is re-thinking how content is organized in Classroom.

Up to this point, everything has been posted in to the classroom "Stream" which gets quite cluttered and crowded after a full year of assignments, announcements, and questions.

The updated classroom adds a new "classwork" tab and provides allows teachers to logically group and organize assignments into modules and units.

This change results in better classroom management for teachers, and makes it easier for students to locate assignments.

Highlights of the new Classwork Page:

Better visual grouping of units
Currently, the topic feature does not provide any visual grouping of assignments. In the new classwork page, a bold banner identifies the topic and groups assignments together.

You can now re-order your assignments
Currently, we can only move assignments to the TOP of the stream. We can't manually order them. Assignments and topics can now be moved up and down inside of the classwork page.

What about the "stream?"

The stream will still be available, but now provides a overview of upcoming assignments and current class discussions.

"People" get their own page!

Teachers, students, and parents interact with classroom on different levels. The new "people" page make managing this groups easier.

On the people page teachers can add and manage their co-teachers, make changes to their class roster, and configure the guardian access.

All of your Classroom settings in one place!

I'm super excited about this update. All of the settings for your class are now in one central location (look for the "gear" icon). In the past, your class code was on one page, the comment settings on another, co-teachers on another, etc. It took a lot of clicks to set up your class.

Classroom + Forms (even better!)

Google Forms has always worked well with Classroom, but now it's even better! You can now create a new form quiz directly in classroom. No need to jump into Google Drive first. This new feature is called a "quiz assignment."

But wait, there's more!

If you are using Chromebooks in your classroom, you can also turn on "locked mode" to prevent students from looking up answers during a quiz!

This feature will only work on district-managed Chromebooks.

When can I test these awesome features???

The official word from Google is that these features will be available to everyone in "August". No specific date has been provided.

You can request early access by filling out this form. No word on how quickly these features will become available to the early adopter group.

Let me help you kickstart your school year!

I am offering an online course called Classroom Kickstart to kick off the 2018-19 school year! This is a 5 week course which will help you launch the 2018-19 school year using Google Classroom. You’ll implement incredibly simple strategies which will improve daily instruction and classroom organization.

The course costs $99 and begins on July 29, 2018.

For more info on the course, head over to chrm.tech/kickstart.

Six ways to use Google Photos in the Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 12:00:00 +0000

Here are six ideas to help you use Google Photos to document learning in your classroom and help students create wonderful multimedia projects.

New to Google Photos? Check out 📽️ this video to get started!

1️⃣ Share to your school account

I recommend that you upload all of your photos to your personal Google account. Once there, you can create an album for classroom photos which you can share to your school G Suite account. Any time you add new photos to the album they will be accessible from your school account. Now you have a place to find classroom photos for your next newsletter or parent email.

2️⃣ Save time by collecting photos and videos for students

If your students are working on a multimedia project, finding and collecting images and videos can be a very time consuming task. You can eliminate this issue by creating an album filled with images. Just share the link to the album in Google Classroom!

Pro Tip: This strategy works great if you are using Adobe Spark or WeVideo to create a project. Both of these services will allow you to load media from Google Photos.

3️⃣ Collect photos as a class

If you have the time, ask students to find images to add to a project photo album for everyone to use. Be sure to remind them about copyright rules and the need to cite the original source.

Pro Tip: you can add a comment to a photo which includes a citation and link to the original source.

To create a share classroom album you will create an album and change the settings so that others can add photos and video (see image to the right). You can copy / paste the link into Google Classroom for easy access.

4️⃣ Document a physical creation

If your students are creating artwork, posters, ceramics, robots, cardboard creations, or any other physical project, take a photo and save it to Google Photos. Capturing a digital version of the project makes it easier to share, use as an example. These photos are also helpful if you ask students to do a reflection activity or if you would like to create a digital slide show to showcase their work.

5️⃣ Capture a process using animations

Document learning and the development of a project by taking photos at the beginning, middle, and end of the assignment. Use the animation feature of Google Photos to create a time lapse of the project, showing how it evolved and changed over time.

Here's an example of some books that I have read this year.

6️⃣ Share with parents

Once you have a collection of classroom photos you can use facial recognition to find all of the photos of an individual student, place them in an album, and send them to their parent to show what they have been doing in class. Sharing pictures is a great positive connection you can make with parents.

Note: make sure that you follow your school's policies on taking photos of students. Most schools have a media release that parents sign at the beginning of the school year, giving permission for their student to appear in classroom photos.

G Suite Admins: How to enable the NEW Gmail experience

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 17:01:00 +0000

Gmail has been resistant to Google's typical product tinkering and fiddling tendencies. Gmail has remained pretty much the same for the past 6+ years.

That doesn't mean Google hasn't been thinking about the future of Gmail. Inbox by Google was a smart way of trying out some new, experimental features without putting long-time Gmail users into a panic. Inbox is a fun experiment, but not for everyone.

Based on user feedback on Inbox, Google has begun moving some of the most useful and popular features from Inbox into regular Gmail.

Features of the NEW Gmail experience:

A new clean, modern user interface
The ability to "snooze" an email
Smart replies based on email content
Better integration with Google Calendar and Google Keep
An updated Task manager
New security options for sensitive messages.
Better offline support

You can view the full run down on all of the new features here.

G Suite for Education and Business customers can not access the new Gmail experience until a domain administrator enables it.

Enabling the new experience will NOT make it the default experience, it simply allows individual users to try it out as they wish.

How to enable the new Gmail Early Adopter Program for G Suite users:

Log into the Google Admin Console
Visit Apps > G Suite > Settings for Gmail > Advanced settings
Look for "New Gmail Early Adopter Program" and select "allow."
Save your changes

Click to enlarge

Once this setting has been applied users can sign into their mail accounts, click on the "gear" icon and select "try the new gmail."

Users will be able to move back and forth between the new and classic versions of Gmail until Google retires the classic version (most likely 6-8 months from now).

Google Certification LIVE (Claim your spot soon!)

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 03:58:00 +0000

In 2009 I attend the Google Teacher Academy (Now called the Google Innovator Academy) in Boulder, Colorado.

That one day changed my life.

Becoming a Google Certified educator has had a greater impact on my life, career, and teaching philosophy than any other professional development experience.

One of the ways that I try to give back to my profession is by helping other teachers (like you!) earn your Google Certification.

Once a year I offer a free webinar to review the certification process and give away my best tips and resources to help you get Google Certified.

The next free webinar is coming up!

Becoming a Google Certified Educator will make you a classroom technology expert. You CAN become Google certified this summer, but you need to get started NOW! Join me on April 26 and I will explain everything you need to know.

Google Certification LIVE with John Sowash

Date: April 26, 2018 (Thursday)
Time: 8-9:30 pm EST
Location: YouTube Live
Reserve your spot: gEducator.com/live

I strategically schedule this webinar in the spring because the best time to work on your certification is over the summer. This is the only Google certification webinar I am offering this year.

Let me be honest, getting Google Certified isn't easy.

Google has done a tremendous job in designing their certifications to actually force you to understand how to use their products in a classroom setting.

You won't be able to fake your way through the process.

This is an open invitation for you or any teacher you know. My goal is that by the end of the webinar you will understand the certification process and have a slew of resources to help you get started!

Busy on April 26? Anyone who reserves a spot will get access to the recorded webinar which you can watch on-demand.

Head over to http://gEducator.com/live to claim your spot!

Here's the agenda for the evening:

1. The Three benefits of becoming a certified Google educator. Earning your Google certification is challenging. Make sure you do it for the right reasons and have realistic expectations about the benefits.

2. Which certification is right for you? Google offers 5 different certification for educators. Which one is right for you?

3. The specific steps required to achieve each certification. We'll review the requirements and steps for each certification. BONUS: attendees of the LIVE event will receive a checklist guide to help you get started.

4. How becoming a certified educator has changed the lives of REAL teachers! You'll hear from two teachers who recently completed their certifications. They'll share their best tips and recommendations to help you get started.

I hope you can make it.

Oh, and if you are already Google Certified, please share the webinar details with a teacher who SHOULD get certified!

Sharing Classroom Data with Sheets

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 18:18:00 +0000

There are some really interesting ways that classroom teachers can use Google Forms, Sheets, Slides, and Sites to share information.

The best way to explain what I mean is to show you an example.

I created a classroom reading log to track the number of books that my class read.

Students fill out a Google Form each time they finish a book and that information is automatically published on our class website.

Because forms, sheets, and sites are all connected, the class chart is immediately updated each time the form is submitted. Like magic!

There are a few things going on behind the scenes that makes this system possible.

Step 1: Collect data with a form

Using a form ensures the consistency of the data and makes it very easy for students to fill out.

You can easily share your form in Google Classroom for easy access.

Here's an example of my reading log form

🎓 Need some help? Take my free introduction to Google Forms.

Step 2: Collect & Calculate in Google Sheets

Each time the form is submitted, the data is logged automatically into a Google Sheet.

That's great, but we need to perform a few simple calculations in order to track our class goal of reading 100 books and 10,000 pages.

If you view the spreadsheet you will notice that for every form entry I add "1" to the "Book #" column. This allows me to add up all of the submissions to determine the total number of books that we have read.

In order to make sure that my calculation is added for each new form submission I am using the Google sheet add-on "copy down" to copy my formula to all new submissions.

If you look at the "class data" sheet you will see where I have entered target goal of 100 books and 10,000 pages as well as the current progress (added from the form responses) and our % of completion.

All of these calculations were created using simple spreadsheet functions.

Here is what the sheet looks like.

🎥 Need some help? Watch this video on adding simple calculations into Forms

Step 3: Create your Charts

Now that I have collected the data and calculated my total, I can create graph.

The graph was created from the "class data" sheet that summarizes all of the submissions. I only have two data points (books read and pages read), so this is a pretty easy chart to create.

The chart editor in Google Sheets will walk you through the process. Just highlight your data, click on insert > Chart and edit as needed.

For my book log I chose the "gauge" chart type. You could also chose a line graph, pie chart, etc.

🎥 Need some help? Watch this video on creating custom charts with Sheets!

Step 4: Embed / Share your Chart

Once you have created your chart you can share it in a variety of ways:

Because each of these charts is connected back to the spreadsheet, as new form submissions come in, the chart will automatically update!

🎥 Need some help? Watch this video on publishing charts.

Other Ideas:

Class reading logs aren't the only way that you could use this idea in your classroom or at your school. Here are a few other ways that displaying live data might be helpful:

Track student absences
Track plant growth (or any lab data)
Track overall student performance
Track physical fitness (health class)
Track fundraising goals
Track team stats (turnovers, rebounds, assists, etc)

Make a copy!

Interested in setting this up for your school? I did all of the hard work for you! Click here to make a copy of everything you need!

Note: due to limitations with the new Google Sites, you won't be able to make a copy of my site. Setting up your own will only take a few minutes.

Want to become a Forms Master?

I offer a 5-week online course called "Google Forms for Educators." This is one of the activities that I help you create during the course. If you are interested in more tips on using Forms and Sheets in the classroom head over to the course page and add your name to the wait list!

How to Create a Matching Question in Google Forms

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:40:00 +0000

You have probably used Google Forms to ask free response or multiple choice questions, but did you know that you can also create a matching question?

Forms doesn't offer an obvious "matching" question type, but with a little creativity, you can make it work!

The secret is to use the "grid" question type to set up a matching style question.

Unfortunately the quiz feature available in Google Forms will not work with "grid" questions however you can use the Flubaroo add-on for Google Sheets to auto-grade quizzes with this type of question.

Tips:

Place your definitions in the row and use the columns for your terms.
Enable "require a response for each row."
Make sure that you select the "limit to one response per column option"
Enable "shuffle row order"

Watch this short video for some additional tips on creating a matching question with Google Forms.

This video is part of my online course "Google Forms for Educators." In this 5 week course I help educators use Google Forms to organize their classroom and create automated systems so that they can spend less time shuffling paper and more time connecting with students. Interested? Visit chrm.tech/forms for details!

Here's a live example of a matching question using Google Forms.

The width of the embedded form is a bit too narrow to properly show all of the text. I recommend that you view the form here to get the full experience.

------------------------------------------------------

Are you ready to become a Form Fanatic?

Each spring I offer a 5 week Google Forms masterclass. Join me for a deep dive into Google Forms!

The feedback has been outstanding:

"I was a casual user of Forms, but I was not using the data that I had collected to it's full potential. Now I am writing better Forms so my data is of higher quality and I am better able to analyze the results so I'm making decisions based on data...not just giving surveys." - Laura Foreback, middle school teacher

This course is perfect for classroom teachers, tech coaches, and school administrators!

Interested? Visit Chrm.tech/forms for all the details!

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Google Forms: Set your Default Preferences

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 03:16:00 +0000

I uncovered a helpful feature in Google Forms that I thought was worth sharing. You can change your default preferences! This is very handy for teachers who create a lot of quizzes using Forms.

The preference options include:

Make questions required by default
Set default point value for quiz questions
Turn on email collection by default

Are you ready to become a Form Fanatic?

Each spring I offer a 5 week Google Forms masterclass. Join me for a deep dive into Google Forms!

The feedback has been outstanding:

"I was a casual user of Forms, but I was not using the data that I had collected to it's full potential. Now I am writing better Forms so my data is of higher quality and I am better able to analyze the results so I'm making decisions based on data...not just giving surveys." - Laura Foreback, middle school teacher

This course is perfect for classroom teachers, tech coaches, and school administrators!

Interested? Visit Chrm.tech/forms for all the details!

Get Google Certified this Summer!

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 18:10:00 +0000

Becoming Google Certified changed my life.

And I am not exaggerating!

Being Google Certified gave me a unique purpose in the classroom (I was a HS science teacher), introduced me to new people and ideas, gave me the insight to publish my first book, and allows me to financially support my family while helping improve education.

None of these things are guaranteed, but I can trace them all back to the 2009 Google Teacher Academy in Boulder, Colorado.

I want to give you the same life changing moment that I had back in 2009.

In 2013 I created the Google Certification Academy to give other educators the same experience that I had in 2009. Since then I have worked with more than 1,500 teachers.

Now it's YOUR turn!

This summer I would like to help you become a Google Certified Educator!

The GCA is a small event so that I can provide personal support

In May, June, July, and August of 2018 I am offer 15 Google Certification events scattered across the Midwest and east coast.

Each academy is a small (20-30 participants), focused event to help YOU become a Google Certified Educator. You will work with me personally.

Pursuing a Google certification will help you grow professionally. You will learn new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. These certifications feature rigorous verification of your ability to use Google tools effectively.

I only offer the certification academy in the summer because I know how busy the school year can be. At the end of these 2-days you will be ready to take the level 1 or level 2 certification exam.

You will also have my support if you decide to go on and become a Google Certified Trainer or Certified Innovator.

Attend a Google Certification Academy this Summer!

The Google Certification Academy will give you everything you need to be successful on the level 1 and level 2 Google Educator exams. You can view a full outline here.

Google Certification Academy Details:

8:30 am - 3:30 pm
$299/person (CC and PO registration available)
Lunch included both days
Continuing education credit available (11 hours)
Special Google swag provided to all participants

To register or learn more visit gEducator.com.

2018 Certification Academies (as of April 2018)

2018 Google Certification Academies - Click for live map

May 2018

Harvester Christian Academy

Atlanta, Georgia, May 21-22, 2018

Putnam County School District

Palatka, Florida, May 30-31, 2018

June 2018

Lake Highland Preparatory School

Orlando, Florida, June 6-7, 2018

Bedford City School District

Cleveland, Ohio, June 14-15, 2018

St Paul's Lutheran School

Janesville, Wisconsin, June 27-28, 2018

Shepherd Public Schools

Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, June 12-13, 2018

Airport Community Schools

Carleton, Michigan, June 25-26, 2018

Christ the Teacher Catholic School

Newark, Delaware, June 18-19, 2018

Heathwood Hall Episcopal School

Columbia, South Carolina, June 21-22, 2018

July 2018

West Platte School District

Weston, Missouri, July 23-24, 2018

Lebanon Christian School

Lebanon, Ohio, July 19-20, 2018

Oakwood CUSD #76

Oakwood, Illinois, July 25-26, 2018

August, 2018

Eaton RESA

Charlotte, Michigan, August 6-7, 2018

West Side Christian School

Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 8-9, 2018

30 Ways to use Google Forms in the Classroom (updated examples!)

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 02:38:00 +0000

Google Forms is one of my favorite classroom tools.

But here's the deal - most teachers aren't taking full advantage of what Google Forms has to offer!

You have probably used Forms to create a survey or give a quiz, but that's not all Forms can do!

Here are 30 different ways you can use Google Forms in your Classroom - with an example for each!

I also created a PDF version of this post with links, images, and an option to make a copy of each form. Click here and I'll send it to you via email!

1. Reading Quiz - Hold students responsible for reading assignments by giving a simple quiz. This example is based on Fahrenheit 451 in a high school English classroom and is configured to release the quiz score immediately after submitting the quiz.

2. Chromebook Quiz (with images) - This quiz uses images to test basic Chromebook literacy. It is set up so that the student immediately receives their score and can see which questions they got wrong.

3. Bell ringer / Do now activity - This morning math check in activity is completed by students first thing in the morning before the start of class. The form uses data validation to provide hints if the student is struggling to get the correct answer.

4. Mood Check-in - Students will have a difficult time learning if the arrive at school filled with worry and concern. This mood check in provides a safe space for students to share their current mood and concerns with you. By using a tool like Form Postman you can configure the form to send you an email if a student indicates a negative emotion.

5. Permission slips - Field trips are fun. Permissions slips are not. This form allows parents to digitally sign permission slips. In an effort to prevent students from completing their own permission slip a parent email address is required and a notification is sent to this email address using Form Postman.

Choice eliminator is used to remove student names from the drop-down list once a parent has given their permission. This makes it easy for a teacher to identify which students do not have a permission slip on file.

6. Book report generator - Writing reflectively is a key component of the common core standards. A book report is a tremendous way to help students practice reflective, informational writing, and to also encourage them to identify elements of literature such as genre, plot, and setting. As a bonus, they can share their writing with others!

This form provides a simple way for students to share their thoughts on a book that they have read. I am using a tool called AutoCrat to take the form submissions and turn it into a nicely formatted Google Doc which can be easily printed or shared electronically.

7. Lab Data Collection - Simplify data collection and analysis for your next lab activity! In this example, student submit their lab data through a Google Form which automatically updates the totals on the lab document.

Tim Welch set up a similar activity with a detailed video and written explanation.

8. Yearbook Photo Page - Google Forms has a file upload feature that you can use to collect digital files. In this example, teachers submit their favorite Bitmoji image for use in the school yearbook.

You can go even further by using AutoCrat to take the images and add them to Google Slide presentation ready for printing!

Jennifer Scott is using Google Slides to design her school yearbook. Check out how she uses this system in this video.

9. Certificate Creator - Creating certificates is a pretty common tasks in education. Whether honoring students for their academic or athletic achievement or documenting professional development activity. Forms is a convenient way to generate certificates.

This simple example collects your name and email address to generate a simple certificate in Google Docs which is emailed to you as a PDF.

10. Form to Lesson Plan - Use a Google Form to fill in your plans each week. This form is filled with checkbox and drop down fields to simplify submitting information.

Thanks to Amanda Dykes for sharing this example! Check out this guide to setting up and using this form!

11. Course Evaluation (with branching) - Good teachers seek feedback and constantly work to improve their course. This is the course evaluation form that I use to solicit feedback on my online courses. This form takes advantage of question branching; based on your answer to a question the form splits to ask additional follow up questions (i.e. indicating that you would like a sticker takes you to the address section).

12. Call for Speakers Form - If you help organize a conference or professional development day you can use Google Forms to collect session descriptions. This example is carefully designed to collect all of the information that is used to create the conference program with minimal editing.

13. Elementary reading Inventory - Use this form when evaluating the reading fluency of a student. Reading inventories are typically completed 2-3 times each year. This form makes it easy to collect store, and analyze collected data to observe student growth.

14. Idea / Opportunity Tracker - Record ideas when inspiration strikes! Add in your own categories and fields to make sorting and organizing your ideas easier. Use the reminder add-on for sheets to receive an email reminder of upcoming opportunities. I have this form saved as a bookmark for easy access.

15. Google Forms as a Rubric - Rubrics are the ideal method of evaluating project based learning. This Google Form makes it easy to complete an evaluation while you are reading a student paper or viewing their physical project. Use a tool like AutoCrat or FormMule to automatically send students a summary of your evaluation and comments.

16. Track Standards Based Grading - This simple Google Form simplifies the process of tracking standards-based grades using Google Sheets. This form is filled out by the teacher each time you introduce a new assignment to your students. Once submitted, you can view and modify student grades through Sheets.

Watch this video for more insights on how to setup and use this system in your classroom!

Thanks to Stephanie Howell for sharing this example!

17. Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up - Coordinating conferences with parents is a difficult administrative task. This Google Form collects the necessary information and displays the available time slots. By using the Choice Eliminator add-on time slots are automatically removed from the form once selected, minimizing the chance of double booking. The FormMule add-on automatically sends an email with conference information.

18. Discipline referrals - Quick action is important when dealing with student discipline issues. Google Forms provides an easy way for teachers to submit incident reports which can immediately be routed to the appropriate administrator for follow up. Because Form data is pushed to Google Sheets, administrators can add additional comments and use a tool like AutoCrat to generate a discipline referral documents.

19. Volunteer Registration - Coordinating volunteers is a lot of work! Google Forms can help organize and coordinate volunteer positions. By using a tool called “choice eliminator” you can automatically remove volunteer opportunities after they have been filled.

20. Parent Contact form - The parent contact information that schools have on file is frequently incomplete or out of date. During back to school night I provide parents and opportunity to share their contact information with me so that I can keep them up to date on the progress of their student. This is also a great time to ask if the parent is interested in receiving Google Classroom updates.

21. Engagement tracker - Are your students engaged in classroom learning on a daily basis? Anecdotal observations frequently fall short when you are tracking engagement of 25 or more students. This simple form makes it easy to quickly scan your classroom and identify students who are engaged in the learning process. Over time, the summary of responses will reveal which students are regularly engaged, allowing you to identify opportunities to improve instruction and intervene with students who are frequently disengaged.

22. Behavior logs - This form was created for a school that adopted the Antecedent - Behavior - Consequence (ABC) discipline model. The form allows a teacher to make quick observations using their mobile phone which they can review, modify, and update during their planning period.

23. Parent contact log - This is a simple form to record conversations with parents and guardians. Veteran teachers understand the importance of documenting classroom communication to resolve conflicts and comply with IEP requirements.

24. Student progress tracker - When working on a long-term assignment such as a research paper, tracking student progress and understanding what each student is working can be challenging. Ask your students to complete this form each time they finish a component of their project. This will give you a snapshot of what students are working on.

This form has been configured to automatically collect user email address and limit to one response. After submitting the form the first time, the student will be prompted to “edit your response” rather than submitting the form a second time. This allow them to update their progress so that the form response data is accurate.

25. LIVE Reading log - Keep track of how many books and pages your class (or school) has read by taking advantage of the LIVE chart and graph feature of Google Sheets.

Have students log their reading using a Google form (like this)
The data that is collected feeds into a Google Sheet (like this)
Create a chart that tracks pages and books read. (like this)

Embed the chart into a Document, Presentation, or Google Site and watch it grow!

26. Classroom Observations - School administrators can create a standardized and transparent observation system with Google Forms. This Form includes all of the agreed upon observation criteria which can be completed on a mobile phone or tablet during the walk through. This system removes the guesswork from observations. By using a tool like FormMule the administrator can provide a copy of the observation to the teacher immediately upon submitting the form.

27. Kindergarten Registration - Google Forms is a helpful tool for collecting information on incoming Kindergartners. This form is filled out by teachers after interviewing new students. After submitting the form, a summary document is generated by AutoCrat which is accessible to the entire grade level team and school administrators.

28. Digital Escape Room - Google Forms can be used to create a digital puzzle, similar to an escape room or BreakoutEDU box. This example example was created for a teacher conference. Forms like this are accompanied documents, links, videos, etc which contain the answers to the riddles. Escape forms like this take advantage of page breaks and data validation to block progress until the correct answer is submitted.

29. Elementary Math Quiz - This simple math quiz helps first grade students practice basic math skills and the use of technology in the classroom. This example places each question in its own section so that students can only see one question at a time. Images are used extensively to reduce the reading complexity.

30. Digital CLUE - Technology Coach Stephanie Howell from Pickerington, Ohio created a version of CLUE using Google Forms! Students answer content questions to reveal clues that can be used to identify a suspect, location, and method to solve a classroom mystery.

Watch this detailed video to make your own version of CLUE using Google Forms!

I hope I have been able to inspire you with what you can accomplish with forms! I would love to help you dig into creating Forms for your classroom.

Want to design better forms?

Each spring I teach a 5 week course via Google Classroom for teachers like you! You can get the details and find out the next time I'm offering the course by visiting chrm.tech/forms.

Unlock the Power of Google Forms for your Classroom!

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 04:03:00 +0000

Google Forms is one of my favorite, and most frequently used tools. I've blogged about it quite a few times over the past few years:

You have probably created a survey or quiz using Forms. That's great! I would love to help you unlock the full potential of Google Forms in your classroom.

Google Forms can help you organize, streamline, and automate classroom tasks so that you can spend your time and energy connecting with your students. If you are sick of pushing paper around and spending time on procedural work like checking in homework assignments, scheduling parent teacher conferences, or collecting data for IEPs, Forms can help!

Starting April 15, 2018 I will be leading a 5 week master course on Google Forms through Google Classroom.

If you've tinkered with forms in the past, this course is for you! I will take you from tinker to expert in 5 weeks!

Here's what I have planned:

Week 1: Form Building Blocks

During our first week we are going to explore the "building blocks" of forms - question types, data validation, add-ons, summary page, multimedia options, sharing and notification settings.

During week 1 you will also identify areas of your classroom that could be improved through Forms so that we can build them later in the course.

Week 2: Forms for Assessment

Google Forms is a great tool for assessment. In week 2 you will learn about using Forms for assessment and build a quiz for your classroom. We will go beyond multiple choice questions and look at multimedia questions, free response, reading prompts, matching, and more.

Week 3: Forms for Record Keeping

Week 2 is devoted to helping your organize classroom record keeping. You will build a form to track lunch counts, attendance, on/off task behavior, hall passes, or whatever you want! We will also spend some time looking at the Forms summary of responses to organize and analyze data.

Week 4: Forms for Automation

Google Forms + Sheets is a powerful combination that can be used to create automated sequences. During week 4 you will learn how to use Forms + Autocrat to create certificates, book reports, research projects, meeting agendas, or other similar documents.

Week 5: Data Week

Collecting information is easy; understanding what that information means and using it to take action is hard! During week we will analyze the data collected in our forms using charts, graphs, and filters.

I will work with you throughout the course and will answer questions and provide personal feedback on a weekly basis. My goal for this course is to help you SAVE TIME by eliminating time-consuming processes. By streamlining and automating common, repetitive tasks you will have MORE time to connect with your students.

The cost for this 5 week course is $99.

Interested? You can register here!

Spot Check Assignments with Google Classroom (Video Overview)

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 03:17:00 +0000

Research projects strike fear into the heart of most students. These big projects also strike fear into the hearts of teachers because they require a lot of planning and take FOREVER to grade!

Grading complex, long term assignments is overwhelming because there is so much to do all at once. Google Classroom can help.

Use the question tool in Google Classroom to provide a place for students to submit a portion of their research assignment. You might grade their introduction, thesis statement, bibliography or body paragraph, for example.

Instruct your students to copy and paste that portion of their assignment from Google Docs (or whatever they are using) into the question you created in Google Classroom.

The result is a nice, neat list of student work right in Google Classroom. You don't need to open up 25 different Google Documents (big time saver)! You can now provide feedback directly from Google Classroom which students can apply to their paper during the next class period.

If you do this for each component of your assignment, by the time your students turn in their final project, you have provided feedback on each individual component. The final grading process should be relatively quick.

Disable your Google Classroom Notifications! 🤳

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 04:01:00 +0000

Google Classroom has become an essential tool in millions of classrooms. Teachers and students rely on Classroom to help keep track of assignments, due dates, grades, announcements, etc.

One of the ways that Classroom helps us keep on top of classwork is by sending notifications via email or to your phone. These notifications can be helpful, but they can also be very overwhelming!

You can customize the notifications that you receive.

Here's the deal - you don't want to leave them all on!

This chart will help you decide which notifications to turn off. Feel free to share it with your students or fellow teachers. You can find the original here.

4 Online Courses to help you become a better teacher

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Sometimes it takes a coach to encourage you and push you to the next level. I would love to be your coach for 5 weeks this winter!

Starting at the end of January I am offering 4 unique online courses that will help you use technology more effectively and confidently in your classroom.

Each course is 5 weeks long and will be facilitated through Google Classroom.

These aren't automated courses. I will work directly with you providing suggestions, encouragement, ideas, and instruction. You will also interact with other educators in the course who will be sharing their classroom ideas.

Continuing education credit is available in most states.

Each course is $99, however I am offering a 25% discount if you register in the next few weeks!

Click the links below to view the course description, outline, FAQ, and more!

Winter Courses

Starting January 22, 2018

Starting February 19, 2018

Not Sure? This is what other educators have said about my online courses:

"This course has shown me so many new ways that I can use our Chromebooks! It also showed me a lot about apps that I have used, but in new and different ways! I would definitely recommend this course to others who are new or not that familiar with Chromebooks. It has definitely changed my mind on what they are capable of providing for myself and my students." Rose Marie Warrell, Oakley, ID

"One of the most focused and practical courses I have ever done. Every aspect was expertly taught with amazing tips from someone who is clearly a very experienced educator." Michael Drucker, London England

"I have taken other courses that were just too technical and moved way to fast. Your class was perfect. I am not a "newbie" OR a "techy" but somewhere in the middle hoping to learn more every day. Your class was perfect as it was challenging enough but not overwhelming. Thank you." Mary Ann Keiser, East Hanover, NJ

Interested in future courses, but can't join this time? Add your name to the course wait list!

📝 Do you teach with a paper-based mindset? 📝

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Paper was invented around 100 BC in China.

Google Docs was developed in 2005 by Sam Schillace.

While Google Docs is designed to look like paper, It isn't an improved version of paper - it's something different entirely. The opportunity to collaborate in real-time through an interconnected, device flexible platform creates entirely new possibilities. For those of us in the classroom, these new tools offer new potential and un-explored opportunity.

So here is the big question: Are you approaching the tech in your classroom with a paper-based mindset?

Before we begin, I want to clearly say that I am NOT against the use of paper in school (being anti-paper is silly). There is nothing wrong with paper. It has a very important role in the classroom. If paper is the best tool for the job USE IT!

Technology like Google Drive, WeVideo, Pear Deck and Google Classroom are fundamentally different than "analog" tools. We must approach them with a new perspective.

Here are six questions to ask yourself as you consider how you use technology:

🔳 Do you require students to work within "the box"? 🔳

There are many digital tools that “feel” like paper (i.e. Google Docs). There is no reason to limit yourself to an 8.5 x 11 inch rectangle. Would your next assignments work better as a Google Drawing, Presentation, website or video? A digital canvas is infinite and can grow and stretch as your ideas grow and take shape. You may feel more comfortable working with paper, but don't limit your students to the rectangle.

How to break out of "the box" in your classroom:

Use tools that don’t feel like paper (Video, Prezi, Google Drawing)
Transform your paper worksheets using tools like Blendspace, EdPuzzle, or Quizlet
If you use Google Docs, remember that you can change the size and color of your document to fit the project. There’s nothing special about 8.5 x 11.
Are you over-emphasizing length, words, or pages to your students rather than focusing on the quality of the content?
Stop using PDF files

🌐 Do you “flatten” student work? 🌐

When you add ideas to paper, it takes a uniform, flat appearance. Digital creation can have multiple layers of information. Google Docs is a great example. Not only do you have the text on the “page”, you can also have comments, hyperlinks, and a history of revisions. There is depth in digital communication. Digital communication is multidimensional.

How to encourage multi-dimensional work in your classroom:

Ask students to include links, video, and images in their assignments.
Allow students to use tools which support video, audio and images
Encourage students to share their work with classmates, the school, and the world
Encourage students to link to work from their classmates

💬 Are you limiting collaboration? 💬

Have you ever watched two students write on the same piece of paper at the same time? It’s not easy! Working on paper assumes contribution by one person at a time. With digital tools, several individuals can contribute simultaneously. While collaboration is easier with digital tools, you must design for collaboration. Most paper worksheets were not designed for students to work collaboratively.

How to encourage collaboration in your classroom:

Build collaboration into your next assignment
Encouraging peer review
Ask questions for which there is more than one possible answer
Address the difference between cheating and collaboration with your students

✍️ Do you discourage mistakes? ✍️

Have you ever suffered from “blank page syndrome?” It’s the inability to get started because of the fear that it won’t be good enough. Making a mistake on paper is discouraging because it is so difficult to revise your work (remember white-out?). Digital mediums encourage constant adaptation, revision, and improvement. There are no penalties for errors and omissions. Simply revise and continue.

How to encourage revision and adaptation in your classroom:

Providing frequent, meaningful feedback
Give students an opportunity to reflect on the improvements they have made
Give students an opportunity to learn from one another.
Assess for growth, not completion.

🏫 Do you venture outside the 4 walls of your classroom? 🏫

A sheet of paper can only exist in one place at a time. Digital content is not limited by time or space - it can existing in many or “all” the places at the same time. This improves organization, sharing, and collaboration.

How to open up your classroom:

Allow students to collaborate across class period.
Look for cross-curricular opportunities
Seek out opportunities to collaborate with experts outside of your school

⚰️ Is your classroom full of “dead” paper? ⚰️

Once distributed, paper becomes a static source of information. Paper is dead. Digital content can be updated, added to and revised on-demand. It’s alive!

How to build living resources in your classroom:

Select a single place where students submit work and receive feedback.
Create a class website that you can easily update on a daily basis,
Design a system to save new ideas and resources when you find them
Link classroom resources so that they can be easily updated and adapted
Have a plan for updating parents and students about changes to due dates and scheduling

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using paper in your classroom. But don’t restrain your use of technology to the limits of paper and pencil.

If this is something you have embraced in your classroom, I would love to hear about it! Leave me a reply and tell me how you have discarded the "paper based mindset."

Interested in learning how to actually implement these ideas into your classroom? Sign up for one of my online courses! We'll be exploring these ideas in greater depth and I will be sharing some practical ideas to help you get started.

5 Ways to improve your use of Google Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 03:26:00 +0000

Google Classroom is an outstanding tool for managing your classroom. Without it, simple tasks like sharing documents, tracking late assignments, and organizing class discussions would be very difficult.

Here’s the deal, most teachers are only scratching the surface of what they can do with Google Classroom! Posting assignments and receiving student work is just the beginning.

Today I would like to share 5 advanced ideas for getting more out of Google Classroom!

1. Use your “About” page.

The “about” page in Classroom is prime real-estate. Unlike the stream, the about page is “static” which means you can organize resources by importance. Only you, the teacher, can post to the about page so it doesn’t get cluttered by class comments or student posts.

How can you actually use your about page?

I recommend including anything that students are regularly asking you about or resources they need to reference on a regular basis. This may include login instructions to access your online textbook, a link to your school’s online grade book, extra credit opportunities, equations, formulas and other “cheat sheet” type information or enrichment activities.

That’s not all...

Rather than posting each of these resources individually, create a Google Doc on which you list all of these resources. There are two benefits to packaging resources this way:

Your about page won’t become cluttered
If you manage multiple sections of the same class, you can update all of your classes by updating the Google Doc rather than updating each class.

Here are two “about page” templates ready for use:

Make copies, add your own resources and post them to your about page!

2. Organize your stream with topics

The topics feature in Google Classroom will organize posts in your stream.

Why does it matter?

Teachers and students have both complained that the stream in Google Classroom gets crowded and overwhelming. Google hasn’t included a search feature for Google Classroom (awkward!). At this time, your best strategy is to create topics.

Topics are especially important if you have a year-long or very active class as the stream quickly becomes flooded with assignments.

The easiest way to organize your classroom posts is by unit. Topics are listed alphabetically, so you may want to list them as “unit 01” if you have more than 9 units.

Keep your topics to a minimum. If you have too many, they become difficult to manage and navigate.

3. Embrace Emoji 🤔

Using emoji characters in email and other text communication is not just some frivolous “millennial” activity; emoji can actually be quite useful for classroom teachers.

A recent experience pointed this out to me.

I took an online course from Tony Vincent. Tony consistently used emoji in his assignments to call out important details and tips. I had never seen someone use emoji to effectively. It was great!

Consider using emoji in your directions, assignments or instructions to help break up long sections of text and emphasize important actions such as “👁️ watch this video...”, “⚠️ watch out for...” “🤞don’t forget to...”

Here’s what you need in order to get started:

Install this emoji extension for Google Chrome.

The next time you want to insert an emoji, just click the extension, select your emoji and copy / paste it into the text field

Bonus: Tony just announce a new course “Classy Videos” that will start in January. I enjoyed his Google Drawing Class and would recommend anything he offers! More info here.

4. Schedule Announcements

Google Classroom has three types of posts - assignments, questions, and announcements. One of these is not like the others!

Announcements have some unique characteristics:

Announcements don’t have due-dates so they don’t show up on the class calendar.
Announcements aren’t sent to guardians
There is no way to track if students have read announcements.

Here’s the thing - because I can’t track which students have read my announcements and they aren’t sent to guardians, I only use the announcement feature for non-critical information. Here are two ways that I use it:

First, I try to connect with my students on a personal level with fun messages.

Google Classroom takes the hassle out of daily classroom routines and procedures which leaves us more opportunities to connect with our students on a personal level. Scheduling encouraging announcements is one way you can do this.

Marc Seigel (@daretochem) shares #wordsofawesome to his class every morning.

Ashlie O’Connor (@oconnorashlie) schedules fun holiday messages with BitMoji.

The second way I use announcements is for assignment reminders.

Are your students working on a big project like a research paper or class presentation? Students can get overwhelmed by big projects with far-off due dates. Use the announcement feature to schedule checkpoints along the way.

Here’s how to get started:

First, I create an assignment with the final due-date of the project. This is an important step so that the assignment shows up on the class calendar.
Next, create several (weekly?) announcements with statements like “There are now 3 weeks until your final project is due. By this time you should have identified your primary sources and begun working on our outline. If you need help, please come and see me during lunch or after school...”

Scheduling announcements is the secret!

The key two both of these uses of the announcement feature is to create the posts when you have time, and schedule them for a future date. Schedule as many encouraging announcements as you can in 15 minutes.

When you are planning your next big projects, schedule your reminders at the same time using the announcement feature. Do it now so you don’t have to think about it later!

If you have never scheduled a post in Google classroom, watch this video!

5. Record directions with Screencastify

My final tip may be the most helpful because it solves a complaint that I have had for many years.

Have you ever written out step-by-step instructions for a technology-related tasks? It’s super difficult and highly annoying! That thing that takes you seconds to do is an 8-step process that fills up 1/2 of a Google Doc!

Instead of writing out these instructions, record them using Screencastify!

Screencastify is a free screen recording extension for Google Chrome. You can use it to record what you are doing on your screen while you talk students through your instructions.

Not convinced?

The next time you are schedule to be out of the classroom, use Screencastify to create your sub plans! Talk about a time saver!

When you record and post directions using Screencastify students can watch it on-demand. They can pause, rewind, and follow along as many times as needed!

I use Screencastify so much that I upgraded to their premium version. At only $24/year it’s a great deal! You don’t NEED the premium version of Screencastify, but if you use it regularly, it’s worth the $24 to upgrade. If you are interested in upgrading, use this link and Screencastify will buy me a cup of coffee!

Why do these ideas matter?

By using these 5 ideas you can spend more time connecting with your students. Technology will never replace teachers, but it can free us up to do what we do best - helping students see their potential.

Have some tips of your own? Please leave me a comment and share your ideas!

Should you teach technology in your classroom?

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 11:44:00 +0000

Do you have time to teach technology skills to your students? Unless you teach technology, probably not!

In a perfect world, students would learn how to use technology in tech class and would APPLY that knowledge in your class as you explore math, science, history, etc.

Sadly, fewer and fewer schools offer technology class on a regular basis. If your school does, you are one of the lucky ones.

That means that a lot of tech instruction falls to you, the content area teacher. The goal is to teach these basic skills so that you can use technology as a learning tool.

So, what are the ESSENTIAL skills that your students should know so that they can use Google Classroom, Drive, Chromebooks, etc in your classroom?

I put together a list of essential skills for elementary, middle school, and high school students, including some resources to help teach these skills. I would love to send it to you!

If you INVEST time early in the school year to teach these basic skills, you can build upon them throughout the school year, using them to do awesome things with technology.

Did I miss something? Was this a helpful resource? Leave a comment and let me know!

Don't let your students do this with their Chromebook!

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 01:25:00 +0000

This week I was providing training for a school. We had a cart of Chromebooks to use for the day. I pulled out one of the devices to take a look before we got started. Watch this video to see what happened when I turned it on.

Signing into Chromebooks is easy; signing out seems to be very difficult.

Students and teachers will forget to sign out. Don't gamble; just assume it will happen at some point.

School administrators can configure Chromebooks to auto lock when the lid is closed. This will prevent uses from remaining signed in even after they have returned their device to the cart.

Here's how to auto-lock your Chromebooks:

Log in to the Google Admin console
Visit Device Management > Chrome management > user settings > security
Adjust your settings to look like this:

These settings force "lock screen" when the device enters sleep mode. Sleep mode will occur after 12 minutes of inactivity OR lid close.

Lock screen requires the user to enter their password to unlock the device. If you are not that user, you will need to restart the computer to get to the normal login screen.

This simple configuration can save a lot of trouble!

Make Email Great Again! ✉

noreply@blogger.com (John R. Sowash) — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 10:00:00 +0000

Google is trying to make email great again...

When I started using Gmail it was a revelation. It was fast, easy to organize, and had sooooo much storage! Well, now it's 2017 and things have changed again. We get MORE email than ever before and are primarily checking mail on mobile devices. It's time for an email refresh:

Meet Inbox, by Google!

Inbox is a new, modern take on your email. Optimized for your mobile phone (Android or iOS)
Swipe to "snooze" emails until a later time. Create reminders (no need to email yourself!)
Smart reply (artificial intelligence at work!)

"Bundle" related emails together (like trip reservations) Get information without the hassle

Gmail isn't going anywhere, and you can use Gmail and Inbox at the same time (I do). Each has different strengths and they seamlessly sync together.

I would like to highlight my two favorite features of Inbox.

Information without the Hassle

I travel a lot. Finding reservation information in my email is a hassle. Not with Inbox! It automatically finds all of my confirmation emails, figures out that they are related (destination) and bundles them together. It also generates a simplified view of the email with all of the important numbers and details about my reservation. Awesome! Inbox does this with Invoices, Shipment notifications, and more!

Travel information is neatly collected and present in an itinerary.
I didn't do anything to organize this information!

Inbox even finds my online purchases and lets me track a shipment with a single click! No more hunting for the tacking ID!

Google Classroom Bonus!

Inbox recently started bundling and integrating with Google Classroom! Notification emails from Google Classroom include a link that takes you directly to the assignment or question from the email!

Auto Reply

I have an iPhone. Siri suggests responses to my emails and text messages all the time. Her suggestions are lame.

The auto-replies in Inbox are....creepily amazing. This is another example of Google's research into machine learning (here's an in-depth explanation for those who are super nerdy!). Open an email and Inbox will suggest three replies based on the content of the message AND your own personal writing style. The more you use Inbox, the more accurate the replies become. Whoa!

As educators, email is a necessary part of our job, but it is not our job. The goal is to spend as little time as possible looking at email. Inbox will help. Furthermore, I anticipate that Google will integrate Inbox with Google Classroom. Look for some very cool student-focused features in the near future!

If you haven't given Inbox a try, you should! Just visit inbox.google.com. Just to warn you, there is a bit of a learning curve as it is a LOT different than Gmail. If you start to freak out, send me a tweet (@jrsowash) and I will talk you off the ledge!

The Electric Educator

Family Breakout: A new holiday tradition

🧰 Purchase, build or borrow a breakout box

💻 Use Google Forms to create a digital breakout

5 ways to prevent cheating on your Google Form Quiz

👉 Note: want to see all of these tips in action? Check out this demo form!

Shuffle answer choices to block screen creepers

Use page sections to block assessment previews

Use page breaks to create alternative assessment paths

Prevent cheating by asking better questions!

Enable locked quiz mode

5 tips to design better forms

5 tips to design better forms...

1. Use validation to collect better data

2. Make your form look pretty!

3. Automate with Add-ons

Form Add-Ons:

Sheet Add-ons

4. Filter, Sort, and Pivot your Data!

5. Autograde and lock your quizzes!

Are you ready to become a Form Fanatic?

Do your students have these tech skills?

Was this blog post helpful?

Get the Google EDU update by me, John Sowash!

Ultimate Resource Guide for the NEW Google Classroom!

What is Google Classroom? Should I use it?

Setting up your first Google Classroom

Understanding the NEW Google Classroom

Posting to your Classroom

Setting up Guardian Access

How to configure your Google Classroom notifications

Keeping Classroom Organized

Teaching with Classroom

Student Guides and Resources for Google Classroom

Templates for Google Classroom

Get even MORE out of Google Classroom with these Chrome extensions!

Share to Classroom

BitMoji

Emoji Keyboard

Screencastify

Google Classroom Experts

Managing Comments in Google Classroom (2018 Update!)

Class Comments

Private Comments

Question Responses

Create group assignments in Google Classroom

1. Create a new topic in Classroom to organize your group project

2. Prepare your resources

3. Copy the resources for each group

4. Create your assignment in Google Classroom

5. Select your Group Members

6. Copy the assignment for groups 2, 3, 4, etc

7. Monitor your groups

Get ready for the NEW Google Classroom

Introducing Classwork...

Highlights of the new Classwork Page:

What about the "stream?"

"People" get their own page!

All of your Classroom settings in one place!

Classroom + Forms (even better!)

When can I test these awesome features???

Let me help you kickstart your school year!

Six ways to use Google Photos in the Classroom

1️⃣ Share to your school account

2️⃣ Save time by collecting photos and videos for students

3️⃣ Collect photos as a class

4️⃣ Document a physical creation

5️⃣ Capture a process using animations

6️⃣​ Share with parents

G Suite Admins: How to enable the NEW Gmail experience

Features of the NEW Gmail experience:

How to enable the new Gmail Early Adopter Program for G Suite users:

Google Certification LIVE (Claim your spot soon!)

The next free webinar is coming up!

Google Certification LIVE with John Sowash

Here's the agenda for the evening:

Sharing Classroom Data with Sheets

Step 1: Collect data with a form

Step 2: Collect & Calculate in Google Sheets

Step 3: Create your Charts

6️⃣ Share with parents