Turn your Gmail inbox into as ToDo List

One of the favorite ways to remind yourself of things is by sending yourself an email. This way, even if you’re away from your computer and you send it from your phone, you can be reminded of it in the morning when you check your Gmail inbox.

This is a great way to create a to-do list, but if you receive a lot of emails like I do, sometimes these important items can get pushed down your inbox and by the time you see them it may be too late. This video demonstrates how you can turn your Gmail inbox into a advanced to do list by pairing some of our favorite features.

Something New for Drive and Gmail

Last Technology Training Session we covered the basics of Google Docs and Drive. The advanced session talked about tip and techniques for Google Classroom and Add-ons for Docs.

I came across these today and thought I would share them with you. the first is about managing revisions in Drive. If you’re using Google Drive to store and edit Microsoft (or any other non-Google) files, it can get confusing if you’re uploading different versions of the same file. By managing versions in Drive, you can delete a file if it’s no longer relevant and make sure your collaborators are only viewing the correct file.  This is great for those of you working with Office files, as well as PDFs, images and much more! This is a short video 2 min - but great information for those who will be storing their Word docs, excel spreadsheets, powerpoints, or pdf's in My Drive.







This second one is about an interesting way to use your gmail email address. Again, another short 2 min. video. Or if you wish, you can just read the blog entry here:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2455299,00.asp





Remember - bring in your chromebook so that it might be enrolled.

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Advanced session users - please remember your assignment to select an Add-on to Google Docs and rate it here: 

http://goo.gl/forms/bJB4dEG699

Google Classroom Updates 10-14-14

Google made some updates to Classroom on Tuesday, October 14. Here are the three we can begin using here at LPS right away.

1. Mark assignments as “done”
Not all assignments require students to submit work online — like reading a chapter or conducting an experiment — so Google added the ability for students to simply mark assignments as "done" if there's nothing to turn in. Google also gave the Assignments page a refresh, to make it easier for students to keep track of upcoming work. 

Students can mark assignments as "done" if there isn't anything to turn in

2. Greater teacher controls
Google also gave teachers greater control over their class stream. Teachers can now set permissions for whether or not their class can post or comment in the stream, they can mute individual students from posting or commenting and can even view previously deleted items in the stream. To find this feature, select the STUDENTS tab of your class. Then chose one of the three choices given to you if you click the down triangle.

3. Sort by first or last name
And now teachers can also choose to sort students by first or last name, depending on their needs. Again to find this feature, select the STUDENTS tab of your class. Then chose one of the choices given to you if you click the down triangle next to students.

Here is a short video demonstration of all this:

Upcoming Training Session 2

On Monday, October 20th, the October faculty training session will be held. Listening to feedback, I have decided to offer two types of training this month.

Faculty Training 101 - 7:00 pm - 7:45 pm
During this session, I will slow down and go over the basics of Google Drive and the differences between it and your Windata drive or the Faculty drive you are currently using on the LPS network. I will cover similarities, differences, pluses and minus of each. Then I will make a comparison of MS Word and Google Docs.

When the session is done, everyone should be able to organize files on Google drive and create a google document as they would a MS Word document.


Faculty Training 201 - 7:45 pm - 8:30 pm
During this session, geared primarily for those who are acquainted with the basics of Google, we will go over Google Classroom techniques. We will go over new features that have been added, suggestions on giving quizzes through Google forms, and ideas on how to have students collaborate with another. Those teachers who have used Google classroom will share some of their insights into using classroom. We will also take a look at some add-ons to Google docs, forms and sheets, along with other tips and tricks. Those who would like to see how to take a pdf or a MS office document and turn it into a Google doc will also have that opportunity.

Faculty members can attend one or both of the sessions. We will again meet in room 134 - bring your Chromebook.

Faculty members, if you have specific questions, let me know so that I can research some answers for you. I would love to help troubleshoot specific concerns or questions that you might have. My request to the faculty is to think about the lessons you are teaching and try and anticipate how you might change  a lesson or two per unit to take advantage of the students with the Chromebooks next year. Early next year, I will be asking you to share some of your ideas as well as provide you with some ideas.


If you are interested - watch this short clip on Gmail tips. See you Monday!