Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Digital Text Websites





Looking for a new way to engage your students?  Want to make your reading passages more accessible and replicate PARCC style options?  These passages can be used during intervention blocks, reading class or for homework. Grade level specific websites are available. These websites include articles from a wide variety of genres, short and paired texts. Each text includes an assessment with multiple choice, multiple select and open response questions. Student responses will automatically be collected on a spreadsheet in your Google Drive! 

Digital Text Websites:
Grade 3 Digital Texts
Grade 4 Digital Texts
Grade 5 Digital Texts

Let me know if you would help getting started!

Revision History




The ability to access your revision history is priceless!  Google includes this feature within Google documents, presentations, spreadsheets and drawings.  Teachers find this tool useful for many reasons. Accidently deleted material?  Retrieving deleted material or slides, allowing you to restore your document to a prior state.  Also, you can easily see who is contributing as well as how and when your students are working on a group project.  This can be telling information in terms of equity of student work as well as work and study habits of your students.

Accessing Revision History:
  1. Open a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or drawing.
  2. Click the File menu > See revision history.
  3. Click a timestamp in the panel on the right to see a previous version of the file. You'll also see the people who edited the file below the timestamp, and the edits that each person made are shown in the color that appears next to their name.
  4. In the top right, use the arrows to scroll through the list of changes.
    • Note: Text that has been added will be highlighted in a different color. Text that has been deleted will be shown with a strikethrough.
  5. To revert to the version you're currently viewing, click Restore this revision.
  6. To return to the current version of your document, click the back arrow in the top left.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Saving Assignments as Drafts in Google Classroom





You can create an assignment in Google Classroom and save it as a draft until you are ready to post.  This way the students don't see it until you want them to.  But you have the ability to set it all up so you are ready to go!

In Google Classroom, Create the Assignment then select the triangle drop-down menu next to the word "ASSIGN". Select "Save as Draft."  When you are ready, then you can assign it.


Monday, February 1, 2016

'Add to Drive' and 'Move To' Buttons on the Move!




Google is always looking for news ways to make your Drive more organized and accessible.  Google has recently relocated two important buttons.  The 'Add to Drive' and 'Move to' buttons now appear in the Shared with Me, Recent and Starred sections of your Google Drive.  Once you select the "Add to My Drive" button you are prompted to select a specific folder with the "Move To" button.  Taking these few seconds to organize your files now will save you time and aggravation!

This 1-minute video shows you how!

Searching your Drive


So color-coding your folders is too much?  Well, leave it to Google to making searching for that elusive document even easier.  By double clicking in your Google Drive search bar, a drop-down menu will streamline your search down to documents, spreadsheets, movies, pdfs, etc.

Still need help finding that document?  Advanced Searching Tools are available by selecting the triangle in the top right corner or under "More search tools" in the bottom left corner.


Another menu will appear allowing you to give as much information as you can remember.  Do you know the date it was created or modified?  Who shared with you?  Can you remember any key words that may be in the title?




Using today's tips and the 4 Simple Steps to a More Efficient Google Drive will make your searching much faster!