Learning in the Lou

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The day has come! Google classroom will email home information about what is going on in Google Classroom automatically! Seriously! So very helpful on all fronts. Information like missing and upcoming work. It will also add in any announcements you post. This sample summary shows what could show up in a guardian's email inbox. Check out the sample Google created, it is extensive and shows you how powerful it actually is. It is wicked impressive. Setting It Up Log into Google Classroom. Open one of your classrooms. Click on the Students tab. 1. Toggle Include this class to on. 2. This will appear on your screen. Click Add Class . Click Invite Guardians . Add the guardian emails. Click Invite. Note: it appears the summaries will only work for those who have a gmail address. AOL, hotmail, etc will not work. It now lists both parents as invited to receive the Classroom summaries. The invited tag will disappear once they acce...

Sometimes the Inbox is better than Facebook, etc... https://lindberghlinc.blogspot.com/ This blog automatically pushes to our Facebook page but our posts sometimes gets lost. Check out the image above for what you might have missed! These are some pretty serious improvements to Google Slides, things that you could defiantly use. Due to this issue you may be suffering from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). To prevent that you can just subscribe to our blog using an email address. Once you do our new posts will just be emailed to you in a nice and neat format. These messages can easily be saved in a folder for future reference, forwarded to a student, etc. How do you enable such magic? See the image above or visit our blog and look to your right. Enter your email in the Follow by Email widget.

One of the great parts of my job is going from school-to-school, supporting teachers with all things technology.  I see a lot of great teaching and students who love learning.  Patterns of technology usage become visible.  Last year, Seesaw transformed how students demonstrate and reflect on their learning.  The tech tool trending most in classrooms this fall is Class Dojo . You may say, "I already know about Class Dojo.  I tried that a few years ago.  It looks like this:" I know.  Stay with me. Class Dojo is more than a cute behavior management system.  Awarding behavior points to student avatars is the old Class Dojo.  New features connect teachers, parents, and students as a sharing and active learning community.  Check out Class Dojo's newest features here . Want to learn more?  Find out who is using Class Dojo in your school, watch this extended, detailed video tutorial from Miss Meg , or visit the Clas...

You probably use Google Slides.  Are you using the audience Q&A feature? Check it out: To access this feature, use the familiar Present button to launch your slide presentation.  Then, click on the Presenter view button located in the lower-lefthand menu.  Finally, press  Start new  to launch the Q&A feature. The audience sees the slide presentation (below).  To participate, the audience clicks on the link (top) if following the presentation on a device or they type the address into a browser. The presenter view (below) shows the Q&A feed on one tab and speaker notes on the other.  Audience comments and questions are initially visible only to the presenter. If the presenter then selects a comment's  present button, the question or comment appears instantly for everyone as a slide (below): If you are looking for an easy way to increase student or audience participation in presentations, give the ...

We were in Lewis Naeger's room last week and saw something pretty cool. He was using Google Music to create a very relaxing atmosphere. This music set the mellow tone, it was like magic. Check out what he did to bring about this atmosphere. First step is to block explicit lyrics. Login with your school account-  https://play.google.com 1. Click the hamburger icon in the upper left corner. 2. Click Settings . Click Block explicit songs in radio . These steps illustrate how to find sweet playlists. 1. Click the hamburger icon . 2. Click Browse stations . Click Activities . Scroll down. Click Working/Studying . Why this section? It is safe to say there won't be lyrics of any kind. There are many playlists to choose from. Pick one and enjoy.

Blended learners, flipped teachers, screen-casters, and video makers, listen up! Where do students take notes when they watch videos?   What happens to those notes? What happens to the video? Video is a great way to learn.  Note-taking is an essential skill.  How can you connect the notes and video in a way that maximizes learning? Enter VideoNot.es . Picture this (ok, just look up at the picture).  Video plays on the left.  You take notes on the right.  Every time you type, a timestamp marks that point in the video.  Video playing too fast?  Adjust the playback speed.  Use your school account to save your work to Google Drive. Ready to study for the big test?  Open the Google Drive file.  Click on a part of your notes to trigger the video playback from that point.  Immediately, see and hear the video connected to those notes. I'm using VideoNot.es for professional learning.  How will y...

Do you find yourself leaning in and squinting to read the wee font on an email? If so, you're not alone.  Re-imaging your computer often results in smaller icon, tab, and font sizes. And eye strain. Don't suffer.  A couple clicks will correct the problem: Right-click on the desktop screen.  Select Display settings . Drag the slide-bar marked Change the size of text, apps, and other items to the right. That's it! Bonus tip: Surfing the internet?  Use Ctrl- and Ctrl+ to quickly zoom in and out.

I love Boomerang.  It changed my Gmail life. For the uninitiated, the Boomerang app gives you the power to send away those not-ready-for-inbox emails while scheduling their timely return.  Like a...hmm...boomerang!   You can also use Boomerang to delay the sending of composed emails.  The middle of the night might be your ideal work time but it is not the time to email a student.  Schedule your overnight email to be sent at 8am. Boomerang just added an email quality control feature called Respondable: Touted as AI (artificial intelligence), this feature evaluates the basics of a good email: subject word count word count question count reading level Appearing on the right side of your Gmail screen, Respondable rates the likelihood that your email will receive a response.   Having tried it out, I have to say it helped me send an efficient, effective email.  Of course, I haven't heard back yet.  :P

Many of us use the freeze feature on the remote control for the projector. That way a still image is frozen on the big screen while we continue to work on the laptop. A morning message or directions could be displayed on the board while you have the attendance or email open on your laptop screen. Super efficient use of space and time. Want to take that to the next level? Check out what Becky Donze showed us yesterday. She could play a video or have a webpage on the board and still have full use of her laptop at the same time! Seriously, this is amazing!!! I could picture teachers getting into Google Classroom to edit papers or add materials while something else entirely different is happening on the board. How can make this magic happen in your classroom? Extending The Screen Dock/connect your laptop like normal. Make sure you can see your computer screen on the board. Hit the Windows key on the keyboard and the letter P at the same time. The image below shows what should...

There are some days when I get about 1.21 gigawatts of email. I do my best to answer each but I know I miss important messages. Check out this super simple gmail extension that will (hopefully) solve these types of email issues. Adding Boomerang to gmail - check out our previous post . I just received this email. I know my son will really want me to share it with him but there is a high likelihood that by the time I get home I will totally forget. This unfortunate issue will no longer be a problem with the Boomerang extension!   At the top of the screen you will see a little button called Boomerang. Click that and you will see this drop down. I selected for this email to pop back up in my inbox tomorrow morning. In retrospect I should have clicked in 4 hours or set a custom time. So... where did my email go? On the far left side of gmail look under your labels. Click Boomerang and you will find any emails you Boomeranged for later.

So you need to send en email at a specific time but you won't be at your computer. It is also 2016, can't some bot do this for me? Check out this video, is this what you are looking for? Adding Boomerang to your email. Visit Boomerang . Click the big red button to install. Compose an email. You will now see this red Send Later button at the bottom. Click that new red button. Schedule your time. I clicked the little calendar to pick a specific date and time. Click the blue Confirm button. The next screen may ask for permissions, make sure you allow Boomerang to access your account.

Text Message For The Win Getting the most updated information to a large group of people can be pretty challenging. While we have a billion and one tools Remind (aka Remind 101) is pretty simple and effective. Start by visiting  Remind and creating an account. I recommend using your Lindbergh account if you are using it for district things. Once you login look on the far left side.  Click Create a class . Name your class. If this is for a team or club I would recommend using something familiar. Example - Chess Club 2016-2017 or Freshman Football 2016-2017 Click Create . Click Allow . Select a way you want people to sign up to receive texts. In-person or PDF are the most commonly used options. Near the bottom of the screen you will find a text box. Type your message and click Send . This is the text that appeared on my phone. So simple!