Copy Entire Folders in Google Drive

Have you ever wanted to copy an entire Google Drive folder but found that when you right click on the Folder, it does not give you a "copy" option? There is a solution to that problem. It is a spreadsheet add-on and it allows you to copy entire folders. It's simply called "Copy Folder" and you get it through Google Sheets - add ons.  For example, let's say you have a bunch of resources in a Google Drive folder and you want to share that folder with a colleague or you are leaving a position and want to give that folder to the new person, but you want to hang on to your folder for the future. Use the add-on so you each have your own individual folder (of the same contents). The video does a good job showing how to use this add-on. 
*Note: You can not copy a folder that is shared. 

New from Google: Google Spaces

Google launched a new product recently called "Google Spaces." It is an attempt from Google to keep working their way into the Social Media game. Google Spaces is essentially a "space" that you and your friends/colleagues/students can use to share links, photos and discussions. It looks similar to Google Classroom's "Stream" but it doesn't have all the features like assignments, questions, etc. What you can do with Google Spaces you can do in Google Classroom, so why use Google Spaces? I think that it could definitely serve a purpose and be used in conjunction with Classroom. Google Spaces could be used to keep your official "Classroom" work separate from the more informal sharing you could do with Google Spaces. Google Spaces is very basic, eliminating confusion about how to use it. With the Chrome extension, if you come across a great website that you want to share, you can easily use the extension to share it to your Space. You could also do this with Classroom but the more websites you find/share, the more bogged down the Classroom stream would get, thus potentially burying important announcements and assignments.  I think Spaces would be a great tool for your and your students to use to find links and discuss their validity, discuss information, talk about how the site/tool could be used, brainstorm ideas, etc. You could post images and have a discussion about meaning and insight. 
Check it out! Picture tutorial below. 

New Features to Google Slides!

Google Drive launched a couple new features to Google Slides that I think you will like. Now, in Google Slides, you can be interactive with the audience. As you present your Google Slides presentation, the audience can go to a unique URL on their device and ask questions throughout your presentation. Once a question is asked, you can click to show it on the screen and address it/discuss it. This interactive feature can add a great new dynamic to your presentations.
Google Slides also allows you use "presenter view" so you can present your presentation to the screen, but on your computer screen, can see your notes, a timer, audience questions, etc.
A third new feature just added to Google Slides is the ability to turn the mouse into a "laser pointer" while presenting. This isn't as good as using an actual laser pointer because with an actual laser pointer, you are free to walk around and are not tied to the device you are presenting off of. Still, something to check out.  

Google Add-on "Super Quiz" for grading Google Forms

Flubaroo works well but the knock on it is that students do not get their results instantly. They have to wait for the teacher to share the grades. This could be at the end of the period, end of the day, or maybe even the next day! With Super Quiz, another Google Sheets add-on, students hit "submit" on their google forms quiz and instantly get their results shared with them via Google Drive "Shared with Me" Folder. The spreadsheet works for the teacher, so you can sit back and just let it do its job. No manual sharing of grades for you. Once Super Quiz is set up, it just runs on its own. The only thing for you to do is look at and examine student results, reflect on how they did and make informed decisions moving forward. You are also able to give feedback to students based on how they did through Super Quiz. A nice, but somewhat complicated, feature. Check out the tutorial and maybe Super Quiz is for you.

Play "SmartyPins" for a fun geography challenge!

"Smarty Pins" is a fun, interactive map game brought to you by Google. Yet another awesome thing Google has done. 

​The game works like this. You start with 1,000 miles. You are given questions. You answer each question by placing a 'pin' on the map. However far away your pin is from the answer, you subtract that many miles from your total. Once you run out of miles, the game is over. So the challenge is to see how many questions you can get through before you run out of miles. You can also score bonus miles if you answer questions quickly. At the beginning of the game, you can select a category or just play the game with all categories used randomly. 

-For each question, the map starts in the general area of where the answer is to help you out a bit, but you can zoom in/out and pan the map for a more accurate pin drop.

This could be a great challenge for kids play in a study hall or when they are done with their class work. It could be used as a "for fun" thing or raise the stakes a bit and make it a challenge. You could also use the concept of SmartyPins but have the students write questions and have their partner try to place the pin accurately on a map. 

Check it out! It's a fun way to pan the globe and learn about a variety of places.  

Improve your Students Google Search Ability

How often have you heard the phrase, "Google it"? I'm guessing a lot. Whenever we have a question or want to know something, the first thing we do, or at least I do, is "google it." No matter what. I always go to Google. Sometimes, I literally just google the question itself. Now, I know our students also work/think this way. Their number one solution is to "google it" as well. However, as you have probably seen yourself, some students are not good at finding information on the internet and are not good at 'googling it.' But we can't abandon it because Google is such a wealth of information, we must use it! It's a great resource. So, instead of complaining about how our students are terrible at searching for information on the internet, help them get better at it! Teach them! Fortunately, Google is awesome and have created a "activity" that allows students (or anybody) to practice searching for information on Google. It's called "A Google A Day" (www.agoogleaday.com)  and it's awesome. It's a great way to not only get better at searching with Google, but also to challenge our students and get them to think! 
Here's how it works: Google gives you three questions, one at a time. For each question, you must figure out the answer by Google searching keywords, phrases, questions, etc. Once you figure out the answer, you enter it and then move on to question 2 (if you get it right, of course). The faster you answer the questions correctly, the more points you get, so there's definitely a little bit of competition and intensity involved. It's a fun way for students to challenge each other. A great activity if students are done with their work or looking for something to do in study hall. Give it a try yourself and become a Google Search Pro! 

Edpuzzle: Google Classroom integration

Google just keeps getting more awesome. Google and Edpuzzle have combined their power with Edpuzzle's integration into Google Classroom. Now, it is easier than ever to create an assignment in Edpuzzle and assign it to your class. With Edpuzzle, you can now import all your Google Classroom "classes" into Edpuzzle and automatically have the students enrolled. Google Classroom integration allows for some key advantages: Students can access their "Edpuzzle" assignment right from Google Classroom so they aren't confused on where to find it. Once they finish their Edpuzzle assignment, like any assignment in Classroom, it tells the teacher who is done/not done. Within your Edpuzzle account, all classes are organized into your Google Classroom class for easy navigation. 
A couple screen shots to get you started with Integrating Google Classroom and Edpuzzle.
Video Tutorial

Flubaroo: Send Student results via Google Drive (no email needed)

Google Forms is a great tool for formative assessment, gathering data, and compiling information. Google Forms added a new feature to make it even better. In the past, students could not see their results after submitting their Google Form. The only way to see results would be to ask the teacher OR the teacher could share the grades with the student by emailing them through Flubaroo. It's best to avoid using the email address whenever possible, so this new feature allows the teacher to share the students results via Google Drive, with no emailing at all. Here's how you do it.
1. After the students complete the Google Form, run flubaroo to grade it. 
2. After Flubaroo finishes, while still in the spreadsheet, go back to "Add-ons"--"flubaroo"--"share grades". 
3. Go through the steps to signify which question asked for the students Google Drive account. (See picture) 
"Email Address Question" should be the name of the question you asked to get their Google Drive account. 
"Grade Sharing method" should be "Share via Google Drive (no email)" 
Finish the rest based on your preferences. 
4. Click "Continue" and Flubaroo will work for a while to get everything shared. Might take a few minutes depending on how many submissions you have. 
5. All students will get a document in their "Shared with me" folder that has their results. 

IMPORTANT
You also have a copy of the students grade report. When sharing grades via flubaroo, a new folder will automatically by created in your Drive called "Flubaroo-Shared Grades". Inside this folder will be a folder for each Google Form you do this with. So if you named an assignment "Algebra exit check," you will get a folder called "Algebra exit check" which will contain all the documents. Since both teacher and student share the document, you could comment back and forth for feedback purposes. 

IMPORTANT
In order for this to work, you have to include a field in  your Google Form that asks for the students Google Drive account. Without this, it will not work. 

What the Document looks like that the student will get

Unlimited Legos, for FREE!

Screenshot of Build with Chrome

One of the best things we can say to a student is, "Go build something." This allows them to get creative, get hands-on, and get thinking. The problem is, building something takes materials and with so many students, it's tough to get the supplies we need due to cost. Fortunately, there is this awesome thing called "Google" and they love education and work hard to provide things that help our students learn. Google has a product called "Build with Chrome" which gives your students an unlimited amount of legos that they can use to go build whatever they want! It's free and it's just waiting to be used. Visit the link below. Click "start building" and play around with the tool. You can switch pieces, colors, zoom in, zoom out, pan around, etc. Students can save/publish their work if they sign in with google, or they can just take a screen shot of their product if you do not want them to sign in. 
Application for Education: Have students build something just for fun. Have students build something that relates to what they are learning about: a building in ancient Rome, a scene from a story, a result of a science experiment, an explanation of a math concept. Have students build something, take a screenshot, then add text to give explanation/caption to their project. If you allow your students to log in, they can choose a "plot" on the map of the US and build. This capability gives the students the opportunity to build with each other and make massive building plots. Don't underestimate what students can do and build with legos!  Use Build with Chrome and let the creativity flow! 

Build with Chrome

Great Google Trick!

Have you ever heard of a Google Easter Egg? Well, Google is quite clever. They like to have fun with their product and one example of that is with "Easter Eggs." Like the name suggestions, these Easter eggs are like what you do around Easter: hunt for hidden eggs. Google has hidden tricks and fun things throughout Google.com for people to find.  I was preparing something the other day and I needed a picture of Atari's "breakout" so I google imaged it and all of a sudden, before my very eyes, the google image screen turned into a game of Breakout! 
So, if you go to Google and image search "Atari breakout" (or click "I'm feeling lucky") the actual game will begin and you can play it with the mouse. Give it a try! It's kinda fun. 

Google Docs: Simple Navigation

I find it annoying to scroll through Google docs. I feel like sometimes my scroll wheel is going to wear out! It is because of this feeling that I set out to find a solution. Some google docs are not that long, so it's not a big deal. But others can get to be quite lengthy and constantly scrolling through the doc is not an effective use of the small amount of time we have in life. The solution I found is "table of contents" and "bookmarks." Both fairly similar, but each add their own unique advantage. 

Bookmarks: You can attach bookmarks anywhere in a google docs for fast, efficient navigation. When you add a bookmark, you can then "link" a word to that bookmark, so when you click the word, it brings you to that spot automatically. Here's an example: Mesopotamia Closure. In the example, I didn't want my students to have to scroll through everything every time. I wanted them to be able to click the task and be brought right to it. 

Table of Contents. Table Contents works much the same way--creating words into links that you can click and quickly move to that spot. With table of contents, you need sub headings. So when you type out a word, you need to change it from "normal text" to a "subheading." Once you have all your subheadings done, go to "insert" -- "table of contents" and a table of contents will appear for easy navigation. Example Here. (This is a demo created just for an example) 

Save that Tab! (Google Chrome)

NOOOOO!!! I needed that tab! But I accidentally closed it because I have too many tabs and the area to select a tab is so small that I accidentally hit the 'x'!!! I don't know about you, but I tend to have a ton of tabs open when working in Chrome. When this happens, it is extremely likely that I accidentally hit the 'x' instead of the tab itself. This could be very bad! You may really need that tab and not remember how to get to the site you were on! Well, rest easy, my friend because Google has a solution to this problem. In the event you close a tab by accident, simply hit Ctrl + shift + T (though you don't need caps) and it will reopen the tab, along with browsing history so you can still go "back" if you need to. Handy tip, huh??

Ctrl + Shift + T (windows)

Command + Shift + T (Mac)

Google Continues to invade my life (and I like it)

Feel like watching a movie? Did you just get your wisdom teeth out and can do nothing but lay on the couch and watch something? In the past couple weeks, Google has invaded my life in yet another way: Movies. I think movies are great. Movies allow us to enter a different world and see things and imagine things. Movies allows us to relax and enjoy a creative experience. I believe movies are a good thing to foster imagination. From now on, Google Play is where I will go to watch movies because of how efficient the process is. For me, I have a bad habit of always getting late fees whenever I rent a movie from a store. I also have a bad habit of going to the movie rental store, looking around for 30 minutes, then getting home and being too tired to actually watch it. It got really bad a couple weeks ago when I rented a movie, "Noah", and turned it back in 10 days late and never even watched it. How ridiculous is that? With Google Play, all that ridiculousness is avoided, so for me, Google Play is great. With your gooogle account, simply sign in to Google Play and you can browse movies that you can rent. The movies you have to choose from are the same new releases you will see in the movie rental store. It is NOT like netflix in which a quality movie gets posted every ten years. Google Play movies are the newest, greatest ones. Some of the movies you can choose from are still in theaters. For me, I love it because I can browse the movie selection from home, rent one in seconds, and watch it. Another great thing about it is that once you rent a movie, you have 30 days to watch it, which is a long time. No late fees, it just goes away. Once you start the movie, you have 48 hours to finish viewing it. Again, no late fees, it just disappears if you wait too long. You pay with paypal or any type of credit card. Cost of the movie rentals is very comparable to that of the movie rental store. You can watch the movies on your TV with a chromecast stick ($30 at Bestbuy). I love this feature because I can use my Google Play movies app on my phone, open my movie and chromecast it to my TV and watch it in comfort.

So, looking to watch a movie? How about Captain America? Or Safe Haven?  Check out Google Play and I think you'll like it. 

Google Drive Week: Sharing Documents

Watch this video to see how to share documents with others through Google Drive.

Student Google Accounts-BVMS

The 7th and 8th Google accounts/state email addresses are ready to be used. I have shared them with those who requested access. Please do NOT edit the original document. Make a copy for yourself and then you can modify it to your needs. If you do not know how to do this, please ask.
So now that we have the Google accounts ready for 6th grade, what next?

• I would suggest communicating within your grade level to determine who is going to issue that information to the students. Last year, I printed off a printer label for each kid that had their Google account/email address, and password, which they put inside their planner so they would have it. I was the only one who had to do this because then they just had their information for the other classes.  
• Use the "year" column to separate the list into 7th and 8th. Copy and paste the grade you teach into a new column. Then, I would go through the list and put the class period number I have them by each kid, which would allow me to again sort the list by my class periods. (So I would have all the 3rd period kids together, in alphabetical order.) Doing this makes it really easy to work with your student Google account list and distribute/use it in general. 
• Have the students use it! If we focus on Google Drive and "sell" it, students will get excited about it and take ownership. Show them the power of Drive and the possibilities it offers over Microsoft Word. If we are all using it, at least some of the time, students (and ourselves) will become proficient in Google Drive. If we start thinking in terms of teaching with Google Drive, we will start thinking differently and that's when the dynamic ideas/opportunities occur. We have a powerful tool at our disposal. Don't keep it packed away. Unleash the beast. 

If you have any questions or are wondering how to do something, please ask Jen and myself. 

Google Week! Pin Tabs

If you are a Chrome user (which I hope you are!) then perhaps you would like to learn how to "pin tabs" so you no longer have to reopen the same tabs each time you open chrome. Chrome is such a beast because it is built with efficiency and speed in mind. I like the "pin tab" feature because each time I open Chrome, my TweetDeck and my Drive are open and ready to go, no need to waste time and energy open those tabs every time. Pinning Tabs is a breeze, just follow the screen shots below.  The only question is, what tabs will you pin? Be careful, those pins are sharp.

Instructions for 'pinning" tabs in Chrome:

Here are two tabs that I want to pin to my chrome so I don't have to actually manually open them each time I open Chrome. (By the way, if you have Twitter and use it, then TweetDeck is a dream. Check it out!)

Right click the tab you want to pin and this drop down menu appears. Simply click "pin tab" and you are done!

After you have "pinned" your tabs, then they will shrink into mini tabs, so you might have to be more accurate with your mouse, but at least you saved a bunch of time not having to actually open them yourself!

Chrome Browser Extensions

Chrome Extensions I use

So why choose Google Chrome? I use Chrome exclusively because of the speed of browsing and because of some very helpful "extensions" provided. Here is a few of the Chrome extensions that I use and have found to be very helpful. This are located in the Chrome webstore.  Once added to Chrome, they appear as little icons in the top right area of the Chrome Browser. To get these extensions, which are free by the way, search the following:

"Sticky Notes-just Popped Up"-this is a virtual sticky note that you can use on your computer. Great for jotting down ideas while you are browsing. If you add a message to your virtual sticky note and close it, you will not lose the content of that sticky note.

"Split Screen": This extensions allows you to split your screen so you can see two screens at once. This is a helpful extensions if you are getting sick of switching back and forth between two things. This also allows you to take notes in one half, while browsing in the other half. 

"Awesome Screen Shot": This extension allows you to take a screen shot of what is on your screen, either the whole screen or just a region of it. It also allows you to make marks on it, such as arrows, blocks, circles, and text. Helpful if you are trying to explain how to do something on your computer or internet. 

"Symbaloo": If you are using symbaloo for your bookmarking needs, then you definitely need to get the Symbaloo extension for Chrome. This allows you to quickly and efficiently add websites to your symbaloo account. 

Google Week! Incognito Mode

This week I want to focus on Google and sharing some things that you might find helpful/beneficial. Since a lot of you use Google Chrome (and those of you who don't, I strongly recommend making the switch), then perhaps Incognito Mode is a tool you would find useful. Incognito Mode allows you to open a completely separate and uninfluenced Chrome browser. If you are using Google Drive, you will not be logged in to Google Drive in the Incognito Mode, which is very useful if you are trying to see what something looks like without being signed in. Instead of signing out of your Drive and then looking at what you created, you can simple open an Incognito window and voila!  Think of it this way: when you are using a Google Chrome Browser and an Incognito Mode, you have two completely separate "internets" open which allows you to bounce back and forth. 

Follow the Screenshots below to learn how to use the Incognito Mode.

Click the three little grey lines going horizontally to open the Chrome Settings/Options.

Once you have clicked the 3 grey lines, you need to select "New Incognito Window." 

Then a new Chrome Browser will appear with this message, letting you know you have gone Incognito. At this point, you are ready to use the Internet and perform whatever tasks you wanted to.

If you forget if you are in Incognito Mode or not, you can simply look up in the top right or top left corner to see if you see the Incognito Guy. If you see this image, you know you are Incognito. 

Google Week! Short Cuts in Google Docs

Perhaps not an essential piece of knowledge, but something that may make your life more efficient while working with Google Drive. Google Drive provides a list of many keyboard short cuts for you to use. To see this list, follow the screen shots below.

Access Keyboard Short Cuts List:

Access keyboard short cuts in Mac or Windows. 

Once you execute the command, this is what pops up, giving you a long list of keyboard short cuts that you could use. 

Google Doc Add-on's you should be using

What happens when you give Barry Bonds even more steroids? He hits more homeruns. What happens when you install Nitrous-Oxide into a NASCAR? It goes even faster. Google Docs is a powerful beast. But what happens when you add "add-ons" to it? It becomes even more powerful. Even more dynamic. Even more Efficient. If you are using Google Docs and feel comfortable with it, perhaps you need to start using some of the "add-ons" that Google Drive offers. Here's a look at some that I use. 
EasyBib: an easy way to generate citations and bibliographies through Google Drive. Supports Chicago style, APA, and MLA. 
Thesaurus: Sick of always using the same words? Well, activate the Thesaurus and spice up your writing! 
Lucidchart: Quickly create and insert mind maps, flow charts, and other diagrams into your google doc. 
TrackChanges: A great tool for teachers. This add-on allows you to track and approve changes to your documents. 
HighlightingTools: provides you with highlighting tools, grouping tools and selecting tools for review and learning. 
MindMeister: Turn any bullett list into a visually appealing mind map. 
Kaizena: give feedback with your voice and insert it into google docs. Great way to provide feedback for your students. 
Messenger: allows discussion and collaboration while working on a google document. 
ProWritingAid: Check and improve your writing by checking for consistency, plagiarism, acronyms, reduncancies, cliches, grammar mistakes and more.