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. 

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.

Force users to make a copy of your Google Doc

If you have a Google Doc that you would like to share with people so they can make a copy of it for their own Drive, Google has a nice little trick to make this happen. When the users click the link to your Doc, it will force them to "make a copy" of the doc before they can access it. Once they click the button, a copy of the Doc will be automatically created in their Google Drive, which they can move to a folder to stay organized.  To do this, grab the URL from your document when it is open for editing. The last word on the doc URL is "edit." Change that word to "copy." Share that URL with people. 
See screenshots below. (Click image to enlarge)

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FormMule-Automatically send emails with Google Form Submission

This Google add-on could prove very useful for some of you. It is a tool called "FormMule" and it allows an email to be sent automatically when someone submits a Google Form. FormMule takes the data from the spreadsheet and automatically sends it out to where you want it to go. All set up via FormMule.
For example: perhaps you want to use Google Forms for people to sign up for something. Well, when the user submits the form, an email is automatically sent so that person has a reminder in their email inbox. You can also set it up to not send automatically, so in our same example, a user fills out a sign up sheet, then when the event gets closer, you can send out emails from the spreadsheet so it will remind the user of what they signed up for.
Using it with kids gets a little trickier as it relies on an email address, which sometimes isn't what is prefered. However, it would work great with parents, colleagues, friends, etc when you want emails to be sent out after a Google Form is submitted.

Watch Tutorial Here

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) 

Working together: Google Forms, Flubaroo, and Charts

Using Google Forms for quizzes/formative assessment is a great way to organize student data, keep it all in one place, and get both an overview and individual view of how your students/classes are doing.  Below are some highlights of Google Forms for quizzes.

*Create a variety of questions using a Google Form.

*Password protect the quiz by forcing students to enter a "password" in order to get to the next page (start of quiz.)

*Change the destination of where responses go to keep all data in one spreadsheet.

*Use the "add on" Flubaroo to grade all quizzes instantly.  Flubaroo can grade multiple choice, true/false and short answer (short answer: student has to type the word exactly how you enter it on the answer key, so this one is a little tricky.)

*Use "charts" to create charts from the student data to get a great picture of how your classes are doing.

These are just some of the highlights. I encourage you to check it out and explore further!

Flippity.net: Google Drive Review Game

Can Google Drive get any more awesome? It seems everywhere I turn, there is something new and innovative being produced by Google-things to make our jobs as teachers more efficient and effective. Flippity.net is a tool that allows you to create review games/tools through Google Drive. Flippity.net provides flashcards, completion certificates, progress meters, and my favorite, Game Show templates. At flippity.net, download the template you want to use, make a copy for your Google Drive and edit it to produce your custom review game. The game show uses the spreadsheet feature of Google Drive. Simply enter your questions and answers, publish to the web ("File"--"publish to web") and then the spreadsheet will kick out the link to share (the link you give to your students). 

Application for Education: This tool/game can be used for all types of content/classes. It's great to provide for kids to use when studying on their own, as it keeps track of your points so you can see how well you are doing or what you are weak in. I've also used it for students to partner up and play against each other. It can also be used as a whole class review game. You can anywhere from 0 teams to 6 teams when keeping track of the score. 

Click Here to see an example of Flippity.net (ancient Greece)

Google Drive Strikes Again! Review Games with Google Drive

Can Google Drive get any more awesome? It seems everywhere I turn, there is something new and innovative being produced by Google-things to make our jobs as teachers more efficient and effective. Flippity.net is a tool that allows you to create review games/tools through Google Drive. Flippity.net provides flashcards, completion certificates, progress meters, and my favorite, Game Show templates. At flippity.net, download the template you want to use, make a copy for your Google Drive and edit it to produce your custom review game. The game show uses the spreadsheet feature of Google Drive. Simply enter your questions and answers, publish to the web ("File"--"publish to web") and then the spreadsheet will kick out the link to share (the link you give to your students). 

Application for Education: This tool/game can be used for all types of content/classes. It's great to provide for kids to use when studying on their own, as it keeps track of your points so you can see how well you are doing or what you are weak in. I've also used it for students to partner up and play against each other. It can also be used as a whole class review game. You can anywhere from 0 teams to 6 teams when keeping track of the score. 

Click Here to see an example of Flippity.net (ancient Greece)

Downloading Documents from Google Drive.

Watch to see how you download a document from Google Drive into a Word file. Sometimes you need/want to download a Google Drive document onto your computer.

Google Drive Week! Uploading existing files into Drive

You probably already have a lot of great stuff, right? No need to recreate everything. Upload your exsisting files into Google Drive with the "upload" feature. Google Drive converts your word files into a google document version so you are able to edit it. If you are not able to edit the document, watch this short tutorial: Converting Word files to edit in 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. 

The New Doctopus-Google Drive

Here is a video tutorial on the new look of Doctopus. If you were one of the winners of the compelling story, I highly recommend using Doctopus next year when you get your devices. It is a great work flow managing tool that gives you great power.

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.

Yet another use for Google Drive (perhaps my favorite!)

Last week, my daughter, Olivia, broke her foot during recess. It was a very unfortunate thing, as she will now miss the rest of her basketball tournaments and perhaps the high school musical. However, there is a silver lining in this occurrence because it gave me an idea.  Because of the injury, I had to miss a day of school to bring Olivia to the doctor to get checked by an orthopedic surgeon. After the appointment and a pizza bagel, we headed home so she could rest and elevate her foot, as it was too sore to try school.  Since I was at home with Olivia, I decided to experiment with my BFF: Google Drive.  My students that day were working on their powerpoints in their Google drive account. I broke them up into city-states of Greece and we set it up so each group was working on one powerpoint together, but with their own computer (side note and future post: it worked great. Made me wish I had more computers even more than I already do). Anyway, on Monday, when I had my students start the project, the first thing I had them do was share the powerpoint with me, so I was "in" their project and had edit rights to all of their projects. So on Wednesday, when I was home with Olivia, I jumped on my computer while Olivia was resting and opened each groups' powerpoint in the class period that was currently going on. It was great! I could be at two places at once. I was home tending to my daughter, but still at school with my students, monitoring their progress, watching them work. I could actually see them type! I used the "comment" feature to give advice, tips, pointers, things to think about, questions, etc. on their projects as they worked. They could reply to my comments to ask me questions or say something. I even recovered a groups' project that got deleted somehow from my house. They thought it was so cool (and thankful). The students knew I was in their powerpoint with them because my avatar popped up in their project, so they knew I was watching. My student teacher said that definitely kept them on task. With Google Drive, collaboration happens in real-time, which means the students see the letters as I type them, they do not have to refresh the browser. Google Drive, among the many awesome things it can do, gives us the opportunity to be at two places at once. I wanted to keep an eye on the project and be available to the students in case they had any questions, and Google Drive allowed me to do just that.  At the end of the class, I told my student teacher to put a Google Doc on the smartboard that I created and shared with him. This allowed me to talk to the whole class because they could watch the words as I typed them from my house. It allowed me to stay connected with my students and give them some reminders, despite my absence. I talked to my student teacher about this and he said it worked great. The students were glued to the screen, watching me type. The students thought it was very helpful that I was "with" them, even though I was gone from school.

Visualizing Google Drive

Watch this short video to help you understand Google Drive and the cloud concept. This video takes you through the basic workings of Google Drive, along with an introduction to an advanced feature called Doctopus. There is much more than the video shows, but hopefully it serves as a starting point, something to help get the ball rolling for you and Google Drive. I believe Google Drive would be a very dynamic and valuable tool in student learning if the students had more devices. Click the "Google Drive" tab above to access many short Google Drive tutorial videos to help you get started.

Google Drive: An argument for 1:1

Why do we need 1:1 in our school? I think the argument starts and stops with one thing: Google Drive. It is an educational tool of powerhouse proportions. If every student had their own device, everyday, we could teach and learn in the cloud. We could use Google Drive and open learning up in ways that have never been possible. For those not familiar with Google Drive, it is like Microsoft Office, only online, but that "only online" part is a major difference. Think of Google Drive as a cloud in the sky, hovering over your head all the time. Your Google Drive account is your cloud, which always goes with you. It doesn't matter if you are in Brandon, at school, at home, in China, etc. no matter where you are, your cloud is with you. Work on a project at school using your cloud, computer explodes, you go home, enter your cloud on your home computer/phone/tablet and your project is still there. With Google Drive, we are not tied to a machine, or a flash drive, or a physical piece of paper. We do not have to email things to ourselves so we have them when we get home. We are free to go and do as we please and always have our work with us, and so are our students. My students were just issued their Google Drive account, essentially setting their cloud up for use. It's free with a huge amount of storage. To get started, we worked on a document comparing Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. They worked on their document with the use of a Chart I provided with them by "sharing" it from my cloud to their cloud. No physical piece of paper to lose,  the chart I gave them is always with them because it's in their cloud. Students showed up for my class or study hall and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM had their assignment with them because every single one of them has a cloud. It is impossible to lose your cloud. You can not run away from it. It is impossible to forget their project at home. It's in their cloud. It's impossible for them to lose their project. It's in their cloud. It's impossible for their project to get ripped, destroyed, spilled on, etc. It's in their cloud. Students love this because it's frustrating for everybody when stuff is lost or missing. But just wait, there's more. There's "Sharing." The true power of Google Drive. 

When finished, they "shared" their assignment with me, essentially sending it from their cloud to my cloud. This is simply done with two clicks of the mouse and entering my Google Drive name. Once it's in my cloud (Google Drive), I can access their document anywhere: home, school, I even read through AND provided feedback on some of their assignments while waiting for an oil change with my iPhone. Once they shared it with me, I could open their document, read it, and actually write feedback and their grade right on their document. It takes SO much less time reading their writting via typing, as opposed to their hand writing. Most of us can type faster than hand write, so once again, providing feedback is done in a more time effecient way. "Shareing" isn't just done from student to teacher. It can be done from student to student. Provided with their partners google drive name (which is their k12 email address), students can "share" a document with their partner, which provides an enriching collaborative experience because they can work on the same project, at the same time, but at their own computes, either sitting in my class or sitting at their own homes. 
The example above is just one of many. With our limited availability, I had my students create a document in their Drive (cloud) account to give them a spot to save helpful websites in researching their Wax Museum characters. If they find a good website, what do they do with it? Write down the long URL in their planner and never be able to access it again? Write it in their notebook? A notebook is lose-able. I also had them create folders for their other classes, in hopes they would use their Drive for those as well. These examples are merely examples of Google Drive on the surface. Good Drive is designed and meant for much deeper things. 
It would be so exciting to see what teachers could come up with if they were allowed to think, plan and teach with Google Drive on a daily basis.