Newsletter May 27, 2014

Google Classroom

If you use Google with your students or are considering it, you will be very happy with this. Google is bringing out Google Classroom in the fall. This adds amazing new features to make Google easier to organize and share content with your students.

Visit the site

Check out the video

Learn More

It is currently in Beta but they are planning the official release in September. 

Boomerang for Gmail

Boomerang is a terrific add on for Google Mail. You add it to the Chrome Browser. It allows you to schedule emails for a later day or time. The program also allows for emails to "boomerang" back to the top of your email box as a reminder to follow up. I made a short video.

Boomerang Video

Google Education

Our Google Accounts have a variety of great features. I am gradually going through the training to be a certified Google Education Trainer. Even if this isn't an area of interest for you, Google has an education site that has great resources on how to use each of the components of our accounts. It's worth checking out for training and as a resource.

Google for Education Site

Providing Feedback on Student Writing and Video

Kristin Gregory shared this article and it was a really clever way to use a combination of Google Drive and Explain Everything with writing. 

Article

Nervous about Technology?

With all of the changes to education, it is easy to get overwhelmed. If you aren't comfortable with technology, the increase in it's use might cause stress. This article from Edudemic had some helpful tips on feeling more in control and comfortable with technology. I hope it will help.

Article

Quizlet

Quizlet is a fun site that offers an opportunity to create study sets of information as a way to help students review concepts for a test or a quiz. There is a free and paid version depending on the resources you want to access. 

Video

Site

If there is anything in this newsletter or on my web site that you need help with using, please let me know. I'd love to help. We can always schedule an appointment around your planning periods.

http://whelanweb.com/

How to schedule a time to meet?

The easiest way to contact me is through email at sean.whelan@westg.org. Please let me know what you'd like to meet about, your room number, free periods, and any other info that might be helpful to me in order to prepare for our meeting. I'd love to meet with you to see if I can help facilitate any issue you might be having.

Newsletter May 5, 2014 : Google Mail Tips on undo send, canned responses and search.

Google Mail Helpful Hints

I am likely going to do a few "mini newsletters" this month. I found a few Google Mail hints that I thought would be of benefit to many right now. I found two "add ins" for Google Mail that you need to enable but could make your life much easier. I also did a quick overview of the "search" function because I have received a few questions from people about finding emails.

Undo Send

I think we have all been in the position where we have hit the "send" button and yelled "yikes". The Undo Send feature can be enabled to allow you the option to hit "Undo" right after you click send. It gives you a few seconds to reconsider when you accidentally send an email.

Canned Responses

Most of us send emails with the same content over and over. I'm talking about form letters that we use to let parents know about conferences, missed homework, progress, etc. These can also be used for invitations and reminders or special events that happen every year. Enabling this feature allows you to save these in a library of  "canned responses" within your Google Mail to save you time from typing or copying and pasting the same content over and over. 

Search

We have all started to build up a library of many different emails. It becomes easy to lose track. Some of you are aware of how the email search function works. I thought it would be helpful to give a very quick overview due to some great questions I have received about it lately. I hope this helps.

If there is anything in this newsletter or on my web site that you need help with using, please let me know. I'd love to help. We can always schedule an appointment around your planning periods.

http://whelanweb.com/

How to schedule a time to meet?

The easiest way to contact me is through email at sean.whelan@westg.org. Please let me know what you'd like to meet about, your room number, free periods, and any other info that might be helpful to me in order to prepare for our meeting. I'd love to meet with you to see if I can help facilitate any issue you might be having.