Google Classroom Daily 3

Create one Master Course in Classroom, and build content there for all your classes. When you are ready, assign work by using the "Reuse Post" selection, and choose the assignment and class(es) who will receive it.

Google Classroom Daily 2

Today's tip deals with accessing and monitoring student work:

Classroom Daily Tip 1

Going to offer a Google Classroom daily tip. Subscribe to get the daily posts.
Day 1 - organize your assignments in the Classwork section.

G Suite - "Certifiably" Amazing!

As we all move forward in the Google world, you might be interested in some of the available Google Certifications for educators. These certifications are available to anyone, and are exam-based, for the most part. There are currently 4 Google Certifications available, Educator Level 1, Educator Level 2, Google Certified Trainer, and Google Certified Innovator.
There are very good study materials available to prepare you to pass the certification exams, many from Google themselves.
In fact, if you spend time on their training website, you can get all the info you need to earn your certifications.
I'd encourage everyone who is using the Google tools to go through at least the first (and possibly second) levels available. The process of preparing for the exams really forces you to dive deep into the G Suites tools, and really learn all the things they can do.  This will help you immensely in integrating our available tech into your instruction.

Here are links to some great resources:

Google Training Center

YouTube Playlist

      

But How Do I Write on It?

So, you have a document you want to be able to annotate, but aren't sure what tool to use (without downloading new apps or extensions). Google has a native Drawing App called, oddly enough, "Drawing".  View the video below to see how to use it as an annotation tool.

Click to view video

Where's My Waffle??

If you use vary many of the Google Apps, you probably rely on the Google App Launcher, also known as the "Waffle Menu" by many. This is the icon you click to see all the Google Apps available for you to use.
 
Unfortunately, depending on which app you happen to be using, the waffle may or may not be available without switching to a different app.

I've got a solution for that! I found a Chrome extension that makes the main Google Applications available in one click. It's called Black Menu for Chrome, and is available in the Chrome Web Store. Click Here for a direct link.


After installation, this icon appears in your extensions menu in the top right corner of your Chrome window.





This is the menu after the icon is clicked. Each entry on the menu can be drug up or down to change the order. There is also a full search window available with the normal options available below (images, books, etc.).
  


There is also an " + ADD" button if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the Black Menu. You can use this to customize the menu for your own use.

Screenshots on a Chromebook

A great way for the students to "Save" content so that they can turn it in to you is to take a screenshot. Screenshots can also be used to capture a photo, map, or chart so that it can be annotated.
On a Chromebook, screenshots are really easy to take. After capturing a screenshot, you can either copy it, so that you can paste it elsewhere, or save it to Google Drive.

To capture the entire screen, hold down the CTRL button and push the Next Window button (top row).
     
To capture a portion of the screen, hold down the CTRL and Shift buttons and click the Next window button.

Click to see Full-Size

When you take a screenshot, you will see a screenshot dialog box in the lower right corner of the window.  From here you can click the link to see the photo in its folder.

Click to see Full-Size

In the Downloads folder, you can drag the photos to your drive and access them from there in order to use them in Classroom, Drawing, or another application.