Get Started Leaving Voice Comments with Mote

Feedback is essential to the learning process. Traditionally, feedback has been given verbally, face to face, or via text comments on a document (digital, handwritten). Mote is a Google Chrome Extension that combines both verbal and digital feedback. With Mote, you can leave voice comments on student work done with Google Docs, Slides, etc. It can be used in conjunction with Google Classroom as well. 

There is something powerful about hearing a teacher's voice, especially in a distance learning environment. Often times, with English learners, meaning can get misinterpreted when feedback is left via text. For these students, the meaning is more easily understandable when they hear inflection and tone from the teacher voice. 

Take a look at the screenshots below to learn how to get started using Mote for the first time. 

Step 1: At the Chrome Web Store, search for Mote. When you see Mote appear in the search results, click Add to Chrome.

Step 2: Once Mote is done being installed to your Chrome browser, click the "puzzle piece" extension manager. In the drop down menu, find Mote and pin it with the rest of your extensions. This will make it available on your browser.

Step 3: When you click Mote for the first time, you will have to verify your age.

Step 4: After verifying your age, check the acknowledgement box and sign in with Google. (first time only)

Step 5: The notification below will appear once you're done signing in. Be sure, on the next Doc or Slide you open, to refresh it once it's open. This will activate Mote so you can leave a voice comment.

Step 6: After opening and refreshing a Doc or Slide, insert a comment. When you do, you will see the Mote icon in the comment box. Click it to begin leaving a voice comment. 

Step 7: Recording starts almost instantly. When you're finished recording, click Done.

Step 8: The voice comment will take a few seconds to process and will look like this while processing.

Step 9: When finished processing, the voice comment will look like this on the teacher's end.

On the student end, the voice comment will look like this. All they have to do is click play to hear your comment.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.

Get Started Sending Custom Group Messages with Remind 101

Like many edtech apps and companies today, Remind 101 is becoming more popular than ever. As more and more teachers are using this great tool, a question I get asked often is how to send group messages to select students and not to whole classes. Teachers who ask me this are usually looking for a quick way to message students for intervention or small group work purposes. The series of screenshots below show how.

Step 1: On your Remind 101 homepage, click the compose message button.

Step 2: In the search bar, type student names and check mark the ones you want to include in a group message. You may have to do multiple searches to check mark all the students you want.

Step 3: As you check mark students for the group message, they will appear on the left below where it says Selected. Anyone there will be included in the message. Click Continue when you're ready to compose your message.

Step 4: Type your message in the white box. Student names will be in the "To" bar above. If you need to go back and add more students, click the edit button on the left side of the "To" bar. This will take you back to the previous window where you searched for and check marked students. Click Send when ready.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.

Simple Ways to Leverage "The Chat" in Zoom and or Google Meet

 

Back in the early days of the internet, and before the days of Twitter and Facebook, chat rooms were extremely popular for people to connect on the "Net" and to share ideas. As the internet has become more embedded into the classroom, the idea of a chat room developed a negative connotation as kids, more often than not, used it to discuss not academic topics. It was seen as a distraction.

These days, in a distance learning environment, "The Chat" has become an important part of the way we teach. "The Chat", whether you're using Google Meet, Zoom or another video conferencing tool, can be used in a variety of ways to break up the monotony of a lesson. As a frequent professional development presenter, I have used "The Chat" countless times in a session. It helps me gauge the needs of attendees on the fly and allows me to pivot as needed. A common expression amongst us in the presenter community is "drop it in the chat". This phrase is used to for mid-session CFU, sharing of presentation slides and more. 

Here are some of my favorite ways to leverage "The Chat" with students and adults alike.

                                                               

Attendance

Coming soon to Google Meet, and already a feature in Zoom, you can take attendance. A report can be generated showing all attendees. If you don't want to wait to generate the report after the video call, "The Chat" can help you do this. During a synchronous lesson on Zoom or Google Meet, I always build 5-7 minute blocks of time for students to work independently before reconvening whole class. Before independent work, I usually have them write questions or some sort of short reflection in "The Chat". While they work independently, I go through the chat and record students who are present for attendance purposes.

Exit Ticket

Before your synchronous video call lesson is over, have students reflect on what they learned, make a prediction about what's next or ask a question as an exit ticket. Have them write their exit ticket as a hashtag with rationale showing some real-life to content connections. You could make it into a contest where the top 5 or top 10 hashtags will get featured on the class website or in the next meeting. You are able with Zoom, Meet soon, to save a text transcript of "The Chat".

Microphone Issues

Often times, we will face issues with student microphones not working well or at all. Students who are not able to verbally respond, could use "The Chat". I frequently encounter this issue. Instruct students to not be afraid to message you in "The Chat" about such issues. If your lesson requires students to present, have them type what they would have said aloud in "The Chat".

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Check In

With Zoom, not Google Meet, you have the ability for attendees to direct message the teacher in "The Chat" without the group as whole being able to see the message. Utilize this feature to have students privately check in on social emotional issues.

These are just some of the ways I like to use "The Chat". What are some of yours? I am curious to hear your innovative ideas for leveraging the "The Chat". Please share your ideas in the comments or, if you're reading this post in an email, respond to the email.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.

How Students Screen Record with Flipgrid

 

Anyone who knows me, knows that Flipgrid is one of my absolute favorites. In recent months, Flipgrid added the ability for students to screen record or screencast. This is huge if kids don't have access to Screencastify or other screencasting tools. If you want students to get practice presenting during distance learning, this is a great option. For you the teacher, when kids upload their videos, you will have them nicely organized within your Flipgrid topic for easy access and to give prompt feedback.

Scenario: Your Flipgrid Topic is asking students to record themselves presenting some slides they created in Google Slides, PowerPoint, Prezi, etc. The students created them first and had them ready before accessing the link to your Flipgrid Topic. The screenshots below walk students step by step for recording their presentation of slides. Feel free to share these screenshots with students to help them get started. 

Step 1: After opening the Flipgrid link sent to you by the teacher, click Record Response. Once your camera has opened and you've given permission to access your camera and microphone, click Options.

Step 2: After clicking Options, click Record Screen.

Step 3: When Capture Your Screen appears, click Start Screen Recording. 

Step 4: This will pop up asking what you'd like to share. Choose Your Entire Screen and click the image of your screen. Then click Share. (I advise selecting Choose Your Entire Screen because it allows you to share anything on your computer.)

Step 5: There will be a 3 second countdown before it starts recording. Use those 3 seconds to open the tab with your slides. When you see the screenshot below, open the tab with your slides.

Step 6: When your slides appear, click Present and start presenting.

Step 7: When you're done presenting, go back to the Flipgrid tab and click Stop Recording.

At this point, you will be allowed to review your recording just like you would if you recorded a video of just yourself. You will have the option to delete it and start over if needed. If you are satisfied, click next, take your obligatory Flipgrid selfie, enter your name and submit.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.

For Students: The Basics of Composing and Sending an Email to Your Teacher

More than ever, students are using email to communicate with teachers. Regardless of email service, Gmail, Outlook, etc., students often lack the basic skills of sending an email to a teacher. Many times, their emails contain characteristics of text messages and direct messages on social media platforms. 

On many occasions, students will compose the entirety of their message in the subject line. To help with this, start by explaining to students that email is a formal form of communication. This will be essential when they enter the workforce. A tip I give students is to treat an email with the same care they take when writing an essay. Remind them to spell to the best of ability as well as follow grammar rules. I remind students that email communication is different than text or direct messages. On those platforms, grammar and formality is not expected, but in email, it is.

Below is a series of screenshots that show the "basic" anatomy of composing an email from student to a teacher. Feel free to share these images with students.

When emailing a teacher within a school or district domain, there is no need to have email addresses memorized. By typing the teacher's last name, the address will appear in a drop down menu for the student to select.

Remind students of the importance of the Subject line. This is like a "Main Idea" of the message. Messages without a "Subject" are less likely to be read and more likely to be treated as Spam or ignored. Be very clear that this is NOT where you type the entirety of the message.

Let students know, below the Subject line is where they compose their message and use their best grammar.

There is much more to email than discussed in this blog post. This post is meant to address the bare bones basics of composing and sending an email from students to teachers. Once they get the basics, we can then focus on some of the more advanced features of composing and sending emails.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.

Use Links to Google Classroom Assignments in the Stream

 

In a distance learning environment, a consistent line of communication and reminders between teacher and student is extremely important. Like us teachers, kids are overwhelmed. Any way we can help them stay up to date and reminded of classwork is useful. 

One way is to post reminders for assignments in the Stream of Google Classroom. Students will receive an email when an announcement or assignment is posted, and even a notification on their phone if they have the app. If you've assigned an activity due days in the future, send students a reminder in the Stream. In that reminder, you can paste a link to the actual assignment so kids don't have to go into Classwork and search for the assignment. All they have to do is click the link in the reminder and they're taken right to it.

Here is how to set this up.

Step 1: Go to Classwork tab, click the "three dots" in the top right corner of the assignment. Select Copy link.

Step 2: Once the link is copied, go to Stream tab and start announcement. Type a message reminding them of the due date, etc. Then paste the link into the announcement and click Post.

On the student end, it will look like this when they open the notification or email. The student will click on the link in the announcement and they will be transported directly to the assignment without having to fishing through Classwork to find it.

As a student, I would read the instructions and complete the task.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.

How To Create a Kami Assignment in Google Classrooom

 

For years, I have championed DocHub as a free tool for marking PDFs in Google Drive and Google Classroom. Kami was been around for a while now and is an alternative to DocHub and is generally liked by most people who use it. Both perform a similar role as well as integrate with Google Classroom. Though a Doc Hub fan, I would encourage people to use Kami if that is what they prefer. If interested in taking a look at Kami, take a look at the steps below for creating a Kami assignment within Google Classroom. Click here to add the Kami Chrome extension to your browser.

Step 1: In the Google Classroom Create button, select Kami assignment. If you don't see this as option, notify whoever is in charge of your GSuite domain and ask them to push the Kami app to teacher and student accounts.

Step 2: Wait for the Kami assignment window to pop up.

Step 3: Select the Classroom into which you want this Assignment to be assigned.

Step 4: Select which students within that Google Classroom you want to be able to access the Assignment.

Step 5: Decide whether or not you want this Assignment to be published immediately or save as a draft to be edited and or published later.

Step 6: Add your title and instructions. Then click the Google Drive button at the bottom left to add a PDF file from Drive. You have the option of clicking the "paperclip" to attach a PDF saved on your computer.

Step 7: Search Drive (or your computer's files) for the PDF file. you want to attach and have students mark using Kami.

Step 8: Before clicking Assign, determine whether or not you want to check the box that says "Send Kami instructions to students". This will attach an extra document to the assignment that students can read to learn how to mark the text with Kami and turn in to Google Classroom. This is optional for you, the teacher.

Step 9: Click Open in Classroom to view the Kami assignment in Google Classroom.

Step 10: Review your Kami assignment and make sure you've set it up the way you want. If you want to edit, click the three dots in the top right corner of the assignment and select Edit. 

The video below shows you step by step how to set up everything shown in this blog post. 

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.