Parents and Google Classroom Tip: Add as Guardians or Students

 

Maintaining a strong communication loop with parents is more important than ever with distance learning. Here are three ways to do so with Google Classroom. 

1. Add parents as Guardians

In Google Classroom People Tab, each student (enrolled using a GSuite for Education address) will have a button that says Invite Guardians. When you click it, you will enter that student's parent email address. This will send reports of that student's work and progress to the parent's email address weekly. 

2. Add parents as Students

If you have parents that are very hands-on and want to really get the student experience to better help their child, add the parent email address as a student. The same way, in the People Tab, you invite a student, you can invite the parent as a student to the Classroom. One thing to be aware of when doing this is that your school or district's domain must allow accounts outside the domain to join the Classroom. Talk to your school's tech coach or IT person for info on this. 

This video shows how add parents as Guardians or Students.

3. Give parents the student login

Your school's data system (ie. Illuminate) usually has reports listing your students' email addresses and passwords. You can pass this along to parents to have them login as the student for them to help. 

Adding parents as students and giving parents their child's login info do pose the potential hazard of cheating. I tend to assume the best of intentions, but it would be naive of me not at least consider this possibility. 

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.

Don't Forget About Paper and Pencil in Distance Learning

When you think of distance learning, one of the first terms that comes to mind is digital. Since the schools shut down, teachers have been scrambling to transform their paper and pencil activities and lessons to a digital format. As an edtech coach, I have been helping teachers with this transition. In light of this transition, I recommend not forgetting about paper and pencil. It may sound odd from someone like me, but I am a big proponent paper and pencil activities during distance learning.

If you've been following me on various social media platforms, you aware of my fondness for sketchnotes. My sketchnoting mentor Sylvia Duckworth has many great tools and strategies for sketchnoting digitally. If interested, follow her on Twitter. I have always preferred the paper and pencil method of sketchnoting. For years, I have scanned student-generated paper/pencil sketchnotes and posted them on my Cardinal Innovation Center website. In a distance learning world, there is no opportunity to scan student-generated paper/pencil sketchnotes. But never fear, the Google Classroom mobile app is here.

The Google Classroom mobile apps for iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Android as well as using the camera on Chromebooks/laptops makes sketchnoting and other paper/pencil activities in distance learning possible. The videos below show how students can turn in an image of handwritten work to Google Classroom in iOS, Android and Chromebook. Feel free to share these videos with teachers and students.

iOS

Android

Chromebook

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.

Back to School Google Classroom Tips: Stream Settings and Classwork Resources Topic

It's almost time to head back to school, but for many of us, it's not the back to school we were used to. More teachers than ever before will be relying on Google Classroom to facilitate distance learning. Anything we can do to streamline Google Classroom will be beneficial for students. Here are two of my favorite tips to better organize the Google Classroom Stream and Classwork tabs.

Announcements Only in the Stream

In the years I've used Google Classroom, I noticed students struggle to find easily find assignments while "fishing" through the Stream. By default, the Stream displays class announcements and class assignments. My recommendation is to separate the two. One quick setting change will keep all class assignments out of the Stream and only in the Classwork tab. This will make it easier for kids to navigate.

To enable this, go to the settings button in Google Classroom. Scroll down to the setting that says "Classwork on the Stream". If it says either "Show Attachments and Details" or "Show Condensed Notifications", switch it to "Hide Notifications". At the top, click Save.  This will prevent assignments posted in Classwork from clogging up the Stream. Kids will know the Stream is for class announcements and Classwork is for assignments.

Resources Topic in Classwork Tab

In a physical classroom, we create bulletin boards for kids to easy, quick access to a variety of learning materials. In distance learning, using Google Classroom, it's a little bit different. My recommendation for this is to create a "Resources" topic in Classwork. What I have done in the past is create Materials under a Resources topic that are links to a variety of websites and resources that students refer to often. I keep this topic "pinned" to the top. Doing this gives students easy, quick access to these resources.

The video below explains each of these tips.

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.

Grow Your PLN with Facebook Groups

This blog post comes at a bittersweet time. In the past week, my subscribers have surpassed the 150 mark. Thanks to all who have subscribed. I'm honored that so many people take the time to read my thoughts and ideas. On the other hand, this is only the second blog post of the summer. I am normally more frequent in my blog posts, but a few weeks ago, my dad, Lou Juarez, passed away suddenly at the age of 80. Edtech blogging has been on the back burner since then, but I am getting back in the "blogging saddle" as it is very therapeutic. Click here to read about my dad's amazing life.

A popular hashtag amongst educators is #bettertogether. This hashtag spreads the message of sharing resources and ideas amongst educators. It reinforces the spirit of collaboration. Since the COVID-19 crisis has juxtaposed the way we do school, the spirit of this hashtag has spread like wildfire. Traditionally, teachers have taught in silos. They were given the keys to their room, handed a textbook and taught the best they knew how. This isn't an environment conducive to collaboration. With the crisis, many teachers who were still stuck in this mindset have shed those shackles and reached out like never before. Teachers who dreaded me, the tech coach, entering their room or striking up a conversation, immediately felt the need to reach out and learn to adapt to the changing landscape. Many of these teachers are beginning to branch beyond their instructional coaches into social media to continue to learn. 

If you're reading this blog, you're a connected educator that knows the value of a PLN (Personal Learning Network). You're an educator who's active on Twitter and member of EDU Facebook and Voxer groups. If you're looking to continue to grow your network or would like to help get a colleague starting growing theirs, take a look below at some of my favorite Facebook Groups to join. Becoming a connected educator was a watershed moment in my career. Hopefully you can connect with more people to support you through the turbulent changes currently going through education.

Facebook, recently, has put a huge emphasis on Facebook Groups. Some of the Facebook Groups TV commercials have been pretty clever. Educator Groups have been flourishing. It used to be common for educators to be on Twitter for professional networking and Facebook for personal stuff. That is no longer the case. The beauty of Facebook Groups is that you can connect with other educators without having to "friend" them. Check out some of my recommended Facebook Groups.

#EduMatch: Founded by Sarah Thomas, #EDUMatch is like the match.com for educators connecting educators with other educators that match subject, grade level etc. 

#ToTheEdgeEDU: This group is centered around the stories and philosophy of Nevada educator Kyle Anderson and his book of the same name. It's a great resource to connect with educators who share stories of risk taking and resilience.

Teachers Using Google Suite for Education: This group is a worldwide group for people to find support for anything dealing with Google Suite for Education.

#CVTechTalk: Founded by my wife Katherine Goyette and I, this group is an offshoot of our weekly Twitter edchat where we discuss edtech and pedagogy. The CV stands for the Central Valley of California, but all educators worldwide are invited to join the conversation. 

Site Leaders Connect: This group is the official Facebook Group for my wife, Katherine Goyette's Google Innovator project. Its purpose is to connect educational leaders with each other and spread a culture of innovation amongst administrators, coaches and leaders. If you know an educational leader looking to find inspiration, this group and website has a treasure trove of 15 minute insight interviews.

Facebook for Education Group: This is a worldwide group for educators to ask questions and get support for anything in education. Responses come quickly so if you're looking for a good "first group" to join, this is the one. 

The Suite Talk: Founded by fellow Google Certified Trainer Kim Mattina, this group is another great community for getting cutting edge ideas and support using GSuite tools.

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.

DIY Greenscreen

The 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place mandate has made quite the impact on how educators go about our jobs. The mandate fostered a shift to distance learning and brought tools such as Zoom and Google Meet to the forefront. One of the most popular Zoom features is the virtual backgrounds. Virtual backgrounds are fun as well as good tools for maintaining privacy when working from home. 

To maximize the virtual backgrounds feature, you are going to want to have a green screen. Without one, your virtual background image isn't as clear and when you move, your body can disappear on camera. Having a green screen doesn't require professional videography experience. For roughly $50-60, you can transform your home office space with a DIY green screen. Here is how I did it.

1. At local hardware store, purchase a small spool of twine, string or rope. For a few more dollars, grab a package of drywall anchors. The anchors come with screws in the bag. Also grab a pair of eye hooks or  carabiners.

2. Head to Amazon to grab a roughly $40 9x12 green screen. I chose those dimensions because it stretches nearly the entire width of my home office.

3. Drill in the anchor and then insert the screw. Repeat this on the opposite wall. 

4. Thread the string, twine or rope through the slit atop the green screen. Tie your eye hooks or carabiners to each end and hook them up to the screws on each wall. Be sure to make the string as taut as possible. 

5. You now have the ability to stretch the screen across the width of the room and move it to side as needed. If you need to take it down for storage, simply unhook the eye hooks or carabiners and roll it up nicely.

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.

Organize Your Workflow with Google Chrome Tab Groups

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Whether you're a Google Chrome tab minimalist or hoarder, this new Chrome update will be useful. In the past week, Google has pushed out Chrome Version 83 and part of this version is the ability to group tabs. The grouping are completely up to you. Group them to fit your workflow and how your brain works. 

For starters, you will need to update your Chrome browser to Version 83. To check, click on the three dots in top right corner of browser, select settings and, in settings, select About Chrome. 

Near the top, you'll see your Chrome Version. If it says up to date, you should be able to use Chrome Tab Groups. If not, you should see an option to update Chrome. Be sure to update to access this feature. (In my screenshot, I've already updated.)

Once updated and the feature is live, you access Chrome Tab Groups by right clicking on a tab.

You can rename the group by clicking on the colored dot just to the left of the first tab in the group.

Below the box where you rename the tab group, you can choose a color to color code your tab groups.

A way this has improved my workflow is how I have groups of tabs for each class period I teach. For each class period tab group, there is a a tab for that class' Google Classroom, Illuminate Online Gradebook, Flipgrid Grid, Quizizz game and Quizlet study set. For me, as a tab hoarder, this is great. This allows me to not have to go into any of those tabs and switch classes or accounts. Many times, during class period transitions, I forget to switch accounts for a new period and valuable time is lost while kids wait for me to get into the correct account. This way, they're all open and at a glance. In addition, I keep a group of tabs titled "Work" for my Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc.

The silent video below shows you how to place a tab into a new group and move tabs to existing groups.

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.

Flipgrid for Families

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Flipgrid is absolutely one of my favorite education apps. They are always adding cool new features. I'm loving the new whiteboard and screencasting features. As a teacher of a large amount of English learners, it is a great app to foster listening and speaking skills. In our current situation of distance learning, Flipgrid is becoming more popular. Teachers are relying on it for student wellness check-ins, checking for understanding, learning demonstrations and more. 

If you're new to Flipgrid, like any tech tool, practicing with it in a non-formal, fun setting is a great way to learn how to use it for educational purposes. For example, I mastered Zoom by hosting video calls for virtual happy hours with friends and family. With Flipgrid, you can do the same. 

During the quarantine, my daughter Ashleigh turned nine. Her birthday, obviously, had to be augmented from the traditional birthday parties we've had for her in the past. Since we couldn't gather to sing her Happy Birthday, I shared a Flipgrid topic with friends and family on social media, via text and email. Using this topic, they were able to record a Happy Birthday greeting and or song.

20 people recorded a greeting. What really hit me about those who recorded the greeting is that the vast majority of them were not educators. Even amongst educators, Flipgrid is still growing, but to those outside the realm of K-12 education, it is virtually unknown. Many figured out relatively easily how to use the Flipgrid platform. Others messaged me for help before figuring it out. 

As I reflect on this experience, using Flipgrid for this manner was a very organic way learning the tool as an educator and for reaching parents. It gave parents an opportunity to learn a new app with their kids. As students use it more and more for academic purposes, finding ways to help parents help their kids with Flipgrid, and other apps, is important. Many of my non-educator friends and family thought Flipgrid was pretty cool and were excited to see their kids use it for school purposes in the future. 

                               

Moral of the story is this. A great way to learn the ins and outs with Flipgrid, other "new to you" apps, is to experiment with friends and family. Set up a happy birthday Flipgrid topic for a loved one. At family game night, play Quizizz, Kahoot or Quizlet Live for a fun topic. Doing this can familiarize non-educator parents with these apps and help them better support their students when they use them for school purposes. 

Click here to see Grandma Jan, who has no Flipgrid experience, sing a great rendition of Happy Birthday.

Click here to see Ashleigh's friend Ella sing Happy Birthday. Ella is being assisted by her parents.

If you'd like to learn how to get started with Flipgrid for the first time, click the links below to access a slide deck and view a how-to video.

Slides

How To Videos

Setting Up External Speakers in Zoom and Google Meet

Since this whole distance learning adventure began, I have had the privilege of supporting hundreds of teachers who are learning to use Zoom and Google Meet. As teachers have gotten more comfortable with these tools, they have been taking more and more relative "tech risks".  Since they've been forced to work from home, many have invested their own money in new tech tools. A common purchase has been external, bluetooth speakers. Often times, the built-in computer speakers don't provide the sound quality to effectively participate in a video call with students and or colleagues. As more and more teachers have been making speaker purchases, I have received a number of requests for help enabling the speakers in Zoom and Google Meet. 

The images below shows you where to go to choose your external speaker instead of your default, built-in computer speakers when participating in Zoom and Google Meet. If using a bluetooth speaker, it must be paired and connected at that time with your computer to show as an option.

Change your speaker in Zoom (desktop client)

Change your speaker in Google Meet

If your external speaker is connected via bluetooth, it will appear in the circled list.

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.

Don't Blow Up Your Co-Workers' Inbox with Calendar Invites

During this COVID-19 crisis, it's easy to overlook small details when communicating with colleagues, students and PLN members. I am just as guilty as anyone. Not too long ago, I absent-mindedly forgot to hit BCC when sending out my blog to my blog subscribers consequently showing everyone's email address. My mistake cost me some subscribers, and I don't blame them. I have since been extremely mindful to not make this mistake again.

In my job, I support multiple school sites with multiple administrators. Like everyone else, administrators are also feeling like first year educators. There is no "wise old man" expert on education in this crisis. We are all doing the best we can. At least I think so.

The purpose of this anecdote is that small mistakes can have larger consequences. Email, more than ever, has become extremely important for communicating with colleagues and students. Scheduling Zoom and Google Meets is a daily occurrence for some. Each scheduled video conference is accompanied by an email invitation. With emails flooding our inboxes, it can be difficult to manage and some important messages might get missed. Anything we can do to limit the traffic in our inbox is extremely helpful during this time.

As weekly Zoom and Meets are scheduled, help stem the tide of emails by not scheduling each event individually in your calendar. Instead, make sure you have a shared calendar for all staff or stakeholders. Doing this generates one email for them to accept access to the calendar. Schedule the events on that calendar without inviting people to each individual event. Once they accept access to the calendar, the events appear on automatically on their calendars. This eliminates the flurry of emails and need to accept each invitation on the part of staff and stakeholders.

See below how to create a shared calendar in Google Calendar. 

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.

The Right Side Panel in GSuite

Efficiency and convenience are two important things when trying to improve and maximize your workflow. Tab hopping, though not difficult, isn't the most efficient method of multitasking. The seconds wasted hopping through multiple tabs in Chrome add up to minutes. With more and more tabs open, the brain power used to remember which tab is which app/site wears on you. Anything to make this process easier is welcomed.

Not too long ago, Google added a right side panel to apps such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets. This panel is viewable by clicking the little arrow icon in the bottom right corner of the aforementioned apps. This side panel gives you at a glance access to Calendar, Keep and Google Tasks. 

In Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar, there is another button, below the default "at a glance links", for Add-ons. For example, in Gmail, you can install an Add-on for Zoom or DocUsign on the side panel. 

Using this side panel within GSuite is a great way to improve your efficiency and workflow. As an educator, my favorite way to use the side panel is the ability to add important emails as a task in Google Tasks. This helps me set reminders and due dates for action items I receive on a daily basis. 

There is also a great feeling I get every time I complete a task and it disappears from my list. When you complete all tasks, it says good job.

Something as simple as having my Google Calendar in the side panel, at a glance, while working in Gmail is another workflow improvement. This helps tremendously when scheduling emails, video calls and other tasks. 



With students, the side panel is a great way to have kids easily access notes and sources when writing. If kids take notes from different sources in Google Keep, they can open Keep in the side panel while in Google Docs. Any notes can be added directly into the Doc to jumpstart their writing.



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. 

Keep Your Inbox Decluttered and Keep a Record of Distance Learning Interactions with Gmail Filters

Now that we are waist deep in distance learning, there are a myriad of issues we have to deal with. One issue is that of a cluttered inbox. Distance learning brings email to the forefront, more than ever, of our day to day communication. Accountability is another thing. I have heard of governing bodies planning to audit LEAs and districts for how they attempted to connect to students during this crisis.

A way to kill both of those birds with one stone is Gmail filters. If you are using labels to organize the messages in your inbox, you are part of the way there. The issue is that you need to take the time to actually move those messages into labels. Gmail filters can expedite and automate this process. 

Bulletins Label

As a tech coach who supports multiple school sites, I get emails daily for the school bulletin. Before the crisis began, I created a filter that funneled all daily bulletin emails directly into a bulletin label. If I felt the need to see the bulletin, I simply opened the label and quickly found the email for that day. 

Google Classroom users know that an email is sent to you every time a student comments or turns in an assignment. This leads to a steady stream of emails that can easily make a nightmare out of your inbox. Veteran Google Classroom users will simply go into the settings and turn of email notifications. But in this crisis, when we may be audited for how well we communicated with students, you may want to keep the email notifications on. This is where Gmail filters come into play.

Google Classroom Emails Label

A filter can be set to funnel all Google Classroom email notifications into one label. In the case of an audit, you can simply show this label to concerned parties as evidence of your various interactions with students. 

To set a filter for this, follow these initial steps.
- Go to settings gearbox and click settings
- Click Filters and Blocked Addresses
- Click Create New Filter

The next steps for setting up the filter are as follows.

- Type (Classroom) in the row that says "Has the words"

- Click Create Filter

The final steps are as follows.

- Check the box that says "Skip the inbox"

- Check the box that says Apply the label

- Click the label of your choice

- Click Create Filter

When you finish this process, those Google Classroom notification emails will be funneled into your label. This does put the onus on you to check the label from time to time and as needed. But in the event of an audit, you'll have easy access to the various Google Classroom interactions you had with students.

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.

Google Meet Now Integrated Within Gmail

As Google Meet has surged in popularity, Google has integrated this tool into Gmail for GSuite users. This has yet to roll out to consumer accounts (@gmail.com). What this does is allow you to start and or join a Meet straight from Gmail. 

Your text chats via still remain below the Meet options. When you click on them, you can still video call someone via the Classic Google Hangouts interface. 

The video below demonstrates how this works.

One Way SPED Teachers Can Support Distance Learning Via Google Classroom

  

In a distance learning environment, it can be very difficult for SPED teachers to support classroom teachers as well as the students on their caseload. If your school is doing a SPED teacher co-teaching model, one idea is to have the SPED teacher be added as co-teacher in the Gen Ed teacher's Google Classroom. 

From there, the SPED teacher can help differentiate instruction as well as provide alternative assignments that meet SPED students' accommodations and learning needs. Below is a simple example of this. 

- Gen Ed teacher adds SPED teacher as co-teacher in Google Classroom
- Gen Ed teacher assigns an article to read and write a paragraph summary on Google Docs
- Gen Ed teacher assigns to all students except the SPED students
- SPED teacher (if having text read out loud is an accommodation) uses Screencastify (or any screencasting tool) to read the article out loud as a video
- SPED teacher creates assignment (assigned only to SPED students with this accommodation) with read aloud video instead of article for SPED student to use before writing summary

In the sample above, SPED students with accommodations will only see the assignments that have the accommodations. The SPED teacher will have an easier time evaluating their work as well. 

The video below shows how this idea can be executed. 

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.