Google is taking over education. The Chromebook is everywhere, and so many students now have access to Drive. The collaborative features, ease of use, and availability make Google products a favorite of lots of teachers. It's also a favorite of administrators because it's so simple to manage.
    What can you do to take it to another level, though? Sometimes it's all about the little things, and that's what this blog is all about. These are five little tips and tricks that will take your Google game up a level.

• Converting to Google Products

     Let's face it; many teachers are coming to the beautiful world of Microsoft. Google has only been taking the education world by storm for 10 to 12 years. Many teachers have been teaching longer than that, and they have a whole host of resources that are in the Microsoft format.
     There is an easy way to fix that, especially for Word. Start by clicking the settings wheel in the top right, and then check off the box that converts everything into a Google Doc. As soon as that's checked off, every time you upload a Word Doc, it will automatically switch to a Google Doc. For Slides and Sheets, you will need to upload first and then hit the button that says convert to the corresponding Google product
     If you use Google Classroom, this trick is a MUST. It makes the workflow in Google Classroom so much easier. If you don't use Google Classroom, it's still a great thing. It allows you easy sharing and collaboration. You can easily share it just by changing the last word in the URL from edit to copy 

• Easy Sharing

​      That brings me to the second little tip that is incredibly helpful. Google is easily the sharable collaborative format. You can change how you share things out by simply changing the end of a Google URL. This great graphic from Tony Vincent will show you some outstanding ones.

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• Drive is more than just Docs, Slides, and Sheets
  

​     Every time I deliver PD in Google Drive, it amazes me how many folks don't know this. If you click new and then more, there is a button that says connect more apps down at the bottom. This feature opens Google Drive up to a whole other set of apps.
     There are great educational tools in there like WeVideo, Kami, Pear Deck, and more. You might also find that tool that lets you do that one thing you have always wanted. The overall beauty though is that if it's in Drive, it makes the Classroom connection easy!

• Forms Differentiation
  

      Google Forms is more than just a place to do quizzes and surveys. It's a place where you can differentiate and personalize learning. You can literally build quizzes in forms that are impossible to fail. It's super easy.
      It all comes down to adding multiple-choice questions and sections. At the bottom of each multiple-choice question, there are three dots in the bottom right corner that you go to section based on a response. Sections are basically new pages. It allows you to send students to one page if they get the question right, and a different one if they get the get the question wrong.
     It allows you to add a video or a different question if they get it wrong. Where it really can be great, though is that you can insert a live URL to take kids anywhere on the internet. You can do things like adding a HyperDoc link that asks students to complete an activity if they get it wrong. It means the possibilities are endless.

• Google Drawing
  

​      Google Drawing is one of the most underused apps in the Google Sphere. The possibilities of use are endless. The whole idea is that you get what amounts to one slide with space on either side, and you can use shapes to build things like mind maps, comparison maps, and magnetic poetry.

An excellent resource for this is Eric Curt's site which can be found HERE.

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        I don't typically like writing about politics, especially since the politics of today's world are so toxic, but I think this week is an exception. U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson announced his retirement this week, and I want to tell you about an educational experience I had with him that changed my life. We get so tied down to what's going in our class, that sometimes we forget how much an experience matters. Hopefully, this post will show you why.
    My family has known Senator Isakson since the early '80s. My mom was in Junior League with the Senator's wife, and we have been following his political career since he was a Georgia State Representative. In 2003, I had the honor of being selected as one of his summer interns in Washington, D.C. At the time, I saw this more as something fun, but as I reflect now, the effect it has had on my life is incredibly profound. 
    When I went to Washington in the summer of 2003, Senator Isakson was a representative that was running for U.S. Senate. It meant that most of my job as an intern came down to giving folks capitol tours. It used to be that people could move across the capitol freely, but since the attacks of September 11th, it requires having a staffer (either a tour guide or intern) with you. Since Senator Isakson was running for Senate at the time, it meant he could never turn these down, and it meant they fell to me.
     The experience of leading these tours set me up incredibly well for my future. At the time, I only had one semester left to get my degree in Social Studies education. By touring the capitol each day, I was getting to experience one of the things I would teach about for the next ten years. I was able to take groups into the galleries of both houses of Congress, and literally sit there and watch them work. I developed stories that I used with my students for years. It was learning by experience, but it wasn't the only great thing about it.
     While I knew of Senator Isakson and I had met him a few times, I had never really talked with him. This internship gave me a chance to, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he is just a great person. Think about that for a second. In today's toxic political environment, I know from experience that I can trust in the humanity of one of Georgia's only two Senators.  Can you say that about your votes? If we all could say that, would we be in the political climate that we have today?  I may not always agree with the Senator's stand on the issues, but just knowing him personally made it the most comfortable vote I ever cast.
     I can also say this experience changed my life in a very profound way. I met my wife while I was an intern for the Senator. She was interning at the same time for a farm lobbyist group, and we actually met on a bus. We spent the entire summer together, seeing the sites, and now we have four kids. It all came off an educational experience.
     If you are in a classroom, you may not be able to offer trips to D.C. or meeting a future spouse. You can, however,  facilitate an experience that changes a kids life. You could have the next broadway star sitting in your classroom, and your field trip to the theater is what sparked that curiosity. It could be bringing in a career day speaker whose ideas were so profound that one of your students changed that career path. It could be setting up kids with local internships that turn into future jobs. You never really know, so trying new things is what can make an incredible difference.
    I think as teachers, we get tied up too much into content, and we don't stop and take a look at the things that really matter. We in this field to prepare kids for the future, and we never know what they will really use. Why not give them the experience that lets them make a better decision?

      I have meant to write this post for several weeks, but life got in the way. I went through what this post is all about July 14-19, but then I went on vacation, had a few speaking engagements, and I had to play catch up, so it's not coming till now. It might end up perfect, though.   As you start the new school year, make this one about finding your tribe. I know I added to mine July 14-19, and I want to tell you about it.
     Last October, I joined the team at Tynker, and it has been an exciting ride when it comes to finding my tribe. I have been in the EdTech community for several years now, and I have a vast swath of friends and colleagues that I can depend on.  They have been built through years on the conference circuit and participating in things like Twitter. I lacked a tribe, though around what I actually did at Tynker. That all changed in the middle of July.
     I have learned over the years that my favorite PD's are the ones that let me pull out with a group of like-minded people. Spending that quality time allows you to not only work and grow together, but it also allows you to socialize.  It's a time to get close, and I had the privilege of leading something like this in the middle of July thanks to the Infosys Foundation.
One of the Infosys Foundations goals is to enhance computer science education across the country, and one of the ways they do that is through a summer institute called PathFinders that becomes summer camp from teachers. I helped lead a full week of PD for those that signed up for the Tynker track, and I am so happy that I did.
      We repeatedly talked during the week about coming to PathFinders to find your tribe, and I think our group for sure did. Sometimes in schools, that can be incredibly hard. Just because you teach the same thing or the same grade level, does not necessarily mean those folks are your tribe. I know from personal experience I struggled with that because I was the teacher doing video and creation projects. There just weren't many Social Studies teachers that thought the same way I did. I needed to go outside my school to find the group that I could learn and associate with, and finding that tribe is especially essential when you are talking about coding.
     Coding is at a place where so many know it's essential, but there aren't necessarily set standards for it everywhere, and a large swath of teachers don't know how to integrate it. That's why this week was so important. We were able to give almost 40 teachers background and experience with both coding and Tynker, but the best part might have been giving them the group that they can continue to collaborate with and feel community. That's what is going to carry them.
     If your reading this and you feel like you don't have that tribe, start going outside your usual circle. Things like PLC's and grade level committees have their place, but they aren't always the best place to get you where you need to be. An excellent place to start would be to begin participating in Twitter chats. They are discussions on a specific hashtag (# and a keyword) that put like-minded individuals in the same place. You never know who you will find, and they may become a fast tribe member.
     You also can get yourself out there. I started speaking at conferences, and you quickly find like-minded people who are doing the same thing. All it takes is applying. You can also apply to academies like PathFinders, Google Innovator, and Raspberry PiCademy. I have done all three, and they were some of the best PD I have ever had.
      Don't hesitate to find the tribe. Education is one of the most rewarding professions you can be in, but it can also be an incredible drag. You need that group who thinks like you and who can pick you up. It's just a matter of finding them.

​     So, to start, this is my experience. I know others approach things differently, and it's ok that I don't understand that approach.  With that out of the way, let's talk about summer. Schools are off, and so are teachers, right? I know that in my time in the classroom that certainly wasn't the case, and I am going to use this blog to convince you that it isn't. If you're a teacher, summer should be a time for work, but it's finally time to work at your own pace. If you use summer correctly, it also means that some of the garbage that you have to do during the school year is worthless. Maybe if we change the perception, we can change that.
     In all my year's in the classroom, I only came into one where I was not a coach. I coached football, wrestling, and one fateful year of lacrosse. I also wanted to be a good teacher, though. It means that if I did not plan in the summer, I was pretty much screwed. There was no chance I could plan effectively during the school year and put in the time that I needed as a coach. It meant summer was work, and I accepted that. I could finally make my own schedule.
      I don't understand the teachers that take the whole summer off, and I think the number of ones that do who are also good at what they do is limited. Summer absolutely needs to be a time to decompress, but if I can take some of that time to create original experiences for my students, I am going to do that. I want to do that. I want to get ahead, so I am not scrambling during the school year. It doesn't mean I won't have to make some adjustments, and it doesn't mean I will finish my lesson planning. It just means I will have a great head start.
     If everyone took the summer planning approach, though, it means administration and leadership teams would need to look at things differently. PLC's have some value, but they also take away creativity. Forcing teachers to "co-plan" in them means they could lay out the best-laid plans in the summer to just have them thrown out. Why are we forcing them to do that? Teachers have different strengths, and they should be able to use them to get the most out of their students.
      It doesn't mean PLC's don't have value though. To start, they should be almost entirely virtual. Why are we wasting teacher valuable time during the year when we could set them up in a great virtual way that lets them share with each other even in the summer months. Yes, it takes training for folks to do it effectively, but it would also make them better using virtual platforms which every school now has with Learning Mangement systems.
      I also think PLC's need to do a better job of getting together like-minded teachers. Just because teachers teach the same subject, it does not mean they teach the same way. I know I had a PLC one year where I was having students create with video, and I had to partner with a teacher who had just gotten their first cellphone....in 2010.  I would have benefited much more from being with a teacher who thought the same way I did about student creation. It could have even been a teacher of a different subject. With all the practical methods of connecting, why aren't we letting teachers do that?
     I also think we need to have a renewed emphasis on teacher PD in the summer.  Guess what? Most teachers aren't going to give two thoughts about PD that comes in and tries to happen during their regular school process. There just isn't enough time, and they have too many other cares (I don't include coaching in this as it's a different kind of support.) You have to be able to pull out of the environment and focus on your own learning. 
     What better way to do it than the summer? We need to provide teachers the opportunity to do it. It could be as severe as finding the money to send them to a big conference like ISTE, or as easy as setting up ways for the best teachers to show off what they are doing. It's really up to you.
     With all that I am trying to say make the most of your summer. Use it to be less crazy during the year, and to make yourself better. If your admin doesn't support that, then you need to tell them why they should.

     So, I meant to write this blog last week, but I think the message is still a good one, so better late than never. It all stems from my 5th-grade daughters, "moving up ceremony." I think ceremonies like this are inherently silly, but I am also the one who has only walked in 1 graduation ceremony ever.  I was there for my daughter, but there was something before the ceremony that stood out to me. It was a simple slide show.
Before the kids walked in (again, it's 5th grade, so a procession is silly), someone had put together a simple slide show with pictures of the kids and of the year. The thing that stood out to me, though was that each kid held up a sign that said what they wanted to be when they grew, and the answers were pretty astonishing.
     There were the usual pro athlete answers, but there was also a considerable portion that was for the sake of this blog, "high-end educated professions" Those included things like neurosurgeons, engineers, lawyers, and others. I could not help but wonder if that was a product of the area I live in, and I think the answer is almost certainly yes.
     I live in the suburbs. It's an area with high-end professionals and filled with adults who are doctors, lawyers, and engineers. It's easy for kids to see those professions. It might be their parents. It might be their friends' parents. It might just be something their parents are setting them up to strive to. Whatever it is, I think it means that it's easier for kids to dream based on their location. It made me think, "How do we break that cycle?"
      I would be very curious to see the answers from children in a school with a high poverty percentage. Are their dreams the same, or are they things that simply come down to are you blessed with a certain level of talent like athletics, music, and movies? Are their dreams things that can be obtained with hard work and education, or are they things that are just a bit more out of reach?
     It makes me think that we almost have to have a focus on bringing those types of professionals into high-risk schools and letting them show those kids what their profession is all about. If kids can take field trips to see their profession in action, it's even better. Schools could do something like weekly career Mystery Skypes. It's all about bringing options to kids, and with them, maybe we can break the cycles of poverty that persist in both our country and the world.
     The goal should be to turn a few. If we can help a few kids break that cycle, they can be the professionals that you bring into the schools for the next wave. Think about how compelling that story is. It gives them an example. It gives them the confidence that it's possible, and if you can continue on that, you might just have a movement.

      Student creation is ideal. It's what we want kids to do. We want kids to be able to show what they know by creating something new. No matter how you slice it any other way, it's the only form of learning that is not a pure regurgitation of material. It's the place where kids can actually think.
      What's one of the lowest hanging fruit for creation? It's presentations. There is software everywhere, and it's incredibly accessible. Kids learn about PowerPoint, Slides, and in some places Keynote from a very young age. The problem is that most teachers don't get creative with it. They just want to use it as a regurgitation of information, and that doesn't even really scratch the surface of what a presentation software can do.
      When you think about presentations, don't think in the style of just having kids tell you about something. Just doing a presentation about George Washington limits what kids can actually learn. It also limits their critical thinking skills
       So, what should you do? It's straightforward. Start with a scenario. Give kids an audience that they are creating the presentation for. Take the United Nations as an example. It's a group that has an interest in environmental, economic, and political issues. All of which makes it a group that can apply to almost any subject area. It means you can use it in nearly every classroom as an audience to build your presentation for. Kids are going to think more critically when they have to convince or inform a particular group, and it just makes the learning deeper.
      The scenario is a great place to start, but you can also use presentation software to create a host of things that aren't really presentations. The addition of easy collaboration makes it easy, and there are loads of possibilities. It's just a matter of getting creative with it. 
To start, the ability to automatically start a Google Slides presentation just with a link means it has all kinds of alternative use cases. You can do things like apps, books, comic strips, and more. You just need to use need to craft what the slides look like by adding shapes and adjusting the aspect ratio of the slide. You can make it look like almost anything. Then just get a publish to web link from the file menu, and you can choose the option to have it start as soon as a viewer goes to the link.
      There are also a couple of ways to use things like PowerPoint and Keynote. You could use shapes to create Infographics, and then you could use something like the Thinglink to make it interactive. You could also use something like Magic Move in Keynote to make what looks similar to a stop motion video.
      It all comes down to your imagination. Presentation software can be almost anything you want. You just need to design the scenario that goes around them.

      Let's talk about social media.  It's a tool almost everyone uses, but it's also a tool that can be filled with hate and bile that you just don't want your students near. What if we could use it for good though? What if we could use it for learning?
One of my favorite things that I ever did in my social studies class was to have kids create social media accounts for their favorite historical figures. The whole point was to have kids create with one of their favorite tools. It also just happened to be perfect for what I wanted a creative activity to be. 
     Having kids create social media profiles forced them to get in the minds of the historical figure. They had to think and post like they were them, and it forced them to go deeper than just telling me about the person. I think that's easily what makes history more than just stories.
    You could get really creative with it though if you teach science and math. ELA is easy because stories are built in. Just have them be a literary character. In math, what if they treated a math concept like they were a person? You could do a social media account for the subtraction monster. I have also seen science teachers do similar things such as making certain minerals characters that they could post as.
     The key is having ways to fake it. You don't necessarily want kids on the real platform because of all the problems that it could create, so you want to have tools to fake it, and that's what this post does.

1) Padlet
       Padlet is like the OG of online digital corkboards. It's been around forever and has a heck of a lot of uses. The idea is that you can create a webpage where you can create digital posts that look similar to post it notes. You can add text and images easily. 
      It is perfect for a fake social media board. You can create a board and have kids post as a character like they were on Instagram or Twitter. It really doesn't matter. They can add pictures, video, and text. The only downside is that kids have to create an account to create their own, so you would need to create the board for younger kids, and they would most likely need to do it together.

2) Nearpod
      Nearpod is in the same boat. They have what is similar to a Padlet clone as part of their presentation software. It's a collaborative board where kids can post photos, videos, and text in a post-it note format. It's just part of a whole other software to do interactive presentations.
      The idea is that you put a Collaborate board into a presentation and the kids respond to it as if they were posting on a social media wall. The first way to use it might be to talk about the person in some of the content you are presenting to kids before the collaborate board, and then have the board to have kids collaborate on for the social media post. Really though, it's up to you on how you would structure it.

3. Class Tools
      Class Tools is an excellent little site that has a host of small tools and templates to use in the classroom. It looks like it was made in the late '90s, but the little tools in it work incredibly well. Two of those go to the idea of faking social media post: Fakebook and Twister.
      Fakebook and Twister are precisely what they sound like. It's a place to fake a Facebook and Twitter profile. Fakebook works incredibly well, and it allows you to save the profile. Twister is a little tougher to use, but it still gives you that ability to create social media for the classroom.

4. Google Slides
     Yes, I know what your thinking. A presentation tool, really? A tool like Google slides actually gives you a lot of options because of the multitude of ways that you can share it. It also becomes a good option because of the ability to deliver it via Google Classroom quickly. It's all just a matter of how you set things up.
     The basic idea would be to do a slide or set of slides that has tweets of Instagram posts on them. You could change the size of the slide to correspond with a format that makes more sense for a post, and you can set the slide show to present when you click on the link. It takes some creativity, but you can definitely make it work

5. Tons of Templates
      Of course, the easiest way to fake social media post is to go back to a somewhat analog world. There are tons of templates out there that allow teachers to use things like Microsoft Word and Google Docs to create social media post. Students can use them digitally, but they can also be printed out. If you want the easiest route to go, this may be it.

       Good teachers are experts. To be a good teacher, you have to have some passion about your content. You might be an expert in early childhood education, or you might be an expert in a specific subject. What is difficult though is being an expert in one specific topic, Teachers have to be broad, so that's why it’s always good to have ways to bring other experts into your class. It's also always good to have different viewpoints.
      That's the whole point of this post. Below you will find my top 5 ways to being other experts into your class. Some of them are easy, but others might require you to step out of your comfort zone to ask. If it's all about what’s best for kids, isn't that something we should be doing anyway?

1. Skype in the Classroom

     In the past, I have given Microsoft a hard time in my blog. There are a bunch of things I think they could do better with, but Skype in the classroom is one where I think they actually excel. The whole goal is to make finding someone to Skype with as easy as possible, and that's what every teacher really wants. 
     Skype in the Classroom site is great. You can find experts, authors, and even other classrooms to connect and work with. You can also put your name put there to see if you can get someone specific. It even has plans and guides to get you started. There are of course other video conferencing platforms out there, but Skype is the one that gives you the runway to get started quickly.

       2. Your Local University:
      No matter where you are, there is usually a local university that is within a mornings drive from you. Yes, if you are super rural it might be a long drive, but it's doable. These universities can be great places to find experts. You just have to be careful who you get though..
      University lecturers typically aren't best folks for kids, but some of the researchers and others around the University can be. They can have an expertise in a topic that a regular teacher just can't. I am thinking of folks like the head of the engineering design lab who can talk about their prototyping process and the machines they use. Folks like that can just add to the classroom, and they should be pretty easy to connect with.

      3. Your Community Members and Parents
     Schools and community should go hand in hand. It becomes a different mindset to think about schools as community centers, but if we can shift that way it will do more for improving poor-performing schools than any initiative we may come up with. Using the communities expertise is a great way to bring in experts.
    I think sometimes finding the right experts here is obvious, but I think there are other solutions you may not even be thinking of. Schools in rural areas could bring in people like local farmers to talk about technique with FFA kids. There are just so many options. It's just a matter of finding them.

      4. Nepris
      Brining experts into your class is kind of a common sense thing right? Well, it would make sense that there would be a company that does it for profit, and that company is called Nepris. The whole point of Nepris is to make things as easy as possible. The best thing about it is they do all the work.
     Nepris tends to be very STEM-focused, but that definition can almost apply to anything. It has ways to request a specific topic and person, but it also has some pre-setup talks and videos you can use. If you need something that is just easy and you have the budget, this might be the way to go.

      5. Social Media
      Social Media has its ups and down but where it can have a significant impact in the classroom is its ability to bring experts in. Instagram and Twitter especially tend to be the actual person responding, and even if you are scared of the kids being there you can always ask that person to be part of your class. It could even start pretty simply.
       You could start by simply tagging an expert in some of your existing classroom activities. Many times experts feel great about being tagged in school activities, and they will respond accordingly. I have seen a high school ELA teacher get an author this way, and I actually had the former head of Google HR respond when someone tagged him in a post after one of my sessions.

This blog is written by David Lockhart who is all about coding. If you want to chat about your school's coding and STEM goals. Schedule a time HERE.