Q & A Google Slides

Another gold nugget from the GAFE department!

I was elated when I discovered the Q & A section in the Google Slides a few weeks ago. My first thought was, 'What's the big deal? Just let the kids raise their hands and ask already!" Then I got to thinking. Some of our students, if they can't ask RIGHT THEN, they listen to nothing else. Using the Q & A option of the slide presentation, students can pose their question RIGHT THEN, and you, as the presenter have the option to decide when discussion can take place.

It might be wise to have some guidelines in place for your students when using the presentation as a teaching tool. Encourage the students to ask some very deep questions, or perhaps you could use the Q & A section to have the students post some "aha" moments. These could also be a spring board for some meaningful discussion.

Using the Q & A session is super easy. View the video below to get a general idea of how to start using it. Happy presenting!

Flowcharts in the classroom

Flowcharts are an available tool to be used by teachers and students alike. One such software that can help you create your flowchart (or your students') is draw.io.

The flowcharts you create can be saved to DropBox or Google Drive and shared like any other file.

Free for educational use, teachers can plan their goal reaching activities for their students, and students can create time lines, writing plans, and even their own goal planned activities. You can create a "yes/no" flow chart and have students use them to help guide their thought process on their reading. Check out this site for an example:
Look below for a short demo of draw.io.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8aJ9Ad8_PYLcHZ2MFZ5Ti11Z2M/view

Collecting Emails

We have used Google Forms religiously for surveys, spelling tests, vocabulary tests and the like. We collect the user information by having the students log in before filling out the form.

What about using Google Forms for other things AND being able to collect the emails from OUT of district? Maybe you're planning the party, and you'd like for parents to fill out the form as to what they could bring? Would you like to know how to get in touch with them via email?

It's easy to have your forms set up to collect email addresses from any domain--gmail, yahoo, msn, or anywhere else.

To do this, simply click the "Settings" gear icon in the top right hand corner. From the pop up window, make sure the "Collect email addresses" box is checked, and make sure the "restrict to Baker County School District Users" is UNchecked. This way, before a person can fill out the form, they will HAVE to sign in with an email address.

Simple!

Check It Out!

Today's tech tip is something I wished I had back when I was in the classroom. It's a neat little Google Forms Add-on called, "Check it Out!" This would be great for checking out science equipment, classroom library books, and a variety of other things within the classroom that need to be shared between students.

This add-on allows you to create a form with simply 2 questions: Check in and check out. Simple. You type up a list of items that will go into the "check out" section, and that's it. As kids check them out, the item moves from "check out" to "check in", indicating that the particular item is not available to use. When the student wants to return the borrowed item, they simply fill out the form again, this time selecting their item from the "check in" section. The form automatically moves the item back to the "check out" section.

Filling out the form could be a job for the classroom librarian and a great way to encourage responsibility among the users, so the library books do eventually get returned.

To get started, open up a new Google Form, click on the hamburger menu (the three dots to the right of the "send" button) and choose "add-ons" from the bottom. This takes you to the Google Store. From the Google Store, type in "check it out" in the search bar then install.

Check it out!

Here's a form I did, just playing around with the app: Click here for demo form