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