Tuesday, September 27, 2016

#TechTipTuesday -Columns in Google Docs


This week is my Birthday (Yes I celebrate all week long, don't you?) so I'm taking the week off from blogging. 

Thanks to Alice Keeler though for sharing this great tip on how you can NOW add columns in a Google Doc.

Click this link below to check it.





Special thanks to @TechnoKato for tweeting this link earlier this past week. 

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

#TechTipTuesday: Instagram Stories

Instagram recently released some new features to it's Stories function.



Instagram Stories for those of you not yet familiar with it, is a quick and simple way to share photos or videos within Instagram that are available to be viewed for a limited amount of time. (24hrs after posting) 

You can access this feature at the top of your Instagram feed.


Why create a story? Simply put, it's quick, in the moment, and allows you to share in excess without overloading your Instagram feed.

The latest feature they've added allows you to use any picture you've taken over the past 24 hours.

To access and use this new feature, click the add to story button(pictured above) which will launch the camera function within Instagram.


This will bring up a selection of photos you've taken over the past 24 hours that you can then add to your story, which will look something like this:


Add a photo you took in the morning later in the day or just use the live camera mode to start capturing and sharing moments from your day.

Protip: Instagram Stories is designed for photos and videos to be taken in Portrait mode (Holding the phone up and down, as opposed to landscape). So if you want to upload photos later instead of doing live pictures I suggest you take them in Portrait mode.

Happy Story Telling!

As always,
Stay tuned and stay connected.


Tuesday, September 13, 2016

#TechTipTuesday: Connecting our families to Google Classroom



Google released a new update to Google Classroom this year to allow parents and guardians to get updates. This is a great feature for families to take advantage of as well as teachers. With a  few steps you can grant your parents/guardians access to get updates about their child's progress when assignments have been issued using Google Classroom.



For starters, I'd recommend sending out a Google Form to your parents/guardians and find out which ones are interested in connecting with your Google  classroom for updates.

The information you will need to collect:

  • Parent/Guardian preferred email address
  • and which student they will need to connect to.


Once you have that information follow these steps below:

1. Go to your Google Classroom and click on the Students tab


2. Next to each student you should see an option to "INVITE GUARDIANS"

3. When you click on it you can enter in the email address they shared with you(if you have multiple parents/guardians interested in getting the updates click on add another) then press invite

That is it from your end.
Some information you will want to share with your parents/guardians:

They will receive an email with the following information in it that they will need to confirm:

Once they click ACCEPT it will ask about the frequency in which they would like to receive the updates.



After they have chosen the frequency they will get updates sent to that email address at 6:00pm (presently the only time option available)


I hope the above steps help to connect your families with your classroom and the amazing work your learners are doing each and everyday.

As always. 
Stay tuned and stay connected.