Gmail’s email layout

Make your emails and newsletters look professional with Gmail’s new email layouts! At the bottom of the window, click Layouts (table-like icon). Choose the layout you want to use and then change the images and buttons to craft your email. You can customize the styling by entering a Parkway logo and entering the color from Parkway Brand Standards Guide. For more directions about the email layout in Gmail, check out Google’s directions to create email with customized layouts.

Parlay Universe

 Parlay Universe

Online (asynchronous) discussion boards are a terrific way to build community online and practice positive citizenship. It allows a different method of all students’ voices to be heard. Sometimes quiet students are more comfortable writing online than speaking up in class.

One component of a good discussion prompt is to provide students with specific open-ended question(s) to address their response. Get some ideas at Parlay Universe! You do not need to use this platform, but it is great for ideas and models of well-written discussion prompts. You can search by subject, grade-level, and topics. Try a discussion board with your students today!

Google Docs Dropdowns

 Under the Insert menu in Google Docs, you will now find the option to add dropdown fields into your doc and customize them. You can use this feature for multiple-choice questions, rubrics, student self-assessments, or project trackers. Check out these Google Docs Dropdown examples!

New Schoology Feature: Student Annotations

When creating assignments in Schoology, teachers will now see the option to assign an Annotations Assignment which pushes a copy of a file (not Google) to each student for them to directly annotate on the document.  

Accepted file types: Docx, HTML, JPG, PDF, PNG, PPTX, RTF, TXT, XLS, XLSX, and XML

Students will then be able to use the tools to type and draw on the document. Changes will be saved as they work. It’s like using Kami on a PDF! (Parkway School District still has a license to use Kami for the 22-23 school year.)

Directions for using Student Annotations

Kami Library

Kami is a digital annotation tool that helps students and teachers interact with pdf documents. We’ve mentioned Kami before and their comment tools. We’ve also shared Kami Geography Scavenger Hunt Activity as a way for you and your students to test out some Kami’s features.  Now, Kami has expanded their templates for note-taking, games, and more! Kami Library has hundreds of free, ready-made teaching templates to download, customize, and share - no strings attached! You can filter by grade level, resource type, and subject.

All students have the Kami extension pre-installed on their Parkway-issued Chromebooks. Teachers need to install the Kami extension in Chrome.

Voice-Typing in Google Docs

If a student is having trouble writing or typing his/her thoughts on paper, consider voice-typing in Google Docs. This allows the student to talk out ideas and is helpful for those who have difficulty typing as quickly as the thoughts come into their head. This is also great accommodation for students with written expression disability.

In a Google Doc (and Slides), go to the Tools menu and select Voice typing. Punctuation is not automatically included, and your child will need to do some editing after voice-typing. Check out this 2-minute video demo!

Parent Pointer: Connect to nature through technology

 

image from Wikipedia Commons

Connect to nature through technology

Happy Spring! Take time to get some fresh air and enjoy the beautiful weather. Integrate technology into your family’s outdoor experience to encourage an appreciation and a deeper understanding of the natural world. Use the iNaturalist app to participate in the City Nature Challenge in St. Louis from April 29 - May 9, 2022.

iNaturalist app

Take photos of plants, fungi, and animals (or even evidence of animals such as tracks, nests, shells, or skulls) and iNaturalist can help you identify these organisms. You can also connect with other scientists and naturalists who can help you learn more about nature. By recording and sharing your observations, you’ll create data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature. iNaturalist is a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. Thanks to the generous support of many organizations and individuals, it is FREE for anyone to use. iNaturalist is available on Google Play and Apple. 

What are you waiting for? Go out, explore, and learn more about the world around you today with technology.

Kami's Split and Merge Feature

 Kami is a digital annotation tool that helps students and teachers interact with pdf documents. We’ve mentioned Kami before and their comment tools. Now we’re diving deep with a fan-favorite Kami tool - Split and Merge.

Split and Merge allows you to effortlessly customize and combine your PDFs by simply clicking a few buttons. Cut out content you don’t need, rearrange the pages for a better flow, or get completely creative by chopping and changing a bunch to make something completely original. Check out Parkway’s Kami’s Split and Merge video!

All students have the Kami extension pre-installed on their Parkway-issued Chromebooks. Teachers need to install the Kami extension in Chrome.

Everyday DigCit

 We want our students to be empathetic and socially responsible digital citizens. Check out Everyday DigCit app - it has questions and talking points to get you and your students thinking about digital citizenship!

Experience Edpuzzle

Videos are a powerful learning resource - more than 65% of students are visual learners1, and +95% of students watch YouTube regularly2.

Your child’s teacher may be using Edpuzzle to make videos interactive. With Edpuzzle, students can only watch the video lessons assigned by the teacher. Teachers can embed their own questions and notes in the video, and students will receive immediate feedback so they can see if they’ve understood the content or not.

Experience Edpuzzle as a student with these video assignments:

• Cornstarch Walk on Water (2:20)

• An Old Trick (1:08)

• My Dad’s a Space Alien (0:31)

1) Vakos, Patricia. "Why the blank stare? Strategies for visual learners." (2003). Prentice Hall eTeach.

2) Jarboe, Greg. "No Matter How You Define It, Generation Z Can't Live Without YouTube." (2017). Tubular Insights.

Kami Comment Tools

We’ve mentioned Kami before and now we’re back again. Kami is a digital annotation tool that helps students and teachers interact with pdf documents. All students have the Kami extension pre-installed on their Parkway-issued Chromebooks. Teachers need to install the Kami extension in Chrome. 

Similar to Google Docs, users can comment on pdf documents with Kami. Some additional comment features unique to Kami are:

	Voice comment - This comment type is handy if you need to record a raw video clip rather than typing. For example, you can practice or test for an elementary student’s reading fluency. Or you can give students the option to respond via audio rather than typing in Kami. If you’re interested in doing this with Google Docs, remember to check out Mote.
	Video comment - Users can record a video of themselves directly in Kami, rather than going to an additional external site such as FlipGrid or Loom. For example, students can record their facial expressions in different emotional states. Recording in video also allows for personalization.
	Screen Capture comment - My personal favorite! Users can video record their screen directly in Kami rather than going to an additional external site such as Screencastify or Loom. For example, students can show their mathematical thinking by drawing out their through process on the PDF. This would be similar to the Highlight the Image feature in Schoology.

To access these tools, click on the Comment tool and the different comment options will pop up. Keep in mind, when using these comment tools for the first time you will often be prompted to allow permissions.

Stay tuned for more Kami features in the future!

Teacher Tip: EdPuzzle

 

Tech Tool: Edpuzzle

Videos are a powerful resource, but it can be difficult to hold students accountable for something you can’t track. Edpuzzle makes the video interactive and gives the teacher data about students’ learning from the video. The process is simple - find a video, add questions and notes, and assign it to your class. Watch as students’ progress and hold them accountable on their learning journey. 

You can experience Edpuzzle as a student with these video assignments:

• Cornstarch Walk on Water (2:20)

• Caesar Cipher (1:47)

• My Dad’s a Space Alien (0:31)

When you assign an Edpuzzle video assignment to your students, you can see who watched the video, how far they watched the video, who didn’t understand the lesson, and who did a good job. Students can re-watch the video as many times as they need at their own pace, while you can easily check their progress from your account. Check out the instructor’s Edpuzzle dashboard:

Edpuzzle is free for students and teachers. With the free Basic plan, you can store up to twenty video assignments in your Edpuzzle account. Go ahead, create an Edpuzzle video assignment today!

Parent Pointer: Kami

Kami is a digital annotation tool that helps students (and teachers) interact and collaborate with pdf documents. All students have the Kami extension pre-installed on their Parkway-issued Chromebooks. Kami has a Read Aloud feature that allows learners to hear the text to be read aloud. (Remember, this feature is also available with Chromebook Accessibility.) Kami also has a Dictionary feature, which gives the definition of the highlighted text. Finally, a tool that both students and teachers enjoy is the colorful stickers rewarded after a job well done. Go ahead, have your child test out Kami’s features with this fun Kami Geography Scavenger Hunt Activity (you must use the Parkway-issued Chromebooks and open the PDF with Kami).

Teacher Tip: Kami

Kami is a digital annotation tool that helps students and teachers interact with pdf documents. All students have the Kami extension pre-installed on their Parkway-issued Chromebooks. Teachers need to install the Kami extension in Chrome. 

Some features unique to Kami include:

• Read Aloud - This allows learners to hear the text to be read aloud. Read Alouds are especially helpful for students learning to read.

• Dictionary - When the text is highlighted, it gives the definition of the vocabulary word.

• Stickers - These colorful stickers can be rewarded after a job well done.

Go ahead, test out some of Kami’s features with this fun Kami Geography Scavenger Hunt Activity. Make sure you have the Kami extension installed and turned on in Chrome in order to open the PDF with Kami. If you did it correctly you should see the Kami (K) near the top of the web address in Chrome. If not, you may need to go to Google Extensions to make it appear.

Stay tuned for more Kami features in the future!

Emphasize words in a Google document’s comments

Last week, Kristen highlighted using the Mote extension to give audio feedback or directions to students. To continue with the topic of feedback, did you know that you do NOT have to use ALL CAPS to emphasize words in a Google document’s comments? You can style text by enclosing within *, _, or - for *bold*, _italic_, and -strikethrough-. Check out @TonyVincent’s image on Twitter below. 

If you find yourself making the same comments repeatedly, consider setting up canned feedback in Google Docs or Slides.

Mote

 

Verbal feedback is powerful, effective, and efficient.  Research has shown that students are three times more likely to implement verbal feedback rather than written.
Mote is a Chrome extension that lets you easily add voice comments and feedback to shared documents and assignments. 

Mote is integrated into Google Docs, Slides and Sheets, as well as Google Classroom, for easy recording and playback. You can create voice notes for any website or application using the 'motepad' within the mote Chrome extension menu - simply click on the browser icon to access.

In Docs: Insert a comment, click the Mote icon and record!  Students see a message with a clickable link to hear your voice note.

In Slides: Click the Mote icon in the menu bar and follow the prompts.  When finished, place the icon where you’d like and use the format options to set how you would like it to play.  You can also change the image to something more appropriate for the slide deck. (right click-replace image)

In Forms: Click on the Mote icon in any question to create a recording of the question.  Currently, there is one Mote per question.  

Flippity.net

Are you interested in creating a virtual escape room but perhaps daunted with setting up response validation in Google Forms? Start small with Flippity’s Scavenger Hunt! Enter the questions and answers (‘locks’ and ‘keys’) into a Google Sheets template and follow the detailed instructions to transform your spreadsheet into an escape room!

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Flippity.net has other templates to turn a Google Sheet into a board game, crossword puzzle, Mad Libs, and more. Some instructions are simple enough that you can even have students create their own! In each case, check out the demo, and then use the templates and detailed instructions provided to transform your spreadsheet. Happy creating!

Schoology LockDown Browser - updated and now possible while video conferencing!

LockDown Browser locks down the testing environment within Schoology until the test is submitted for grading. It blocks access to other applications and websites during exams. Students cannot copy, print, or take screen captures with LockDown Browser. This feature works for both Test/Quiz (green puzzle piece) and Assessment (blue puzzle piece) in Schoology. It updated this 21-22 school year. Here is documentation on how to set up and implement Schoology LockDown Browser while testing.

New this school year - and what many of you have been requesting - LockDown Browser in Schoology is now possible during video conferencing! (For both, Zoom and Google Meet.) Be sure to read through the entire document thoroughly. It is highly recommended to practice these procedures with your virtual students before the real exam. As with any new updates, you may encounter some live troubleshooting issues that you will need to problem-solve.

Ester Park - Follow on Twitter @MrsParkShine

Google Slides are not just for presentations; they can be used for interactive notebooks, choice boards, games, and breakout rooms. We’ve mentioned before how Slidesmania and SlidesCarnival have free templates and how to's for Google Slides. 

Another similar, great resource is from Ester Park. Ester Park is an instructional designer that creates amazing digital materials. You can access anything from graphic organizers to Bitmoji stickers with videos. Most of her materials are free on her website. Check them out today!

Iorad Extension