Teaching with Technology

Using educational technology to enhance the learning environment and increase student engagement!

Edpuzzle + Screencastify = AH-MAZING

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Have you heard the news?! Two of my favorite tools now play even better together! Edpuzzle AND Screencastify! These are two tech tools (say that five times fast!) that I use EVERY SINGLE day in my American Government classroom, and I’m so excited to put these new updates to use!

Quick backstory – I run an in-class flipped junior level American Government classroom where my students work through content at a more individualized pace. I create instructional videos for my students using Screencastify and upload those videos to YouTube. Then, using my Edpuzzle extension, I quickly embed formative assessment questions in the video and assign the videos to my students through Edpuzzle. As students progress through the instructional videos, I’m walking around the classroom with my iPad or laptop, refreshing the Edpuzzle screen that allows me to view their responses to questions, progress through the videos, and how long they’ve watched specific sections of each video. I love my in-class flip because I think it blends my favorite feature of a “traditional flip” (direct instruction without any distractions + students rewatching when they need to) while allowing me to “be in the learning” with them, in the classroom if they need any help or different explanations.

Now …  to the new update!

The new Screencastify + Edpuzzle integration allows teachers to skip the “post on YouTube” step that I typically follow when creating Edpuzzle videos. Maybe, your school doesn’t allow students to view content on YouTube or maybe you just don’t want your content on YouTube! Check out these steps to connect Screencastify and Edpuzzle!

Open a Screencastify recording and click on “more options” on the right side.

Next,  click on “add more options”

Then, slide the Edpuzzle tab over …

And Edpuzzle magically appears on your share options list!

When you’re ready to upload your video to Edpuzzle, select the “upload to Edpuzzle” option. Next, you’ll be asked to log in on Edpuzzle – I always log in with Google – and grant access to your Google Drive. Then, you’ll click on the Google Drive icon (shown below) and that’s it! Your video is uploading to Edpuzzle!

Easy peasy, right?! I love when my edtech favorites play well together 🙂

I hope you’re doing well during this unprecedented time and staying healthy! As always, thanks for reading 🙂

HyperDocs + Bitmoji for Remote Learning

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This post may contain affiliate links or paid sponsorships, which means I may make a commission on information that is included, at no cost to you. I only include links to products I love!

Happy Monday, all! I hope you’re staying healthy and well during this time. In my district, we’re beginning to wind down our school year with only three weeks left! If you’re in any teacher groups on Facebook, you’ve probably seen the rush of Bitmoji slides settings, Google Classroom headers, and GIFs created with one of my favorite tools, Screencastify. Wouldn’t it be neat to smash the amazing images teachers have created with Bitmoji with another fantastic strategy for remote learning – HyperDocs?! Why, not? Let’s do it!

While I typically create my HyperDocs using Google Sites (check out the HyperDocs I’ve created here) Google Slides or Drawings would probably be the easiest tools for creating interactive Bitmoji HyperDocs!

I dabbled a bit yesterday, chugging my umpteenth cup of coffee while working on my new MacBook, creating a very mini HyperDoc that includes some enrichment opportunities for my students for this week. If you’ve seen the fabulous scenes that teachers are creating for their Classroom headers or to share information with their students, you’ve probably noticed that they ARE AMAZING! The scenes that teachers are creating are like works of art – holy moly! When I’m creating my Bitmoji scenes, I scale them back a bit because I’m trying to make them look like my classroom looks – I feel like that adds to the “coolness” (is that a word?) of the scene. It’s like a miniature, cartoon version of Mrs. Petty’s classroom.

Check out this Judicial Branch HyperDoc made using Google Sites. Since I’ve already created my HyperDocs (I update them each year!) creating this HyperDoc was pretty simple and quick. In fact, the part that took the longest was creating the scenes for my Bitmoji – ha!

Have you created any Bitmoji Scene HyperDocs for your students? Feel free to make a copy of the  Judicial Branch HyperDoc I shared to use in your classroom!

Stay healthy and well, friends!

Thanks for reading 🙂

 

Google Classroom and Google Meet Integration

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Happy Friday night! Phew! What a week it’s been. I hope you’re all doing well, staying healthy, and keeping your sanity as we try to get used to our new (and temporary!) norm. Yesterday, our Governor announced that all schools in Missouri would remain closed through the end of the school year and that we would continue with remote/e-learning until the scheduled last day of school. Though I knew this announcement would be coming, I was still shaken and upset when I heard the news. My heart breaks for my students, especially my seniors, who won’t be able to have so many of those “senior year” experiences. Though I won’t be seeing my students in my classroom for the rest of the school year, I’m so thankful for the technology we are blessed with that will allow me to at least see and talk with my students through my computer screen. When it comes to videoconferencing technology, many teachers around the country are embracing Google Meet for a variety of reasons – student familiarity, the ability to record sessions and save them to Google Drive, options to invite students through email, and creating an event through Google Calendar. Can you imagine the increase in usage that Meet has seen over the last few weeks?! Yesterday, Google announced a new way for teachers to launch Meet (ahem) meetings for their students using another familiar platform – Google Classroom!

Yes, teachers around the world have already been basically integrating Google Classroom and Meet over the last few weeks. Teachers either go to meet.google.com to start a live session, or open their Google Calendar and create an event with video-conferencing. When they’ve done that, they copy and paste the unique URL to their Meet to an Announcement or Assignment on Google Classroom for their students to join. While many are already accustomed to this process (talking to you, Momma!) Google has given us a much quicker, dare I say an easier way to accomplish this task.

To “turn on” Google Meet in Classroom, simply open a Classroom section, and head to the settings toggle wheel. Then, scroll down to the bottom of the “General” category and select “generate meet link.”

Next, you’ll see a unique URL that will be used to launch Meets in that Classroom section. You’ll be able to copy the link to share as an assignment, announcement, etc., and can choose to reset the link at any time.

The next option you’ll see will ask you whether or not you’d like the code to be visible to your students. If you choose to show the Meet link, the students will see it appear at the top of the Stream and Classwork pages. Instead of sharing the link on your Stream as an announcement, students will be able to see the link to join at the top of their Stream page. If you don’t want your students to view the link, you’ll keep that option toggled off. You will still be able to see the Meet link icon at the top of your Stream and Classwork pages to easily launch the session. You’ll still follow the same steps to share the link with your students: Click the Meet icon, copy/paste the link into an announcement or assignment to share with your students.

So … why do it this way instead of other ways that you’ve used in the past? Once you select the “generate meet link” option in your settings, you’ll never have to create a new Meet link! It’s a one-stop, quick, way to launch your live lessons!

To read more about this new option, check out Google’s update here.

I hope you’re staying healthy! Thanks for reading 🙂

Chrome Extension for Google Meet

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Happy … Tuesday? Is that right? Are your days running together? Have you lost track of how many weeks you’ve been quarantined? I have! Please tell me I’m not alone! I feel like the time we are spending, working together to flatten the curve of COVID-19 is DRAGGING, but at the same time, I’m baffled when I look at my calendar and I see that we’re already almost a third of the way through the month. WHAAAT?! I’m currently in my third week of teaching remotely – my dual credit classes have moved online and I’m beginning to share enrichment lesson opportunities with my American Government classes. Throughout these last few weeks of teaching online, I’ve used Google Meet to deliver instruction, hold office hours, and answer questions about assignments and everything else going on in the world right now! While I miss many aspects of my face-to-face classroom, one of the things I miss the most is engaging with my students during class. When I ask a question or gauge student understanding of content during class, I’m met with nodding heads, questions, or confused expressions — signs of life! I really miss that in our online environment! I’ve found a great extension to help with the lack of student feedback – check out Nod!

Nod is a great extension that offers participants the ability to give emoji-like feedback to the presenter as well as raising their hand! The presenter is notified of the reactions in the bottom left corner of their Meet screen and can close out of the reactions/raised hands at any time. I shared the link to this extension with my students on Classroom stream the in the morning before our scheduled Meet so they could download the extension. We found that students needed to add the extension and relaunch their browser OR if students were already in the Meet when they added the extension, they needed to exit the Meet and then rejoin for the extension to work.

It’s been AWESOME! My students automatically mute themselves when our live class begins, so Nod has been an awesome extension that allows me to check the understanding barometer, if you will, as we progress through the lesson. Like I shared on Instagram today … I’m so thankful for the technology that we have available so I can see and talk with my students. Though I’d obviously much rather be in our classroom, tech like Meet and Nod make my teacher’s heart smile during these uneasy times <3

Stay well, and thanks for reading 🙂

 

Remote Teaching Resources through Google Classroom

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Hey, friends! Happy … Thursday? It is Thursday, right? Who really knows! Working from home while homeschooling my daughters has been an absolute blessing, but I’d be lying if I told you that it’s been easy. I’m learning so many things about myself and my daughters during this time at home – like there’s a reason that I’m a high school teacher and not an elementary teacher! I’ve seen them play so well together throughout these first few days, which has made my heart smile for sure 🙂 I’m also in a weird spot mentally – I’m at home all day, so I feel like I should be working around my house like I would on a Saturday or Sunday. I bounce around like a ball in a pinball machine – I start off folding a load of laundry, get about halfway through and then get thirsty and make another cup of coffee, then start posting assignments and resources for my students, then work with my daughters on remote learning, then do the dishes, then realize I need to switch the wash but I need a clean laundry basket … it’s an endless cycle! Please tell me I’m not alone! I miss my students and my routine, but I’m so thankful for the resources we have that allow help us with distance and remote teaching <3

A few days ago, I started getting Facebook messages and emails from teachers around the world, asking for advice and resources for teaching online. As you know, I’m a high school Social Studies teacher and I’m fortunate enough to teach in a technology-rich environment. I started responding to messages and sharing resources as quickly as I could because I want to help any way I can! Instead of sharing assignments, activities, and individually, I thought a Google Classroom section might be easier. This will allow me to organize resources a bit more efficiently 😉

If you’re interested in joining other teachers as we navigate these new and uncertain times, please fill out this SUPER brief form! I’ll email you the code to join soon 🙂

Thanks for reading, and stay healthy 🙂