Office hours are not recorded but here are some highlights of what we talked about.
ReuseGC - Premium Add-on
- There have been many new features added including the ability to reuse materials and not just assignments.
- The premium feature of exporting your assignments to a Google Doc is broken. I am working on fixing it. You will need a fresh copy of ReuseGC if you want this to work after I fix it.
- Go to the premium menu to sync topics. After you import a class to reuse the assignments from, go to the premium menu and choose "Get Topics" to match the topic titles from the old class to the new class. BEFORE you reuse assignments.
- If you create multiple assignments (blank) in Reuse GC (which allows you to control the assignments from Reuse GC) make sure the first number you enter is the number of assignments you want. For example 10. Then the next question says, what do you want to start your numbering at. DO NOT put #012 or 012 JUST PUT 12. The code automatically adds the # and the 0.
Pull the Paragraph - Add-on
This will save you hours!!! If you assign students a Google Doc (individual per student) then you have to OPEN each document... slow. Use Pull the Paragraph to suck in all the text from the students G
8 Stages of Grief
When you move to a student centered model and you expect the students to actually do their own thinking... they go through the 8 stages of grief like someone died. You have killed the game of school, they know this game well, and it is now dead and they hate you. They WILL COME AROUND. In the meantime, drink an adult beverage.
"Miss, miss! Your class is really hard for us. I am going to tell you why. We are used to doing things differently. We are used to just copying things down and I don't understand what you're doing up there on that Jamboard thing."
This of course made my day. THINKING IS HARD FOR STUDENTS. They want to just have a worksheet, not because they prefer worksheets, but they can write junk in the line on a worksheet, get some points (even if it's not full credit) and move on. Keep playing the game of school. THEY WILL COME AROUND. But it takes time. You can not get past the grieving process. You can not make it easier for them. Keep on encouraging students to think. THEY WILL SHUT DOWN! They will not do some assignments. TIP: when they do come around, EXCUSE the assignments they predictably did not do because they shut down.
Do you know of a certification for Google or Microsoft for STUDENTS?
Unfortunately I do not know of one. I am pretty sure they have one. I'm just not aware. Sorry. If anyone does know, please leave a comment below.
How would I make an FAQ for my students?
Google Forms: How do I have the Form grade the free response?
Forms does NOT grade free response. It will auto mark those WRONG. So student scores will be artificially low for awhile. Go to RESPONSES and click on QUESTION to find how each student answered that particular free response question. Give the score individually for each student. THERE IS A SAVE BUTTON for the scores.
Alice's TIP: Google Forms for free response is not great if you want to grade in the Form. I recommend NOT mixing free response and multiple choice if it is a self grading google form.
How would you introduce the 1920's?
Common Sense Media is a great website for vetting digital resources. It helps teachers and parents know if something is appropriate for home or school. The movie the Jazz Singer was the first Talkie. Is it appropriate to introduce the 1920's? Check it out.
Doc to Slides by Schoolytics
Open ANY Google Docs document. Go to the Add-on menu and install the Add-on. Once you have it use the Add-on menu to show the sidebar and click the button to create Google Slides out of the text in your document.
Hard Return
During office hours it came up as to "what is a paragraph?" Each time you hit enter it makes a new paragraph. BUT if you hold down the shift key and press enter, it looks the same but actually is part of the same paragraph. So if you type something, hold down the shift key and press enter, and type something else. Both of these "paragraphs" will be considered ONE paragraph and will appear on one slide.
Note: In Google Sheets CONTROL ENTER instead of SHIFT ENTER allows you to create multiple lines in one cell.
3 Responses
Hey Alice! I LOVE this feature! I so often PLAN on getting to Office Hours, and then I DON’T get to Office Hours, so this doc was really nice recap!
Hi Lisa! I’m so glad that this is helpful for you! We are working on figuring out how to best support you all so any feedback is helpful!
Anna Wells – Alice’s assistant
Thank you Lisa! There was not anything to report from the last office hours, but so many times I thought that good resources and tips were shared. I will continue this in the future.