Lemon Tech Tidbits

  In Google Slides, you now have an ability to “Follow” someone when collaborating together on Google Slides. What this means is that you can select a person’s avatar or name up above to see what they are currently working on. This may help in a class situation where you have multiple students all working together to create one presentation. 

  If you have not already heard, there is a new AI (Artificial Intelligence) program called ChatGPT. What does it do? It writes papers, essays, codes, etc in under a minute over any topic a person wants. Does it do a good job? Well, that depends on what you want it to write about. ChatGPT is good at getting details but lacks on the personal touch. Alice Keeler, in her blog post , goes into detail about her experience in having ChatGPT write her latest blog post for her about Google Slides. While it did well with the details and a summary of what Google Slides is, it didn’t include any personal examples. As Alice put it “ (it) slapped a bunch of facts together in what is a pretty basic article. It lacks details and examples that would actually be helpful.” So in general ChatGPT and other AI sites are out there to help students complete their assignments if the assignment is general enough to be rote memorization with no critical thinking or personification involved.

  On the blog by Shannon Miller McClintock is a short description of Achievery. The Achievery is “created by AT&T in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery (including Cartoon Network) designed to be used by educators, parents, and caregivers to engage K-12 students everywhere they learn.”  It is a digital learning platform full of videos and lesson plans that can easily be integrated into your curriculum. It is easy to sign up for an account and is totally free. Once you have signed up, you can search by grade level, subject level, media type and more. It includes elementary all the way to seniors. This is a wonderful way to find engaging videos to use with your students.  “ The video clips are paired with learning activities and lessons that teachers and students can use anywhere....at school, at home and on the go!” - Shannon Miller McClintock

  WeAreTeachers has a new blog post with 14 different review games you can play with your projector. Use them to study for finals or a review at the end of a unit. You can also use them as a way to introduce a unit to see what prior knowledge students already have. Some of these review games may be familiar but there are others that are not. All of them can easily be customized to fit a topic for your classroom. Below are the list of games that I would recommend as they are free. Reminder - you can always use Powerpoint on our MacBook Airs as they are or drag them into your Google Drive to convert over to a Google Slide. To see the entire list, visit the blog. Jeopardy Google Slides Digital Board Game Google Slide Only Connect Wheel of Fortune (Powerpoint) Cash Cab and more (Powerpoint) Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and more (Powerpoint) Aha Slides Classroom Freud / Family Freud Guess Who Google Slides

  Are you looking for an activity to do in December that can be fun while still educational for the students? Here are a few I have found around the internet to pass on to you: A Google Slide activity where students build their own ugly sweater and then write about it. Try the Christmas Digital Escape Room or the Holidays Around the World Digital Escape Room from Matt Miller Ms. Menji Linktree of activities all surrounded around the Holidays 8 Googly Wintertime Activitie s for Kids by Eric Curtis Explore or create a Wakelet Calming room for when your students need it like the Willis ISD Elementary example.

       One thing I love about using Google Drive as file storage is the search ability (To learn more on how to use this feature, watch this short video by Richard Byrne ).       There are still times, however, when the file or document I want takes a while to find. To make things easier, I like to add descriptions to my Google Drive folders so I know exactly what is inside them (often other folders) and to add keywords to help make searching even easier than before.       To learn how to add descriptions to a Google Drive folder, follow along with the directions by Richard Byrne which can be accessed here: https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2022/11/how-to-add-descriptions-to-google-drive.html