Lemon Tech Tidbits

Matt Miller has a wonderful blog post on his DitchThatTextbook site full of ideas on using video projects in your class. He lists several different ideas and then expands upon each one by listing a summary and links to different applications he recommends using. It is full of resources. Don’t forget to let your School Librarian (aka me! Help you incorporate it into your curriculum. That is what I am here for...to help YOU!. Below is a list of some of my favorite ideas Matt Miller shared on his post: Create a personal narrative Record interviews in person or virtually Create a whiteboard animation Record a stop-motion animation Make a video tour of a significant location Create GIF examples of classroom content Create a reality tv show with characters from your content area Show off skills in P.E. or music class   (and much more, make sure to click on his post see them all)

Google recently announced an update to Gmail that might be helpful to some of you. There may be times when you have received several emails all revolving around a single subject. You want to share these emails with someone else so you can always forward them. The problem though is it will fill up their email box. Wouldn’t it be better if you could send them ONE email that has all of the others attached? Well, now you can! A new update from Google allows you to attach different emails to one without having to download them first or forwarding them individually. All you have to do is to select the emails by clicking on the box and then going to the top and select the three vertical dots. One of the options at the bottom says “Forward as Attachments”. For more information as well as a nice GIF showing you the steps, click here: http://bit.ly/2RFZRUL By the way, this is not the only new update to Gmail. Another update works hand-in-hand with Google Calendar. How many times have you receiv...

On Facebook, I follow many professional groups. Lately, there has been many posts asking for schools willing to participate in a mystery Skype with another school. I feel this could be a wonderful opportunity to participate in regardless of the age of students so wanted to share some information. What is a mystery skype? It is an educational game in which two classrooms connect via Skype. Once connected, students in the class take turns asking each other questions to try to figure out where there other class is located geographically. What are the rules? Students can only ask yes or no questions. The class that figures out where the other class is located first “wins” the game. How do I sign up? You can visit the official website from Microsoft and sign up. Another way is to ask on a social media site (I can help!) to find another school willing to compete with you. What do I need to Skype? Nothing more than your teacher laptop and your classroom projector. You will need to d...

Every December, there is a global movement in classrooms called The Hour of Code. The movement was started as a way to encourage students in the field of computer science by showing all students the basics as a way to overcome the fear of coding through a one-hour time period. In a blog post by Kasey Bell , she provides some information to help you get started to participate in the 2019 Hour of Code. There are many links to resources on her post from how to sign up for free resources to a list to classroom tips. If you scroll down, you can even find a list of recommended Coding Resources and Lessons that includes a brief description, devices it is used with, and a handy age recommendation. If you want to find even more activities for your students, you can go to the Hour of Code where you will be able to drill down by age group and comfort level to find exactly what you want. Finally, ISTE has a blog post talking about how you can keep the Hour of Code continuing throughout the year...

This article comes from the blog titled Teacher Tech by Alice Keeler .  If you are like me, you use Google Classroom all the time and may feel that you know everything there is to know about it. But, it is always good to have a reminder about some things you may not know or have forgotten. This is why I was excited when I saw this blog post by Alice Keeler. Alice Keeler quickly shared five different features about Google Classroom that is important to keep in mind. These include: Student View is Different than Teachers View: It is important to realize students may not see everything you see as a teacher. No Attachments: Google puts everything in your G Drive. This includes files you add to an assignment from other sources. You Can Not Edit Make A Copy for Each Student: Just like using a copy machine, once you make a copy, that is what students receive. Students Lose Editing Permissions: When students turn in an assignment, they lose all editing permissions unless you ret...

Earlier, Google announced you could easily add Rubrics to any assignment in Google Classroom. The problem though is you had to type in a new rubric each time until now!  Google just announced they are going to allow users the ability to reuse a rubric they have already created. It doesn’t matter if the rubric was created in the same class or in another one. If you have created it somewhere in your Google Classroom account, you will be able to reuse it. When you reuse or create a rubric, it will be in a preview mode allowing you to quickly see if any changes need to be made before you use it. This new feature will be rolled out to all users in the next few days who have signed up to use the beta rubric program. Google announced pro-tip: If you'd like to share rubrics you've set up in Classroom with other teachers, simply add co-teachers to a shared class with multiple rubrics. All teachers and co-teachers will see those rubrics for assignments in other classes in the new ...

This article comes from the blog titled DitchthatTextbook by Matt Miller On his recently redesigned blog, Matt explains how many people do not realize that having a Google for Education account through their school allows them to access 22 different Microsoft applications FOR FREE!. All you have to do to sign up for a Microsoft 365 account is to access this page to be put on a waiting list. Your school’s Technology Director needs to sign up as well. (I have already sent the information to Kyle). Once you and your school are approved, you can use the same login you use for G Suite to login to Microsoft 365. This will allow you to use the applications Word, Powerpoint, and Excel but others that you may not be that familiar with. These include;  OneNote, a notebook type of app that allows students to draw, type and write using the touchscreen on their Chromebooks Sway, a new way to easily create websites Whiteboard, a blank screen that allows students to draw or write together...