G Suite Gems 7

🎄🎄🎄Happy Holidays 🎄🎄🎄

The school bell rang for the final time in 2017 this afternoon but I'm already making plans for training and support when we return in January. 

Aside from running individual and group #googlePD sessions at my own schools, I'm also rapidly booking up visits to other schools to demonstrate the power of G Suite for Education. 

Yes, 2018 is already looking busy and I wouldn't want it any other way.

So, as the year draws to an end though, I thought I'd share below a few responses to one of the questions I get asked the most:  

These responses alone speak for themselves but there are many other reasons too. 

If you haven't yet explored G Suite, you're missing out! 

Oh and a word of advice from experience; if your school is looking to go Google, your admin team are your greatest allies. This often undervalued resource can really champion the best google habits with the teaching staff. 

Invest in them in 2018!!

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🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄Who's ready for a Christmas Party ?🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Let's start at the Office.

Be Awesome this Christmas and use Office Documents in Drive!

I work with a number of people who are very used to and comfortable with Microsoft Office and have a large number of historic files that they want to keep using without converting them to Google Docs, sheets or slides. This is often due to concerns that some formatting might be affected.

These guys were very grateful to hear about Awesome Drive from aodocs.com and have gone away to give it a try. Essentially, this clever extension allows you to create, edit and save Office files within Google Drive. Great hey? 

Here's a short video from EdTech Tutorials to show you how it works. Enjoy! 

Teach yourself about Script Editor

Prior to visiting the Appsevents Google Summit for Education in October, I had never written any sort of code or script. As I swapped workshop midway (which was encouraged) I was fortunate to find the excellent Oli Trussell just finishing up with instructions and letting everyone try appscripting for themselves. Massive Faux pas on my part! However, just a short conversation with Oli and a further look at the resources from the day in my own time got me interested. 

That was October.  

Fast forward to December and I've finally found some time to do some research and have successfully written a code to embed Twitter into one of my Google Sites (only to find the feature was added anyway 2 days later 🤣🤣🤣) and also learnt to code a pop up message to show on opening a document using HTML and Script Editor. Check out https://www.w3schools.com/ and click on the try it yourself to learn for yourself. 

Attaching emails in Gmail 

A friend of mine uses Gmail at work but has been frustrated an when he used Outlook he could always attach an email another email for referencing or providing context. He asked me to see if it could be done in Gmail and the answer is YES!. 

Follow the steps here to attach an email to another email message in Gmail or 

(watch this video from Bettercloud) 

The great news for me is that it also work with Inbox for Gmail, which personally, I L💙VE. (Another thanks due to Oli T for introducing me to this extension - I've never had such an organised and empty inbox!) 

G Suite Gems 🎄🎄🎄 Special 10 Dec 2017: A little off piste at Le Mountain View Winter Gathering

G Suite Gems 🎄🎄🎄 Special: A little off piste at Le Mountain View Winter Gathering

It's snowing and I'm sitting with a cup of soup, reflecting on a great afternoon/evening at +Google London HQ this past Friday where Google for Education hosted their end of year Winter Gathering for partners, reference schools, educators and trainers.

I love events like this as you not only get to meet some great people and make superb connections, but you also get to let your creativity flow. Something that can be hard to do in your standard office or school environment.

So in between games of shuffleboard, the photobot.co Ski lift gif booth and some VR skiing I was able to chat with lots of new faces and some old friends about all things G Suite. I also got to witness 6 great demoslams.

Not only is it great to find out about upcoming features (sorry, no spoilers here) or find new ways of using existing features but I also had the chance to offer some feedback on current features which would make things even better.

Sometimes, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that some of the systems we use on a daily basis might be groundbreaking to someone else, just because we are used to them. I'm really looking forward to sharing our experiences with colleagues and new contacts in the coming year.

Many thanks to all at Google for this great event and especially to Dean, Ben, Oli & Dan from Appsevents for inviting me along. 

Maybe starting the weekend on a ski lift was an omen? Le Mountain View Turtle neck is certainly going to get more use than expected this week!

And finally....

It wouldn't be right to go without sharing something so don't forget to track Father Christmas - you can even play some games and learn to code while you're there!! In the spirit of the event....

SLAM!

Here's to a great Christmas and a great 2018. Things just get better and better. 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

G Suite Gems 5

Google Sheets for Everyone!

You’ve probably thought at some point “I don’t use spreadsheets so there’s nothing there for me” but you could be missing out if you haven’t come across Flippity . It’s a great website that will give you free google sheet templates to create resources in no time at all. Click below for templates that could be used across the entire curriculum such as:

flashcards

quiz shows

memory flipcards

random name or group generators

wordsearches

hangman

crosswords

bingo and much more.

Ready made and adaptable Markbook templates.

Google sheets has a range of markbook templates already available that you can use and adjust. Many give you some great options including group and student level analysis at the touch of a button and you can customise your own grade boundaries to fit with new GCSE grades and mark bands.

Watch this video for more information

And finally…got a spreadsheet full of data?

Did you know you can use the Explore button in Sheets to ask questions about your data?

Press the (bottom right of page) and give it a try!

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Want to create new docs really quickly? 

I came across this handy tip in one of the G+ communities posted by @JakeMillerTech.

I'm constantly creating new docs, sheets and slides from scratch for quick use in the classroom and beyond and I've now installed these handy bookmarks on my toolbar ⬇ things have got a lot quicker.

Just go to your bookmarks manager, select add page and enter the following:

For a new Google Doc: docs.google.com/create

For a new Google Slide: slides.google.com/create

For a new Google Sheet: sheets.google.com/create

Then all you have to do is one simple click to open a new blank document at any time. Simple!

Autocrat Update

Did you know that Autocrat now works with Slides?

Well it does now, meaning you can now set your responses in Google Sheets to merge into a Google Slide template of your choice. A great way to quickly populate certificates for students or colleagues upon completion of tasks, courses or as recognition rewards. 

When it comes to selecting the output format in Step 4, Slides will only allow the single document mode rather than multiple documents (classic mode) but you soon get quick and easy PDF certificates all in one place.

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Frustrated by the inability to insert audio in Google Slides? Not any more!

audioforslides   

Yes, the wonderful team at @EdTechteam have released this great and much welcome tool to allow you to insert audio files into Slides direct from your Drive.

Watch their demo here 👍 . 

Google Classroom  

I've long wanted to be able to see all of a student's work in one place in classroom
AND NOW I CAN!  Thank you ditchthattextbook.com for bringing this to my attention ⬇⬇⬇

• In the Students tab, click a student’s name to see all of his/her assignments,questions and quizzes — as well as status of work, grades, attached files and an icon for private comments. 
• Click here for full instructions

QUIZIZZ 

quizizz.com is very similar to the popular kahoot game but progress can be time limited and is not dependent on other students. Sign up for free and link your quizzes or any from the library direct to your Google Classrooms. 

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Using G Suite to celebrate hard work and reduce workload.

   

Use Google Forms with Autocrat to create a feedback loop in your setting. 

A while ago now, I was searching for a way to recognise all the hard work and effort of colleagues that can sometimes, and unintentionally, go unrewarded. I approached my Head with a proposal for what we call a "Pat on the back". 

The loop is simple; colleagues have access to the google form via our website (staff only area using page level permissions in old sites) and if they feel a colleague deserves some recognition for anything, they can submit a form with their reason. 

On submission the Autocrat add-on generates a PDF (from a google docs template) which is emailed directly to the Head and her PA. A short 5 minute meeting is then set up where the member of staff is invited to meet with the Head and the citation/reason is shared with them and the Head thanks them for making a difference to a colleagues working life.  The PDF is then also kept on the person's file.

This has proved a very popular feedback loop and our Head really enjoys both receiving the citations and also meeting with the staff to congratulate them. Many are often unaware that they have been given a "pat on the back". 

It's really simple, takes very little time but sometimes a little goes a long way, especially when everyone is working their socks off. 

Why not give it a try and give your colleagues a virtual 'pat on the back" and see what effect it has on them?

Another way that we've used add-ons in our organisation has massively reduced the admin workload. I work across 2 secondary academies and previously our parental consultation and pupil target setting process was very heavily paper-based, often requiring folders to be prepared weeks in advance with hard copies of various data, forms to be completed and records to be kept.

By using a google sheet containing all pupils, we've been able to completely remove the need for paper copies as all notes are now made in the sheet itself (using filter views to avoid any filtering or sorting issues). Staff record the notes from the pupil meetings including attendance, SEND matters, parental concerns and 3 SMART targets. A parent email address is also collected and FormMule then sends parents a copy of the meeting notes which can be referred to at any time.    

At the next meeting later in the year, previous targets are reviewed and RAG rated and new discussions held and documented for the cycle to start again. Our admin team estimate that this change has saved them weeks of work!  

G Suite Gems 1

My first blogpost in years, my previous ones were all about cycling.

It's been a busy week for me, both in and beyond the classroom but I've taken great pleasure from being able to share my experience with G Suite and Social Media with colleagues from other schools as well as a local Chamber of Commerce who wanted an deeper insight into what G Suite has to offer.

Having conducted 2 face to face meetings, one video call and a 3 hour training session I can't believe it's only Wednesday night. (Almost time for The Apprentice)

I've been exploring further options this week, trying to find apps, extensions and options that will save colleagues time and effort, maybe even money! Below are some of the things I've shared with others who didn't know about them. That's the point isn't it, if you don't know, you don't know you don't know!

1. Sparkline in Sheets 

What a great little formula for showing a trend line graph! One colleague nearly fell off her chair when she saw this and how easy it was to create - just click in a cell, enter =sparkline and then choose the range. It's as easy as that and boom, you get a mini graph for each row of data. Copy down for individual graphs for a whole group.

2. Quill.org

Another free tool that could be especially useful for English teachers and especially those working with young people who need help with sentence structure etc. There's a free trial activity on the homepage and the subsequent analytics are very easy to work with. Why not give it a try?

3.  the new INSERT IMAGE option

I'm loving the drop down in Slides which has made things so much quicker. Simply choose now between upload from my computer, search the web, Drive, Google photos etc and drop the pictures straight in to your document. Great!