Weekly Geekly
September 9, 2016
Rubik's Cube: A question, waiting to be answered
Follow Friday
This follow Friday is another Google Guru. Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) is a Google Certified teacher and author of 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom. She has a great web site with lots of apps that she recommends as well as tutorials on making some nifty scripts (this is coding) for those that like that kind of thing. For the beginner, her list of Google Classroom articles is amazing, and you can find really good stuff just by scrolling through the list of all her blog posts. She has been really into using Google Apps for math instruction lately and she has been tweeting quite a bit about that specifically of late, but she is constantly tweeting new ideas for using Google everywhere so be sure to follow her!
Tip of the Week- Google Voice Recording
Do you have kids in class who have trouble typing? It can be a struggle for kids with dyslexia, broken arms, or just poor typing skills. Google Voice Typing is a tool that lives in Google Docs. It is already there, in the tools menu, and all you need to do is turn it on. When activated, it looks just like the picture here, and you simply click on the microphone to start recording. As you speak, Google will listen and type what you say. It isn't perfect, but it is very good, and definitely worth a try!
Chrome Tool of the Week- Read & Write Chrome Extension
This tool came recommended by our wonderful LTHS librarian Ashley Hill! This is an extension that will provides text to speech and translation support for ELLs. Don't be alarmed when you see that it is only completely free for 30 days, because teachers can get the full version for FREE. Once you install the extension, go to rw.texthelp.com/drive/home/RegisterTeacher and register by filling out the Teacher Registration form with your name, email, school, administrator, and other details that confirm your eligibility. Note: Be sure the email you provide is the same as the one you used to download Read&Write for Google. For students who may need this, some of the most important features are accessible even after the trial is over, so it will still be worthwhile to check out!
Eduphoria Update
SO! There was an update last weekend. :) Thank you for your patience as we work through all of the effects of the update. We are being told that the remaining issues should be resolved by Monday.
There are a couple new things that came about with the update. If you use Aware scanning, there are new instructions for that process. LTHS folks, these were put in by the scanners this morning. CTE folks, I have them ready and they will be there on Tuesday. The instructions can also be found on the Digital Melting Pot.