DISD Ed Tech News
March 25, 2016
Virtual Field Trips in Your Classroom - Discovery Education
But there is also a vast library of virtual field trips that you can participate in right from your classroom. You can browse upcoming live events and look through archived field trips on the Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips web page. There is a calendar where you can view upcoming events and toward the bottom of the page you can read about Featured Virtual Field Trips and search the archives by subject, grade level or themes such as Earth & Space Science, Plants & Animals, History, Careers, Technology, Food & Agriculture and Art & Design. Take a look to see if there is an adventure for your students to go on right from your classroom.
Google Drive Explained - The Apps Show on YouTube
While you on YouTube also check out the Google for Education Channel and subscribe to it as well. There are lots of good resources and tutorials posted almost daily.
AND.... if you might want to watch some YouTube videos to learn new tips and tricks but you have other things you need to be doing at the same time (and you don't have two monitors where you can run videos on one and work on the other) there is a little Chrome Browser extension called Sideplayer that you might want to check out. Add this extension to your Chrome Browser and when you find a YouTube video you want to watch you will now see the option "Play in Sideplayer" in the lower right corner of the video window on YouTube. Click it to play the video in a minimized view while you continue to work on files, browse the web, etc.
Gmail Mini Tips
First, go to the Settings icon in Gmail (the little gear in the upper right), select Settings, and then look down the page until you find Conversation View. You can turn this view on or off as you prefer. Be sure to click Save at the bottom of the page before you exit Settings.
Using J/K To Move Items in Google Forms
Alice Keeler recently posted one such tip on her website Teacher Tech. There are a couple of ways to move questions up or down when you need to change the question order in a Google Form. One way is to select a question and look for the 2x3 grid of little dots that will appear at the top center of the question. Hovering over those dots will allow you to hold down your mouse button and drag the question to another position.
Using Control+Shift+J and Control+Shift+K is even easier. Control+J will let you move down to the next question without changing the question order. Control+K will let you move up to the previous question. Add the Shift key to the mix (Control+J+Shift) to actually move the entire question down. Control+K+Shift will move the question up in the Google Form.
The Teacher Tech website is a great source of tips and tricks for using Google Classroom, Google Add-Ons and Templates. You can sign up for her Teacher Tech Newsletter on the left side of the home page.
Last Chance to Win a Set of Clickers for Your Classroom!
Teacher Training Center Now Open!
Reminder - Free and Sale iOS Apps and Kindle Books Lists
Just a reminder that if you would like to receive the (mostly) daily emails with lists of Free and Sale iOS Apps and Free and Sale Kindle Books you can sign up for either or both of those lists a thttp://bit.ly/freeappslist.
Upcoming Trainings for Spring 2016
Remember - trainings are open to anyone who would like to attend! They are not just for teachers. You can pre-register for any of these trainings in Eduphoria.
If you would like to arrange a training on your campus or a personal one-on-one session please email Rhonda Artho at rhonda.artho@dumasisd.org.
March 2016
03/24/16 - What Can I Do With My Document Camera? (Samsung Doc Cams)
03/29/16 - Symbaloo in the Classroom
April 2016
04/05/16 - Video Creation in the Classroom
04/12/16 - Texas Gateway - Online Resources for Texas teachers
DISD Instructional Technology
Email: rhonda.artho@dumasisd.org
Website: dumasisd.org
Phone: 806-935-6461 1029