This week I wanted to talk to you about using Google Sites to build a website. Google Sites is a great tool for building a class webpage. Building a class webpage is a great place to put important links, documents, calendars, and notes for your students.
1. Go to sites.google.com 2. Log-in to your Google account. 3. Click create.
4. Select a template, a name, and site location for your website.
5. Begin designing your website.
Using Google Sites is a easy way to create your own website. If you are familiar with other Google tools you will definitely find Google Sites easy to use because it has a similar look and feel to it to other Google tools.
For even more information, watch the video tutorial below.
Once again, thanks for reading this week's blog. I truly hope this has inspired you to try making a Google Site.
Today I am going to compare two Google tools that involve using maps. These two tools are Google Earth and Google Tour builder.
Google Earth
VS
Google Tour Builder
What is Google Earth and Google Tour Builder?
Google Earth: Google Earth allows you to go almost anywhere on earth using satellite imagery. It allows you to get a street view and even gives you the option to see buildings in 3D. Google Earth has options that allow you to explore the oceans, outer space, and other planets. For more information on Google Earth, click here.
This is an image of the Empire State Building in New York City using Google Earth. Google Tour Builder: Google Tour Builder allows you to give people a virtual tour of certain locations using Google Earth. You can add text, pictures, videos, and can even capitalize on using the street view option in your tour. For more information on Google Tour Builder, click here. Click here to access my Google Tour on five famous mathematicians.
Similarities
Google Tour Builder uses Google Earth and Maps.
Both offer a street view option.
Differences
Google Earth
Allows you to measure distances
Allows you to to show sunlight across the landscape and set the time of day
Allows you to switch between earth, sky, and planets view.
Allows you to explore the oceans.
Allows you to show historical imagery, if it is available for that location.
Allows you to record a tour with audio.
Offers 3D imagery of buildings.
Google Tour Builder
Allows you to record a virtual tour.
Allows you to add pictures and videos.
Allows you to add an introduction and text to your virtual tour.
Allows you to share your tour with a URL.
Lesson Plan Ideas
Google Earth
Allow students to pick a famous landmark and locate it using Google Earth. Have them use the ruler to get the dimensions of the landmark. Then have them create a scale drawing of the landmark.
Three-dimensional shape scavenger hunt
Allow students to pick certain locations. Have them use the ruler to get the dimensions of the location. Then have them find the perimeter and area of the location
For more lesson plan ideas, math and other subjects, using Google Earth, click here.
Google Tour Builder
Famous landmarks tour
Tour a country you will be learning about
Tour an area that you read about in a book
For more lesson plan ideas using Google Tour Builder, click here.
Overall, both tools have amazing possibilities for the classroom. I like Google Earth a little more than Google Tour Builder because I feel that it has more options for me as a math teacher. Regardless of my opinion, both of these have wonderful features that will increase student engagement in your classroom. Thanks for reading my blog this week. Stop by next week for my blog on making a webpage with Google sites.
For this week's blog I wanted to introduce you to Google Story Builder, Google+ Hangouts, Build with Chrome, and TubeSnack.
GoogleStory Builder
What does it do? Google Story Builder allows you to write a short script with characters and turn it into an animated conversation. You can add background music and share your story. How do you use it? Go to https://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com/ and click get started. You type in the characters that will be part of your story and then begin writing your script. I would recommend writing out your story ahead of time on word processing software. If you want to edit a previous portion of the script in Story Builder, any content after that point will be deleted. Once the story is finished, you can add background music and get a shareable link. Click here to access my story "A Duck Named Cuddles". Want more information? Watch the following video tutorial.
Google+Hangouts
What does it do? Google+ Hangouts is similar to Facetime by Apple. Hangouts has the added bonus of working with Android, Apple, and/or Windows. Hangouts allows you to make video calls, a regular phone calls, or you can simply message a person. These conversations can include up to 10 people, counting you.
How do you use it? You log-in to Hangouts using your Gmail account. Hangouts can be found under your Google apps in your email or by going to this website https://hangouts.google.com/ . This is what it should look like once you are logged in.
From this page you will be able to make video calls, phone calls and messages.
Want more information? For more information click here.
BuildwithChrome
What does it do? Build with Chrome incorporates building with Legos into Google Maps. You can select a location anywhere on the map. Then you are given a Lego square to build on. Once your build is completed it can be seen on the Build with Chrome map along with other builds from around the world.
How do you use it? Go to https://www.buildwithchrome.com/, sign in using your Gmail account, and click start building. Pick a location off the map and start building. Here is what it looks like when you are building.
Want more information? Here is a video tutorial.
TubeSnack
What does it do? TubeSnack is not actually a Google tool. It is a tool to be used primarily with YouTube videos. TubeSnack allows you to create video playlists. You are then able to share these playlists with a URL. You are able to embed the playlist but this option does cost money.
How do you use it? You will want to begin by logging in to TubeSnack. You can create a new account or log-in using Facebook, Gmail, or Twitter. Once you are logged in you create a new playlists, add videos to the playlists by searching or copying & pasting the video's URL. You can change the order of the videos and change the template for the playlist. After you have completed the playlist, you have the option to share the URL. Click here for my TubeSnack on different methods for factoring quadratic polynomials.
Want more information? Watch this video tutorial.
Thanks for visiting my blog this week. I hope you learned something new!. Stop by next week for my blog on Google Earth and Google Tour Builder.
For this week's blog, I wanted to discuss Google Photos, Google Calendar, and Google Keep.
Google Photos
Create and share albums of photos. You can even set up your phone to automatically back up photos to Google Photos. To learn more on backing up photos from your phone click here.
Ideas for using Google Photos in the classroom:
Share pictures of student projects with parents using a shared album.
Share pictures with parents of field trips or school events using a shared album.
Have students complete a scavenger hunt. For example, when studying three-dimensional shapes, I would give each group a list of different three-dimensional shapes to find and photograph.
Google Calendar allows you to create and share calendars. Calendars are synced across all devices.
Here are some features that I find to be useful on Google Calendar:
Syncing across all devices
Ability to share entire calendars or single events
The option to add attachments to calendar events.
Using Google's Holiday and Sports Calendars you can subscribe to certain calendars. By subscribing to a calendar, it will add those events to your calendar. For example, I am a big Kansas City Royals fan. I subscribed to their calendar and their schedule will now show up on my calendar.
Below is a screen shot of my Google Calendar.
For more information on using Google Calendar, watch this video.
Today I want to talk to you about the benefits of Google Drive. Google Drive is a cloud based storage system. Google Drive allows you to share and edit files. File types range from word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
So, why did I say Google Drive is the best thing since sliced bread? Here are a few of the reasons why I love Google Drive. 1. Cloud Based Storage:Google Drive provides you with 15 GB of free online storage. You can access your Google Drive anywhere you have internet. 2. Edit Files: You can edit files that you have stored on your Google Drive account. It does not matter if they are Microsoft Word files or Google Docs. 3. Create Files: You can create new Google Docs (word processing), Google Sheets (spreadsheets), Google Slides (presentations), and Google Forms (surveys/questionnaires). 3. Sharing: You can share files. Files can be shared with one person through email or with as many people as you want through a URL. You decide how much access you want to give them. They can either simply view the document but not edit or you can give them editing rights. 4. Collaboration: Students can collaborate on projects using Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. 5. Revision History: You can check a file's revision history. You can even revert back to a previous revision. If the document has shared editing rights, you can see who made the revisions and when.
For my blog post this week, I want to discuss Google's Custom Search Engine.
What is a custom search engine you ask? A custom search engine is a search engine that you customize to your content and grade level. You select the websites that are part of the search engine. When a search is carried out, only those websites are part of the search.
Why would you want to make a custom search engine? By creating a custom search engine you are creating a pool of sources that you know are reliable for students to search. Google is an amazing tool. There is an almost infinite pool of resources for Google to search anytime you complete a search on Google. For students, this can almost be overwhelming. By selecting the websites that make up their searches you are greatly decreasing the amount of information the students will get back when they complete a search. Lastly, you are hand picking the sources. You are assuring that students are using reliable sources.
Once again, I hope you enjoyed my blog on Google Custom Search Engine and learned something useful for your classroom. I hope to see you next week for my blog on Google Drive.
I will admit that until recently I was an avid Internet Explorer user. Our tech people at our school wanted us to use Mozilla Fire Fox but it just was not for me. Against the wishes of our tech people, I continued to use my trusty Internet Explorer web browser. I really never saw myself making the switch to a different web browser. Why fix something that is not broken? I was comfortable with Internet Explorer and I did not feel like breaking out of my shell to experience another web browser. That was until I branched out to test the waters of Google Chrome. It gives the user the ability to customize and control a lot more than is possible with Internet Explorer. Below are my reasons for making the switch to Google Chrome.
1. I love the pinning tabsfeature. I always have my email and Power Teacher grade book open at school. Pinning tabs allows me to reduce the size of these tabs and opens these tabs immediately when I launch Google Chrome. By right-clicking on a tab and clicking pin, I can take advantage of this feature. 2. I love the apps on Google Chrome. This has made it extremely easy for me to access my Google Classroom, Google Drive, Socrative Teacher, and Quizlet accounts. Two mouse clicks and I am there. I am able to access these apps by clicking on apps beneath the URL text box. 3. I love using my Google account on multiple devices with Chrome. I am able to use my Google account on my phone, laptop, and IPad when using Chrome. If I use my Google account all of my settings, bookmarks, and preferences are remembered from one device to another. 4. I am thankful for the reopen closed tab feature. I don't know how many times I have been researching information and accidentally closed out of a tab that I did not mean to close. Talk about frustrating. With Google Chrome's reopen closed tab feature, I can right-click on a current tab and select "reopen closed tab", this will open the last tab that I had closed. Below is a video introduction to Google Chrome. The video includes Chrome's main selling points and a couple of recommended apps/extensions for Google Chrome.
After reading this blog post, if you feel compelled to download Google Chrome, you may CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD GOOGLE CHROME. I hope you enjoyed my blog post this week. I hope you stop in next week for my blog post on search tips and gmail tips.
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