Google Photos, Calendar, & Keep . . .The Possibilities Are Endless

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.

Here is an example of a album I created and shared using Google Photos.  
If you are interested in more information on Google Photos click here.  

Photo Credit:  http://www.stfrancis.k12.mn.us/page.cfm?p=3294

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.  

Photo Credit:  http://readwrite.com/2013/03/25/is-google-keep-just-androids-voice-actions-in-disguise/

Google Keep is a tool for making notes and lists.  For more information on using Google Keep click here.  

Below are some the reasons I use Google Keep:

• Make and share lists/notes
• Syncing across all devices
• Voice notes
• Add photos or videos 
• Oh did I mention, LISTS!  I love making lists so, I felt that it should be listed twice.  

I hope you had a good end to your school year.  Stop by in two weeks for my blog on various Google tools.  

Google Drive . . . The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread!

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.  

Picture Credit:  http://dailygenius.com/5-quick-tips-get-started-google-drive/

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.  








6.  Google Forms:  You can create surveys and questionnaires using Google Forms.  The results gathered from the survey will go directly into a Google Sheet.  Click here for an example of a Google Form I created for the end of the school year.  

For more information on using Google Drive, here is a video tutorial.  

Thank you once again for visiting my blog.  Stay tuned for my blog next week about Google Photos, Google Calendar, and Google Keep.  

Custom Search Engines

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.  
• How do you make a Google Custom Search Engine?  
• Go to www.google.com/cse
• This is what the page should look like.  You will want to click on sign in to Custom Search Engine.  You will sign in using your Gmail account.  

• After you sign in you will be able to begin typing in the websites you want to be part of your search engine.  
• You can name your search engine, change colors, and the layout. 
• Once you have completed your search engine, you will have the option of getting the URL or getting the code to embed on a website.  
• I would recommend doing a test run of your custom search engine before trying it with students.  
• Here is the Google Custom Search Engine I created for a research project on famous mathematicians.  Feel free to try it out!

• For even more information on Google Custom Search Engine click here.  

Before wrapping up this weeks blog, I wanted to share a cartoon I found about search engines that I found humorous.  

Cartoon Credit http://effectiveproductmanagement.blogspot.com/

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.  

Come on Over to GOOGLE CHROME!

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.

Photo Credit:  http://www.appsforpcmero.com/google-chrome-free-download-for-windows-and-mac/

1.  I love the pinning tabs feature.  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.