Getting the Most Out of Your Searches

Today I wanted to share some helpful tips on improving your Google searches.  As a bonus, I am also going to talk to you about Wolfram Alpha.

Google Search Tips

There are many tips and features to Google's search engine that people are unaware of.  I am going to share a few of these tips and features.

• Want to get the weather forecast for your area or somewhere you are traveling to?
• Type in weather followed by the city or zip code

• Have a conference call in another time zone and you are not sure what time it is there?
• Type in time followed by the city or zip code

• Want to know the score of the NBA playoff game from last night?  
• Type in sport scores followed by the team name or league name

• Need a calculator?
• Type the math problem into the search box 

• Not sure of the meaning of a word?
• Type define followed by the word

• Need to convert units of measurement?
• Type in the conversion you want to make

• Looking for a place to get gas, eat, etc. 
• Type in what your looking for followed by the zip code or city

• Not sure what time a family members flight lands?
• Type in the airline followed by the flight number

• Looking for a map?
• Type in the location followed by the word map

• Want to track a package that is shipping to your house?  
• Enter the tracking number into the search box
• Don't know the entire title of a movie?
• Use * to replace the missing words

• Want to find a specific file-type, such as PowerPoint or PDF?
• Enter what you are searching for followed by filetype: and the filetype you are wanting, ppt, pdf, or doc

Understanding how to take advantage of these tools and tips when completing Google searches can save students and teachers time.  Many students and/or teachers do not even realize these time saving tools are available on Google searches.  These tools can help students/teachers when researching by making the most out of their searches.  

For even more tips and tools for upping your game on Google searches watch this video.  

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is an online search device that uses algorithms and a large pool of expert knowledge to answer questions.  You will be amazed at what Wolfram Alpha can do.  Wolfram Alpha is much more than a search engine.  To access Wolfram Alpha click here.  

The possibilities are endless with Wolfram Alpha but I want to list out some of the things Wolfram Alpha can do.

• math calculations
• graph
• solve equations
• gather information about a person in history
• get information about a past political leader
• convert Roman numerals to standard notation
• compare inventions
• get information about species of animals or plants
• get information about a type of dinosaur
• make conversions between different units of measurement
• complete calculations with units
• get current weather reports
• get specific weather data
• get weather history
• get information on a specific chemical element
• find and analyze data about a stock

Wolfram Alpha could be a useful tool for students when completing research.  Wolfram Alpha would also be a great site to find information about different people in history.  Wolfram Alpha could be used as tool to gather information on stocks for an economics class.  Wolfram Alpha offers many possibilities for how it could be used in the classroom or as a time saving tool.  

Below are two websites that provide you with ideas for how you can take advantage of Wolfram Alpha.

• 23 Non-Math Things You Can Do With Wolfram Alpha
• 10 Amazing Uses of Wolfram Alpha

For more detailed information about Wolfram Alpha, watch these two videos.  

Once again, thanks for reading my blog this week.  I hope you enjoyed hearing some useful tips on getting the most out of your Google searches and learning about Wolfram Alpha.  

Symbaloo & Padlet- Much More Than Funny Sounding Names

This week, I wanted to talk to you about two great free tools, Symbaloo and Padlet.  Symbaloo and Padlet both offer two different types of services to teachers.  Symbaloo is a tool for organizing and keeping track of important websites.  Padlet is like a digital piece of paper that allows for collaboration between students and/or teachers.

Symbaloo allows you to compile your favorite websites in one place to be accessed from anywhere with Internet access.  Even better yet, you can create webmixes that can be shared with others. These webmixes could possibly be shared with students, teachers, or administrators.  It is a great place to store links to website that you, your class, or school access often.  

How to use Symbaloo?  

• Start by accessing Symbaloo by clicking here.  
• Set up an account.  You can either create an account or connect to Symbaloo using your Facebook or Gmail accounts.

• At this point, you can create your own webmix or search pre-existing webmixes.
• To create a webmix, click on the + sign.  

• Pick a name for you webmix or search for a webmix in the Symbaloo Gallery.

• Click Add 
• To add tiles to your webmix-
• Click on a blank tile/website
• You will have the option to add a tile, search for a tile, or browse by category.

• Once you have either, created your tile or located the tile/website you were looking for it will be added to your webmix.
• You can easily organize your tiles by clicking and dragging the tiles around the webmix.  
• You can change the wallpaper of your webmix by clicking on the Options tab.

• You can further organize your webmix by creating markers.  Markers organize the tiles on your webmix into color coded sections.  You can access markers by clicking on the Options tab. 

• To share your webmix, click on the share symbol, select Sharing Options, type a description of your webmix, and a shareable link will be provided.  

Here is a sample Symbaloo webmix I created for my students.

Watch this video tutorial to learn even more about Symbaloo.  

Padlet is a place for students/teachers to collaborate and share information.  Padlet can be used as a place for students to complete formative assessments such as, admit slips or exit tickets.  Padlet can be used as a discussion board.  Padlet can be used as a place for students to compile and collaborate on their findings on a certain topic.  

How to use Padlet?  

• Start by accessing Padlet by clicking here.  
• Create a new account or sign in using Facebook or Gmail
• Click on Make A Padlet.  

• At this point, you can add a title and a description to your Padlet.  You can change the wallpaper and how the posts will be organized.  

• To share your Padlet, select Share, click on Public, and Save.  Copy the URL of your Padlet board and share it with people you want to be able to post.  

Below is picture of a Padlet wall I created with posts.  

Watch this Padlet video tutorial to learn more.  

Once again, thanks for reading my blog this week.  Stop by next week to read my blog post on Google Search Tips and Wolfram Alpha.

Flipping Into Some Great Time Saving Tools

This week I wanted to talk to you about tools that help save teachers time.  These tools include Flippity, Share My Lesson, Teachers Pay Teachers, LearnZillion, and EdPuzzle.

Flippity

• Flippity is a Google Drive add-on that turns a Google Sheet into online flash cards, Jeopardy games, MadLibs, and other neat tools.  

• Follow these directions to get Flippity
• Open a Google Sheet
• Click on Add-Ons and select Get Add-Ons

• Search for Flippity 
• Click on the +Free link to get Flippity
• Follow these directions to use Flippity
• Go to a Google Sheet
• Click on Add-Ons, Flippity, and select Pick A Template

• Pick desired template- flash cards, hangman, Jeopardy, crossword puzzle, etc. 

• A sample template will be opened in your Google Sheet.  
• Type your information in the sample template.  

This is what my Google Sheet looked like after I had added my information. 

• Click on File and select Publish To Web

• Click on Add-Ons, Flippity, and select Flippity.net URL.  

• Copy/share the URL.  
• Flippity can be used by students and teachers.  Students could be required to make flash cards or a game to help review for a test.  The random name generator is a great tool for teachers for random calling or putting students into groups.  
• Watch this video tutorial about Flippity to learn more.  

• Click here to access the flash cards I created using Flippity.  

Lesson Plan Tools

The following tools can provide you with teacher approved resources in the classroom.  These resources range from completely planned out lessons to videos/presentations.  These sources can provide you with ideas, save you time, and increase student engagement.  

• Includes teaching resources and lesson plans for K-12 for all content areas.  These resources are FREE and can be searched by grade level, content, or standards.  Many of the resources on Share My Lesson are aligned to Common Core Standards.  Simply sign-up and your ready to go.  
• Click here to access Share My Lesson.  

• Provides you with access to resources for all content areas K-12.  Many of the resources are FREE but some of the resources do cost.  Resources on Teachers Pay Teachers range from lesson plans, posters, bulletin board materials, to anchor charts.  If you so desire, you can even sell some of your personally created resources on TPT.  Sign-in and you are ready to start searching for resources.  

• Click here to access Teachers Pay Teachers.  

• Offers content for Math and Language Arts.  Grade levels range from K-12.  Lesson plans are aligned to the Common Core.  Lessons offer engaging videos, presentations, and assessments.  Lessons can easily be searched by content, grade level, or topic.  

• Click here to access LearnZillion.  

• EdPuzzle is a video lesson plan tool.  EdPuzzle allows you to create your own videos or choose videos from other sources, such as YouTube or Khan Academy.  You can crop, add audio, and/or add questions to increase student engagement.  EdPuzzle is a FREE tool.  It works in sync with Google Classroom.  Create an account and your ready to start taking advantage of what EdPuzzle has to offer.  

• Click here to access EdPuzzle.  

• Click here to access an Adobe Spark page I created on time saving tools for teachers.  

Thanks for reading this week's blog.  Next week I will be blogging about Symbaloo and Padlet.

Scratching the Surface of Google Drive's Amazing Features

Today I want to talk to you about some of the amazing features of Google Drive.  Google Drive offers a multitude of features.  During Today's blog post I will be simply scratching the surface of the amazing features of Google Drive.  I am going to discuss Google Forms, revision history, sharing capabilities, and getting Google Drive access on your computer.  

Google Forms

What is Google Forms?

A tool used to create polls, quizzes, and surveys than can be accessed through your Google Drive.

  

How do you access and create Google Forms?  

• Access your Google Drive
• Click New and select Google Forms

• Begin by giving the form a name

• Select your question type- multiple choice, short answer, paragraph, check-boxes, drop-down, linear scale, or multiple choice grid

• Type your question 
• If needed, Google Forms allows you to insert pictures or videos into a question
• Click on the plus sign to add more questions  

• If you want the quiz to be computer graded, you can achieve this by selecting settings.  In the settings you will select Quizzes and make this a quiz.  At this point, you will be able to select the correct answers and assign point values.  

• At this point, you can preview your form or change the color palette of the form, if you so desire.  
• If you are happy with your Google Form, you can click Send.  
• By clicking send, you will get three options.  You can send your form through email, get a shareable link, or a code to embed.  
• Lastly, to access the results, you simply click on the Responses tab on your Google Form.  The results will appear in real-time after the students submit the form.  

• The results can be viewed in Google Form or uploaded to a spreadsheet.  

How can Google Forms be useful in the Classroom?

Google Forms can be used as a quick formative assessment, such as an exit ticket or admit slip.  Google Forms can be used for tests/quizzes, a get to know you activity at the start of the school year, or a fun way to gather statistical data for a statistics units.  

Click here to access a Google Form quiz I created for my 6th grade math students on area.  

Revision History

What is revision history?  

Revision history allows you to see any revisions that have been made to a Google Doc, Sheet, Drawing or Slide.  Revision history gives you the capability to revert back to an older version of the file.  

How do you use revision history?  

• Access the Google Doc, Sheet, Drawing, or Slide
• Select File from the top menu and click on See Revision History (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + H)

• At this point a side-bar will appear on the side.  
• Using the side bar you will see the revisions organized by date.  
• By clicking on the date, you will see all the different versions of the file from that day.  
• By clicking on a certain revision, you will be able to see that version of the file.
• If you wish to revert back to that version, you select Restore This Revision.  

Why is revision history an amazing feature?  

This a great feature for shared documents.  If a change has been made to the file that was unwanted, it can be undone.  It allows you to see who made changes, when the changes were made, and what changes were made to a file.  It can even be a useful feature when you are the only person editing the file.  Unlike Microsoft Word, it allows you to revert back to a previous version after the file has been saved.  

Sharing Files

What is sharing of files?  

Sharing files on Google Drive allows you to share files with other users through email or a link.  You can share the file in view only mode, can comment mode, or edit mode.  

How do you share files?  

There are multiple ways to share a file on Google Drive.  I will explain one of the ways to share a file.  

• Access the Google Doc, Sheet, Drawing, or Slide you wish to share.  
• Click on Share in the top, right-hand corner of the file. 

• A shareable link will be provided that can be copied or you can type in the email addresses you wish to share the file with.  
• Before you share the link with others, ensure that you have set up your sharing parameters.  You need to pick view only, can comment, or can edit.  

What are the benefits of sharing files in education  

Sharing files is a great way to complete collaborative projects between students.  Sharing files can be a great tool for sharing information such as, agendas, meeting notes, or important forms, between staff members.  

Accessing Google Drives Files on Computer

What are the benefits?  

This feature allows you to access and edit your Google Drive files on your computer.  Using this feature you can access and edit your Google Drive files, when you are not connected to the Internet.  The next time your computer is connected to the internet it will sync with your Google Drive online. 

How to access Google Drive files on computer?

• Click here to install drive on your computer.  
• After drive is installed your Google Drive files will slowly sync with a Google Drive folder on your computer.  
• You will be able to access any of the files from your Google Drive as you would any other file on your computer.

• Files will automatically sync back-up with Google Drive.  

As a honorable mention to my favorite features of Google Drive, I would like to quickly mention Google Drawings.  Google Drawings allows you to create diagrams, mind maps, and graphic organizers.  The drawings can be saved as pdfs or image files.  Below is an example of a Google Drawing I created.  

Watch this video to learn more about Google Drawings.  

If you would like to know even more about the features of Google Drive, watch this video.  

Thanks for reading my blog this week.  Next week I will be discussing Flippity and resources for teacher lesson plans.