FIRST THING: Google File Sharing – Another reminder and a deeper dive
Make sure you are reviewing the share permissions on sensitive documents in Google Drive as I mentioned last week in PD. Here are a few YouTube videos that highlight different elements of sharing files in Google Drive and Docs.
- How to Use (and Not Use) Get Shareable Link in Google Drive – This video has a great overview of sharing and what “Get Shareable Link” does. Just keep in mind that it uses the old share interface, so some of the screens look a little different now.
- Update to the sharing settings for Google Docs – This video is a general overview of how to share using the new updated Google sharing interface. Combine this one with the one above to make sure you set your sensitive docs back to Restricted. Additional tips and tricks in this video include setting your access permissions to expire (share a document with someone for a short time only) and restricting access so that Viewers cannot copy, print, or download your doc.
SECOND THING: Student Voices from a Pandemic (ideas for using writing in your virtual classroom)
This is just a cool collection of ideas and resources I’ve seen highlighted over the last few months.
- Up first, 12 Ideas for Writing Through the Pandemic With The New York Times. Ideas include everything from Student Reviews of the media and games they are consuming during the pandemic, to How To Guides for making masks, to a Comic Strip for your budding artists.
- Current Events in Your Classroom – Ideas for incorporating the current pandemic and protests sparked by the death of George Floyd into your lessons from FacingHistory.org.
- 5 Creative Response to Reading Activities – Writing.org has a lot of great articles and ideas about teaching writing with students, but this is one of my faves. Check out a deeper dive on the first one, Booksnaps, and see what you think. (HINT: these can easily be adapted to Problem Solving in STEM classes as well)
THIRD THING: Spreadsheets in the Classroom Teaser
Here is a glimpse at the kind of activities we will be learning about in Thursday’s Opt-In PD Session – Google Sheets for Teachers and embedding just about anything in Canvas. In this little example, students can enter in their weight or age (or a fave celebrity, athlete or teacher if you’re willing to divulge) and this sheet converts that weight/age to the weight/age they would be on any planet. Other examples in Thursday’s session will include timelines, charting stock prices, self-graded quizzes, flashcards, mini-games, and many ways for you and your kids to get comfortable analyzing sets of data. You can interact directly with the spreadsheet below or check out the full sheet here.