Google Apps for Admins: Google Calendar

One of the most powerful tools for administrators is the almighty calendar. I have yet to find a calendar that is as robust and useful for school administrators as Google Calendar, and here’s why:

1. Google Calendar allows you to embed multiple calendars into a web page and change the way they look and the colors that are used.
2. You can easily attach documents, or invites to Google+ Hangouts (a Google+ Hangout is like Skype, but better) to calendar events.
3. You can receive updates via e-mail, screen popup,or text message.
4. You can add a location to the calendar event, which can have a Google Map attached to it.
5. You can use the "Find a time" feature to coordinate meetings with other colleagues who are using Google Calendar.

One of the best parts about using the Sony Xperia tablet with Google Calendar is that you can easily add a widget to your homescreen and never have to open the application to see, at a glance, what is upcoming on your calendar. WIN!

For more information about how (and why) to use Google Calendar, check out these links:

7 ways to use Google Calendar

How to use Google Calendar as a Project Management Tool

Why every school should use Google Calendar

• This post was cross-posted from the resource-building that I do with Sony, Inc., located at http://www.educationambassador.com - please visit there for more information and great suggestions from other ambassadors across the United States.

Google Apps for Admins: Drive & Docs

When rolling out the Google Apps for Education Suite to educators, Google Drive is easily in the first three application shared. And why not? It’s different yet familiar, it’s collaborative and you can do some neat tricks with it. Like a puppy. But with less mess.

Google Drive is great to show teachers and they will come up with some great plans to use with their students instantly. Check out Sony Education Ambassador, Kyle Pace’s blog series for Google for Teachers for more information. But Administrators have tasks that are specific to you, and here are some quick ways to use Google Docs and Drive in those Administrative tasks.

1. Google Presentations for Community Reports Use Google Presentations when creating presentations that need multiple stakeholders’ input. My suggestion is to create a presentation with a common template, title each slide ahead of time and when you share it with others, indicate to them which slides are theirs to edit. You don’t have to single-handedly create every parent or community presentation, and the finished product looks seamless and collaborative.
2. Google Spreadsheets for Conference Scheduling I’ve used Google Spreadsheets to assist in the scheduling of Conferences at the Middle School (grades 6-8) level. Import a Grade Report Excel file (or .csv) into Google Spreadsheets. Remove any extraneous information and leave only the student name and their grade(s) that need improving (don’t forget to include which classes may need remediation, as well!) Share the spreadsheet with the appropriate teachers or advisors. 
3. Researching with Google Docs In creating reports and research for BoardReports or other needs, using Google Docs and use the “Tools”, “Research” feature to instantly research directly from the same tab or window in which you are creating your content! No more do you have to switch between tabs or windows between your content and your research. The “Research” function also allows for instant MLA, APA or Chicago footnoting, and searching filtered by licensing rights.
4. Surveys, Surveys, Surveys! As both a high school and a middle school site administrator, I was seemingly creating surveys all the time. With Google Forms, your surveys are instantly timestamped and the form input goes immediately into a spreadsheet, which you can then sort, add formulas and use gadgets galore to tailor your results to make them most comprehensible to any audience.

If you're not quite ready to create your own, and want to be inspired by teampltes already in use, check out this list of templates I've created for an administrator's life, or you can check out Todd Roth's templates, also a practicing administrator.

• This post was cross-posted from the resource-building that I do with Sony, Inc., located at http://www.educationambassador.com - please visit there for more information and great suggestions from other ambassadors across the United States.

Streamline Your Life! Productivity Apps by Android

Every educator has too many tasks, not enough time and is pulled in a million directions. Here is a quick run-down of my favorite apps to use with my Sony Xperiatablet (or other Android-enabled device) to streamline life, while still staying effective.

Evernote - Take notes on your tablet, add pictures, audio recordings or attachments quickly to your notes, along with sharing “notebooks” to collaboratively edit; also has a complimentary website

Dropbox - Save files of any type to access anywhere and easily share folders. The advantage to using Dropbox is that all types of files can be saved in one simple place; also has a complimentary website

Chrome Browser - One of my favorites: Sync tabs across devices to access your tabs from anywhere, anytime on any device

Remember the Milk - Task management and list-making that syncs across devices and has a complimentary website. You can share tasks with others, categorize easily, set quick due dates, priority levels and more

Power Note - Allows you to take notes, audio recordings, photo, video or bookmarksand sync them all with your Diigo account. Diigo is an excellent social bookmarking tool, and one thing I really like about Power Note is that the default setting is that anything added is private. You can choose at any time to make is public, but it’s great for confidential notes from meetings.

Flipboard - Combine YOUR favorite news and magazines to create your Flipboard and get all of the information pertinent to your life whenever you want it.

Kindle - This is a great e-reader for multiple reasons: it uses your Amazonlog-in, so it’s one less password to remember, your notes and annotation sync online so you can access those annotations even when you don’t have your tablet, and using your Amazon account allows a lot of other functionalities, like syncing with your Shelfari account, if you use that, as well.

DocuSign Ink - Create a free account and easily sign, initial, date, add checkboxes or more to any type of file and instantly email to back to your intended recipient. Great for times when you don’t have access to a printer or a fax (do faxes still exist?). DocuSign Ink also provides a one-page verification page for your recipient’s assurance that it is a legitimate signature.

• This post was cross-posted from the resource-building that I do with Sony, Inc., located at http://www.educationambassador.com - please visit there for more information and great suggestions from other ambassadors across the United States.

Google Apps for Administrators: An Introduction

This post is the first in a monthly series of posts about Google Apps for Education and how it can make an Administrator’s life more efficient, so you spend less time with paperwork and more time in classes, at school activities, and with parents, students and teachers. If you’re not familiar with the power of Google Apps for Education, welcome! Here’s a quick overview:

Here’s a quick outline of what’s to come in this blog:

Google Drive: Learn how I facilitated a Middle School faculty change their paper-based methods of conference-scheduling using Google Spreadsheets. In addition, learn about how Forms are a Principal’s best friend and the Revision History function in Docs can make discipline much, much simpler.

Google Calendar: One calendar. Yes, that’s all you need. One calendar. Learn from my wins and failures in rolling out Google Calendar to one staff and how you can always make sure that you are never (unintentionally) double-booked, or miss an appointment. Integrated with Google+ Hangouts allows you to have all of your resources for any meeting in one place. No more looking for one attachment in your email, the location of the meeting in your calendar and the link to the directions to find the meeting in another spot! Streamline streamline streamline!

Gmail: Gmail is so much more than just mail! Instantly prioritize and filter your emails to your preferences, use Gmail offline and learn about some up-and-coming apps you can use in Gmail through “Labs”.

Google Apps on Tablets: Learn how to leverage the power of Google Apps on your Android-powered tablet and how students can easily use their school- or home-provided on theirs!

Further series entries will include topics, such as:
Voice

Sites

Google+

YouTube

Search

Scholar

Blogger

Picasa Web Albums

Translate

Books

Reader

Chrome

News, Trends & Alerts

Maps & Earth

Images

Forms & Scripts

• This post was cross-posted from the resource-building that I do with Sony, Inc., located at http://www.educationambassador.com - please visit there for more information and great suggestions from other ambassadors across the United States.

Social Networking for Educators - A Beginner's Guide

I was a Facebook late-comer. I was teaching, I had a family and a life, and if I wanted to “connect” with friends and family, I would pick up the phone or email them. I eventually gave in, joined and it’s moderately useful for me, but the ways I’ve seen it used by other teachers is amazing to me. So, if you’re hesitant about joining a social network, let me break it down for you.

You don’t have to join a social network to leverage its power in the classroom. Try usingFakebook and ask students to create fake Facebook accounts for historical people, authors or fictional characters, complete with “friends”, “life events” and photos, like the following:

But Fakebook isn’t the only way to use Facebook in the classroom. Try creating a page specifically for your classes that provides all of those great extra resources that you just don’t have time to get to in class!

There’s also a social networking tool that is, by far, the most robust in terms of connecting with educators worldwide in meaningful conversations. If it weren’t for this particular social network, I might not have ever known about the job posting that landed me the job of my dreams. Yes, Twitter. Here’s an easy three step way of finding the right people for you to follow and gain resources from:

• Follow one trusted person that you know is active on Twitter. Then, ask for recommendations from your trusted source for others to follow.
• Go to CybraryMan’s Educational Hashtags website and search for hashtag(s) (hashtags are number signs, i.e. #, that is followed by a topic that allows anyone to search for common interests) that is of interest to you. If you’re interested in educational technology, search for #edtech and see the great conversation happening.
• When you find a great website, share it on Twitter with a hashtag to help other educators find it. When it gets retweeted or “favorited”, you’ve just helped another educator learn a little bit more!

Lastly, here is a quick list of awesome educators to follow on Twitter:@web20classroom @coolcatteacher @willrich45 @nmhs_principal @elemenousand some great organizations: @educationweek @discoveryed @smithsonian@weareteachers @hgse

Of course, don't forget to follow the Sony Education Ambassadors, too! 

If you are brand new to all the social networks and you just want to dip your toe gently into the shallow end, try LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows users to create online resumes with as much, or as little, information as the user chooses. Power users will have their entire work and educational history, recommendations written from those who have worked with them, an on-going Twitter feed along the side of their profile, belong to dozens of groups and be “endorsed” for dozens of skills.

Or, if you’re more interested in getting quick, visual snapshots of other resources, givePinterest a try. Look at the Category, “Education”, or any topic of interest and you will find oodles upon oodles of websites to curate for yourself. Many educational organizations have Pinterest pages, as well. Be warned: it can be addicting.

But for the average user, all of these social networks are ways to create a digital footprint of YOUR choosing. Ultimately, social networking can best be used to control your digital footprint and what is posted about you online. If you are the one who is posting valuable resources on Twitter, or Facebook Group class information, then you begin to manage your own information.

• This post was cross-posted from the resource-building that I do with Sony, Inc., located at http://www.educationambassador.com - please visit there for more information and great suggestions from other ambassadors across the United States.

Words Matter - and Zombies are Cool, Too

As a language-geek, and a staunch believer that WORDS MATTER, this is a selection of language-focused items I've encountered this week, and absolutely love in conjunction with one another.

The Good Stuff:

Video from YouTube: "Beware of Nominalizations

The full lesson is on TEDEd: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/beware-of-nominalizations-aka-zombie-nouns-helen-sword

Then I found Buzzword-o-Matic: http://sparkreactor.com/buzz/

After showing Buzzword-o-Matic to my colleague, @edtech2learn, he sent me a one-line email response: 

"I'll see your Sparkreactor and raise you: http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html "

My Thoughts:

I imagine this being an excellent lesson for pre-service teachers. In our increasingly over-complicated culture, this serves as a reminder that being concise and clear is always preferred.

When we "jargonize" our lives, we simultaneously give unclear messages, thereby confusing our listeners or readers. What can also happen is we make our listeners or readers feel stupid. 

The Point: 

Don't make people feel stupid. They never learn that way.

Inspired Educator: Pixar's Story Rules

As I was reading through recent tweets, I came across a Mashable article, "Pixar Story Rules Legofied". Legofy anything and I'm in.  

It occurs to me that connections with learning and teaching can be made, and I've included my humble thoughts below each image/Pixar Story Rule. 

The coincidences that get us into the most trouble or difficulty in teaching often creates the grandest learning opportunities.

'Nuff said.

If you can't make the learning meaningful, it's just words.

Challenge students (and yourself). It's the only way for anyone to get outside of their comfort zone and LEARN.

Just like real-life (you know, what we're preparing students for).

Just because a lesson is fun doesn't mean there is learning.

Don't procrastinate...start thinking about best methods and approaches NOW...by the time you get to the day of the lesson, the project,  the presentation, it will look nothing like your original idea, and that's a good thing.

Don't allow anyone (including yourself) to become passive. Opinions can and should change with new or different information, but opinions are NECESSARY for learning what works and what doesn't work.

Simplify your life. And find every way possible to streamline your workflow. Your psyche will thank you for it.

Give students a reason to care.

Focus on the meaning first and let the connections between units or projects evolve organically. Then, ask students to identify the themes and patterns.

Don't get bogged down in what's wrong with your students, classes, life - make a list of things that will not happen in the future as a result of your experiences so far. You just might be surprised at the result.