Share to Classroom

A fantastic new Chrome extension that allows you to post a webpage link to your Google Classroom directly from your browser without having to copy the link and open Google Classroom.

[NOTE: This only works on the Chrome browser on your computers or on Chromebooks. It does not work with the iPad or Android tablet version of Chrome.]

Go to the Chrome Webstore and search for "Share to Classroom" and click Add to Chrome.









Once installed, a little Classroom icon appears in the upper right of your Chrome browser.













Click on it and it will display your classes.












Choose your class. Then - 

Decide if it will be an Announcement (no action is required from the students on Google Classroom) or an Assignment (which at the very least the students need to click DONE when they have completed the task, or submit something depending on the nature of the assignment).

What's Push?
For "Push to Students" to work, all of your students must install the extension. I plan to include a link on Google Classroom itself (as an Announcement) to get it done as soon as they log in to my GC.
Since everyone in class will have a Chromebook and will be logged into Chrome with their school address, you could "push" the web page to the students and it would open automatically in a new tab within Chrome for them - no need to paste (or worse, dictate) a URL. And presto! everyone is on the same (web)page. Literally.

How to use the Assignment feature on Google Classroom for Student Uploads

I was asked about using the Assignment feature for Google Classroom (GC) for items that are not Google Docs, Slides etc.

The teacher wanted to have the students take phone pictures of their written work in their workbooks and submit the pics through GC, because she wanted to make use of the Assignment feature that keeps track of who has submitted and who has not (yet).

This method can be used to upload ANY material that is created or found by the students - artwork, Word documents, web links, videos, etc.

While I was at it, I decided this would be a good opportunity to show you what the students see when they do an assignment on GC.

START OFF by going to GC, clicking the +, and choosing Create Assignment

Your assignment is for the students to upload a camera pic of their work

When the STUDENT gets the assignment - this is what s/he sees in her/his GC:

Once they have completed their work and photographed it, they click ADD to upload their picture.

The students can also include a PRIVATE message to the teacher that is NOT seen by the rest of the class. When they are done, they click TURN IN.

It gives them one last chance ...

Once they submit the work, it shows up as done. If they're having second thoughts, they can UNSUBMIT it before the teacher opens it.

Back on the TEACHER'S GC, you can see how many have submitted the assignment.

 When you click on X DONE, you can see WHO has submitted the assignment. You can then click on the file and view it.
(For advanced users - if you use the Chrome extension Pic Monkey, you can write comments on the picture.)

Once you've seen the submission, you can grade it and return it.

You can also respond privately to any posted questions.

Why I dropped Dropbox for iPad

Don't get me wrong - I love Dropbox and use it for all my classes and my repository of thousands of journal articles downloaded over the years.

But the iPad app stinks. The display window of the document names is impossibly narrow. If I have 5 articles by the same author, I can't  see past his/her name to the title of the article itself.

That's why I switched to Documents by Readdle.

It's a free app. It works in conjunction with all your online depositories like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, etc. It displays all file types clearly, allows previews, and has many more features that I have still yet to explore.

Dropbox screenshot vs. Readdle

Get Readdle HERE

Share Quizlets Directly to Google Classroom

You can now share Quizlets directly to your Google Classroom!

When you've completed the Quizlet, click Share and choose Google Classroom.

It's that easy.

Getting creative with pdf files - Part One

The pdf - it's not just for viewing anymore!

I'm going to run through a series on things you can do - how to make a pdf online, how to convert it to something else, how to collate separate pdfs together and separate pages from within a large one, among many other things.

The best piece of freeware out there (one I have been using several times a week for the last 5 years is PDFTK Builder. Get it HERE. (Scroll down to the bottom for the installation file. The main screen looks like this:

To collate, begin by clicking Add and navigating to your pdf files and click Open. In the example below they are all together in one file, but you can keep clicking Add until you have all the files you wish to bind together.

You can re-position the files with the Move up / down buttons, or remove a file in the middle, etc. When you are ready, click Save As, and name the file (and make sure it's going to the folder you wish).

When it's done collating, the file path will appear at the bottom of the screen.