Deb Norton Tech

Today is December 10, 2021! We are already in the double digits of December.   This week I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the SLATE Conference . SLATE stands for (School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education).  I can't even tell you how nice it was to be back in person to learn and share with educators from all over the Midwest. I feel so inspired! Here are a few quick takeaways from SLATE.  Spinnerwheel.com lets you add more than one wheel to your screen. As a matter of fact, you can add and save up to eight wheels on a page!   You can add images, text, numbers and percentages.  The  wheels can be used independently or at the same time. There are many settings to choose from for each wheel, including colors, backgrounds and sounds. This  Christmasify extension will add falling snow to any webpage.  The DF for YouTube (Distraction Free for YouTube) extension eliminates all adds for YouTube videos including the ads at th...

This past summer, I presented many webinars online. One of the best tools I found for engaging the audience during the live webinars was Slido .  Once a person adds the Slido add-on , they can open Slido in a Google Presentation and add a poll question that the audience will be able to participate in in real time. With Slido a person can: 📊 Create word clouds and other live polls directly in the presentation 🏆 Run a competitive quiz with leaderboard 🙋‍♀️ Collect the most burning questions with live Q&A Here is a video showing how Slido works: After using Slido, a person can always go back and review a poll question and see the results again. If you are looking for a simple and effective polling tool to use with Google Slides, I highly recommend giving Slido a try.

This post is inspired by one of my colleagues who invited me into their English class and gave me the amazing opportunity to teach the students how to create engaging and informative slide presentations. We've all been there. The audience member of a typical slide presentation created by students (or adults).  They typically look like this one.  A lot of text on a slide with bullet points. A few pictures. And presenters that read the slides word for word.  To prevent us all from having to endure the painful monotony of sitting through these types of presentations, I'm suggesting that we teach students how to create better presentations and also how to effectively present. CREATING BETTER PRESENTATIONS Here is a great resource on Design Tips and Tricks for Google Slides.   Use Diagrams --Instead of bulleted lists, I like to suggest that students to use the diagram tools that can be inserted into the presentation. Simply click on Ins...

I have so many great things to share this week! This week while I was teaching a lesson, the students were very quiet and hesitant to share or respond to any questions or comments.   I wish I would have had something like these speaking goal cards .  Just having students think of a goal and a purpose for sharing might have improved their participation. Google Slides has a new feature coming soon. Captioning in real time! This will be useful for students who are taking notes during a presentation.  This feature is being rolled out in a gradual release, so it may be a few weeks before you see it in your account. Writer Igniter is a fun web application that will create randomly generated writing prompts. The prompt will include a character, a situation and a prop along with a setting for your story. This one’s for all the music teachers out there.   And this one is for all teachers everywhere. A shareable whiteboard space. Share your week...

The Ever Changing, Always Evolving GOOGLE! Gmail is getting a new look and some new features. Check it out here . I’m excited about smart reply, which I use all the time on the Gmail app on my phone.  Snoozing looks interesting, as well as nudging. There will also be new security and privacy features. Google Slides has some new updates . First, you will soon be able to copy and paste a Google slide from a Google presentation directly into a Google doc.  Also, you can add guide lines to your Google slides to help you align text and images on your slide. You can now add checkboxes to Google sheets. Click here to learn how. One of my colleagues has a fancy email signature, so I asked her to share the site she uses with me. And wa-la, I now have a very fancy email signature. ------------------------------------------------------ Curricular Connection Mercury Reader Sometimes you might want to clear away the clutter from a website to ...

Do you currently have a syllabus that you pass out the first day of school only to find that your students stuff the syllabus in their backpacks and never really look at it again?  Why not consider creating a digital syllabus using Google Presentations! Generation Z students appreciate anything in a digital format for viewing. There are many purposes to a syllabus. Let's talk about content and design ideas for your digital syllabus. First of all, check out my example. Try to picture your own content in this syllabus, customized to you and your students' needs. I included expectations, course content, grading information and contact information. You might also include a video, links to websites or even class rules that you and your students create together. I started by creating a new Google Presentation .  Before I added any content, I first changed the size of the slides in the presentation to 8.5 x 11 inches so that the syllabus looks li...

- Sharing is Caring - Image Link As I follow blogs and posts from my PLN, I often think, "Oh, I have to share these ideas with my colleagues!" Well, today I'm doing just that. Here are some great posts from EDU folks that I follow. They share their ideas, knowledge and creations without hesitation to help us all be better and more efficient at what we do. I truly appreciate their Sharing is Caring attitude. #1 Google Classroom Speed Grading via Lance Yoder - Engaged.net Would you like to see a quicker and more efficient way of grading student work in Google Classroom all the while still being able to leave feedback? Check out this video and this blog post !  #2 How to Add Music to Google Slides via Richard Byrne - Free Technology for Teachers What a great idea to have music playing in a Google Presentation. This post and video shows a great work around to make this possible. #3 Black Out Poetry with Google Docs via Eric Curts - Co...

Recently Google Slides (Presentations) received an update that students and teachers are going to love!   Finally, the ability to embed videos from Google Drive is here! Up until now, only YouTube videos have been able to be inserted into a Google Presentation . But now, students can insert videos that are saved to their Google Drive directly into a Google Presentation. This is such a fantastic update for students in any district that are restricted from creating their own YouTube channel. Here is a look at how to insert videos from Google Drive into Google Slides. It is important to remember that share settings do apply. If a person viewing your presentation does not have permission to view the video, they will be prompted to request access. Make sure your video is set to anyone with the link can view to prevent any problems. *Remember, videos only play in presentation mode. Advanced Video Settings!  In addition, there is the ability to right click...

App Smashing on International Dot Day - September 15th Watch this Chat with Deb video to see the first activity using Lucidchart Diagrams, the Quick Research extension, the Lucidchart Add-on and Google Docs   Blogging example: Give students a chance to begin showcasing their work and projects with a simple blogging platform. Students will make an account on Postach.io  and name and create a blog.  Students will make an account on Evernote Connect the Evernote account in Postach.io under the sources tab. Students will install the Evernote Web Clipper Extension from the Chrome Web Store. Whenever students create content on the web or have a picture of something they have done saved in Evernote, they can click on the Evernote Web Clipper Extension and the site or picture will be posted onto their blog. Students can use Doppleme  to create an avatar to represent themselves in a private and secure way. There is no account necessary...