An Interactive Notebook for the Digital Classroom

Recently, while teaching an online class covering Differentiated Instruction, several discussions turned to the topic of Interactive Notebooks.  As a learning/study tool, Interactive Notebooks have been handy in terms of allowing students to culminate resources, integrate visuals, and prepare for exams.  But as the digital classroom continues to evolve, finding ways to move Interactive Notebooks from page to screen have become necessary.

With the new update to Google Sites, this opportunity has never been greater.  Google Sites provides a platform allowing students to create an online notebook that can include interactive and video content.  

Here are a few ways that you can create an Interactive Notebook using Google Sites...

Setting Up Your Interactive Notebook

The best way to insure that students get the most of their online interactive notebook, make sure to provide some guidelines for setting up the Google Site.  You can walk them through the process or you may even want to look into developing a template they can use.  In any case, here are a few tips on getting started:

A Page for Everything

If you need to add more pages, just click on the Pages menu and add it.  Have students create a page for each unit  you cover.  Pages can include items such as:

A Launch Page - 

Students should include information about themselves, as well as the course, class period, and links to each page on the site.

A Gallery of work - 

Have students store photos of their unit work, or documents in a Google Drive folder.  Then, add the folder to a Google Sites page.  If displaying photos, set the folder to a Grid view for easier viewing.

Links for Study

When teaching a unit, you may share a lot of links that students can benefit from.  Encourage students to save those links by adding them to a page on their Site.

Flash Cards and Study Tools

Do you use flash cards as a study tool?  Try adding links to your Quizlet  or Flippity Study Sets. 

Videos for Teaching and Learning

Have students gather resources to help them study.  Teach them to search and share videos that may help them prepare and supplement learning on the unit you are covering.  YouTube has tons of great resources.  Search for channels by teachers that cover the subject you teach. Help students understand the difference between a good and a bad resource before they start culminating a library.

Review Tool for the End of the Year

Once you've gotten started, you can teach students to create a new page for each unit you cover.  Throughout the year, students will have a site they can use to build on and add knowledge to their understanding of concepts.  By the end of the year, they will have a tool they can use to review for final projects and exams.  

Take a look at this sample site - https://sites.google.com/view/techybio/home

Grading Interactive Notebooks

If you would like to grade students on the work they put toward their Interactive Notebooks on Google Sites, you can create a Google Sheet in which you gather and keep information on each student.  This can be a launching page to take you to each student's notebook and allow for easier grading.  Students will need to publish their site and make sure it is viewable by you.  Then they can share the link to their site with you.

You can also create a Google Form  you can use to grade each student's progress on notebooks. Each question in the form can cover information in your grading rubric.  Use Linear Scale questions to rank students on each objective in the grading rubric.  

Create a Rubric using Forms

Are you new to Google Sites?  

Try this video to introduce you to the New Google Sites so that you and your students can learn more about how to use this versatile tool!

New Google Sites - Open to Education Users November 9th!

Have you been anxiously waiting for the New Google Sites to come to your school? Well the wait is over.  Starting tomorrow, November 9th , the New Google Sites will be available to users on the Rapid Release track (Scheduled Release Track launches on Nov 21).  

For those who have been waiting for this release, here are a few tips regarding this release... Google Admin Users, scroll to the bottom of this article for important info.

Teacher Users

New Google Sites will be available through Google Drive.  Just go to http://drive.google.com and click  New > More > Google Sites to create your site.  

New Google Sites will also still be available at http://sites.google.com.  You will have to click New Google Sites in the left margin.

If you want to learn more about this release and how the New Google Sites looks and feels, watch this tutorial video.

Adding Content

Its easy to add content to your New Site.  Just double click anywhere on your page, and a page editor wheel will appear allowing you to insert Images, Links, Text, Drive Files, or uploaded documents.

Google Apps Integration

You still have the ability to integrate and add content from a wide variety of Google Apps and Tools.  Add content such as:

• Embed
• YouTube
• Google Calendar
• Google Maps
• Insert
• Google Drive Folders
• Google Docs
• Google Slides
• Google Sheets
• Google Forms
• Charts from Sheets

Responsive Design & Themes

Page and Subpage Navigation - Nest pages under each other for Subpage navigation - just drag and drop.

Easily add Theme Presets.  Just click the Themes menu and choose from 6 design themes.

Image Resizing - As you add images to your page, you can resize them.  Sites will automatically crop them for optimal viewing, but you can always uncrop as needed. 

Drag, Drop and Resize Content - All sections, images, and inserted items can easily be edited just by dragging and dropping, or using the resize tools.  

Watch for additional features to be released over the next year....

 

Google Admin Users

If you are the Google Admin for your district, and you wish for your users to have access to the New Google Sites, it is important that you do the following:

• Classic Sites and Google Drive must be enabled for your organization. You can find instructions to turn it on here.
• New Sites will follow Google Drive sharing settings in the Admin Console.  It will not follow the sharing settings for Classic Sites.  
• To edit Sharing Settings for New Sites go to Apps > GSuite > Drive.  
• To edit Sharing Settings for Classic Sites, go to Apps > GSuite > Sites

New Google Sites - Coming Soon to a GSuite School Near You!

The New Google Sites has a release date for GSuite Schools!  According to news in my inbox today, Google will release the New Google Sites on November 9th.  This release of Sites offers some visual advantages over the old sites, as well as new features and will continue to add some of the older settings and tools you are used to.  

If you'd like to take a look at the New Google Sites, watch here:

As your school district prepares for this release, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

• The Rapid Release is November 9th.  Domains set to a Scheduled Release track will see Sites 2 weeks later.
• Districts will need to make sure that Google Sites and Google Drive are enabled on the domain in order for users to take advantage of this tool.
• Sites will still appear at http://sites.google.com, but will also appear as a tool in Google Drive.  Go to New>More>Google Sites
• Classic Sites will still be available for a while in tandem.
• Look for a method for converting Classic Sites to the New Google Sites in the future.

Back to School with the Techy Coach

As many districts are rapidly approaching the start of school, it is a great time to reflect on EdTech, projects, and general tech tips. So, with that in mind, I'm passing along a list of articles to help educators start the new year!

Raise Engagement with a Hyperdoc

Start fresh with the New Google Sites

Help Your Students Learn More About You with a Teacher Trailer

Track Student Progress this Year

Broadcast Student Work with Google Cast

Brush Up on Google Forms

Try Creating A Quiz in Google Forms

Create Rubrics for Grading

Google for Assessments

Google Slides - Take Questions from your class

Google Classroom Articles

Choose your own adventure with Google Forms

Google Docs and Student Feedback

Setting Up Your GAFE Site

A Quick Tour of the New Google Sites

As I said earlier this Summer, Google has released a new, updated version of Google Sites.  This update is not yet available to GAFE users yet, but it promises some awesome features that Google Sites users will love.

Specifically, just this week, Google announced more new features that have been added, including:

• Google Analytics integration - you can now track your site!

• Header Options - Text Only or Banner Style Header

• Awesome Table integration - Users can now embed Awesome Table

• Publishing to the web -Users can now publish sites to the web.

To take a look at what the New Google Sites looks like at this time, watch this quick tour...

Timesaver Tip: Set Up A Photo Gallery in the New Google Sites

The next timesaver tip I have to share with you involves Google Sites (both old and new) and a Class Photo Gallery.  

If you've ever set up a Google Slide show as a photo gallery and then embedded the presentation on a Google Site, you know how awesome it can be to add more photos later, and make it easy for people to view class pictures on your website.

Let's take that one step further and use a feature that is found inside Google Sites:  Insert>Google Drive>Folder.  Watch this video to see what I mean!

News That Google Sites Users Will Love!

Are you a faithful user of Google Sites?  Then you've probably heard those nasty rumors that have been floating around for a few years saying that Google Sites will eventually go away.  Like me, you've probably dismissed those stories and ignored them hoping that your beloved Google Sites would still be around for a while.  

Well...you were right!  According to news posted on the Google Apps Update Blog, Google Sites will soon get a makeover! Some of the upcoming features include:

• A Drag and Drop Design Experience
• Easier Access to Google Apps and Tools
• Scale-able Themes and Layouts 

News is very limited at this time, as developments are still underway. Personally, I can't wait to see the new updates.  If you are a Google for Work Administrator, and you'd like to apply to be an early adopter of the new Google Sites, check out the Google Blog Post here.  Stay Tuned...

Google Sites: File Cabinet Pages for Class Files

For teachers out there who are looking for a simple way to create a teacher website, Google Sites is a great option.  With any GAFE (Google Apps for Education) or Free Gmail Account, users can create a site by going to http://sites.google.com.  For more information, watch this simple tutorial on Google Sites Basics:

Over the next few weeks, I'll go over some of the basic features users will find, as well as some hidden extras.  

For this post, we are going to focus on a File Cabinet page.  While many people will spend time creating a basic webpage to push files out to users, a File Cabinet can be an invaluable resource for getting documents out to students and parents.

To get started, to to your Google Site by visiting http://sites.google.com.  Click on your site and click the Add Page tool. 

A new page will load where you can name your page, and select the page type.  From the drop down menu, choose File Cabinet.  

Once you set up a File Cabinet page, any user with editing rights can upload files or create folders on the page. Files can be uploaded from your computer or added from your files in Google Drive.  Additionally, you can arrange your files into folders for greater organization.

Those who view the page will only see your files. They will not be able to upload to your page.

The advantage to this is that you can create a folder system of files for:

• Classroom
• Professional Development
• Departmental Needs

Such as:

• Lessons
• Syllabus
• Class Handouts
• Training Materials 

By doing this, it makes accessing files easier for your users, and makes uploading files easier for you.

    

ePortfolios & Projects with Google Sites

Recently a question was posted in the "Ask the Techy Coach" page regarding Google Sites and Google Classroom.  A teacher had inquired about creating a project for students in which they would create an eBook on a Google Sites page.  Students would "pick up" study guides from Google Classroom and would insert them into their Google Site.  Her concern is over how well the two integrate with one another.

Just last year, I posted an article called Google Sites vs. Google Classroom.  While that article gives a basic Pros & Cons approach to each, this article will discuss how the two can be integrated.

While Google Classroom is not directly integrated with Google Sites on the same level as, say, Google Docs or Slides, you can still use Sites as the platform for a project, and Classroom as a place to submit work.

For the project side, students can use page templates in Google Sites to:

• Blog about a Topic (Announcements)
• Add Content such as YouTube videos (Web Page)
• Create a database of information (Lists)
• Store files (File Cabinet)

If you are interested in learning more about how Google Sites work, and how to get started, watch here:

Sites can also be used as a Digital Portfolio.  A Google Site can be set up as a Template which could then be used as a starting point that all students could use and develop in their own style.  While monitoring this may seem like a nightmare, there is a great solution in an AddOn called Site Maestro.  This handy tool allows teachers to set up an entire class with their own Google Site, while using a Google Sheet as a dashboard for monitoring their progress.  Use my Google Sites tutorial to help you create a skeleton site that your students can use, and then use this tutorial from New Visions Cloudlab to help you get started with your own ePortfolio project for students:

  

Don't forget, there are many other great web tools you can use to get students started with Blogging or ePortfolios, such as:

• Blogger
• EduBlogs
• Kidblog

Now what does any of this have to do with Google Classroom?  If you are like me, you probably have grown to love the simplistic design of Google Classroom, and the way it integrates with Google Drive.  But while it may not work as well with Sites, you can still use Classroom to:

Post links and docs for items required in a Project

• While most of the work will be done inside the Blog, students can still pick up items like Docs or Slideshow templates that they can post within their Site.  For instance, the teacher could post a Doc in Google Classroom with instructions on how students will use the templates, where they should appear, or how they fit in the portfolio, as well as due dates.  In this instance, I have to point out that the integration between Google Sites and Google Docs is great.  Google has made it easy to embed or insert almost anything from Drive into a Site.  

Post assignment submissions for sections of a Google Site

• Once students have completed work in their Google Site, they can use the Assignment Submission page to paste a URL link to their finished product.

Post Reminders & Project Due Dates

• It never hurts to post timely reminders regarding projects in Google Classroom - especially since they will be sent by email to students as well.

Use the Question tool in Classroom so students can post links to their Google Site for discussion

• The Question tool allows teachers to create a Forum in which you can post a question, and have students respond, and comment on each others responses.  This could be used as a great way to get students in a dialogue about their work.  This is a great way to introduce peer grading or suggesting.

All this being said, this answer was mostly for any teacher that uses Google Classroom on a daily basis and may be looking for a solution to guide and oversee a project such as an online project.  But don't ever feel that you have to use a certain tool because it is new.  If another tool will do the job, use it.  The tool should never become more important than the process or learning experience.

Raise the Bar on Communication with Google Classroom and Google Calendar

One of the great features of Google Classroom is that teachers can assign work using documents created in Google Drive and Students can easily turn in work without the headache involved with sharing to multiple users.  But many teachers relate the frustration of not being able to share their Stream with parents so they can keep up with what is going on in Google Classroom.  Apart from giving parents their students' passwords, for a long time, there was no good solution for communicating that information.  

But several months ago, Classroom was updated to include the creation of a Google Calendar with each new course that is created.  If you have not taken advantage of this feature, you simply must.  Having a Calendar for the course creates that avenue of communication with parents so many teachers need and want.  

Dig in to this tutorial to learn how you can take advantage of the features in Google Calendar to communicate due dates, projects, and announcements to the parents of your students.

This video tutorial covers:

• How to access  your Google Classroom Calendar
• How to share your Calendar with parents
• How to post your Class Calendar on Google Sites

Everything Google

In order to serve the needs of our teachers during our transition to Google Apps for Education, I've created a website with articles, tutorials, and information about Google Apps.  You can link to my page from this blog or by visiting http://everythinggoogle.com

You can also subscribe to posts and updates to Everything Google here:

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Google Sites vs. Google Classroom

Classroom vs. Site

This year, our district has made significant strides toward being a Google Apps for Education school district.  All of our faculty and students have their own Google Account and have been working to understand the benefits afforded by working in the cloud.

As we drew the year to a close we started Summer training for our English Language Arts teachers, as they would be receiving a Chromebook cart in each of their classrooms.  As part of that training, one of the questions that popped up was,  "Which is better? Google Sites or Google Classroom."

To answer that question, I've provided a few pieces of information for you (benefits of each), as well as a few videos to help newbies understand each tool:

Google Classroom

• Teachers can assign students to their classroom.
• Assign and grade work within the classroom.
• Use the stream to post announcements or assignments
• Link to Google Drive to assign work.
• Add links to YouTube Videos
• Add links to URLs
• Allow students to post or comment (easy to disable)

Google Classroom

Discussion Forums using Google Classroom

Google Sites

• Freedom to create the look and feel of a Teacher Webpage/Site
• Add multiple pages
• Link to Google Drive to add assignments
• Create a File Cabinet to share files as a department
• Create an Announcements Page to post thoughts and discussion topics
• Embed any content you need (YouTube, Easel.ly, Etc...)
• Add links to websites, etc....
• Open site up for discussion boards
• Embed a Google Calendar for a list of events
• Have students create their own Google Site as a digital portfolio
• Use a Google Site as a Wiki where students can work on group projects.  

Setting up a Google Site