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A few times a year, in my district, there is an email that accidentally gets emailed to all of our district staff. There are always a number of people who reply and ask why they are getting this email. Then as the email gets replied to several times, people reply and beg everyone to stop replying all. If you are ever caught in this situation, you can mute the message thread. Muting a message thread archives the thread and you will not receive notification when a new message is sent. The animated GIF below shows where you find this mute button. With the message, thread open click the More button at the top of the message. Click Mute The thread will disappear from your inbox because it is archived. You can find the message again by going to the All Mail label on the left or searching for the thread using the search box at the top of the Gmail screen. 

A recent update to Google Sites now allows you to copy HTML/Embed code from other websites and embed your content into your site. This is a major update to Sites and allows NEW sites to be more interactive by allowing these resources to be embedded directly into the site. How to embed HTML code into NEW Google Sites Copy the HTML / Embed code from your third party site (i.e. FlipGrid, EdPuzzle, Thinglink, etc.) On the Site page you want to insert your HTML resource click "Embed" from the insert menu on the right, or double click on the page you would like to insert the resource and choose "Embed" from that menu. Choose EMBED CODE from the pop-up window Paste the HTML / Embed code you copied from the other website into the box Click Next You are given a preview of what will be displayed on your Site page. Click Insert if you see your resource. You can resize your resource once it gets inserted on the page, if needed. Publish your site and view your resourc

Recently Google announced some updates to the way you can format images inserted into Google Docs, Slides and Drawing files. You can now add drop shadow and reflection to your images. Images with transparent backgrounds work best for these features, especially the drop shadow effect. How to access the new formatting features: Insert an image into your file. Select the image by clicking on it. There should be a blue line around your image. Click Format options... button on the toolbar To turn the Drop shadow and/or Reflection feature on, click the check box to the right of the words. Clicking the check box will turn these features on then you can click the triangles to the left of the words to access their settings.

Recent tools have made it very easy for students (and teachers) to create and share video responses for projects and assessments. These are just a few tools you can use on multiple devices and operating systems. Flipgrid is the leading video discussion platform used by millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, families, and organizations in more than 150 countries! Create a Grid (that's your classroom or group), add Topics to spark the discussion, and your community builds a dialogue as they share short video responses. (source flipgrid.com) FlipGrid might just be the most popular tool right now to capture video responses from students. A simple search on Twitter for #FlipGridFever shows how teachers from all over the country are using FlipGrid in their classroom. FlipGrid can be used with the following devices: iPad, Phones, Chromebook, Windows Computer, Mac Computer (devices must have working webcam)   Are you already using FlipGrid? Please share wi

I was asked to write a guest blog post for EdTechTeam. I was honored to do so. The blog post was titled "Let Students Choose" and focused on letting students choose the technology tool that will highlight their talents, instead of forcing them to use a tool for the sake of using that tool. Below is the link to the blog post! I hope you enjoy! EdTechTeam: Let Students Choose! Highlighting Talents with Student Choice

Today was the final day of our Topeka Public Schools Innovation Academy Summer Camp. Our Innovation Academy is a group of teachers who are technology leaders in their respective buildings. These teachers spent four days learning how to use and discussing how to integrate several tools into their classrooms. Tools our Innovation Academy members are excited to use include: Flipgrid , Recap , and  Screencastify DotStorming.com PearDeck.com BigHugeLabs.com GreenScreening with TouchCast Studio iPad app Keynote and iMovie Google MyMaps and  TourBuilder Digital Breakouts And deciding which SAMR level different classroom activities fall into. Thanks for a great week #TPSInnovationAcademy #tpsinnovationacademy Tweets

I share a lot of documents with people. Either teachers I work with in my district or educators I talk to at conferences. I also share a lot of resources on my district training site. One thing I've started doing recently is forcing people to make a copy of a document, so they automatically get a copy of the resources or HyperDoc saved into their Google Drive folder. Here is how you do that" 1. Make the document available so anyone with the link can view. 2. Copy the share link 3. Open a new tab in Chrome and paste the copied link in the address bar 4. At the end of the URL, delete everything up to the backslash ( / ) 5. Type the word "copy" after the /  6. Copy the new link (or shorten it) and share the link on your site, blog, presentation, via email. 7. When someone clicks on the new link they will be forced click the "Make a copy" button to access the file and that copy will be saved to their Google Drive folder.  8. Not

Changing the view / share settings of a Google document is rather easy, but takes a few clicks to get the settings changed.  Now there is a Chrome extension that will change the view permissions of a Google Docs (or Slides, Sheet, and Drawing) with one click of the mouse. That extension is called " Alice Keeler AnyoneCanView "  With the click of the mouse button you can change your Private doc into a doc that anyone with the link can view. This is very handy when you share a lot of files with people outside of you school district or post files on your website or blog. The video below shows how the extension works. My good friend Gail Ramirez put together a HyperDoc with some more information about this extension.

There are several advanced features of Google Forms that you may not know are available to you. All of these settings are built into Google Forms and are not part of any Addons. Upload a file within the form There is a new question option for Google Forms. You can know set up a question where the user can upload a file. The owner of the form can allow 1, 5, or 10 files uploaded at once. They can also set the max file size with 10MB as the default size. The files are uploaded to a folder in the owner's Google Drive folder and on the Form response spreadsheet there will be a link to the file. Password protect a form Forms can be password protected for security reasons as well as for creating digital breakout games. Passwords can be words, numbers, or a combo of both. Reasons to password protect a form: Quizzes so random student doesn’t take it. Digital breakout games Forms for specific staff members Share info with specific people (parents) Check

Thank you to Gail Ramirez for the SAMR examples and explanations.  See our SAMR site here with more information about SAMR. What is SAMR? The SAMR teaching model was designed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. This model helps teachers create lessons / activities that increase student critial thinking and transform their learning experiences. SAMR stands for S ubstitution, A ugmentation, M odification, & R edefinition. In the SAMR model teachers can reflect on their lessons / activities and use this guide to improve the student's learning experience. Moving to the next level on the SAMR model is not easy for teachers. They must be willing to take chances and step out of their comfort zone in order to make the jump to the next level. Examples of moving to the next level. Below are some examples of what each level of SAMR looks likes. You may find when looking at your own lessons that trying to move up a level is not appropriate for the activity. That is OK. Not everyt