Hello friends! I know – it has been a while…but that’s life.

I am so excited to share a great tool with you today that will make your teaching easier and more enjoyable while increasing the rigor in your classroom. It’s called Brisk for Teaching, and it’s an AI-powered platform that helps you create and deliver amazing and effective learning experiences for your students.

Brisk for Teaching is a Google Chrome add-on web-based tool that helps you create lessons and quizzes, deliver personalized feedback, and detect authenticity using AI. With Brisk, you can:

• Generate and customize content that matches your curriculum, standards, and objectives
• Create multiple choice, short response, and long response quizzes and assessments
• Provide instant and personalized feedback and guidance to your students based on their performance and progress
• Analyze and visualize your students’ data and insights to track their learning outcomes and identify their strengths and weaknesses
• Create questions based on the different levels of DOK

Brisk for Teaching is super easy to use and works with any device and browser. You can also integrate it with your existing tools and platforms, such as Google Docs, Google Forms, and more.

To show you how you can use Brisk for Teaching in your classroom, I have made a video that walks you through the main features and functions of the tool. You can watch the video below or click on this link to view it on YouTube:

Thank you for reading and watching. Happy teaching!

With the start of a new school year, there are a TON of new updates coming to Google Workspace. If you have a chance, I encourage you to check out of the Google Workspace Updates blog for all sorts of updates that could benefit you in the classroom this year.

One update that I am personally excited about is image placeholders in Google Slides. In this update, users can create placeholders that allow pictures to be easily added to the presentation while maintaining the size of the placeholder. As an A-type personality, I love this ability to add some organization to shared slides with students!

Below, I will share a YouTube video and GIF of how to use this new feature:

Using Image Placeholders Step-by-Step

Step #1: Setting it Up

• Create a Presentation.
• Go to “Slide”.
• Select “Slide Theme”.
  • Note: This section used to be titled “Edit Master” but has recently been updated to “Slide Theme”.

Step #2: Selecting the Placeholder

• Select a Slide Layout.
• Go to “Insert”.
• Select “Placeholder” then “Image Placeholder”.

Step #3: Edit, as Needed

• Add more placeholders and/or edit the current one.

Step #4: Add Slide & Image

• Go to the Main Presentation.
• Select the Slide Layout.
• Add Images.

If you would like to hear me walk you through this process, step-by-step, please watch the YouTube video below:

As always, feel free to drop any questions, comments, or thoughts in the comment section below!

Recently, Google has begun launching Smart Chips which allows users to quickly hyperlink and preview Google Docs, Slides, Drawings, Calendar Events, and email addresses within Google Docs. I know what you are thinking – I can already hyperlink in a Google Doc! Well, Smart Chips are a bit different than the classic hyperlink. To be honest, I just couldn’t think of a better word than hyperlink to describe how Smart Chips operate.

To create a Smart Chip in Google Docs, it is super simple:

• Type the “@” symbol into the Google Doc.
• Start typing the name of the Doc, Slide, Drawing, calendar event, or email address.
• Select the appropriate item and you’re done!

Below, you will find a GIF and short video on how to create a Smart Chip in Google Docs. As you will see, it is super simple to create and can be a great way to organize materials in a Google Doc. The OCD person in me absolutely loves the organizational possibilities for the future!

Now that I have shared what I love about Smart Chips, I feel that I must share a disclaimer about this new feature that I will also reference in the video. Currently, I am struggling to get Smart Chips to work with all the documents that I would like to attach. I’m not sure if this is just a bug that needs to be worked out or a user error on my part, however, I cannot find some of the documents (whether Docs, Slides, Drawings, etc) that I want to link within my document. I have tried it every which way but it only gives me the top four options and sometimes these are not the options that I need to attach. Hopefully, Google will update this to increase the number of options you can select from or better refine their search algorithm for users.

GIF Tutorial:

Video Tutorial:

Have you used Smart Chips? What do you think and did you run into the same issues as I did? Share in the comments below!

Whether you work in elementary, middle, or high school…it’s that time of year! The time of year that we start planning for the transition for many of our students to new grade levels or even different schools. As a middle school Vice Principal, I’ve been reflecting on what a huge transition our 8th graders will be going through on top of an already strange school year. Despite the difficulties of this year, I feel our school site has done an amazing job getting to know our students and trying to find ways to support them from a distance. If we have two years of knowledge of our students, I truly feel it is our duty to help pass along this information to our feeder schools to continue to offer the SEL support that will help them succeed in high school.

Below, you will see a sample of a spreadsheet that I created for our administrators, counselors, and teachers to collaborate on about some of our most struggling students on campus. These struggles can range from academics, attendance, and behavior. The goal of this collaborative spreadsheet is to share information about these student’s struggles and what has been working for them in the previous school years. It is not a spreadsheet to “warn” the high schools of students with bad behavior or grades. It is a spreadsheet that is designed to share concerns and ways to continue support for the students as they move into high school.

If you decide to use this collaborative spreadsheet, I highly encourage you to frame the conversations around the things that the students do well, as much as where they struggle. I also encourage you to remember that the end result is to share information with the following grade levels that will support the student, rather than harm them. I hope you enjoy this spreadsheet and find it useful in supporting your students as they move on to new adventures!

(View) (Copy)

What have you tried in your classroom or at your school to support students as they transition into new grade levels and/or schools? Share in the comments below!

Greetings friends! I know I have been terrible over the last month about creating new content. I can break down my struggle into two main reasons: 1.) I have struggled to find my creativity during the pandemic and 2.) I am just recently getting over my first trimester morning sickness and finding my energy again. That being said, I am determined to start delivering new content and find ways to support educators!

In this post, I am super excited to share a couple of new tools that I have found for providing students with audio feedback via voice notes. I’ve shared this at several staff meetings and professional development train ings and it has been a big hit with teachers! If you spend a lot of time providing individual feedback to students, I can almost guarantee that you will 1.) love these tools and 2.) it will save you a TON of time!

Below, I will show a quick description and GIF of each tool, a video tutorial comparing the two, and then a breakdown of the similarities and differences. Alright – let’s get started!

Tool #1: Mote

Mote is a “Chrome Extension that makes it easy for anyone to add voice notes and feedback to documents and assignments.” It integrates easily with Google Apps and is embedded within the comments sections of Docs, Slides, Classroom and more. Once you make the audio note and finish the comment, it will turn into a play button for students to playback. Below, you can see how easy and quick it is to make an audio comment with Mote:

Tool #2: Talk & Comment

Talk and Comment “lets you create voice notes inside any service on the web, including Google Classroom, Google Docs, Twitter, Facebook comments, Gmail, YouTube, Reddit, Slack, and more!” Instead of being embedded within the comments section, it is located off to the side of your browser for you to click on it whenever you need it. You do have to manually copy the link and paste it into the comments or application but it still works seamlessly. Just like Mote, once you make the audio note and finish the comment, it will turn into a play button for students to playback. Here is a quick example in Google Docs:

Video Tutorial

The GIF’s not doing it for you? Check out this YouTube video where I show how you can use each tool in Google Docs and Classroom:

Let’s Compare Them!

As you can see from the tutorials above, Mote and Talk & Comment are very similar. Personally, I tend to favor the ease of Mote but like the cost of Talk and Comment – which is free! Click HERE if you wish to visit the pricing plans for Mote.

Here is a quick breakdown comparing the most popular and/or on-demand features:

As you can see, Mote clearly offers more features but it comes at a price. If those features don’t matter to you, then Talk & Comment may be more than sufficient. Either way, I encourage you to test them both out and see which one is your favorite – then share in the comments below!

For those of you that have followed my blog for a while, you know that I am a huge fan of utilizing the flipped classroom strategy in classrooms. That being said, I worry that I haven’t talked enough about the tips and tricks to make a flipped classroom truly effective for students. Implementing a flipped classroom can be an amazing strategy – or it can be a complete trainwreck. If utilized properly, a flipped classroom can be an amazing way to open more time in your instructional day for deeper learning. However, if you don’t implement it properly, students are less likely to engage with and/or retain the material that was taught.

An effective flipped classroom is not simply sharing a video for students to watch. An effective flipped classroom is so much more than this. It is thoughtful, systematic, and continues to challenge and support students.

Ready to up your flipped classroom game? Check out these 5 tips! (Bonus: Check out the AWESOME infographic at the end and feel free to share out!)

Tip #1: Keep it Short

Gone are the days of 45+ minute lectures. Have you recently tried to sit through a long lecture or meeting? I swear my attention span is getting smaller as I am getting older. Imagine what is like for our students? As a middle school teacher, my flipped classroom lessons were never over 20 minutes. Usually, they were somewhere in the 10-15 minute range which was more than enough for my students. Remember, your students will have to account for writing time and checks for understanding. This means that they could be doing their flipped classroom for longer than the recorded time.

Pro-Tip: Use Screencastify to record your lessons. It keeps a timer of how long you have been recording to help you keep track of time.

Tip #2: Check for Understanding

Adding checks for understanding in your flipped lesson is one of the most important aspects of a flipped classroom lesson. It challenges students to stop, reflect, think, and apply the new knowledge they have learned. It doesn’t have to be a lot questions – just simple, quick checks. As a Math teacher, I usually added 3-5 problems per lesson to check for understanding that could be automatically graded within the system (EdPuzzle) I was using.

Pro-Tip: Utilize EdPuzzle to check for understanding. It can track how long the students have watched the video and grade questions that you embed into the lesson.

Tip #3: Allow Time to Reteach

Once you give your flipped lesson, please don’t move on until all of your students have a strong understanding of the material. After a flipped lesson, I would have students check their grade on EdPuzzle from the previous night’s lesson and have them break into groups based on their progress. For struggling students, I pulled them into small groups to reteach. For students that had done well, they could move onto the next assignment or an enrichment activity.

Pro-Tip: Utilize the grading feature in EdPuzzle to quickly grade and track student data to develop your groups.

Tip #4: Accessible to All Learners

This one is simple – check that the technology that you ask students to use is accessible across multiple platforms, even cell phones! More times than I could count, I have had students that lost internet access, or their Chromebook broke, or some other technology issue that prevented them from completing their assignment. However, EdPuzzle has an AMAZING mobile feature and I could always refer my students to that option.

Pro-Tip: Test out your flipped lesson on a mobile phone. If it works there, it will probably work anywhere.

Tip #5: Time to Apply Their Knowledge

Once students have completed their flipped lesson and you have followed up with them, challenge students to demonstrate their knowledge. Personally, I always assessed their skills and application of their knowledge. Simple, skills practice was completed in Google Forms where they could receive immediate feedback. The deeper application was done through projects, game-based learning, and other assignments. Make sure students have a chance to show what they know!

Pro-Tip: Need some new ideas? Check out this fun list from The Ed Advocate: 27 Ways to Have Students Demonstrate What They Have Learned.

    What are some of your best flipped classroom tips and tricks? Share in the comments below!

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post and shared a survey called “The Teacher Transparency Challenge“. To this day, it is still one of my favorite things that I have ever done in my classroom. It was simple – I wanted to know how my students felt about my class and teaching. The transparent, unfiltered truth. I wanted to know if I was truly meeting the needs of ALL my students and if there was anything else I could do to help them be successful.

One of the comments from my student has always stayed with me. They said, “You could focus more on your quiet and introverted students, not just the loud and outgoing ones.” It totally changed how I taught my students going forward. It also completely changed how I interacted with students to this day. It helped me to remember that there are all sorts of students in my class and I need to support all of them equally.

During distance learning, I feel that it may be beneficial to revisit the Teacher Transparency Challenge – Distance Learning Style! I’ve updated the survey to include a section on distance learning. I highly encourage you to take a moment and give this survey to your students. I think we all know that distance learning is a struggle and you might feel hesitant about giving this out. Distance learning is hard and we are all struggling – no matter what our role might be. However, it is also incredibly important for your students to be heard during this time. It’s important for us to continue to be reflective educators. It’s important for us to continue to try to meet the needs of all of our students, to the best of our ability.

Friends – I promise that I am only encouraging you to be reflective. This is not coming from a place of judgment because I know how much teachers are rocking it during distance learning! I only want to encourage you to continue to be reflective for kids.

Below, you will find the “View” version of the survey, as well as a “Copy” version:

Click HERE to make your own copy.

Have you given any distance learning surveys at your site? What were your “aha” moments?

Woot woot! Google recently launched new “Host Control” features for Google Meet! If you are quiet, you can hear the cheers of thousands of teachers around the world. While there are still many things that I wish Google Meet had the ability to do, these are excellent new features that are available to everyone.

One thing I have noticed recently is that there are some other great, new features coming out…but they aren’t necessarily available to all users. It depends on whether or not your district has an Education or Enterprise account. From what I can see, it does look like the host controls features will be available to all users in education accounts. As an example, I currently have access to these controls in my district EDU account, however, I do not have access to these controls in personal Google account. For any meetings that are organized in a personal account, only the meeting creator can mute or remove participants.

Here’s a breakdown of these new features that you can find in your settings menu:

Here’s a short GIF to show you how to access these settings:

Have you used these new controls with students? If so, share how it is going in the comments below! I have noticed that many users are having different experiences with Google products recently and I would love to hear if it is working the way we hope it does.

Attendance in distance learning is…complicated, to say the least! However, I am hoping to provide a process that will make it more simple for you!

Below, you will find three easy steps on how to utilize Zoom and Google Sheets to take attendance. Directions and GIF’s are listed below, however, I have also added a tutorial at the end if you would like to be walked through it more formally.

Important Note: Step #1 is only available in some versions of Zoom and depends on your plan.

Step #1: Download Usage Reports from Zoom

• Go to the Zoom website.
• Click on “Reports”.
• Go to “Usage”.
• Click on the number underneath “Participants”.
• Download the .CSV file.

• Open in Google Sheets.
• Insert a new column to the right of Column A.
• Go to “Data” and select “Split Text to Columns”.
• Select Row 1, go to “View”–> “Freeze” –> “1 Row”.
• Select Column B and select “Sort Range by A to Z”.

Go to your student information system (SIS) and take attendance! That’s it!

If you need a walkthrough, here is a short video on the process outline above:

How do you take attendance during distance learning? Share in the comments below!

I have been seeing a TON of posts from educator friends over the last couple of weeks about products that would benefit them during distance learning. So, I decided to put together a list of items that I have personally used in either my home or work office. I hope that you find these items useful and that they will provide some helpful structure or support during your distance learning experience.

Adjustable Height 36″ Standing Desk – Amazon
Sitting all day is rough on your body. Personally, I feel so much better when I alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day. However, standing desks can be CRAZY expensive. Fortunately, I found an awesome standing desk that can be placed on top of your existing desk for only $150.

I added this to my work office last year and absolutely love it. It has enough space for two monitors, a keyboard, a mouse, and a spot for my phone. It also has a very easy and light to light the desk from sitting to standing.

24″ Acer Monitor – Amazon
I love these monitors! The price is incredibly affordable and the quality is great. I purchased two of them for my home office and put them on arms attached to my desk. Later, we purchased some for my work office and two of them perfectly fit on the standing desk above.

Seriously, such a great buy for such an amazing price of only $109! And pro-tip, if you are currently working on a laptop, purchase an HDMI cable (or whatever works with your laptop), plug it into the monitor, and now you have dual screens!

Logitech Webcam & Microphone – Amazon

Nearly 90% of the time I work on desktop computers that do not come with webcams or microphones. Logitech is easily one of the best brands for webcams.

I have this webcam in my home office and the quality is great. Bonus? There is a microphone in it which means you don’t have to purchase a second item. This webcam is a little more on the expensive end but you won’t be disappointed.

Wireless Keyboard/Mouse – Amazon
If you are spending every day working on your laptop, it can definitely be tough on your hands.  If you decide to purchase an extra monitor, I highly encourage you to purchase a keyboard/mouse combo to use instead of your laptop keyboard.

Seriously, you won’t regret it and neither will your hands!

Laptop Stand – Amazon
A couple of years ago, I worked from home full-time and put my laptop on this stand, plugged it into dual monitors and had three screens to work from. It was awesome.

I love this little stand. It’s super affordable and I’ve used it with both my laptop and Chromebook. It’s also a great way to add some extra space to your work station.

Phone Stand – Amazon
Never miss another message with this cheap, yet sturdy, phone stand. I have this set up in my home office and always use it. At work, I have the standing desk above and use the phone stand that is built into the desk.

I love that it has an area for your phone cord to go through so you can charge it while it’s sitting on the stand. Finally, it’s really great if you find yourself on a long phone call and want to put your phone on speaker.

Everlasting Comfort Seat  – Amazon
Okay, okay. Try not to laugh at me but…this is super comfy! I don’t use it all the time, however, it was a huge help when I threw out my back in the spring and was having trouble sitting for long periods of time.

While I have a comfy seat that works for me 99% of the time, I know a lot of friends working from their kitchen tables. Check this out and protect your back!