Back to School Twitter Chat

School is beginning and so will our #tisdedtech twitter chats. This year will hopefully be bigger and better. We will keep to our Wednesday night schedule with our start time being 8:00 pm central time to begin the year. After our first chat we will be moving to Tuesday or Thursday. We will keep you informed. We will also be changing our hashtag this year to #tisdtechchat. We will continue to use #tisdedtech for all the great things going on inside Tomball ISD. Hope you can join us as we kick off another great school year!!

It's Summer TIME!!! Yes, it is time for fun in the sun and/or with FAMILY! You may get to a point where you want to look at some lessons and or prepare for the beginning of next year. To do this you may want to get into your school Google Chrome account and also acess your Google Drive!!!  So, here is how you do that.

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1bmyhavxJAZaEAOXWeusgqVpU3qwe6f1fj5KwuNNoxRk/edit

April 15, 2015

From 'Old School' to 'New School'

g(Math) Add for Google Docs

Google is always trying to improve their system. One recent update was the addition of add-ons within Google Docs. (There are also add-ons for sheets and forms) One add-on that all math teachers should add is g(math).

Why Add g(math)?

Have you ever had that moment when you wanted your students to write about math and maybe you wanted them to do this on the computer. And maybe had the thought of how are they going to type and equation? Or how are they going to type a fraction? Well Google has a solution for you. The best part it is FREE!

To get the g(math) add-on, you will need to first login to your Google Drive account. Then open or create a new Google Doc. In the menu bar you will see an option for Add-ons.

Click on the Add-ons to open the drop down menu.

A second window will open up asking you to agree to using the Add-on

Once you click “Accept”, you will be able to use the new Add-on. This Add-on is also available within Sheets and Forms. Just follow the same procedures to add to Sheets and Forms. The one place you cannot add is within Slides (I can show you a way around that)

#mysteryhangout

Recently we have started having teachers host mystery hangouts. A mystery hangout is when you have a class connect with another class in the world using Google hangouts. The catch is neither class knows where the other is located. Students must use collaboration, communication, and geography skills to determine which state, city, or country the other class in.

In the past several weeks we have had classes at NIS and WCES participate in this AWESOME task. If you would like to get this going at your campus, let us know.

New to Twitter Chats?

So what is a Twitter Chat anyway?

If you are reading this post, then you probably are asking that question. A Twitter Chat in its simplest definition is a discussion that takes place on twitter. Image the old days of chatrooms. They are like that, but open to anyone that wants to join the conversation. All they need is the right hashtag. There are specific times when multiple users get on twitter all at the same time and have discussions (that is what we will be doing for our #tisdedtech chat). There are also times when a conversation just occurs whenever a user adds a hashtag to their tweet.

How do I join?

You join a Twitter Chat by following the chats hashtag. For example, our hashtag we use in Tomball Instructional Technology is #tisdedtech. If you want to see all the tweets occurring you search for #tisdedtech.

Hashtags can be created for anything. All a hashtag does is connect conversations occurring online and put them all in the same location. These work across different websites like Google+ or Instagram. An example of different hashtags are #funtoday, #ilovehouston, or #tgif. One thing to caution with hashtags is your conversation will now go out to more viewers. Anyone following that hashtag will see your tweets and can retweet or send you tweets back. Choosing the right hashtag will keep your comments in the right locations and for the intended audience.

So are your ready to join the conversation?

Customize Padlet for YOU

Padlet is a great tool to use in your classroom, but did you know you can customize your walls to meet YOUR needs? Let's take a look at how to customize your backgrounds and url's.

First navigate to https://padlet.com/ and login. (We suggest you use your Google account as to not need extra usernames and passwords) Once you are logged you will need to click on Padlets or Create New Padlet.

OR

If you choose "Padlets" you are looking at your current walls you have created. If you do not want to edit one of them, choose Create New Padlet.

We will create a new one for our purposes and call it Exit Ticket.

Now that we have our wall, let's customize it. First we will change background to make it easy for students to add information to the wall. Since this is an exit ticket I want to have the questions on the page for students to see. That way if they are completing as they leave the class, they will still have access to the information I want from them. I am going to use SMART Notebook to create a background image and then use the Snipping tool from Windows to create the image we will use for the background. (You can use any software you have available to you to create your image)

Image for wall background

Next I will go to my Padlet wall and click on the gear to open the options menu.

This opens the menu and gives you many options to customize your wall. We will focus on just a couple: Wallpaper and Address.

When you click on Wallpaper, you can select one of the premade backgrounds or at the top you can click on Add Your Own. Since I made a background for my wall I am going to choose this option.

New Background for Padlet Wall

Now that my wall has a new background, I want to give my students an easy URL to access the site. One that they can remember if they forget to click the QR code or write it down if they leave the class. To do this click on the Address section within the menu. Then select the option to Pick a padlet.com address. The site will let you know if your URL is good. If you are satisfied you click pick and then you will see your URL changes in the browser. Now you can give this to your students to access your wall.