Welcome to the new school year!

Now that Back to School Night is behind you, you’ve met the parents, and you and your students are beginning to settle into a routine, you might be thinking about all those tech tools, SAMR, and how it all fits together with your curricular lessons. The Tech ToSAs are here to help.We are so excited about helping you and your students get off to a great start. Here are some tools we think you might like to consider introducing to your students. Please fill out this survey and we’ll be in touch to talk about ways to use these tools in your classroom. Don’t see what you’d like help with here? Use the “Other” box.

Tool Time

A New Look to Google Sites

Google Sites has an updated look for EDU. New features make it super easy for you to create a website to keep parents informed that looks sleek and modern. Because many of the other Google tools can be easily embedded, it is a great way for students to showcase their best work. Here is a quick-start guide to the main features.

And speaking of Google Sites, teacher leaders and ToSAs are in the process of creating a single website where teachers will be able to find curricular resources, Digital Citizenship lessons, and resources from STEAM and EdTech. Get a peek at the new USD Learns website here.

Strengthening the School-Home Connection

Have you had time to check out the new Guardian feature in Google Classroom? A guardian will need to accept your invitation to view a summary of their student’s work. They choose the frequency of the emails and can unsubscribe at any time. Check your email for a message from Gena that further explains all about it.

Families of younger students can get a peek at what their students are doing in Seesaw. Students can create work in Seesaw or upload work from a number of iOS apps and an increasing number of webapps. Families will need to accept your invitation to receive notifications of their student’s work. They can receive a text or email alerting them something new is available.

A New Feature added to Padlet

One of the reasons teachers were reluctant to use Padlet in their class was the worry over anonymous posts. A new feature now automatically identifies each post with the poster’s Google username once the student has signed in with Google. You’ll need to enable the feature when you create the Padlet. Just scroll down the Modify Padlet choices, until you find "Show author name in posts."

After the student accesses Padlet, either through a Symbaloo tile or by using padlet.com, have them “Log in with Google.” They’ll need to choose their account and Allow Padlet to view the email address and basic profile info so it will know how to author the post.

Finally, provide the students with a shortened URL to access your Padlet and their name will automatically populate when the student clicks to add a post.

The EdTech ToSA Team

Join us in welcoming Sandy Lopez to the Technology Integration ToSA Team. Sandy comes to us from Moreland where she taught a 2/3 SDC class.  Sandy left the classroom and moved into instructional coaching to make a bigger impact on teachers and students. It was during this experience she was able to utilize her instructional and tech skills with Special Ed and General Ed teachers.  

With her strong background in Special Ed, Sandy will be able to fill in the gap with the SDC, RSP, and specialist teachers. Along with Gena and Mary Fran, she’ll also support general ed teachers.

Go on a Google Map HyperDoc Adventure

Meia (2nd Grade): "I can control the world!"

Introducing Google Maps to Students

If you've never used Google Maps in your classroom, now's a great time to start! I have created an easy lesson to get students excited about using Maps.

A quick intro activity includes 3 challenges that help give students the basic map skills that they need for success as they explore on their own. Take a look at the Google Maps Introduction. If you would like to use it with your students, feel free to make a copy and modify it in any way the you see fit for your class.

HyperDoc Adventures

After students learn the basics, they are ready to start exploring on their own using the Google Map Adventures HyperDoc! Knowing that Google had some incredible Street View expeditions, I had a feeling that I could find some related inspirational videos. Sure enough, the Google Maps YouTube Channel was exactly what I was searching for! I used ViewPure to take out the distractions of related videos. Trust me, you will want to Purify your video because inappropriate videos about Google Maps are likely to appear on the page.

I created this lesson for 2nd grade students, so I had them share their observations on a Padlet. Students were encouraged to do their best guess spelling and in the end, every student participated. Click here if you would like to see what the 2nd graders came up with.

Modification for Older Students

If I were to do the lesson with older students, I would have had them submit their information into a Google Form. After all of the students complete the survey, you can import that data directly into Google My Maps. If you would like to know how to do that, I created 2 quick video tutorials:

• Creating a Google Form to Record Observations
• Importing Data into Google My Maps

Sample Google Map Adventure HyperDoc with Google Form.

Google Cardboard Option

All tours created in Google Street View can also be found in the Google Street View mobile device app (Android/iOS) and can be used with Google Cardboard. Even if you only have 1 or 2 mobile devices with Cardboard, students could take turns experiencing the virtual reality while the rest of the class works from the HyperDoc. Google Cardboard can be found and purchased on Amazon.

Share your Google Map Ideas

This is just one Google Maps introduction lesson and once students are excited about exploring the world, the possibilities are endless. If you have any Google Map ideas, lessons, HyperDocs, or resources that you would like to share, please share on the Google Maps Padlet.

Created with Padlet

If you have any questions, or would like any help implementing this lesson, please email me,

Padlet/EduWin for Larissa Rehm

Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a wonderfully restful and restorative holiday break. 

Now that we are back and all Third through Eighth classrooms have enough Chromebooks for each student (pretty awesome, thanks to all the voters who supported Bond Measure J), you may be looking for an easy, quick activity to access with students. Padlet might be something you would like to consider.

Padlet is a virtual stickyboard where users can post short notes, images, videos, and URLs. It is easy to create a Padlet board, and you don't even need to sign up for an account to use your first Padlet. Here is a short YouTube video made by Richard Byrne of  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ showing you how to set up and use Padlet:

Once you create a Padlet, it will be assigned a unique URL. As we all know, URLs can be a bit of a problem for students. Using a URL shortener is one way around it. I really like to use the goo.gl URL shortener. You copy your longer URL and paste it into the box, click "Shorten URL" and you'll have a URL that is easier for your students to use. If you are signed into your Google account, it will keep a record of your URLs and even generate a QR code you can give students who are using tablets or other smart devices. 

Another great URL shortener to use is shoutkey.com The advantage is that the URL that is generated uses words, eg shoutkey.com/kingdom. The downside is that each shoutkey stays active for a maximum of 24 hours. However, if you have created a Padlet account, you will still be able to revisit your Padlet, and you can create a new shoutkey if you would like to make a Padlet board available again for students to add to at a later date. However, you might like to create the shoutkey ahead of time to make sure the word is accessible and appropriate for your students.

There are many ways to use Padlet in your classroom. Here are just a few:

• have students brainstorm questions they would like to research about a certain topic
• create columns on a Padlet and have students indicate where they are in the writing process by placing their name in the appropriate column
• have students post examples of a ELA concept, eg: "Write a metaphor." "Give an example of an adjective."
• if you have a library of photos/images, students can post them. An example might be in a primary class, "Post a picture of a word that has the long o sound."
• have students post pictures that represent a math concept, eg. "Post a picture of an object that includes a right triangle."
• have students write a short book endorsement and include a picture of its cover
• post a question for students to respond to, "What evidence do you have that the main character...?"
• use it as an exit ticket, "What is your most important take-away from today's lesson?"
• create a bank URLs of websites they find that can be used to research a particular subject. 

I'm sure you can find many of uses for Padlet I haven't begun to think of. If you find yourself using Padlet a lot, you can install a Chrome Extension from the Chrome Webstore. (Let me know if you need help with this). Then, it will sit on your toolbar and you'll be able to Create (a) New (Padlet) at a moment's notice.

EduWin for Larissa Rehm

Being a Fourth grade teacher, Larissa and her class are deep into the Mission Project. This year, her students will use Google Presentation to write their report, complete with pictures they have sourced from the internet. This is a great way to familiarize students with a new tool and teach them about giving attribution to the creators of those images, while completing a traditional Fourth Grade project. 

Larissa is also planning on having students create science notebooks using Google Presentation. Her long range goal is to have students save and showcase their work on a website. Way to jump in, Larissa!

If you or one of your colleagues are doing something in your class that uses edtech tools, please let me know. I'd love to share it with other teachers.

The Hour of Code

Forty-four USD teachers reported introducing the Hour of Code to their students. All grades were represented! Thank you to all who participated. The names of all the teachers who filled in the Google Form were put into a random name picker for a thank you drawing. Christina Le, a Kindergarten teacher at Lietz, was chosen. A MakeyMakey kit has been ordered for her. We hope she and her class will enjoy using it.