Dear Friends,
Man how time flies when you have 1001 things to do!
Weekly Shortcuts
You have to know that if you ever accidentally close one or more tabs in Chrome that you can get them back with CMD + SHIFT + T. You can do this multiple times to get back tabs you may have closed earlier and need back. If you need to go farther back, go over to your history under the “snowman” (three vertical dots in the upper right corner of your browser).
Weekly Tech Tips
I keep the focus on spreadsheets again this week. I mentioned last week that it's spreadsheet time of year and I think that is the case whenever it's time to log scores and calculate final grades. I don't know of any of my colleagues who use Schoology or PowerSchool to actually calculate grades. I'm not sure how the elementary teachers keep up with it, but as far as I know everyone in secondary has some version of their own spreadsheet to manage all the calculations required by the IB (Intentionally Byzantine?). This week I'd like to make sure you're aware of a relatively new feature for Google Sheets, the checkbox. Of course you could just add a checkbox to help you keep up with a to-do list but, with a little bit of coding in the form of a simple IF function you can have your checkboxes turn things on and off inside of your spreadsheet.
That formula is: =if(C3=TRUE, "Go!","")
What that means is If the checkbox is checked (=TRUE) then print Go!, otherwise print nothing “”. You can preformat the cell for font size and color. I am sure you can use your imagination to find many fun uses for this. I am trying to set up my grade book so I can show one student his or her grades without divulging the private information of other students. Unfortunately, hiding a whole row is a little more complicated. If you are interested in that script there is a two-minute video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijwgzs0nBZ0
If you are looking to up your Sheets game, and who isn’t, here is another tutorial
Great (1 hour) tutorial
And finally (just in time for EOY paperwork 😝) a chance to try one of those language AI’s I talk so much about:
IK Megatron 11b (Cool name!)
You get the ball rolling with something like:
"communicates interdisciplinary understanding that is generally organized, clear and coherent, beginning to use selected forms or media effectively,: …”
and GPT 3 will continue with something like::
“using a limited number of selected fields of knowledge or working with a small number of select forms or media, through, or on behalf of a specialized field or branch of knowledge, as distinguished from fields or subjects studied in a traditional or generally organized scholarly fashion. The field may involve a theoretical or a practical orientation (Schmidt 2003; Hamby 2003; Podles 2004), or a combination of the two. Each area of expertise developed by ..."
Not bad for a dumb computer. Sounds just as boring as the original.
This Week’s Apps and Resources
A good time to remind everyone of Jan’s fabulous padlet:
https://padlet.com/middletonj8/dkttjkvc8ast
Wrike for custom-made Gantt Charts.
The IB often requires extensive project planning and some of our multiple CMS’s come with a Gantt chart feature. There are also a lot of decent free Gantt chart creators out there, but this one is next level. If being uber-organized is your thing then you might like Wrike.
Don’t forget that the Weekly Tech Tips are now all online for you to reference if you ever want to go back and look up something that caught your eye but can’t remember.
https://drwsweeklytechtips.blogspot.com/
Also please remember I have made a Google Certified Educator Level 1 Class for anyone and everyone. It is SELF-PACED. It is just sitting there for you to use whenever and however you wish. It is a series of exercises designed to prepare you for the Google Certified Educator Level 1 exam. The course is almost complete. You can join any time by going on Google Classroom and inputting class code: 76trm2u
or going here:
https://classroom.google.com/c/MTQ5Mjg3ODQ1MjZa?cjc=76trm2u
I will be making a new course soon to reflect the changes that Google has made to the apps and to the suite as a whole now that it is Google Workspace for Education. I should have that for you by mid-summer.
Have a great week!
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