Dear Friends,
I present to you the back-to-school edition of:
Weekly Tech Tips
As we head back to school I have a few things to share with you that I hope you will find useful. I have chosen some tools that can help you set up your calendars and classes. If you need any help utilizing these tools please do drop me a line.
This Week’s Apps and Resources
These first two docs are what I have been using for my daily planners. I make one for each class and I keep them open and pinned in my browser widow. The links section at the top will of course need to be updated with your favorites.
MAJOR CAVEAT: I made these with the school year calendar made available at the end of last year. It is possible, and indeed likely, that the odd / even pattern I used will get changed. You will be able to fix this if it happens, but it might be a bit tedious.
Copy of Odd Day 22122 Daily Planner
Copy of Even Day 2122 Daily Planner
This one is from Mr. Curts at Control Alt Achieve. It’s a general academic calendar. You will need good eyesight to use it 
Google Doc Calendar Templates for the 2021 SY by Eric Curts at Control Alt Achieve
Research shows cold-calling cultivates a high level of expectation for all students, not just the ones that always raise their hands. It sets high expectations for student preparedness, encourages meaningful class participation and interaction, and develops students’ critical thinking and communication skills. Here are two tools to help you make sure you call on all your students and can even make it a bit of fun
The spinner is one of several modes. The tool can also create groups of various sizes and seating charts. It takes a little bit of setting up. You have to put your students’ names in a spreadsheet and then publish it to the Flippity site. If you need help with it let me know.
If you use Google Classroom (and I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t, I mean we all already have it, it’s free, simple, clean, fast, it’s already integrated with our email and calendar, you don’t have to wait for anyone to set it up for you, you have complete control, you can not only copy your classes from year to year you can take them with you when you leave GSIS, etc, etc, etc…..) and you have the app installed, then you already have a handy built it student selector on your phone or tablet.
Looking to go beyond Kahoots and Quizlets this year? Check out:
10 different game modes. Lots of existing games. Haven’t tried it yet, but friends tell me kids love it.
How about a link to a list of links to share with your students?
Welovelinks - Store and share link lists.. Kind of like padlet, but really just a pretty little website card full of links that is very easy to use. Here is one I made in 2 minutes
Password: GSIS
And finally, not necessarily a back-to-school app, but something pretty cool that I was able to get for the whole school for free (normally $2,400)
.
Soundtrap for Education empowers students and teachers to explore creative sound recording in all subjects, for all ages and ability levels. We have this until 24 August 2022. I hope that some of you will find it useful and that it can begin to loosen the stranglehold GarageBand has on our music department. Let me know if you want me to add you as a teacher.
Need to learn how to use it? Here you go:
Soundtrap Certified Educator Course - Level 1
Please don’t forget about all the other free stuff I have been able to get for us over the years. Some of them will be expiring in December:
Parlay (Applied 31 Dec 2020)
PearDeck (Applied 31 Dec 2020)
Screencastify (Applied 31 Dec 2020)
EdPuzzle Pro (Applied 20 Jan 2021)
Explain Everything (Applied 22 Jan 2021)
Wakelet (Applied 22 Jan 2021)
Kami (23 Jan 2021 till 24 Jan 2022) Teacher Plan
Soundtrap Schoolwide license. (Applied 25 July 2021, 1 year subscription expires 24 August 2022)
How, you may ask, am I able to get thousands of dollars worth of free subscriptions? I am so glad you asked. Become a Certified Google Educator and then go on to become a Certified Trainer and folks just start throwing free stuff at you. It’s like being famous but for nerds. Instead of getting free Rolexes and Prada bags you get free PearDeck and EdPuzzled Premium subscriptions, much better! 
How, you may ask, do I become a Certified Educator and/or Certified Trainer? I am so glad you asked.
Courses, Tutorials, Webinars and Talks
The Google Certified Educator Level 1 course on Google Classroom is still there and will remain there for as long as it is relevant: Login to Google Classroom and input class code: 76trm2u or go here:
https://classroom.google.com/c/MTQ5Mjg3ODQ1MjZa?cjc=76trm2u
The new Google Certified Educator Level 1 and 2 courses are pretty much ready. These are the latest resources for Google Workspace for Education. The slides are updated and in place, but there are no assignments or classes built yet. Still, feel free to go ahead and look at the new slide decks. I will be using these for this year's GCE L1 & 2 trainings.
https://classroom.google.com/c/MzczNTE4NDgxMDAy?cjc=pgwgzkw
Just looking to brush up on your Google for education skills? Sign up for a weekly tips from Google right here:
Getting Started with Google for Education series
Announcements
Don’t forget that the Weekly Tech Tips are all online for you to reference if you ever want to go back and look up something that caught your eye but you can’t remember.
https://drwsweeklytechtips.blogspot.com/
Please consider participating the Google Group GSIS 2020 to discuss education and goings on at GSIS. Let me know if it asks for me to let you in and I will. I don't think I have everybody on the list yet. Please, talk to me.
Have a great final week of vacation!
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