Use Google Forms to Email Updates to Parents

Wouldn't it be great if you could have a premade Google form, into which you could enter important progress information and have it immediately converted into an email for parents?

With a bit of setup, this is possible.

If you are tech-savvy, you can do this setup on your own by following this tutorial (the new Google Forms looks a bit different, but the information in the tutorial is still good):

How to Create Google Forms that Email Parents

The main difference between the new Google Forms and what you see in this video is when you are asked to click "View Responses" (at 1:21 in the video) it will actually look more like this, and require two clicks:

Click "Responses"

Then click this symbol to enter spreadsheet view:

If that setup seems a bit out of your league, I would be happy to come set this up for you.  Once set up, your form would look something like this (with the questions as specific or as general as you wish):

After clicking "Submit", the parent is immediately emailed.  (There is also the option to delay all emails until a pre-set time, giving you the chance to delete or edit them before they go out later.)

A parent would receive an email that looks like this:

Click here if you would like help getting this set up for your parents!

Who Reads Your Blog or Website?

Image from: news.sutterhealth.org

If you have taken the time to post to a blog or website, you likely hope that parents and students are reading it.  Are they?

If you use the blog feature of your Google Site or Blogger, you can notify parents/students and ask them to subscribe.  Here is a letter you can send home (make a copy of this in your Google Drive so that you can edit and insert your own information).  If parents send this back and want you to subscribe them, go to your blog, click "Subscribe" and type in their email address.  They will receive a confirmation email asking whether they want to subscribe.

Before doing this, you may want to send those parents an email letting them know that they should expect a confirmation email from "Feedburner".  This is important because many people will ignore or delete this if they are not expecting it.  Click here for a sample email you could send.

Remember that subscribers are only notified when you create a new post, not when you modify an old one!  Each time you want them to receive information, you need to create a new blog post.

After parents/students have been subscribed for a month or two, consider sending home a survey such as this to find out what kind of reach your blog has.  Make adjustments as needed!

Examples of teachers in our district using the blog feature on Google Sites (these are just a sampling - there are many more!):

Steve Fuchs

Tami Kolemainen

Eric Meyer

Amy Voigt

Examples of teachers in our district using Blogger (then automatically publishing it to their Google Site):

Stacie Schneider - see how the blog looks and how it looks embedded into Google Sites

Amy Kosloski - On Blogger and Google Sites

Tanya Malwitz - On Blogger and Google Sites

Adam Ronnenberg - On Blogger and Google Sites

For an exhaustive list of who is blogging at District 881, click here.

How to Easily Add All District and Building Events to Your Google Calendar

Image from play.emory.edu

When you are signed in to your Google Email, it is easy to get to Google Calendar by clicking on the "waffle" in the upper right corner.  It's okay if you have never used it - today's the day to try it out!

Click on "Calendar".

In the left column, you can view all calendars you have created, as well other people's calendars that you have added to your view.

In order to add a District or Building  calendar, click here.  Then click on the "+Google Calendar" in the lower right corner of the calendar.  Choose which calendars you would like to add.  (District-wide events are on the District Calendar only, so you will want to add the District calendar as well as your building.)

This will allow you to view all events from the District/Building Calendars within Google Calendar, whenever you open it.  The District/Building Calendars will be in a different color than the events you may have entered on "your" calendar.  When you add events to your own calendar, it does not change the District/Building Calendars - you are simply able to view the events posted, and any updates to the District/Building Calendars will be reflected in your view.

Once you have added all desired calendars, they should appear in your left column under "Other Calendars".  

All District/Building events automatically appear in your calendar view from now on.

How to Add a YouTube Video to Your Google Site

Our Maple Lake Public Schools YouTube channel publishes great videos about what is going on in our school.  Are you, your students and their parents viewing them so they can feel a part of the great story of our school?

First of all, are you aware when a new video gets published?   Click here to see our YouTube channel and then click "subscribe".

Once you have been notified about a new video, here's how to share it on your Google Site.

First, go to your Google Site.  Click on the "Edit" button, which looks like a pencil.

Click to put your cursor in the spot where you want the video to appear.

Once your cursor is flashing in the place where you want the video, go to the upper left corner and click "Insert".

Choose "YouTube".

Copy and paste the web address from the YouTube video.  Remember to add a title that will appear on your Google Site.

Click Save.

Click on the "YouTube" gadget that you just inserted, and use the buttons to make any changes you want.

Click "Save" in the upper right corner to finish publishing the video.  The video should now be part of your Google Site, allowing parents and students who visit to have an updated view of events and highlights from our school.

Benchmark Universe - Upcoming Trainings

Hello Everyone!

Just a reminder that I will be holding two Benchmark Universe trainings in the Green Lab on Monday, Nov. 2.  All reading teachers should consider which training (possibly both) would benefit them, and attend accordingly.

7:30 am Basics: 

Tour of online Benchmark Universe (what all the buttons do)

How to access digital teacher resources

How to organize teacher resources

How to put ePosters and eBooks up on your Smart Board

Customizing ePosters for classroom viewing and use

3:10 pm Advanced:

Customizing eBooks for classroom viewing and use

Creating bookshelves for yourself or for your students

Customizing eBooks for independent student reading

Creating and using student groups

Assigning books to students or small groups

Accessing and using ePlanner

Your Class Can Be a Part of an Online Sing-Along!

Want to be a part of what is dubbed as the "largest online gathering of K-5 classrooms ever"?

Click here to register, then follow the link you receive via email - at 12:15pm (Central Time) on Friday, October 30.  It is a 20-25 minute interactive sing-along.  The presenter (Dave Ruch) cannot see you, but he acts like he can and keeps things interactive and engaging.

This is a great way to integrate technology in promoting music and movement into your students' day.  Celebrate Connected Educator Month by participating!

Google Sites - How to Customize the Sidebar Menu

Have you wondered how to change the order of the items on your Google Site sidebar?

How about having one of the links go to a coworker's website, such as a specialist's blog or a teammate who works with the same students?

Click here to see a step by step guide (with pictures) to help you do this.

A big thanks to the fourth grade team for asking this question!

Digitize Your Newsletter

Image from www.kimconstable.com

Don't let your parents feel buried under the paperwork sent home.  Allow them to access your information digitally!

Ways to digitize your newsletter:

Send via email - Simply take the newsletter you already create on your computer and send it to parents as an email attachment.  Only print paper copies for students with no parent email contact information.

Post on your blog - Copy and paste your information as a blog entry.  Parents who subscribe will receive the entire contents of your post in their email inbox.

Post on your Google Site - Make your newsletter a "blog entry" on your Google Site or upload a copy onto your "File Cabinet" page.  A blog entry will notify subscribers, while placing it in the File Cabinet will not.  (You can post a link to the File Cabinet location . . . as a blog entry!)

These are all simple to learn, and I would be happy to teach you (or your team) how to do this.  Your parents will love it!

Click here to request help digitizing your newsletter.

Book Creator - Upcoming Training

Click here to watch a 1-minute video describing our upcoming Book Creator Training!

Who should come?

Every single teacher in the Elementary School would benefit from attending because:

Book Creator is on all iPads on the cart

Book Creator is for all subjects

Book Creator is for all ages

Book Creator can be used to create lessons

Book Creator can be used for students to show their learning

Two options:

Thursday, Oct.1, 3:15-3:45

or

Friday, Oct.2, 7:30-8:00

See you there!

Tech Storm!

Image from profalbrecht.wordpress.com

Hey everyone!  This school year has begun with a flurry of exciting and challenging requests for tech integration from many staff members!

I. AM. SO. THRILLED.

Please keep 'em coming!  And please be patient if I don't get back to you the same day.  I guarantee you that your question or project is important to me.  I will happily deliver the amazing tech resources you need, as soon as I can get to it!

Since I am only at school 10 hours per week, the best way to reach me with questions and requests is via email at haglinb@maplelake.k12.mn.us or fill out a request form here.

A quote from the Benchmark Universe Training, September 18th

Video for Teaching Compare and Contrast to Primary Students

Click here to see a cute YouTube Video for teaching Compare and Contrast to primary students.

Global Read Aloud

The Global Read Aloud is a fantastic way to connect your students with the world through reading!

There are no rules other than reading one of the selected books aloud to your students and connecting in some way with a different class about the book.

Last fall, Amy Kosloski's class participated.  They connected with classes in Texas, New York, and Canada through Skype and Kidblog.  Check out some of their Kidblog posts here.

They enjoyed a good book together and became more engaged as they discussed the book with other classes.  They broadened their perspective as they viewed, spoke to, and blogged with students from a different area of the world.  Click here to see a few moments from one of their Skype experiences (this was a Mystery Skype, in which each class tried to guess the location of the other class).

This opportunity is for all ages, K-12.  It officially begins October 5th.  I can help you set up a partnership, teach you and your students how to Skype/blog/make any other sort of connection.  Please click here to let me know if you are interested in learning more about the Global Read Aloud.

Free Books on iPad for PreK-5th Graders

Image from carlispina.wordpress.com

Your students can each have their own account in this free digital library, accessible on iPads or computers. There are tons of titles available for ages 4-12. 

Why is it free?  EPIC makes their money by offering parents $4.99 per month home subscriptions.  They request that teachers inform the parents about this, however there are NO parent subscriptions required in order for your class to access this all for free when they are at school!

The books are high quality and there is a large variety.  This video is the ad directed at parents.  Check it out to see how the app works.  Educator accounts are completely free.

Click here to request my help in getting your class signed up for accounts.

Selfies for Learning

Image from Techie Teacher

We all know kids love to take selfies.  Why not assign a short project using selfies to demonstrate learning?

Students can use the camera app on an iPad or their own smart phone to take pictures of themselves with any desired learning tools.  Some great ideas for this can be found in Techie Teacher Julie Smith's post here.

Using an annotation app such as Skitch or PicCollage, students can combine and label their photos.  It is easy to upload them to a blog for publishing, or to email them to the teacher for viewing or printing.

Please click here if you would like to learn more about this or to request help teaching your students about these apps.

Smart Board Basics - Upcoming Training

Image from 214unlv.pbworks.com

Upcoming training:

Monday, September 14th

Green Lab

3:15-4:00

*How to use the Smart Notebook program to create lessons for use on your Smart Board

*Features available and how to access them

*How to easily save, organize, and share Smart Notebook Files

*How to access lessons already created by other teachers around the world

*How to use your Smart Board to interact with websites as a class

Hope to see you there!

Using Videos to Pre-teach or Introduce

Image from www.capbluecross.com

If you have a classroom blog and your parents have subscribed to email updates, you can use this as a way to present information you wish families to know ahead of time.

Check out the beginning of the school year video presented on Adam Ronnenberg's blog.  This is a great way for him to remind students about the expectations for Morning Movers as well as get them excited for the start of the school year.

As a blogger, keep in mind that embedded videos (videos placed directly within your blog post) do not show up in email updates.  Parents must either click over to the actual blog post to view the video, or the blogger can include words which are linked to the video (or the post itself), for the parent to click.  Just be sure there is some indication that your post contains a video (such as Adam's invitation to "take a couple minutes and check out the video I posted").

Students love watching videos of their favorite people from school, over and over!  My kids have already watched Adam's video twice!  Consider using this as a way to communicate with families this year.

Inviting Parent Readers and Experts to Your Classroom Through Technology

Image from convertiblesolutions.com

Use technology this year to invite parents into your classroom, even if they can't actually be there in person.

In the elementary school, parents can volunteer to record their voice reading a picture book or one chapter of a longer book.  As suggested in this post by Techie Teacher Julie Smith, a letter can be sent home to interested parents containing instructions for recording.  This recording can be created using any smart phone or device.

At school, the recordings can be paired with QR codes so that students can scan, listen to the recorded voice (i.e. Stripes read by Jack's Mom), and follow along in the book.  What a fantastic listening center!

For middle and high school students, parents can share expertise through a voice recording  of their knowledge about a topic or even making a short video to explain or instruct.  A short survey can be sent out to parents to determine whether there are curriculum-related experts who are willing to share their knowledge.

These recordings can be paired with QR codes for students to access as they learn.

If you would like help notifying parents, creating QR codes, getting books set up for listening centers, organizing information presented by expert parents, or teaching the students how to access the recordings, please click here.

Connected Student Blogging

Image from gregmillerprincipal.com

Sometimes teachers begin the blogging journey with their students, and are disappointed when it seems no one visits their site to view students' creations. 

Your online audience must be notified and interested enough to view and respond to student work.  Parents and classmates are the best place to begin.  I have created letters that you can use to help get families involved.

Another way to connect your bloggers is to join a global initiative such as the Primary Blogging Community (4 classes are grouped together and rotate whose blog is the "focus blog" each week) or the Global Read Aloud (connections are made based on a shared read aloud). 

In my experience, great connections can also be formed by reaching out to educators you know personally in other schools (or other states . . . or countries).  They are most likely to follow through with planned connections and maintain communication.

Click here if you would like to learn more about student blogging!

Student Blogging

Image from www.trailsoptional.com

Many of you have heard about students in our school blogging.  After facilitating blog experiences for several classes over the last three years, I've seen the benefits and challenges of this mode of writing.  I will resist pulling out trite "ed tech" phrases and tell you in plain English my thoughts:

It's Good Because:

Students like it.

Parents have online access to their child's writing.

It is a natural setting for lessons about digital citizenship - which, in my opinion, ought to be a regular component of today's classroom.

Blogs can be used to post more than writing.   Photos, drawings, voice, or video can also be posted.  This allows a wide variety of possibilities throughout the year, while giving one central mode of publishing.

Students care about other people reading what they write.

Students learn to give constructive feedback on other people's work.  This analysis and reflection improves their own craft of writing.

Students learn to troubleshoot digital problems.  They help one another and they help you.

It's Hard Because:

It's not in the curriculum.  You have to plan for blogging as a method to achieve the same goals in a different way.

To be done well, it takes intentional instruction in good digital citizenship.  This takes class time.

Technology doesn't work sometimes.  Like the computers.  They might not work.  Or someone's log-in isn't working, and you have to figure out why.  This happens all the time.

For some kids, typing takes forever.  (The speech-to-text software on iPads is helpful for this!)

How I Can Help:

I have developed almost everything you need to begin blogging with your students.  

I have: 

* parent communication letters

* digital citizenship lessons before, during, and after blogging (for me to come teach or you to teach)

* Rubrics for blog posts, blog comments, and digital citizenship

I can partner with you as you begin your students' blogging journey.  I can come in to teach your class as they get started, run small groups to help them practice, and help behind the scenes as you monitor and approve blog posts.

Fantastic Advice:

Use this as a way to publish an assignment you already do.

Plan to continue publishing for at least 2-3 assignments.

Know that digital citizenship and online publishing experience are as important in your students' lives as good writing skills. Look past what's "on the test" and imagine what will be important for their future. 

View blogging as a tool in their toolbox rather than a one-time activity.

Click here to indicate interest in learning more about student blogging.