Google Classroom Tips!

Continuing with our Google tips, here are some tips for Google Classroom:

1. Add a file to an assignment 

Adding a Google doc/sheet/slide file to an assignment is a great way to keep up with how your students are doing on the assignment before it is turned it. When you do this, select the setting to "Create a copy for each student" and you will have access to see each student's file as they work on it.

2. Assign an assignment to certain students

You can assign an assignment to only certain students. There are multiple reasons why this may be helpful, such as an absent student or A & B versions of the same quiz. 

3. Schedule assignments for multiple classes

When creating an assignment, you can schedule when the assignment goes live AND you can do this for multiple classes at the same time. Each class can have a different date it becomes available and a different due date if needed.

4. Rubric

You can add or create a rubric for an assignment. This allows you to use the rubric you added while grading the assignment.

5. Originality Report

By adding an originality report setting to an assignment, students can run this report to check for citation and plagiarism errors before submitting the assignment.

6. Comment Bank

There is a comment bank option for when grading and leaving comments on student work. This will allow you to add comments you use often to the comment bank. You can then simply select the comment when grading without needing to type it each time. You can even search for the comment you are looking for using key words within the comment bank.

Google Docs and Slides Tips!

It's been awhile since the Tech News Blog had a new post. I hope you are ready for some awesome new tips for Google Docs and Slides - teachers, this is for you!

Google Docs

Set Default Font

1. Open a new Google Doc
2. Type something
3. Highlight and change the font of what you typed to what you want to set as default
4. Click the "Normal Text" dropdown
5. Hover on "Normal Text" and select "Update Normal Text to match"
6. Click the "Normal Text" dropdown again
7. Hover over "Options" and select "save as my default styles"
8. Now when you create a new Google doc, it will use the font you just set as your default!

Video Previews

1. Open the Google Doc 
2. Paste the video link in the doc *Note: You will be prompted to replace this with a smart chip, which will automatically update the link to be the title of the video*
3. To play this video in the same window as a video preview, hover over the link and select "Open Preview"
4. You can now view the video right in your Google Doc window!

Embed Drawings

1. Open a Google Doc
2. Click Insert > Drawing > New
3. Create your drawing or paste your drawing in the box
4. Click "Save and Close"
5. You can now double click and edit the drawing right in the Google Doc!

Google Slides

Maximize space

To allow your slides to show better on your screen, you can hide the menus. There are two different ways to do this:

1. Click "View" and uncheck the "Show Speaker Notes" and "Show Filmstrip"
   
2. Click "View" and select "Full Screen" *Note: Press ESC on your keyboard to exit Full Screen*

Live Captions

While presenting, you can turn on Live Captions for students to see the subtitles for what you say.

1. Open a Google Slides file
2. Click "Present" 
3. In the bottom left corner, click the 3 dots menu button
4. Hover over "Caption Preferences"
5. Click "Toggle Captions"
6. You can also change the location and size of the caption text in the "Caption Preferences"

Publish to the Web

If you want to share a Google Slides presentation, but don't want it to show with all of the menus, you can publish to the web and get a link to share only the slides.

1. Once your Google Slides presentation is complete, click "File"
2. Select "Publish to the Web"
3. Click "Publish", then "OK"
4. You will now have a link to share your slides in a web view without the menus!