Greetings! I was able to attend a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) Summit this weekend and I have so many new things to share... it is so hard to pick just two! If you ever get the opportunity to attend one of these conferences, I highly recommend you do so. You will leave inspired!
1. Google Forms is getting a facelift. If you haven't been asked to switch over yet, you will likely get a notification to do so in the coming weeks. If you don't want to wait, you can go here and force the switch: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6281888?hl=en . (Experienced users: From what I have heard the form add-ons you are working may not yet be available in the new forms, yet. The add-ons in the resulting spreadsheet are still available. You can currently toggle between the old and new version; see the link above for all the details).
Conference tip: I attended a session on using Google Forms for assessments. This presenter, a fifth-grade teacher, creates her assessments with each question on a different page (easy to do in forms) so the test more closely resembles the SOL testing format and so students don't freak out when they see the length of the test. She indicated that keeping the question count hidden helped keep the students calmer and focused. She also mentioned she often uses the check-box type questions to practice TEI questions because more than one correct answer can be selected.
2. The session I attended on Google Drawings was fantastic and I will share more down the road but in a nutshell, Drawing is so much more than the Paint program you may be envisioning. It can easily be used for creating signs, posters, illustrations, graphic organizers, website headers, and so much more. To create a new project, head to your online Google Drive and choose "New" and then "More" and select Drawing. Or, if you are looking for premade materials, take a look at these useful items: Graphic Organizers & TEI for Math/Reading (I only know the "owner" of these files is listed as Tim Grant... I found the site pinned in Pinterest. If anyone finds out if there is a more specific URL I can share, please let me know. Also, for my LCMS colleagues, the above materials are saved in our LCMS shared folder.).
Enjoy!
