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AndroidiOS Tips and TricksMicrosoft

Free, Open-Source LibreOffice Goes Mobile

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

The suite of productivity products called LibreOffice is a lot like other office suites. It includes tools like a word-processor, spreadsheets, drawings, and even databases. The big difference? LibreOffice is a free, open-source set of applications created by The Document Foundation. Because of that, LibreOffice is a great tool for educators or even families looking to keep up with digital learning.

While it retains amazing functionality as an office suite, LibreOffice has been missing something: the ability to work on the go via your mobile device. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a new development that makes LibreOffice smartphone or tablet friendly.

What LibreOffice Offers

LibreOffice, like OpenOffice, offers a free, open source alternative. Like G Suite EDU and Microsoft Office 365, you get several critical tools that include:

  • Writer (word processing)
  • Calc (spreadsheets)
  • Impress (presentations)
  • Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts)
  • Base (databases)
  • Math (formula editing)

The no-cost office suite is available for use on Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux platforms. You can find a comparison of features between Microsoft Office 2016 and LibreOffice. One of the key missing features is Microsoft’s Immersive Reader.

Another challenge LibreOffice users have faced is accessing their documents on mobile devices. That is, smartphones and tablets.

LibreOffice in the Classroom or Out

Students often have access to tools like MS Office 365 or G Suite EDU for home use. Both suites come with their own set of online apps. That said, Libreoffice, while late to the mobile platform, does have some benefits. There are still many places where students lack  connectivity at home. What connectivity is available for their smartphone is emergency phone use only.

Being able to work offline remains a valued option. LibreOffice offers a free, no-cost alternative to students and staff who need that option.

LibreOffice Goes Mobile

Until a short time ago, LibreOffice’s native format was hard to open and edit on mobile. Open Document Format (ODF) enjoyed a few select apps for viewing, but none for editing. This made embracing LibreOffice and cloud storage (e.g. Dropbox) tough. You would always need a laptop with LibreOffice.

A new app, available for Android and iOS (use links to get it for your device) removes this obstacle. You are now free to open, view, and edit ODF documents on your smartphone.

collabora

The New App: Collabra Office

Collabora Office allows you to open LibreOffice documents available via cloud storage. Not only that, but you can edit them and the app works offline. You can open and save file to ODF file format, but also as Microsoft friendly. This includes formats such as .DOC and .DOCx.

You can create the following new documents via Collabra Office:

  • Spreadsheet
  • Presentation
  • Text document

You can also open existing Microsoft documents in .DOCx, .DOC, .PPT, .PPTx, .XLS, and .XLSx formats.

Editing Text Documents and Inserting Items

Need to edit text documents? You are going to have access to the usual features. Those features include the ability to bold, italicize, underline, strikethrough, and shadow text. You can adjust fonts, size, and customize other paragraph styles you may need.

Need to insert an image, table, or comment? You can do that. You can add headers, footers, footnotes, and endnotes, as well as a page break, column break, hyperlink, or shapes. There’s no shortage of actions you can take with Collabora Office. This makes it a nice, full-blown offline document creation and editing tool.

Saving to the Cloud

When you have finished edits to a document, you may want to save it to cloud storage or to local device storage. You can also choose to export it in compatible formats to your cloud storage device of choice. I chose to export my document (which began as a DOCx file) as an ODT to Google Drive.

Given how smartphones are our new creation platforms, it’s nice to imagine that you can get work done on it. If you need an office suite on the go that affords you offline work opportunities, Collabora Office is the tool to use.

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iPads
AndroidGoogle Tips and Tricks

TCEA Responds: Exploring Google Contacts

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

How do I manage or find my addressbook in Google? I upgraded from my old phone, but somehow, I now have a lot of duplicates in my smartphone. I have two or more of everything. Finding the duplicates takes forever on my phone. Is there a way to do this online?

-Monica

Dear Monica:

Thank you for your email. Working with your smartphone contacts can be a bit daunting. I know people who hate upgrading their phones because they worry their contacts will go away. If you are using an Android phone, or even an iPhone, many of your contacts are safe. That’s because Google saves them to the cloud for you.

Did You Know?

Sign up for one of our Google Certified Educator certifications. You’ll learn about more than Google Meet, as well as earn 12 CPE hours per course. Use these courses to get Google Educator certified. Find out more online.

Let’s review a few ways you can solve your duplicate problem. You didn’t say which phone you had, so I’ll focus on Android.

Dealing with Duplicates in Google Contacts

Dealing with duplicates on your Android phone can be a pain. If your phone is backing itself up to Google, then switching to a new phone may have resulted in lots of duplicate entries.

Many people are unaware that they can access their phone contacts list online. You can get to it via the Google Contacts website. Once you are there, you can take advantage of its “Merge and fix” option, as seen below:

As you can see in the screenshot, this is one of the easiest way to merge and fix contacts. You also have more options available through Google Contacts. Let’s take a look at them.

Organizing Your Contacts into Label Groups

Did you know you can organize your contacts into Groups so that whatever changes you make in Google Contacts will end up in your smartphone? You can do this through the use of labels. Any labels you create and assign to your contacts appear as Groups on your phone. That may make a specific group of people easier.

You can’t delete the contacts in your Directory in Google Contacts, but you can organize them into groups that will appear on your smartphone. The way you do that is to assign them a label. While it’s easy to select contacts in your Directory list, then assign them a label, let’s take it a step further. Let’s export your contacts. This could come in handy if you want to keep a list of people in your work contact lists. Some people find it easier to work long lists in a full-screen editor or database tool.

Exporting is another way of saying “Save these contacts to my computer as a CSV file.” CSV is a comma-delimited text file that is often used for database imports/exports.

Note: To protect the innocence of the privacy of people in my contacts, I have pixelized names and emails. This makes them unreadable.

Before you start the export process, you will need to take some steps. Let’s review them:

Step 1 – Create a Label

This is an important step. The reason why is that Google Contacts does not allow you to export your Contacts Directory. First, you have to assign them a label you have created, then export that label.

For example, I have created a “MyContacts” label in Google Contacts. You can title this label whatever you want (e.g. “Keepers”). Once I have that, I can go to label specific contacts. These are the ones I want to keep.

My last step will be to use the EXPORT option and export only the MyContacts label. This is great because I can choose to add only the correct entries in my contacts directory.

Step 2 – Label Directory Entries with “MyContacts” Label

Now that you have your “MyContacts” label created, you can go through your directory. You can multi-select the ones you want to keep as shown in the screenshot below.

Once you have added all the contacts you want to keep to the “MyContacts” label, you’re ready to move on.

Step 3 – Export the Entries Labelled “MyContacts”

In this step, you are going to export the entries you labeled in Step 2 as “MyContacts.” As you can see from the image below, you can export the contacts with the “MyContacts” label.

Note that you have three options. While Google CSV is the best option if you’re trying to clean up your contacts, there are others. You could use Outlook CSV if you want to move to Outlook email client, or vCard for iOS.

If you look at the file you have exported in MS Excel, LibreOffice, or Google Sheets, you will see the following:

Once you have verified you have an export file, close out of it without making changes.

At this point, you can choose to completely wipe out your Google Contacts Directory. That is, you can delete or remove any contacts you have labeled. Google prevents you from removing contacts from the Directory itself in order to safeguard your data.

Ready to import your contacts from a particular group to a new label? Let’s take a quick look at that.

Step 4 – Import Contacts Exported Before

Since you have that exported contacts file on your computer, you can choose to import it. In the screenshot below, you can see how we can import the contacts into a new label, MyPeeps.

As it imports and when it finishes, you will seen screens like this:

And that’s pretty much the process. If you look at your phone, you will see that you have Groups that reflect your labels in Google Contacts.

There is a lot you can do via the Google Contacts web interface. Take some time to explore it and organize your phone groups using it. Use it to clean up your duplicates with Merge & Fix.

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notable women
AndroidGoogle Tips and TricksSocial Studies

Celebrate Notable Women with Google’s AR App

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“When women succeed, America succeeds,” asserts one Congresswoman. Women have worked to build America. But as President Jimmy Carter has said, “their contributions went unnoticed.”

Congress selected March, 1987 as the first official Women’s History Month. National Women’s History Month celebrates women so vital to the building of America. Their achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love are on proud display in March. This is true during 2020 since this year marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment (1920) granted some women the vote. To celebrate, some teachers have chosen to dress up as famous historical women. Others have staged women’s marches at school. Raising awareness of the contributions women have made is front and center.

notable women

Source: Maya Angelou as portrayed with Notable Women app

In this blog entry, we’ll explore a new technology tool, Google’s Creative Labs’ Notable Women app, that can make celebrating this and other historic events more fun.

Have access to Alexa? Learn about a different trailblazing woman every day in March for Women’s History Month. Ask “Alexa, who inspires you?”

See Kimothy Joy’s watercolor portraits of mighty women and get copies.

Resources for Teachers

Ready to teach National Women’s History month? You’re not too late, even if International Women’s History day is March 8, 2020. You have the entire month of March to celebrate the achievements of historic women. President Jimmy Carter said:

I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality– Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul. Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people. (Source: National Womens History Alliance)

The American Library Association shares their resources for this month online. They include:

notable women

Looking for lesson plans, posters, primary sources, and more? Look no further than the National Women’s History Museum website. They offer a searchable database of lesson plans, biographies, posters, and other resources. You can search via topic, theme, or resource type. Also, be sure to check out Scholastic magazine’s online articles on women’s history.

The National Education Agency also has resources organized for you. You can find them linked below:

AR/VR App: Google’s Notable Women

Want to engage students with AR/VR? You can use this Android and iOS app, Notable Women. What it does is allow you to point your smartphone or tablet at a dollar bill. The app will then replace the face of George Washington with a notable woman. Here are some of the women that may appear. You can check the website for more.

notable women

The result is startling and works even on “digital dollars,” so it’s perfect for students to use. Here’s one example (showing Sacagawea) I took with my Android phone:

notable women

Using the app is easy and students shouldn’t have any problems with it. Give it a try as part of your station rotation. Let us not forget the words of President Ronald Reagan:

“As leaders in public affairs, American women not only worked to secure their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity but also were principal advocates in the abolitionist, temperance, mental health reform, industrial labor and social reform movements, as well as the modern civil rights movement. Their dedication and commitment heightened awareness of our society’s needs and accelerated our common efforts to meet those needs.”

Stay connected with others who are sharing about Women’s History Month. Follow the hashtag #womenshistorymonth on Twitter.

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Raspberry Pi
AndroidCoding/Computer ScienceRoboticsSTEM/STEAM

Resources for the Raspberry Pi Enthusiast

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

What can be better than a computer designed to inspire children? That was the motivation for creating Raspberry Pi even as early as 2006 when it was just a concept. At the end of 2011, 25 Raspberry Pi boards were assembled and tested for market. The next year, these were auctioned off on eBay with official sales to the public starting in February of 2012. The board with the serial number 01 was the last to auction off and sold for £3,500 (approximately $4,508.70 in today’s dollars).

Fortunately for educators, we don’t have to vie for limited quantities for historical purposes. We have choices today, such as the smallest and simplest of the boards, the Raspberry Pi Zero, for just five dollars, to the newest and most robust microcomputer, the Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM, for only $55 — with none being much larger than a credit card.

With such a low entry point, it is clear why many educators are introducing their students to microcomputers. These boards allow students to learn algebraic thinking and reasoning, coding, basic hardware/software interfacing, and physical computing by incorporating sensors, motors, actuators, LEDs, speakers, and more. Many students have found Raspberry Pi to be an entry to programming using languages such as Scratch, Python, Ruby, C, and C++. To help you introduce Raspberry Pi to your students (and possibly to yourself if you are a n00b) or extend the learning possibilities, here are a few resources that I’ve curated for you to enjoy.

Books

Excited About Coding! – An Introduction to Coding Using Scratch 2 Software on the Raspberry Pi 4 Computer
Author: Grant H. Williams
Age Range: 9 and up
Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: Grant Williams (November 22, 2019)
ISBN-10: 0692197281
ISBN-13: 978-0692197288

Raspberry Pi Projects for Kids: Create an MP3 Player, Mod Minecraft, Hack Radio Waves, and More!
Author: Dan Aldred
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: No Starch Press (December 2, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1593279469
ISBN-13: 978-1593279462

Sensor Projects with Raspberry Pi: Internet of Things and Digital Image Processing
Author: Guillermo Guillen
Paperback: 157 pages
Publisher: Apress; 1st ed. edition (December 19, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1484252985
ISBN-13: 978-1484252987

RASPBERRY PI 4 PROJECTS FOR THE EVIL GENIUS: A Comprehensive Guide to Setup & Developing Raspberry Pi 4 Projects
Author: John White
Paperback: 150 pages
Publisher: Independently published (September 13, 2019)
ISBN-10: 1692743295
ISBN-13: 978-1692743291

The MagPi Magazine – The Official Raspberry Pi Magazine
Published by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, you’ll enjoy monthly tips, tricks, how-to’s, and projects for you to get the most from your Raspberry Pi. You can subscribe and get a discount from the price you’d pay if you bought if off the magazine rack.
NOTE: You can download the magazine as a PDF for free, going all the way back to Issue 1, May 2012!

HackSpace Magazine cover

HackSpace Magazine
This magazine is also published by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and has lots of ideas not limited to just Raspberry Pi. At the time of this post, Issue 28 has been released and covers adding audio to Raspberry Pi projects, as well as how to design a vase in Fusion 360, making things with toothpicks and getting stronger prints with your 3D printer.
NOTE: Issues of HackSpace can also be downloaded as PDF files for free!

Websites

Instructables – Though you will need a login (which is free) to access the Raspberry Pi projects, this site is known for its wide variety of crowd-sourced ideas and projects. You will also find great contests and classes to challenge you and extend your learning. You can even take a short class to learn how to write your own Instructable to share with the group.

Hackaday.io – With over 1,000 projects tagged with “Raspberry Pi,” you are sure to find some interesting things to spark your own creativity. More than 23,000 projects are shared at the time of this post, so you are definitely looking at having any free time filled. You are sure to find interesting projects for kids, by kids as well.

Top 20 Raspberry Pi Blogs, Websites and Influencers in 2020 – Be sure to look this list over and explore some great resources that you didn’t realize existed.

Top 20 Raspberry Pi 4 Projects That You Must Try Now – Seeed Studio put together a list of great and fun projects for you to try with your Raspberry Pi 4. Some are definitely more involved, but are still worth the effort and time to create. Which will be your favorite?

Raspberry Pi Resource Guide – Mitch Allen created and maintains the DesertBot website in order to share his love for robotics with other hobbyists. In this post, he shares various resources for you to consider if you are interested in Raspberry Pi … and possibly robots.

Groups

Meetup – Here is a list of search results for various meetups around the globe that have Raspberry Pi User Groups or Raspberry Pi-related events. If you don’t see one close to you, then touch base with one of the many groups clustered around programming languages or makerspaces to see if they will be planning one soon. Or, start your own Raspberry Pi User Group!

Reddit – There are several different groups to check out on Reddit that address Raspberry Pi. Consider joining each group to stay current on what others are doing, as well as having a lot of like-minded nerds available to assist you with troubleshooting. Groups to check out include:

Twitter – Follow the #RaspberryPi hashtag to get numerous ideas of how Raspberry Pi is being using around the world. This is great if you have students with languages other than English, since there are people in many other countries tweeting their ideas, projects, questions, etc. Be sure to check out the photos and videos link as well to get more ideas.

Facebook – Don’t overlook Facebook as a source of relevant groups to check out. Here are a few groups to get you started.

YouTube – And let’s not forget all the folks who share via YouTube. Here, you’ll find the videos posted this year, curated playlists, and channels dedicated to Raspberry Pi. Here are a few to check out.

Your Recommendations

Have I left anything off that you would recommend? Post in the comments below and share what other resources you have found helpful, and what types of projects you enjoy working on with your Raspberry Pi. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Rox's Secret Code
AndroidCoding/Computer ScienceiOS Tips and TricksRobotics

AR with Rox’s Secret Code

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

Anytime you can combine augmented reality, cute robots, and coding fun, you are guaranteed student engagement. And that’s exactly what the Rox’s Secret Code app does. Available free for both Android and iOS, the app was designed to work with the book by the same name and teach coding to both girls and boys ages 4 to 8.

The book is the story of a code whiz who originally creates a “Chorebot” to help her clean her room, but is forced to readjust the code when the robot begins to act out on its own. Although the launch page of the app asks if the students already own the book, purchasing it isn’t necessary to enjoy the app.

How Rox’s Secret Code Works

Rox's Secret Code

Students first must design their own robot, building it from a variety of pieces that are available. The robot appears in AR immediately and is fun to see. My first robot is to the left. You can see it appearing over my laptop in my living room. The next step is to give the robot a name. Then you can take a photo of the robot itself or a selfie with you and your robot.

 

Introducing Coding

Your bot is now ready to begin learning to code. Students play with coding blocks and learn coding principles by making it pick up toys. The coding skills in the learn mode are put into action in the play mode, where they drag the “move action” blocks, which include move, rotate, and grab, to the code line. Once kids complete the code line, they activate their robot and watch it follow their directions. Rox informs players when there’s code missing or when the move action block does not match the robot’s path towards the finish line. The game becomes a bit more challenging, prompting for more move action blocks, when kids consistently code correctly.

Rox's Secret Code

While playing, students develop organization, planning, and sequencing skills, which transcend the world of coding. The graphics are colorful and appealing and Rox is available to talk the students through the activities. It’s especially wonderful that the app is available free. If you teach young students, I encourage you to take a look at it.

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lesson planning
AndroidChromebooksGood TeachingiOS Tips and Tricks

Back to School Apps for Lesson Planning

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Does the TEKS Resource System have an app?” asked a classroom teacher in one of my sessions. “I want to pull up my lessons.” The question got me thinking. After some fruitless searches in the Google Play store, I failed to find an app. But I did find a few, no-cost apps that teachers may want as they head back to school. Care to see what they are?

App #1: Effective Instructional Strategies

Looking for a collection of research-based instructional strategies? While you may look no further than John Hattie’s list of effective strategies, where’s the app? If you’re wondering, you may disappointed to discover there is no an app. Until now.

Thanks to the magic of Glide, a website that lets you turn a Google Sheet into an app, it’s pretty easy to make your own. The resulting product works on any device, not only your smartphone. With that in mind, I’ve created a Hattie effective instructional strategies app.

lesson planning

The  Strategies That Work  app includes a short list of effective instructional strategies. As a technology director, I wish I had known about John Hattie before now. They are a real eye-opener when it comes to popular technology-focused strategies.

While Hattie says that “Everything works” with the 250+ instructional strategies we use, not everything accelerates student growth. Want an illustrated, quick reference on your device with links to video and more info? This app will get you started. What’s more, I’ll be adding more instructional strategies at least once a month. Want to help me? Make contact via Twitter @mguhlin.

Get the Strategies That Work app

App #2: TEKS

Are you a Texas educator? You may want to have quick access to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Any teacher worth their salt will soon have these memorized (well, if they write lesson plans). But if your brain isn’t cooperating, why not load the TEKS app onto your phone? You can find the TEKS in detail for any content area. Give it a try.

Get the TEKS app

App #3: Lead4ward

The Lead4ward folks have a lot of fantastic resources for schools. As a classroom teacher, I love their app’s “quickchecks.” These provide a wealth of activities such as one-question quizzes, seven little words, etc.

The list of quick checks is a searchable collection of assessments. You can tap on the assessment and get instructions on how to use it in the classroom.

What a handy aid! And there’s even more included in the app. Why not check it out?

Get the Lead4ward app for iOS|Android

These three apps make it easy to engage in lesson planning. You can find instructional strategies that align to the TEKS and assess learning. Give them a try.

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seesaw
AndroidChromebooksGood TeachingiOS Tips and TricksOnline Tools and Apps

Learning to Juggle with Seesaw

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Are you a juggler when it comes to education?

Have you ever wanted one spot to keep track of everything as a teacher? Sometimes, we educators feel learning something new is “just one more thing to add to our plate.” But being a digital leader means sharing and collaborating effective, efficient ideas and tools. Seesaw Learning Journal is such a tool. It even can help educators communicate effectively and efficiently with both students and parents.

Seesaw is a platform to encourage student engagement online, where they can showcase their voice and ownership in their work. It is a student-driven online journal that can be used in many ways and is available through the web, iOS, and Android.

Ups and Downs of Seesaw

seesawThere are several benefits to using Seesaw. Students are able to showcase their best work for parents, peers, and teachers. Students are able to explain their masterpieces, and take pride in ownership through their use of camera, video, drawings, and notes, especially when they know it is being published. This helps shy students who want to speak but are not very vocal. Teachers benefit from Seesaw by being able to use the student journal as a paperless storage for work samples, to show and discuss at parent conferences, and even use as an assessment tool. Additionally, teachers can make private notes and give feedback.

Seesaw is also user-friendly for families. Parents can see and comment on all their child’s masterpieces, and they can communicate one-to-one with the teacher. Best of all, multiple parents or any family member can join and comment. I have one student right now that has her grandma, aunt, and mom connected, and they all comment on her work!

The core Seesaw service is free for teachers, families, and students. It is a key part of their mission to impact as many students as possible. They also offer Seesaw Plus and Seesaw for Schools, which are optional paid upgrades for teachers and schools who want to do even more with Seesaw. You can view a comparison of Seesaw, Seesaw Plus, and Seesaw for Schools features here.

As for the disadvantages of Seesaw, if students are signing in through a class QR code, they are not able to edit previous work. This requires the teacher to navigate this extra step. The appearance of the dashboard needs to be updated to be more appealing to the student. The disadvantage for the teacher is printing out invitations to the parents. You must download the entire class PDF file, not just one student’s, in order to send the QR code home. The con for the parents is the lack of push notifications on iOS and Android. On tablets, students are not able to draw on a still picture while recording their voice. For example, when my kindergarteners are reading a list of sight words, I like them to check them off as they read. They can on Chromebooks, and it may come Android soon.

Using Seesaw Learning Journals

Teaching students to use Seesaw Learning Journal is an easy task, even for kindergarteners. First, students can sign in either by email (recommended for grades 3-12) or by QR codes (recommended for grades PreK-2 ). I teach kindergarten, and in my classroom of 19, the students log in and add their “Wow Work” (best work) themselves on Chromebooks and tablets by signing in with a class QR code.

Next, students can add content by camera, video, notes, Google links, drawings, or even by uploading a PDF. My students this past week chose their “Leaf Projects” to showcase. They appsmashed with Chatterpix and uploaded it to Seesaw. Some then chose to type a sentence about their projects; others choose to type describing words. It was their choice, their voice, and they have ownership in their work.

Third, students have a choice when it comes to assignments within the “Activities Tab.” The assignment can be specifically for a certain student or be the same for the whole class. Finally, the student logs in and clicks his name, then his activity tab. After they complete their assignment, they save it to their Seesaw account.

Grown-Up Growth

Teaching the adults to use Seesaw is my favorite. After using Seesaw for six years now, my interest sparks each year as Seesaw is updated.

As a teacher, the class is set up by entering your students’ names and their email addresses, if you chose for them to sign in with emails. The teacher is then able to let students upload their work and can give feedback and comments about their work. Teachers also have the option of giving the students more power by letting them comment on their peer’s work. This is recommended as long as a digital citizenship lesson has been provided.

Next, teachers get to differentiate student work in the activities tab by only assigning certain work to certain students or the whole class. The activities tab provides teachers with a single place to see who has completed and turned in their assignments and who is still working on them. Teachers can also tag certain TEKS/objectives to certain activities. This makes it easy to pull up reports on a certain TEK and see if you need to reteach that concept, or if your students are grasping the lessons.

Seesaw has a plethora of activities already made for you. They are sorted per subject, per grade level, and are available to add to your students’ accounts. No reason to reinvent the wheel! The teacher can simply copy and adjust it to the student’s needs. The Skills tab on Seesaw is a great way to assess a child on a four-star scale.

Staying Connected

Another great part for teachers is the parent communication. For years, I used Seesaw, Class Dojo, and Remind for parent communication. I was all over the place, with some parents connected to this one but not that one. The last two years, I have only used Seesaw, and all my parents are connected in one place.

This makes it easy to send out announcements for the class, to send flyers home, or even a quick message. You can communicate to the parents/families, or just to the students, or just to one parent. It is a great way to send weekly personalized messages out on how their child is learning and participating in class. I also send out a weekly announcement on what their child is learning in my class for that week. I was able to embed my link to my Google document to sign up for parent/teacher conferences and was able to get real-time feedback.

As you can see, there are many pros and just a few cons to using Seesaw Learning Journal. Overall, Seesaw is user-friendly for the students, parents, and teachers. Give it try!

Laressia Martin is an educational technology leadership expert and elementary educator. You can learn more about her on her website or on Twitter.

“Vitz-9572”by Jon.Proehl is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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pair of glasses on top of open book
AndroidChromebooksContent AreasESL/ELL

Reciprocal Teaching with Popular Reading Apps

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Few would disagree that reading plays a crucial role in life. Scaffolding student cognition during reading can enhance student achievement. One of the techniques I employed as a young teacher included Reciprocal Teaching. In this blog entry, you will see a few amazing reading apps you can try reciprocal teaching on.

Google Rivet Transitions to Google’s Kids Space 

This blog entry previously featured Google Rivet, which Google shelved on October 16, 2020. The Rivet content (3500 books) found its way into Google’s new Kids Space. Per the Google Kids Space website, you can get to it via select Android tablets. Children are able to access apps, books, and videos. These are age-appropriate and targeted by age. One neat feature is that multiple children can use the same tablet. This is because children’s accounts are kept separate. Children’s education and media specialists have all reviewed apps and books included.

Effect Size of Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching (Palinscar & Brown, 1984) has strong support among researchers. Consider that John Hattie’s meta-analyses results include reciprocal teaching as a high-impact strategy. Its effect size of .79 means that it can advance student achievement almost two years growth for one year of school. (You can learn more about Hattie’s research in these blogs or join TCEA’s empowerED program and receive inexpensive professional development on his strategies.)

rivet

 

What Is Reciprocal Teaching?

This tried-and-true technique works especially well with second language learners. Under the tutelage of Mark Gabehart (Round Rock ISD CTO), I discovered this first-hand working with bilingual/ESL students in urban school settings. Reciprocal teaching includes a cycle of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. The video below illustrates the reciprocal teaching cycle:

Through the use of statement stems, students are able to learn critical processes. For example, for Predictor, students think about what they have read. Then they predict what will happen next. Assisting students in understanding how to predict is key. For questioning, students can use sentence stems such as “I wonder…” or the five Ws to unearth ideas and information.  You can see some sentence stems via this reciprocal teaching Pinterest board. Explore the Wakelet embedded below:

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View Wakelet on Reciprocal Teaching

Why Is Reciprocal Teaching Needed?

If your students face any or all of the following obstacles (adapted from ASCD Publication: Lori D. Oczkus’ Reciprocal Teaching At Work),  reciprocal teaching may be what’s needed.

  • Students don’t remember what they read, even when they can decode text
  • Little to no engagement with reading material
  • Students read at two or more years below grade level
  • Informational text (non-fiction) is difficult to understand
  • Challenging words are difficult to decipher
  • Students may be unable to describe the difference between main idea and supporting details

As a result of reciprocal teaching technique’s effectiveness for over thirty years, it is worth adopting. The National Behaviour Support Service offers this visual which may assist you:

Reciprocal Teaching Outside the Classroom

We imagine that RT may be for classroom use only, but that’s not true. We can encourage its use outside of the classroom by helping students to become teachers. “The act of teaching activates more regions of the brain,” says Dr. Lou Whitaker. Another approach could involve students modeling the RT cycle. They use this high impact reading strategy with Flipgrid, as you can see below.

Another may involve recording a video and then using EdPuzzle.com to empower students. These students create a video with questions interspersed throughout.

How could students use this with new reading apps, such as Google’s Kid Space and other amazing reading apps?

:video

Exploring Five, Incredible Reading Apps

One of the challenges students face is access to common text. Now, with these reading apps, students can access common content and can apply reciprocal teaching strategies to that text. Having apps you can share with students that feature common content is a win for both teachers and students.

While most educators may rely on Epic! books as their common text, don’t forget about other great sources of reading material online. You can find a comprehensive list in this TCEA TechNotes blog entry, Digital Stories for Remote Learners.

This blog entry was updated on 6/29/2021 with new content.

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AndroidChromebooksGoogle Tips and Tricks

Google Slides and Gmail Get Updates

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin
Amazing updates recently announced will transform how you work with two popular G Suites apps, Slides and Gmail. Let’s take a look at my favorite tool Slides to see some popular ways to record audio. One of the challenges is how to record audio and save it to Google Drive. In this blog entry, we’ll explore those approaches, as well as take a quick peek at Gmail’s upgraded features.

Inserting Audio into Slides

One of my most desired features for Google Slides has been the ability to embed audio. Google’s blog announced it:
We have listened to your requests and are adding audio files as additional media types in Slides. We know that adding audio clips can bring your presentations to the next level.
If you look now (early April 2019), you may not see the option to Insert->Audio into a Slide. That’s because the rollout will not become visible until later this month (before April 18).
According to what was written, you will soon be able to insert WAV or MP3 audio files into a slide. Follow these instructions taken from the Google Help page:
  • On your computer, open a presentation in Google Slides.
  • Select the slide that you want to add the audio file to.
  • Click Insert  Audio.
  • Choose an audio file and click select.

Recording Audio on Your Phone to Drive

Since you can insert audio files (MP3 or WAV) into Slides from Google Drive, how could you record and save to Drive? Here are two approaches using free apps for iOS and Android devices. In fact, I’ve used the Android app on Android-capable Chromebooks like the one I’m writing on to record.

iOS App Audio Recorder

On iOS, get the Voice Record Plus app. It’s a free app that allows you to save audio recordings in WAV or MP3 straight to Drive. As their website reports:
Voice Record Pro is a professional voice recorder. It allows you to record voice memos and on-site sounds. Recordings are at unlimited length with configurable quality. Voice Record Pro can record in…MP3 (MPEG) and WAV formats (source).
Here’s a video tutorial from YouTube on how to record audio on Voice Record app and then save to Google Drive.

Android App Audio Recorder

On Android, there are many apps titled Audio Recorder, so you will want to get this free Audio Recorder app from Axet. This app makes it easy to record to various audio formats, such as OGG, WAV, M4A, and MP3.
Of the many formats available, MP3 and WAV are the two compatible with Google Slides. After recording, you can save the audio file in MP3 or WAV format to your favorite Google Drive folder. An added benefit of the Android app linked above is that it will work on Chromebooks that can run Android apps as shown below.
You are able to save audio recordings to your Files on your Chromebook and then place them on Google Drive.

Recent Gmail Upgrades

Need “quick access to a range of help and support content?” Then Gmail, along with other apps, will soon enjoy a new support button next to the search bar at the top of Gmail. You may have missed Smart Compose and one more update.
Smart Compose uses “machine learning to interactively offer sentence completion suggestions as you type, allowing you to draft emails faster. Building upon technology developed for Smart Reply, Smart Compose offers a new way to help you compose messages — whether you are responding to an incoming email or drafting a new one from scratch (source).”
An additional update you may find useful (I do!) is the “Write now, Send Later” option. This makes it easy for you to compose an email at 1:00 am in the morning, and, rather than send out the email at that early hour, schedule your email for an 8:00 am delivery.
Google often updates its apps. Keeping up with those updates may seem a Sisyphean task, but these updates can enhance your productivity and provide additional ways for your students to showcase their learning. Take advantage of them!
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AndroidGood TeachingiOS Tips and Tricks

Take Reading to the Next Level with Novel Effect

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

I often think back to when I was teaching elementary school. Even though it was important for my students to do well in all subjects, it seemed that reading was the subject that held the key to all the others. Whatever I could do to help them learn to love reading, I was all-in for.

For example, I worked hard to make sure that I had an extensive library of books for my kids to read, and regardless of how many years I read Old Yeller aloud, I always dreaded the ending. That is, I dreaded knowing I would cry as I read the ending, no matter how many times I read it. But I also knew that my students would cry as well — some of them always did, too — and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is something special that happens when you really get into a book and it make an emotional connection.

For many of my students, those who lacked the joy of reading, it was my goal to take their reading to the next level. Not just in regards to the next Lexile level, but the next level in connecting reading to their heart.

Creating an Effect

reading dr Seuss novel effect appThat’s exactly what the creators of Novel Effect hope to do. The free app for both Apple and Android allows you to read a book aloud while it provides special effects and relevant audio. Instead of speech-to-text, think of this as speech-to-sound effects. As you are reading out loud, the app listens and provides audio to enhance the reading. Leaves rustle, animals howl, and footsteps crackle as you tell your tale, adding life to every line and engaging your audience.

Whether you are reading aloud to your class, a parent reading to his/her child, or a student reading aloud to his or herself or a small group, Novel Effect is a clever tool that follows your lead and makes reading (and listening) that much more fun.

Hear an Excerpt

In the clip below, you can hear my rendition of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who! with the assistance of the Novel Effect app.

 

Explore the Novel Effect Library

reading with the novel effect app

Novel Effect has a lot of books in their library already, so you’re likely to find one your students will enjoy. As you start reading, the app will begin following your voice and interact with you as you read. You can scroll through popular books (and even make recommendations if a book you love is not already included in the app) or search for books by grade level. Here are a few of my favorites included in each of the categories, with more being added.

 

Infants & Toddlers (0 – 3 Years Old)

  • Edgar Gets Ready for Bed by Jennifer Adams
  • Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
  • One the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier

Pre-K and Kindergarten (3 – 6 Years Old)

  • Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
  • Just Grandma and Me by Mercer Mayer
  • Corduroy by Don Freeman
  • If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff

Grades 1 and 2 (6 – 8 Years Old)

  • Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
  • Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
  • Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
  • You Don’t Want a Unicorn! by Ame Dyckman

Grades 3 and 4 (8 – 10 Years Old)

  • How to Catch a Leprechaun by Adam Wallace
  • If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff
  • Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
  • Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

Grades 5 and Up (10+ Years Old)

  • The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
  • Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio
  • Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

Suggested Classroom Uses

To start, have students locate a book to perform for the class, either individually or in pairs. It’s okay if the book is below the student’s reading level. Let this activity be about building fluency, using voice and inflection to add interest, and pacing. If you find that you don’t have time for every student or group to perform, consider having Flipgrid set up so that they can each record their performance. This allows students to find and enjoy stories that other students have performed.

Then you can get really creative. After your students have had a chance to read with Novel Effect a few times, allow them to create their own set of sounds and music to go with a text of their choice. For this, you may prefer that they use a shorter text or one that would need fewer audio effects so that student don’t get bogged down. For free sound effects, consider using the following websites: Free Sound, Partners in Rhyme, Sound Bible, ZapSplat, and the BBC Sound Effects. Or, if you are really adventurous and want to create your own sound effects, then read Robbie Janney’s post on ShutterStock Blog. In it, he even provides some great video to get you started on your journey.

What is your favorite book to read to with Novel Effect? How have you used it with your students? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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