7 More Tricks to Learn During Spring Break!

From Alice Keeler at Teacher Tech:

First make sure you check out Shake Up Learnings 7 tips. The awesome Kasey Bell gave me permission to compliment her list with some follow-up tips.

1. Google Forms

Insert hint text

when creating a question in Google Forms I try to keep the question as short as possible. The question becomes the column header in the spreadsheet. Hint text clarifies the question but does not show up on the spreadsheet. To enable the hint text line, click on the more options icon (3 dots) in the bottom right. Click on “Hint text” to enable this option. Type your hint text below the question line.

2. Google Docs

Insert a comment

Google Docs allows you to insert comments, like post-it notes, on the side of the document. Highlight what you want to make a comment on and a comment icon shows up on the very edge of the document. Click on this to insert a comment. TIP: While helpful, you can give students feedback comments faster by mastering the keyboard shortcut Control Alt M to insert and Control Enter to save the comment.

3. Google Sheets

Format within a cell

Double click on a cell within Google Sheets spreadsheet to edit the contents. Highlight individual words or phrases and change the formatting. Create one word out of the sentence to be bold.

4. Google Slides

Edit the slide master

Change the default layouts in Google Slides. Create graphic organizers and custom templates in the Slide master. When students add new slides, the layouts contain the graphic organizer. Locate the Slide master under the “View” menu.

5. Google Drawing

Make straight lines

Hold down the shift key when drawing lines. The lines will be vertical or horizontal.

6. Google Chrome

Close tabs to the right

Right click on a Chrome tab to reveal the option to “Close Tabs to the Right.” As you open several student work documents, Chrome can become littered with tabs. Right click on the tab you want to keep and choose to close all the rest of the tabs.

7. Google Classroom

Link to an assignment

Open an assignment in Google Classroom and click on the “Instructions” tab. The URL of that page can be copied and shared with students to direct them to that exact assignment. This can be useful when referring back to a previous assignment. Link in the new assignment back to the old assignment. Use this link when sending reminder emails to students who are tardy submitting.