Notes from the Tech Coach March 2021

 

Contact Lancy All contact info is always listed on my email signature!	Phone:  cell (607) 662-3430 or office (607) 749-7246 ext. 5015
	Website:  www.tinyurl.com/inTECHgration	Twitter:  @FancyLancy
	Email:  lcollins@homercentral.org	Pinterest: Mrs. Collins

Google Meet Updates
Mute all Google Meet participants at once Click on the people icon in the top right corner. You will see the option to mute all participants.
End a Google Meet video call for everyone at once Click the red phone button on the bottom center taskbar and the box below will appear. Click “end the call” which will kick off any other participants.  This will force students out of the Meet and you won’t have to worry about them staying on when you are not there. *Do NOT just close the window.  This will not end the call.
Preview call quality (audio and visual) before joining the Meet When you join the “waiting room” look to the bottom left corner.  There will be an option to “check your audio and video.”  Click here to preview your image and hear your sound quality.
Troubleshoot the speed and power of  your device during a Meet Click on the three dots in the bottom right corner.  Choose the settings cog.  From there, you will be able to access helpful tips, the connection delay of your computer, and other troubleshooting ideas.

March Tech Tips!	ParentSquare Quick Overview Looking for a quick overview of ParentSquare?  Check out this video (less than 12 minutes!) that gives the how-to on changing notifications, posts, and messages. https://youtu.be/ByE75vtX1Cg
ParentSquare Tip:  Need classroom materials or parent volunteers?  Ask! Many parents have said they would love to help be more involved in their child’s classes.  Of course, with COVID we cannot have parents come into our schools.  One way to have them help is to ask for items/materials you may need.  Fun holiday decorations?  Glitter glue? Individually wrapped snacks for kids who forget theirs?  Another idea is to get families involved by asking for volunteers.  Parents are not allowed in the building, but they can volunteer for other things.  You can ask parents to be special guest readers!  Another idea is to ask parents to sign up to be guest speakers in your class if they have an occupation or experience that would help students to understand your content. These all sound great, but how do I do that in ParentSquare? From your home page, click on the New Post button.  In the new post page, look to the left column to see the “Ask for Items” and “Request Volunteers.”  Click on one to see the options appear beneath the new post description.  You can add the date, quantities needed, time (if applicable), and more!  As parents sign up to help or to fulfill your wish list, the spots disappear on their end.   Check out this blog post from ParentSquare on how to get more parental volunteers/involvement!
Grading in Google Classroom Did you know you can leave comments directly on student work in Google Classroom?  You can do this on Google Apps (docs, sheets, slides) by using the Comment Feature.  Just highlight the text, images, cells, or slides you want to comment on.  Then, in the toolbar, click the Add comment In Google Classroom, you may have students completing work that is on a PDF or is an image of their work.  You can still leave comments on that!  When students hand in work, the same small chat icon appears in the top right corner of the assignment window.  Click on it and you will see a plus sign appear. Click and drag on the area of the student work you want to make a comment on.  When you’re done, make sure to return the work to the student. That’s it!  Here is a short video on how to do this (it’s a bit glitchy, but these days, so am I!). On the other side, students need to open their work to view comments.  If it is a Google Doc, Slideshow, or Sheets the comment will appear automatically on the side.  If the work is on a PDF or an image, they need to do one more step to see the comments.  When students click on the work, a preview appears.  They need to click the three dots in the top right corner and choose “Open in a New Window.”  Again, here is a nice glitchy video to show you how.

Mid-March Google Updates
End the call for EVERYONE	By hitting the “End the Call button,” you force students out of the Meet so they cannot be in without a Teacher!  If you’re in a Meet with adults, you can click “Just Leave the Call” or you will bump everyone out.  The students will not be able to rejoin without an adult present (as long as the meet was created in Google Classroom). This is for Meeting Hosts only.
Mute all participants	To mute all participants of a meeting, click on the people icon in the top right corner.  Then you will see the “All Mute.”   In late spring, Google says it will release the ability to keep participants muted!
New Toolbar	Google Slides has an updated toolbar in the bottom left corner.  It will be smaller and less intrusive!  You can still access all the options for Slides (auto-advance, laser pointer, speaker notes, etc) in the three dots on the right side.
Screencapture (Pic or Video)	Chromebooks have their own webcasting and screenshot tool!  You can find this by clicking the time in the bottom right corner of your Chromebook.  From there, you will see the “Screen Capture” option among the buttons.  When you click this, your screen will dim and a toolbar appears at the bottom of your screen.  You can choose if you want just a screenshot or a screen capture video (left side).  The center three buttons allow you to choose if you want to capture the entire screen, a portion or cropped part of the screen, or take a full window screenshot.  You can also click the settings button to toggle the microphone on/off.  To get out of the screen capture, click the X on the right side of the toolbar or just hit the escape (esc) button.
Version History	Finally!  Version history is available in Jamboard.  Now you can see who made edits to a Jam and when!  Click the three dots in the top right corner to access.  Now you can feel confident sharing editing access on Jams.  You can not only see who edited it when but also revert back to previous versions.
Snooze Desktop/Chrome Browser Notifications	Do you use Google Calendar notifications to remind you of upcoming appointments, tasks, and meetings?  If you’re like me, even the ten minutes can get away from me.  Google has updated their notifications so that you can “Snooze” them!  In your calendar settings, click the “notification settings.”  You will see the “show snoozed notifications” pull-down option.  From there, you can decide on the time before the event you want to “snooze” until.  I choose 1 minute to keep me on my toes.  Then when you receive a notification on your Chrome browser or Chromebook, you will see the option to “snooze” it.