MSEDTechie: Get Google-ly With Google! The Best Google Apps For Google-ly Teachers

What a fabulous day of sharing and learning at the Google Apps for Education Summit in St. Louis. My mind is literally blown! A day of everything Google, and I'm feeling quite "Google-ly"

I really enjoyed sharing in my session the different ways you could use Google Apps to communicate and collaborate with students and other educators, like Google Hangouts, Google Lit Trips, and some fun ways to create videos and presentations with the tools like WeVideo, Video.Notes, and Present.Me

I had the opportunity to present...

Using Google Apps to Communicate Inside and Outside of the Community from msedtechie

I also walked away with an enormous wealth of NEW resources that I am so excited to share with you!

Here we go!

Convert all your tabs into one list with Onetab

How many times have you had 30 or more "very important" tabs open in your browser at one time? Making bookmarks for each link can be a tedious task. Onetab is an extension for Google Chrome that allows you take all of those tabs and convert them into one list. It even makes a QR code for you!

You can save the list, restore the list anytime you want, or send that list to others by sharing it as webpage.

Onetab also works in Firefox. You can drag and drop tabs in your OneTab list to change their order. You can also hold down the Ctrl or Cmd key while restoring tabs and they will remain in your OneTab list (meaning you can use OneTab as a way of quickly launching a set of commonly used tabs).
You will not lose your list of tabs if you accidentally close the OneTab window, if your browser crashes, or if restart your computer.

To install OneTab into Google Chrome, click here

Build reading comprehension with Informational text through Newsela

Newsela is creative way to build reading comprehension with informational text that's always relevant: current events. It's easy and innovative. Newsela is free through Google Apps, and allows for unlimited use of articles. There are about 4 published articles per day on a current event. The beautiful thing about this tool is it allows you to take one article and differentiate it to up to 5 different lexile levels. All of your students can read the same content, just at the level just right for them. Amazing... The website has a bank of articles, and it will automatically change vocabulary and sentence structure.

Save paper and help the environment with CleanPrint

This Google Chrome extension saves paper and helps the environment by allowing you the capability to print just what's important. It reduces page sizes, and let's you remove images. You can even delete parts of the document you don't need printed. Save as PDF, or dropbox.

Watch the video below

CleanPrint/CleanSave Tutorial from Format Dynamics on Vimeo.

Get the chrome extension here

Create your own gallery and share with others through Google Cultural Institute

Google has partnered with hundreds of museums, cultural institutions, and archives to host the world’s cultural treasures online. Explore art from the around the world, examine pieces close up, even view it in the galleries (like a “street view”)

Take a Journey with characters through a Google Lit Trip

In simple terms, Google Lit trips are downloaded files (free) that take you on the journey of characters from famous books/novels through Google Earth. Each time a character marks a specific location, a pop-up window opens containing media, web resources, discussion questions, and links to additional information for the reader. This tool is used in a way to make a real-world connections for the students, and it allows them to have a 3D view of their reading, by visualizing the story, and traveling alongside the characters. Google Lit trips are creating engaging experiences for students. There are ton of downloadable files, and new ones are being created everyday.

Google Lit Trips can also be created using Tour Builder.

Create your Personal Story with Tour Builder

This online version of Google Earth, allows you to create Lit Tours, or even your own tour. With Tour builder, there is no need to download files, all of the information is stored online. Check out this one on Anne Frank

Make your videos come to life with EdPuzzle

Create the perfect lessons with videos. With EdPuzzle, you can crop videos, (use only what you need), add your voice, embed quizzes, and open ended discussion questions. Find videos directly on the site through Youtube, Khan Academy, etc. You can also upload your own videos. You can give immediate feedback to your students, and also receive immediate data for yourself. You can set it so that students can't skip parts of the video, and the best thing is you can embed your videos to places like edmodo, schoology, blackboard, and more.

Insert wording that you use a lot through Permanent Clipboard

This easy Google Chrome extension allows you to save text you use over and over, by creating a friendly name and have it at your fingertips. Click on the extension right within your google doc, and add it to the comments section, or within your google doc. Use it to store common comments on student work, or an answer template for discussion forums.

Give immediate feedback with Doctupus

A spreadsheet add-on for giving immediate feedback to students through Google Docs. Folder creations for students, and send an email directly to students with their grade. It works great with Google Classroom.

Create Notes synced automatically through Videonot.es

VideoNote.es allows you to annotate video, while synchronizing your notes taken within the embedded video. When reviewing the notes, just click on a line for the video to jump to the relevant part. Videonot.es is integrated with Google Drive to simply manage, and share with students.