Google Lit Trips: A Visual Exploration Through Literature (K-12)

Google Lit Trips are a great way to give your students another perspective on the events and locations in literature. Lit Trips uses Google Earth to plot out important event locations in a book through a pre-made, interactive path. Easy to save, easy to import and share with students in Google Classroom, you can instantly draw your students into deeper engagement and understanding in just a few steps. If you don't see a book in the list of pre-made Lit Trips, you can make your own! (more on that in another post) 

Click the video below to get started.

Click here for an alphabetical list of available titles. 

Turn off Desktop Notifications for Google Hangouts

To shut off the desktop notifications for Hangouts, simply open Hangouts, click the settings menu on the left (the three stacked lines) then uncheck the box that says "Show Desktop Notifications for New Messages" 

***You will still hear an alert sound for incoming messages, but a preview of the message will NOT pop up on your computer. This is handy if you are signed into your Google account on your Smartboard computer. It will keep students from seeing your messages. 

Google Classroom: Updates Explained

Google Classroom went through many updates over the summer. I sent out an email back in August, but here is the quick overview if you still feel unsure about the changes.

*The three tabs at the top are now:
-Stream- a place for quick announcements, a preview of classwork posts and discussions.
-Classwork- no longer listed in chronological order, rather listed by Topic. If you want to add things such as syllabus, materials, etc., create a post under the topic "Materials"
-People- see students enrolled and add guardians

*Settings Gear- adjust student comment abilities and guardian access
*Easier Grading- directly flip to the next document and grade directly in the document as well as use a comment bank to quickly add duplicate comments
*Copy Entire Class: the Stream will be erased as it's specific to each school year's needs and all Classwork will be saved as a "draft" so you can edit and assign as needed. All students will be removed from the prior year
Idea!- a master course could be created and copied for teachers to use around the district.

Watch this short 7min. overview for details. 

Click the links below for 
additional help:

Time for a refresh: Meet the new Google Classroom

Elementary Tech Training Sign Up

MS/HS Tech Training Sign Up

***NOTE: Use the "To-Do" option to quickly access assignments that need to be graded rather than searching for items individually  .