ECSD Technology Newsletter

Pear Deck at ECPS

Last week Connie Garrett invited me to come and check out Ms. William's 1st grade class as the began using Pear Deck. After a couple of small trials and errors we were able to get these students connected to the pear deck math lesson. Ms. Williams did a GREAT job of teaching the lesson and moving and adjusting as the students went through the math slides. Hats off to all of the dedicated teachers at Elbert County Primary as they implement 1:1 technology in their classes.

Question of the week

"Clint, why does my google look different" - I have heard that a few times the last couple of weeks and also have asked that myself. Google has rebranded GSuite to Google Workspaces. Nothing has changed at all other than the look and the name. Everything has remained the same

Google Enterprise Edition

We are very fortunate to have some enhanced features with Google. With this there is no additional sign in feature. We are able to do things like record our Google Meets, have originality reports (Which I covered in a previous newsletter) and also enhanced. There have been lots of updates to Google Meets which have actually just rolled out this week. One of my favorite Edtech folks Eric Curts put together this great video about a new feature for Google Meets called Break Out Rooms. With Break Out rooms you can put students or participants in your Google Meet into smaller rooms (that you have control of). Check out the video below.

PL Opportunities

Clint will be offering the following Virtual PL classes after school during October and November . I had great feedback from some teachers who attended in September that it would be great if I recorded these classes. I will be recording and posting these PL classes for October and November! You still need to sign up to receive the recording. Use the following link to sign up

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3uTWcoz7ywJK2ISO7lPa84Hw6UGYOcN_LQ5HonU4f4Q9Qww/viewform?usp=sf_link

zoom_out_map

Getting Going with Google Drive

This is a last minute additon. I had a cancelation so I wanted to be sure to offer something this week. Nov 3rd 3:30 - 4:30

zoom_out_map

New Features in Google Meets

November 17th

Template Gallery

Did you know that within Google there are already created templates made for you? For example by going to docs.google.com students can have a premade template for a book report. If one goes to sheets.google.com then you can have access to an already created gradebook. Forms.google.com has a premade ticket out the door. These templates are available to all students and teachers.

Pear Deck Support

We are fortunate to be able to have the new tool "Pear Deck" in Elbert County. This is a tool to make google slides interactive for all students. Teachers who attended the 1:1 bootcamp before school started were able to hear about these features. Below are a couple of resources about Pear Deck. If you would like to learn more I will be leading a virtual training at 3:30 on August 24th. You can sign up HERE

Getting Started with Pear Deck

Cool Things you Can Do

Pear Deck Knowledge Base