Tuesday Tips, March 29, 2022

 TECH TIP:  New Feature: Google Chrome Reading List

If you are someone who has lots of tabs open with articles and things you mean to read, then the new Reading List feature in Chrome is for you!  It will allow you to save those items without having to clog up your Bookmarks.  Mostly, it will safely allow you to close out all those tabs which slow down your browser.  

In Chrome, in the upper right corner is the side panel icon:

Then, go into the Reading List and hit Add Current Tab.  This will save the link there until you either mark it as read or delete the link.  This is a great way to curate important sites.  

BOOK TIP:  A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

 Murders and mysteries are among the top genres I am asked for by students.  This is a great new series of mysteries for young adults.  For her senior project, Pippa decides to dig into the murder of a young woman  five years ago.  As Pippa begins to uncover new evidence, the person everyone thought did the murder is no longer clear.  And may in fact be coming after her.  Several twists and turns throughout the novel will keep you guessing and turning pages.  Will highly recommend this to students. 

Tuesday Tips, March 22, 2022

 Big shout out to Dede Norton and Tom Roy for showing me these two new Powerschool features that will help you out!

LOOK AT TODAY'S ATTENDANCE BY STUDENTS

When you are in PowerTeacher, on the left hand side is a new link called Attendance Today:

Once you click on that, you are at a search area where you can search by student name.  This can be filtered down by clicking on the + button:

Once you put in a name, it will show you if that student has been marked absent anywhere today.  Nothing will show up if the student is present or if attendance was not taken in a class.  But this does give you a quick way to see if a student has been marked elsewhere that day.

HOW TO TAKE ATTENDANCE FOR MULTIPLE SECTIONS AT ONE TIME:

Many have expressed frustration at having to toggle back and forth between so many sections in a single class in order to just get attendance done.  You can do it all in ONE page by selecting the Show Multiple Sections option.

For one of your sections, go into take attendance from PowerTeacher and then click on the blue Show Multiple Sections button.  

Then, all of the sections for that class period will be on one screen for you to quickly take attendance.  

All of these are archived at my blog:  https://monumentpd.blogspot.com/

I'd love to work with you and your classes on any upcoming projects or assignments.  Take care.

Tuesday Tips, March 8, 2022

 TECH TIP:  GetHuman:  Site to Help Fix Customer Service Issues Faster

  GetHuman is a site that Tom Roy recommends for all things customer service related.  Put in the company you need to contact and GetHuman will give you tools for solving customer service problems with thousands of major companies. The web service includes maps of company phone systems, shortcuts and tricks, call-backs, and step-by-step solutions to common consumer issues

BOOK TIP:  Resources on the War in Ukraine

So not really a book tip, but lots of great readings and resources for helping students understand about the war in Ukraine.

• The New York Times Learning Page:  They have tons of great stuff to use in classes, including this lesson on the Ukraine Invasion.  And remember ALL students here at MMRHS can get a free digital subscription to the NYTimes - see me to help them set it up!
• Ukraine Crisis and Lesson from the Choices Program at Brown University
• Ukraine-Russia Conflict Media Literacy Choice Board from UMass Amherst

Tuesday Tips, March 1, 2022

 TECH TIP:  Canva: Recorded Presentations

Canva is my go to for all things graphic design.  You can use their many templates for flyers, images, and now presentations.  A new feature in Canva presentations is that you can record yourself narrating the presentation (I love this feature!).  I also added to my best tools for student presentations.  

Here is my First Semester Report from the library that I created (and narrated) using Canva:

BOOK TIP:  New Spanish Language Books in the Library

Valerie Zantay's Heritage Speakers class created a "wishlist" of books in Spanish that they would like to read.  I purchased these books for them to add to the library's collection.  They came in yesterday to check out their books.  To me, it was like Christmas and Hanukkah, being able to check out these books  to them!

I'm always willing to add titles to the collection based on needs for your classes. Let's talk!

Tuesday Tips, February 8, 2022

 TECH TIP:  Google Checklist

You can now quickly create checklists in Google Docs.  Write your list, and then Format -> Bullets -> Checklists.  

When you complete a task, check it off and it gets a strike through to show completion.

You could create lists like this for projects, papers, research steps, etc. and share a copy with your students to check off as they complete each task.

BOOK TIP:  Maus by Art Spiegelman

Maus is an amazing graphic novel about the Holocaust.  It is the story of the author's parents during the Holocaust.  It is told with the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats. Maus was recently banned by a school board in Tennessee and removed from the curriculum and library shelves.  Fortunately for you, this book is not banned here and you can read the library's copy.  

Tuesday Tips, January 26, 2022

 TECH TIP:  ListenNotes: Podcast Search Engine

I love to listen to podcasts (a few of my favorites:  Smartless, Extremities, Serial, Dr. Death, The Office Ladies, Rabbit Hole, This American Life...) and think they could be a great resource in the classroom.  Listen Notes is a search engine that allows you to find podcasts for specific topics.  There is a Discover tab with curated lists that might also be helpful.  

BOOK TIP:  Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel

  The novel Station Eleven came out in 2014, but is weirdly prophetic in its description of a global pandemic (in this case called the Georgia Flu) that wipes out much of society.  The novel travels back and forth in time between the pandemic period and the future dystopian world and a group of traveling Shakespearean actors.  There is a common story that connects the many characters, all of whom come under the threat of a dangerous prophet.   Station Eleven was just released as an HBO limited series (which is good, but the book is always better - or should at least be read first).

Tuesday Tips: January 18, 2022

 TECH TIP:  Google Status Dashboard

Thanks to Tom Roy for this week's tip!  If you ever find that any of your Google Apps aren't working (like Gmail, Docs, Meet, Calendar, etc), you can quickly check the Google Status Dashboard.  This will tell you if the issue is one at Google globally or something on our end.  As long as the item has a green check at the Status Dashboard, it is good with Google.

and if you want to see if your computer is on, go to:  http://ismycomputeron.com/

BOOK TIP: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Family by Patrick Radden Keefe

 Empire of Pain is an incredible work of non-fiction by Patrick Radden Keefe (author of another of my favorite non-fiction book of 2020: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Mayhem in Northern Ireland).  It tells the story of the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma.  Purdue Pharma is the company who makes OxyContin, and might be fully responsible for creating the opioid crisis.  It's a masterpiece of narrative non-fiction and will make you think twice about the pharmaceutical industry.