Search smarter, not harder

Advanced Search Tools in Google

When you have a question that you don't know the answer to where do you go to find an answer? Chances are that you find yourself entering a few search terms into Google on your computer or smartphone to see what you can dig up. I've definitely seen students take this approach when trying to conduct research.  With the enormous amount of information that lives online it's not always easy to find what you're looking for. Here are just a few tips for you and your students on how to attain your desired search results quicker.

This, but not that

If you're using a search term that has another meaning or is popular for something else, you can type your search term followed by subtraction symbol and the term you want to avoid. 

Exact phrase

You may be looking for something that has an exact phrase in it. In this case, use quotation marks to only return results that contain those exact words.

Fill in the blanks

When you can't remember the full phrase of what you were looking for you can add asterisks within the quotes where the missing words are. 

Define 

Use Google as a dictionary by adding the word "define" before your search term.

Translate

You can also translate words to other languages by typing the word you want translated followed by the language. 

Digging even deeper

There are even more search options that you can use to narrow your search that can be found within the advanced search menu. To get to the menu, click the gear icon to open the settings menu and then "Advanced search".

As you can see, there are many more parameters to modify to narrow your search. The option to filter by usage rights provides an opportunity to talk to students about digital citizenship and copyright usage. 

The "site or domain" option is a great way to seek out more credible sources. You can limit the search to only include websites that end in .edu, .gov or .org.

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Try out the advanced search tricks next time you're looking for browsing for that perfect resource on Google. If you want to pass on some good search habits to your students, Google has some pre-built search lessons that are differentiated for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Topics include:

Picking the right search terms

Understanding search results

Narrowing a search to get the best results

Searching for evidence for research tasks

Evaluating credibility of sources

You can also sharpen your search skills by trying out the "a Google a day" game which requires you to use advanced search techniques to find the answer to difficult questions. Try it out here.

Protect Yourself From Dangerous Emails + Chromebook Sign In Update

Protect Yourself Against Dangerous Email Messages with these Simple Tips:

Recently a phishing email circulated amongst some White Bear Lake staff. Phishing emails will typically direct the user to visit a website where they are asked to update personal information, such as a password, credit card, social security, or bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. Clicking links in phishing emails may also cause viruses to download onto your computer.

You can protect yourself against these dangerous emails with these tips.

Tip 1: Don’t trust a display name

Phishing emails often use spoof display names. Check the email address in the header. If looks suspicious, don’t open the email. 

Example: A display name might be Cassandra Knutson, but the associated email might be getyourinfo@stealing.com

Tip 2: Hover over links before clicking

You can hover your mouse over a link to view the full web address. If the web address looks suspicious, don’t click on it.

Example: CLICK HERE!

Tip 3: Check for spelling mistakes

Legitimate messages usually do not have major spelling and grammar mistakes

Tip 4: Analyze the greeting and the signature line

Be suspicious of vague greetings and signature lines.

Tip 5: Don’t give personal information

Legitimate companies will never ask for personal credentials via email.

Tip 6: Beware of urgent or threatening language in the subject line

Beware of urgent subject lines that ask you to respond to or click on something immediately.

Tip 8: Don’t click on attachments

Beware of suspicious attachments and don’t open any email attachments you weren’t expecting.

Tip 9: Watch this video

If you do click on a dangerous or worrisome attachement or link, immediately contact the technology department so that we can work with you to contain the issue so that it does not spread.

Chromebook Sign In Update - Effective March 16th, 2016

A recent update to the Chrome Operating System allows us to set up Chromebooks for sign in without "@isd624.org". This new feature has been successfully tested and approved by teachers and students. As of Wednesday, March 16th students will only need to enter their ID # (“@isd624.org” will already be entered at the login screen) and password to log into Chromebooks. Staff logins to Chromebooks will not change, for now.

Exploring Culture with Google + Schoology Course Pictures Hack

Google Cultural Institute

The Google Cultural Institute has a huge number of engaging resources for teachers and students to explore. Think of it like an online museum. Their content is arranged into collections within three different categories, art projects, historic moments and world wonders. Tools such as gigapixel photos, street views, and videos are used to tell different stories throughout history. 

Gigapixel Photos

These are extremely high resolution images that let you zoom in and see all of the miniscule details of famous paintings and artifacts.

 

          

 

One of the best features of the Cultural Institute is that you can organize items from the public collections into your own galleries. Annotations can be added to the items that you save. Creating a personal gallery would be a great feature to have students use during a project as they interact with content and add their own reflections or explanations. 

Get started with this intro video (1:49) and then head over to the site

Schoology Course Pictures Hack

I've had a few people ask me if it is possible to change the section name of each Schoology course so it is easier to figure out which hour it corresponds to. Unfortunately, you are unable to change that because it will revert back to the original every time it syncs with Skyward. The work around for that is to change the Schoology course picture for each class to include the hour which you teach that class. See the example below.

Follow these steps to make that happen:

1. Create a new Google Drawing in your Drive by click New then More and Google Drawing.
2. To resize the drawing to a profile picture size click File --> Page Setup and then select Custom. Enter the dimensions 170 x 170 pixels.
3. Add a picture by using the Insert menu and then clicking Image. You can upload an image that your already have or search for one. 
4. Crop the picture to fit in the square
5. To add the number to your picture click Insert and then Word Art. Type the number that you want on the picture and then hit enter. Change the font, size and color settings to your liking.
6. After it looks good, click File --> Download As and then select JPEG image. Choose the location where the file will download to your computer. 
7. Open Schoology and navigate to the course that you wish to change the picture for. 
8. Hover your mouse over the current course picture and you will see the Edit Picture button pop up in the top right corner of the square. Click that.
9. Select Attach File and then find the picture that you just downloaded. 
10. Repeat for any course that you wish to change. 

Chrome Extensions

Chrome Extensions

Chrome extensions are small software programs that can modify and enhance the functionality of the Chrome browser. You can find Chrome Extensions in the Chrome Web Store. There are many extensions available to improve your workflow. Here are some of our favorites:

• Save to Google Drive: The Save to Google Drive Chrome extension helps you save web content or browser screenshots to your Google Drive. - Imagine you find a great lesson plan - you can click the save to drive extension to send a screenshot of the webpage to your Google Drive.

• Clipboard History 2: The Clipboard History Chrome extension helps you to retrieve previously copied content. Imagine you are giving students digital feedback and you find that you find that you are repeating the same feedback - you can copy the content and then access any copied content in the clipboard history to use again. 

• Awesome Screenshot Capture and Annotate: The Awesome Screenshot Chrome extension helps you take screenshots and annotate them. You can save the annotated screenshots to your Google Drive. You can screenshot selected regions of your screen with this extension.

• Google Calendar: The Google Calendar Chrome extension is a button on your browser toolbar that you can click to see upcoming events from your Google Calendar and add events to your Google Calendar, without ever leaving your page. Imagine you need to check what time your next meeting begins or you need to quickly add a meeting with a student to your schedule - you can quickly add this event to your calendar without leaving your current page. 

• Google Tasks: The Google Tasks Chrome extension helps you easily add and manage your tasks from Chrome in one of three ways: 1) Simply type "t Your new task" into the Chrome Omnibar to add a task from whatever web page you're on. 2) Click the Tasks icon to add a task, see your tasks and task lists and mark a task as completed 3) Highlight text on any web page, right click and add that text to a new task.

• Bookmark Manager: The Bookmark Manager Chrome extension makes bookmarking easier with the smarts of Google Search and a new modern interface. With this extension you can utilize a one-click save feature and add images and notes to your bookmarks to make them more helpful. Also, Google will suggest a folder if it seems like it could be a fit. You can share bookmarks with your friends and family. This extension provides an improved search and your bookmarks will automatically be organized by topic, like “Tokyo” and “Photography,” but you can still organize them into folders yourself.

Street View Treks + Google Forms in Classroom

Google Street View Treks

I often dream of being able to fly my students all over the globe to experience my content firsthand. How engaging would it be to see, smell, hear and feel all of the things that we are talking about in class. Unfortunately, there are limitations to our field trip budget so for now I turn to tools like Google Street View Treks as a way to expose kids to the world outside of White Bear Lake. Treks are online experiences that use tools such as 360 degree panoramas, photos, audio narrations and videos to tell the story of a place. They have a growing collection of experiences for you and your students to explore including The Amazon Basin, Galàpagos Islands, Pyramids of Giza and The Great Barrier Reef.

Check out the list of available Street View Treks here and see if there is an experience that would be relevant to your classroom. Even if you can't find an overlap in your curriculum they are pretty cool to check out on your own.

Formative Assessment Forms in Google Classroom

Google Forms are great at doing one thing, collecting data. That's why many teachers are finding Forms to be a useful tool for formative assessment. There are a number of different question types that you can pose to your class to get a sense of where they are at with your content. Assigning these Forms through Google Classroom now allows you to see which students have completed the assessment and who still needs to finish. Follow these steps while assigning a Form in Classroom. 

1. Create a new assignment in one of your classes and give it a title. 
2. Click the Drive icon and search for the Form within your Drive.
3. From the dropdown menu, select all of the classes that you wish to assign the Form to. 
4. Click the 'Assign' button
5. As soon as students get to the end of the Form and submit it, Classroom will automatically show that the student has finished that assignment.

  

BrightBytes Survey + 4C's Mentoring + YouTube Webcam Capture Alternative

Brightbytes Survey Coming Soon!

In past years we have taken the BrightBytes survey twice. This year we are only taking the survey once You will receive access codes on Wednesday January 13th. The survey will be open through the end of January.

Please plan to complete the BrightBytes survey and make time for your students to complete it as well. Your feedback is extremely important and the closer we can get to 100% participation, the better job we can do of serving your specific needs.

4C's Mentoring Program

The 4C’s mentor program is a differentiated professional development opportunity that honors the work you are already doing with your students and provides a structure to increase your impact while focusing on the use of the 4C’s and technology in your classroom.

The goal is to increase specific 4C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity) capacity and spread innovation through the use of technology. Click here for more information and click here to sign up. After signing up you will be paired with a mentor who will contact you.

YouTube Webcam Uploads No Longer Available

  

YouTube is no longer supporting their webcam upload and as of January 16th, the tool will be unavailable. This tool allowed students to record themselves speaking with a webcam such as the one available on the Chromebooks. 

Students are still able to record video with another device and upload to YouTube. We suggest that students use a smartphone or tablet to capture their video and then upload the video to YouTube with the device used for capture.

For help finding alternatives, please contact Matt or Cassie. 

Two Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts (inspired by my most common mistakes)

Control + Shift + t will open the last tab you closed - say goodbye to accidentally closing tabs and having to navigate back to them.

Control + z will undo your last action - say goodbye to having to undo something you accidentally did.

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