Would you like some Google Badges. . .and Congratulations Natalie!!

Today is as good a day as any to celebrate the Awesome! For those who may not be aware, JCCS has been on a three-year journey to put chromebooks in the hands of all of our students. Teachers have volunteered (for the most part) to some intense training and our administrators have committed the resources we need to make this dream almost a reality. As I write this, we have more chromebooks than students, with some being used for testing, staff, some broken, etc., and almost every teacher has chromebooks in her classroom. This should be celebrated. What makes me more excited is that on any given day, I can get a snapshot of our Google Apps for Education (GAFE) use in the admin panel. Here, I can see the amazing work everyone is doing to integrate technology into the classroom.

Today, this is what I saw when I accessed the admin panel.We have has almost 1,400 active users and almost 4,000 docs created in the last seven days. This equates to 80% of our students! For me, it shows that we are actively using the chromebooks in our classrooms. While I cannot guarantee we are using them to transform student learning, the odds are much greater when we have this type of systemic use of instructional technology! It also tells me that students, as they increase their tech capacity, are soon going to be the drivers of how they want to use the technology. 

Does this scare you? It shouldn't. Just as we expect students to continue to be lifelong learners, teachers should be modeling this mindset in their own lives. Technology skills, particularly GAFE skills, are even easier to acquire with the new Google for Education Training. If you are a teacher who would love to improve on her tech skills, please visit google.com/edu and click on training, then choose "educator training," from the drop down menu. Here you will find some amazing resources and training material that will assist you in transforming the way you integrate technology into your classrooms. The curriculum was written by teachers for Google, and the content is fresh, relevant, interesting, and Fun! The best part is that you can complete the training entirely online whenever and wherever you would like. But wait, there's more.If you complete the training and take the certification tests, you can earn Google Educator Level 1 and Level 2 certification badges (there is a small fee to take the exams)! These badges will represent your proficiency with Google tools and are two requirements to take your skills to the next level. . .to become a Google Certified Innovator or a Google for Education Certifed Trainer.

Speaking of Google Certified Innovators, SPA teacher, and tech lover Natalie Priester has just been accepted to attend the first Google Certifed Innovator Academy in Mountain View, CA! This program has replaced the Google Certifed Teacher program (a program that I and Mark Rounds were fortunate to be selected to attend in 2012 and 2014). It is open to educators all over the world and the competition to get into the academy is fierce. To have three members from our small organization is something to celebrate! For me, the best part of being a Google Certified Innovator is meeting and learning with other tech-obsessed educators from around the globe!

Natalie has been a constant advocate of tech integration in her class and the 1:1 chromebook program has inspired her to go beyond her classroom and present to other educators at Google Apps for Education Global Summits. She has been a presenter in Riverside, Bakersfield, and Coronado GAFE Summits. She has also achieved her Educator Level 1 and Level 2 certifications. This demonstration of continued education not only makes her a smarter and more proficient teacher, it models lifelong learning for her students. Please congratulate Natalie when you see her. 

Be Awesome Today,

jeff

Your Copy is a Template . . .and Can You Please Keep Awake!

This week's post brings a blast from the past and a clever solution for the present. I'm talking about our old friend, and creativity assistant, the template and a new friend who can help us keep the Chromebooks from logging out every time you or a student leaves the computer for five minutes. Let's explore the new Google Apps Template Galleries for Docs, Sheets, and Slides and meet our newest frustration saver, Keep Awake.


Remember the old days of Office, where there was a very cool template gallery that opened every time you began a new document or presentation? You could find templates for resumes, brochures, and newsletters. Then, you switched to Google Apps and, while there was a template gallery (that not a lot of people knew about), it wasn't the same. Now, with the separation of church and GAFE (#seewhatIdidthere), the tools in your Google Drive have almost all been separated into their own apps. This makes them work more smoothly on mobile devices and on the web. Now, they will operate from Drive or independently from their own, task-specific apps. Watch the short video to learn how to access the new template galleries (If you want to view the video in a larger format, hover over the video and click on the YouTube or directly on the "Full Screen" option to watch a larger version of the video).

The next piece of awesome was a result of a student assistant from La Mesa Blended Community School who asked me a few weeks ago if there was a way he could keep the chromebooks from sleeping while he was trying to help his teacher Dionne distribute chromebooks. Then, the very next day, there was a TIP exhibition at Reflections Central where Alicia, Cindy, and Knikki's students wanted to present their recorded podcasts to an audience of teachers, administrators, probation staff, and community members using the chromebooks (the podcasts were amazing, you should check them out: Reflections on Courage). They also needed a way to keep the chromebooks from sleeping so each group could just share a computer with a visitor instead of having to log in each time it went to sleep. Noticing a clear need for our community,  I researched a tool that could keep the chromebooks awake. With the ease of the Google Apps Admin Panel, I deployed the Keep Awake extension to everyone in our organization. You should now see a picture of the moon in your extension bar (See image above). If you want to keep the chromebook awake, click the moon and it will turn into the sun, which will keep the screen on. If you click again, you will get a sunset, which keeps the computer from sleeping (unless you close the lid). Don't worry, the extension will reset after the student, or teacher, logs out of the chromebook. If for some reason you don't have the extension, you can go to the Chrome Web Store and add it to your browser manually. I hope this will help some of you save time in the classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts in the comment section below!

Be Awesome,

jeff