Poe-rrrific!

Image from: https://tinyurl.com/y9w3n767

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

    While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

            Only this and nothing more.”

    Oh, I've read this one before. It's where the Headless Horseman chops off the guy's head.

    What?!? No, this is Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", not Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". You would know what was going on if you stayed current in Google's Calendar.

    Earlier this month, Google rolled out a new version of Calendar and it's fantastic. 

This calendar section on the left still looks the same, but in the Education version, you are able to add appointments.

(Access calendar in the Google Menu checker-box when you're logged into your Google Account.)

 Simply click on a slot in the calendar and tell it to add "Appointment Slots".

You can then choose between a "Single Slot" or "Slots with Durations". With either one, you can set the start and end times. With "Slots with Durations", you can set slots from 1  minutes to infinity (seriously, I couldn't find an end to it).

Once saved, you have the option to view the calendar and/or share it with only select people, everyone in your school district, or the public.

Here is my calendar. I'm hoping to use this with my Student-Led Parent-Teacher conferences.

    Ok, but how do I view assignments I need from my classes?

    In that case, simply click or un-click which calendar you want to view and it will show assignments from specific classes. As well, each classes' calendar can be edited to be a different color so you can tell them apart more easily.

     Ahh, I see.

    Yes, now you'll know which days to be prepared for Poe's fantastic tales of terror on. 

    Speaking of Classroom, if you're not using Google Classroom, you're missing out on all the cool tools and an easy way of digital communication with your students.

    You can create Assignments, Announcements, a Question, or Reuse a Post. I most frequently create Assignments or post Announcements about Assignments. This past week, I created a Question about Poe and the students were able to add their discussion point before class and we then discussed their responses (it was a prediction) before we continued reading "The Pit and the Pendulum". 

Thanks to that question, students were on fire with their conversations about the story and excited to see if their predictions came true.

    In addition, if you're looking for more interaction with parents, then you can invite them to get a summary of what has occurred that week in your Google Classroom. They can then question their student or email/call you for more information. To see how, watch this video. 

    Ok, that's all fine and dandy, but what about a way to keep track of when I need to complete assignments?

    That can be done with Google Keep.

    Google Keep is available online, in Chrome Extensions, and as a mobile App for Android or iPhones. There are many ways to use Keep. For example, I can make a grocery list, make it an actual list, share it with my husband, and cross off items as I buy them. In the classroom, a student can add an image, webpage, or typed note to Keep and then drag and drop it in Docs or Slides. 

    An additional way to add a note is to use the voice choice and create a voice note on your mobile device. This could really help when you have an idea and you're unable to write it down, you can simply speak it into a Keep note. Finally, if you have a picture of a typed page, you can make it a Keep note by asking the program to translate the image's text into a note. Here's a video on it from Matt Miller of DitchThatTextbook.

    So, now there's no excuse to not know when your assignments are due. 

    Ya, I guess not. Say, whatever happened in "The Raven"?

  “And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

    And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

    And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

            Shall be lifted—nevermore!”

   

    You know, still sitting--that could happen to you unless you use one of these FREE Extenstensions to help keep track of assignments!