Keeping it Real with Google Keep+ (for Students)

I will be the first to admit it; I need help to stay organized and on track.  With about a million things to do in a day (yes, I used a hyperbole) I tend to forget a few tasks here or there if I don't organize myself... I'm just keeping it real you all.  

As students, I know many of you feel my pain.  (I've seen your backpacks.)  I have a few tricks I've learned that help to KEEP me on track.  Let's make organization our superpower!

Make Google Classroom Your BFF!

First, make sure you are utilizing Google Classroom to your advantage.  Google Classroom is not just an assignment hub.  Google Classroom also provides a...

• Quick link to your Google Calendar
• Quick link to your Google Drive Folder
• Notice of  Upcoming Events
• Two-way communication (both public and private)

Google Classroom is a powerful tool that can help you to maximize your time and set your assignment priorities.  Use it.

Keeping it Real with Google Keep

Confession time.  I have to work at being organized because I am not organized by nature.  In an effort to stay organized, I have used Google Calendar, and I have downloaded a slue of digital notepads on my Android phone, but recently I have decided that Google Keep is an organizing superpower.  Keep allows users to save notes, create tasks, make checklists,  and it will even set reminders to help "Keep" you on track.  Now that is truly magical.

Notes in Google Keep

Keep is not your average notepad.  Indeed notes can be organized by labels and colors, but you can also share your note with collaborators.  Yes! You need not task alone.  😄  I have found the ability to collaborate with Google Keep particularly useful when working with a team.  You can share ideas and resources.  You can even determine group tasks.  (What a game-changer!)   You can also set up reminders to remind you about your Keep on a particular day and time OR you can ask Google Keep to remind you when you are near or when you enter a location using your GPS.  Cool right?  

 

I often label my Keeps.  Click here for a Google Slide template.  

Keeping Images in Keep

I like to save some of my favorite images in Google Keep so I can grab them when I need them.  Collecting images for classroom use can be handy and time-saving.  As an example, I like to use emojis as an organizational tool in Google Classroom, so  I store my most used emojis in Google Keep for quick reference.                                                       

As with notes, you can add collaborators on an image.  The cool thing is, Keep allows you to write or annotate right on an image and you can save your annotations.  Additionally, Keep will pull the text from an image.  (More on this later.) This is useful when taking pictures of a Google Slide in class or when trying to pull text from a picture you find online.  

Keeping on Track with Tasks and Checklists

I have to admit that the Checklist option in Google Keep is one of my personal favorite things.  (It is great for sending your husband to the store.  He brings home the items I sent him for!)  It is so easy to use, and best of all,  you can check off tasks as they are completed.  Like notes and images, you can collaborate with others on your checklist and you can get the same reminders to help you get stuff done.  Cha-ching!  

Voice Dictation - Google Keep Mobile App

You're going to love this!  Google Keep's mobile app has voice dictation.  When you dictate a note, Keep will generate an audio recording AND it will transcribe it to text.  I know right? Game changer #2!

Google Keep and Google Docs Play Nice

Google Keep and Google Docs play nice together.  You have the ability to copy notes, checklists, and images to a Google Doc.  When I use voice dictation to capture an idea, I can then copy it to a Google Doc.  Let's say your teacher asks to interview other students, or you simply want to take notes from a group discussion.  You can capture a discussion or an interview using voice dictation, then copy it to a Google Doc.  What a powerful research tool!  Remember how you can grab text from an image?  That text can be inserted into a Google Doc too.  To grab text from an image and insert it in a Google doc follow these steps.

Disorganized people across the digital world unite!  Google Keep has got you covered and will help YOU to "Keep" it real. 

Keeping It Real With Google Keep

I will be the first to admit it, I need help to stay organized and on track.  With about a million things to do in a day (yes, I used a hyperbole) I tend to forget a few tasks here or there if I don't organize myself... I'm just keeping it real you all.

To stay organized, I have used Google Calendar, and I have downloaded a slue of notepads downloaded on my Android phone, but recently I have decided that Google Keep is an organizing superpower.  Keep allows you to save notes, create tasks, make checklists,  and it will even set reminders for you to help "Keep" you on track.

Notes in Google Keep

Keep is not your average notepad.  Indeed notes can be organized by labels and colors, but you can also

share your note with a collaborator.  Yes! You need not task alone.  😄I have found the ability to collaborate with Google Keep particularly useful during this time of remote learning.  You can also set up reminders to remind you about your note at a particular day and time OR you can ask Google Keep to remind you when you are near or when you enter a location using your GPS.  Cool right?  

Keeping Images in Keep

I like to save some of my favorite images in Google Keep so I can grab them when I need them.  Collecting images for classroom use can be handy and time-saving.  As an example, I like to use emojis as an organizational tool in Google Classroom. so  I store my most used emojis in Google Keep for quick reference.                                                       

As with notes, you can add collaborators on an image.  The cool thing is Keep allows you to write or annotate right on an image and you can save your annotations.  Additionally, Keep will pull the text from an image.  This is useful when taking pictures of notes, or when trying to pull text from a picture.  

Keeping on Track with Tasks and Checklists

I have to admit that the Checklist option in Google Keep is one of my personal favorite things.  It is so easy to use, you can check off tasks as they are completed.  Again, you can collaborate with others on your checklist and you can get the same reminders to help you get stuff done.  Cha-ching!  

Voice Dictation - Google Keep Mobile App

You're going to love this!  Google Keep's mobile app has voice dictation.  When you dictate a note, Keep will generate an audio recording AND it will transcribe it to text.  I know right? Game changer!

Google Keep and Google Docs

Google Keep and Google Docs play nice together.  You have the ability to copy notes, checklists, and images to a Google Doc.  I use voice dictation to capture an idea.  That voice dictation can then be put in a Google Doc.  Students can capture a discussion or an interview using voice dictation then copy their interview into a Google Doc.   What a powerful research tool to teach students!  Remember how you can grab text from an image?  That text can be inserted into a Google Doc too.  To grab text from an image and insert it in a Google doc follow these steps.

Disorganized people across the digital world unite!  Google Keep has got you covered and will help YOU to "Keep" it real. 

                                                      

Webinars by be-Googley

New Webinar Announcement!

  Register for Going Digital with Interactive Notebooks at this link:  

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jrj2N67qTpK9AqgWx2OAlw

          OR

Register for the FREE Webinar - Fantastic Features of Google Forms at this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Q6baAr5DS0KlqoMmTodDAw

You can contact me at teacherdigitaltrends@gmail.com 

Going Digital With Interactive Notebooks

I used Interactive Notebooks for years in my classroom.  I love the idea of Interactive Notebooks.  I think it is vital to teach students to save important information as they are learning.  I used Interactive Notebooks as a hands-on approach to notetaking, providing my students with a go-to place to house their learning.  I use to call ours, "Our Scholar Book of Knowledge."  Interactive Notebooks have many benefits, but after a while, I became frustrated with some of the aspects of routinely using them in the classroom.  First, I grew to hate having students cut and glue things in their spiral notebooks.  It took forever, and my room always looked like a herd of hampsters had overtaken it.  Oh, the paper!  The tiny bits of paper all over everything...

AND, the glue!!  For goodness sakes, you would think that middle school students would have mastered this skill!

Even when no cutting or gluing was involved, our notebooks took time.  They took time to find them, to write notes and to organize.  I had other problems too.  Students would lose them and there was no way to make up a semesters worth of notes.  Even student absences were an issue.  I would have to help them fill in their missing sections.  I was ready to bail on the notebooks.  I needed a change.

A coworker and I decided that we would go digital with our notebooks.  We needed a platform and we decided to use Google Slides.  Slides are great for presentations, but also make magnificent platforms for digital learning.  I had already used slides for interactive lessons and digital scavenger hunts, but we decided to take digital learning with Google Slides to the NEXT LEVEL.  Going Digital with my Interactive Notebooks has fundamentally changed my teaching.



I have used Interactive Digital Notebooks or IDNs in my classroom for 7 months now.  The benefits of going digital with my notebooks will require more than a single post.  It has been a remarkable experience.  In future posts, I will provide practical advice for getting started, as well as tips I have learned along the way, but for now, let me share some of the benefits I found.

1. Going digital saves paper.  I spend a lot less time at the copier AND I'm killing way fewer trees.
2. Students cannot lose Digital Notebooks!  My students' notebooks are always safely located in their Google Drives.
3. Students can always access their notebooks.  As long as my students have an internet connection, they can access their Digital Interactive Notebooks from anywhere.  They can even access their notebooks on their phones!
4. If a student is absent, I can post my presentation notes on Google Classroom and catch them up, easy-peasy.
5. Because I share our notebooks with my students through Google Classroom, I can see their notebooks at any time, and anywhere.  No more notebooks piled up on my desk waiting for me to grade.  
6. Digital Notebooks are interactive in a way that paper notebooks can never be.  I can provide students to links to websites and I can embed videos.  I can have them write in notes or annotate a reading selection.  They can compose a written response or they can simply interact with a slide by moving things around to demonstrate and/or build their learning.  The possibilities are truly endless and I can't wait to share them!

Contact me by email at teacherdigitaltrends@gmail.com

Twitter at https://twitter.com/BGoogley

Join us at our Facebook group - beGoogley 

Visit http://www.be-googley.com/2020/07/webinars-by-be-googley.html to see available webinars.

Setting Up Digital Interactive Notebooks

Thinking about going digital with your interactive notebooks?  Oh, where to begin?  I started with my curriculum and what I am required to teach each grading period.   Then, I decided to use Google Slides as my platform for creating my Digital Interactive Notebooks or DINs.  Google Slides are great for presentations, but Slides can also be an amazing platform for both teaching and student learning.  Slides allow for the embedding of links and video.  Content can also include text and pictures which can be manipulated and/or moved around to demonstrate learning.  Slides also feature the amazing Explore Tool which provides students with a controlled, safe resource for research, embedding their own pictures, etc.  The possibilities are just endless and I think, even after a year, that I have just scratched the surface of what I can do with slides!


I decided early on that I wanted some continuity with my notebooks.  Slides default at widescreen - 16:9.  I change the size to 8.5:11.  I want our notebooks to mimic paper notebooks AND 8.5:11 means I can easily print out pages of our notebook if I ever need to.   I also decided to create a notebook per grading period.  Each grading period our DINs easily contain a hundred + slides.  This is because our Digital Notebooks contain our reading selections in addition to our literary concepts.  It is an all in one teaching & studying tool.  Our notebooks are the foundation for all our learning and we used them daily.

Each DINs has a cover slide where students add their name.  The cover helps to make the notebook their own and makes the resource a little more formal.  In addition, as students add their own names, I get to teach them some cool skills which I need them to know like how to change the font, the size, the color, etc.  Our Notebooks also include our student objectives for our current grading period.  It is important to me that students know what our academic focus is.

In my district, every grading period focuses in on a Literary Genre.  In our DINs students know upfront what they will be expected to learn.

There are some things I have learned along the way.  First, when building your notebook remember, you are not limited to the slide.  Digital Interactive Notebooks are typically not used in presentation mode.

For example, when reviewing Growth and Fixed Mindsets in our first grading period's DIN,  students would simply drag and drop to sort Fixed and Growth Mindset statements.


This allowed for a quick check of their level of comprehension.  Notice that when Google Slides is in edit mode, the foreground of the slide is a usable space.  In our Growth Mindset activity, the foreground housed our mindset statements.  Other times, the foreground became where we annotated our stories.  Cool right?!

Whatever your subject, whatever your grade, going digital with your Interactive Notebooks can be a powerful way to take your student learning to the NEXT LEVEL!

Contact me by email at teacherdigitaltrends@gmail.com

Twitter at https://twitter.com/BGoogley

Join us at our Facebook group - beGoogley