Thursday, August 10, 2017

Maine Google Summit 2017

Wow. Another great learning opportunity.  Here's a recap of what I've learned last week at South Coast Maine Google Summit!

Chrome Extensions!

Eric Lawson gave some amazing Chrome Extensions.  My two big takeaways from this session were Extensity & Google Keep!

Extensity: Quick, simple way to turn Extensions on & off! Extensity alphabetizes your extensions making it simple to find the particular extension you would like to utilize.  Here's what it looks like when you've installed it:


Google Keep: Not only is it a Google App, it's an Extension. Now, users can take notes while viewing their websites.  The note appears in the top right corner, automatically links to your webpage, and autosaves to your Google account.  Here's what it looks like:
Then when you access your Google Keep app, the note appears:
From this screen you can even create documents from your notes.  Here's more information about using Google Keep in combo with Google Drive.

Google Calendar & Appointments

How can you use Google Calendar to streamline your appointment scheduling?  Blanca Duarte gave an excellent session about utilizing Google Calendar to organize your scheduling.  There are two ways:

Appointment Slots

This must be enabled by your domain administrator.  Use this option when working with people inside your domain, as they are likely to have more Google Calendar experience.  You can tailor your time slots and automated descriptions for meeting materials needed.  Also, the slot can be set up to accept feedback from the person scheduling the appointment.  This feedback can be a way for you to understand the meeting's context.

Google Form & Choice Eliminator Add On

When you are booking appointments with people other than teachers, Blanca Duarte showed us how you can use Google Forms with the Choice Eliminator add ons.  There are two: Choice Eliminator Lite & Choice Eliminator 2.  I've used both and had great success with them.  I joined Blanca's session because I wanted to get her feedback on both of the add ons.  She agreed that sometimes the users can sign up for the same session if they submit their requests at the same time, but overall, the add on solves many scheduling issues for things like field trips, open houses, parent/teacher conferences, and athletics practice times.

3D Printing

Katie Vetro was amazing!!!  I attended this session to learn how others integrate 3D printing into their curriculum.  Katie explained 3D printing and showed how she uses Google Drawing to teach students 3D designing.  She has the students create their designs and then exports them as a JPG.  My instruction is slightly different that Katie's.  Katie works with elementary school students and so she is just teaching the basics.  Whereas my students incoporate scaling and measurement into their designs, so Google Drawing may not be the best solution.  Also, both of the 3D printers in my school cannot print JPG files.  However, if I utilize the 3D Builder app on our machines (Windows-based), I am hopeful that I can convert the file.

Tour Builder

Joli Boucher was phenomenal.  I attended this session last year, but I wanted to attend again because I wasn't able to implement Tour Builder like I expected.  Here are my huge takeaways:

Newseum PD

What a treasure trove! Did you know that Newseum offers a slew of online PD for educators?  What an amazing resource for us librarians!  I cannot wait to delve into this more to learn more about teaching source evaluation.


PLN

My PLN grew at this event!  First of all, I was very fortunate to keynote Thursday morning.  I shared Pathways to Leadership and received great feedback on Twitter.

Mary Soares, an amazing Special Ed teacher in my school, came to this Google Summit.  She's an amazing educator; I learned a great deal from her throughout this past school year.  It was wonderful having her at a Google Summit because we were able to share all of the amazing things we learned and how we can apply it in our district.

Nancy Smith is a 5th grade teacher in Maine.  She taught me about Newseum & the resources available.  I cannot wait to chat more with her about this!

Jen Bishop was at the Source Investigators workshop.  She's another middle school librarian.  Having her feedback in my session was a great addition.  She was able to corroborate my tips, provided great questions, and shared with me an awesome website she designed for American Immigration.

Katie Vetro is another 3D printer!  I'm excited to have met her because I can never seem to get enough ideas and help when troubleshooting!

Jen Adams is a tech integrator at a high school. She's very excited by the idea of Genius Hour.  We sat and brainstormed for at least 30 mins during the Capstone session to figure out her implementation.  I'll be following her journey!


1 comment:

  1. Great job on your keynote as well Caitlin! Good points about great qualities in leadership.

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