Easy Accents add-on for Docs and Slides

The Easy Accents add-on for Google Documents and Slides enables an easy-to-use panel that allows a very visible process of inserting characters with accents.

To install the add-on follow these steps →

• Open a Google Document
• → Extensions
• → Add-ons
• → Get add-ons
• → Search for Easy Accents
• You will then see a choice of 'Easy Accents - Docs' or 'Easy Accents - Slides'.
• Choose Easy Accents - Docs
• → Install
• Allow permissions etc
• Once back in the document → Extensions → Easy Accents - Docs → Easy Accents - Start
• You should see a side panel open → choose the language you wish to use.

Read more here →

easyaccents.world

Stars and recurring tasks in Google Tasks

In Google Tasks, you can mark important tasks with a star. You can view or sort your starred items across various task lists in the starred view.

You can directly set the end option for a recurring task (never, on a certain date, or after a number of occurrences) in Google Tasks.

Easily assign Google Tasks from Google Docs

In Google Docs, you can assign a checklist item to yourself, a student or a colleague that will appear in the assignee’s Tasks list. When edits are made to an assigned item in Google Tasks, such as a change to the title, due date or completion state, those updates will show in the Doc, and vice versa.

Read more here → support.google.com - Assign tasks from Google Docs

Turn a Padlet into a slideshow

You can now create a slideshow from the content of a Padlet.

Every post becomes a slide. The fonts are sized automatically. The colors are determined by your chosen wallpaper. You can navigate with your cursor or your keyboard. The presentation will be updated live when you edit the padlet it references.

padlet.blog - Introducing Slideshow: beautiful, auto-designed presentations [9 Februrary 2023]

Read more here →

padlet.help - Padlet Slideshow

What is BeReal?

Have you heard the students discussing BeReal? Has a student asked you to be in their BeReal because the notification occurred during lesson time?

If you would like to know more about BeReal check out the two resources below →

childnet.com - BeReal – a guide to the new social media app [29 July 2022]

Calendar

Google Calendar is all that is needed here! I use a handful of different calendars - school, family etc - but all scheduled lessons, meetings and my daughter's football practices are here.

I use Fantastical on my iPhone and iPad to display my Google Calendar as I prefer the layout - but the Google Calendar iOS app is also very capable.

Task manager

I'm going to say it - your email inbox should not be your 'job list'. An app where you can 'capture' and then organise all the things that you need to do can be hugely beneficial for your well-being.

There is no shortage of task manager apps available! Within the Google Workspace sphere you have Google Tasks and Google Keep. These apps also display scheduled tasks in your Google Calendar. A recent update allows you to manage overdue tasks in Google Calendar.

Personally I use todoist - and have done for a number of years now. I particularly like how the Gmail add-on allows me to quickly turn emails into tasks, the web and iOS apps and the integration with Google Calendar, Fantastical etc.

Notes

Notes in that nice notebook you got for your birthday, others on the back of an envelope and even some in an email you sent to yourself. One place (app) is needed where you make, organise and can quickly find your notes and thoughts.

In Google Workspace you could use a Google Doc. Utilising H1, H2 to give things structure and the document outline to quickly move around. Smart chips will also help you tie various things together.

I have tried GoodNotes on my iPad, various physical Moleskine type notebooks, Bear, Notion and Trello and more. All of them have good bits - but not the coverage that I was looking for.

I am about two weeks into using Roam Research as my note taking app of choice. It is a little geekier than some of the other options and maybe not as pretty. The speed of use and the automatic generation of connections between notes, topics, ideas is what is making it the app I keep going back to. There are 'task manager' options here too - but I am sticking with todoist for that side of things, at the minute.

Read it later

You need somewhere to store links. That article that was shared by a colleague that you want to digest at a later date. The website you want to use next time to teach a certain topic to one of your classes. The website of that new restaurant you would like to try. All these links need to be stored and organised.

In Google Workspace you could use Chrome bookmarks and then use the Chrome Bookmark Manager to ensure links are organised into folders. Google Keep, and it's Chrome extension, can also be useful here.

I prefer a dedicated app for such things. I want an app that is 'cross platform' - I can use it on my school Chromebook, my personal iPad, my phone etc.

I use Pocket. There is a Chrome extension so that I can quickly add websites that I am viewing to Pocket - so that later on I can read them and sort them out. With tags etc you can use Pocket as an organised store of your links. I do not tend to do this. For me links get added to Pocket and then every so often I sort them out. Sites that I want to integrate into my teaching resources get added to Trello and things I want to read (in depth) are added to the iOS app Matter.

New Year Resolution - Get Organised with Google Tasks

The capabilities of Google Tasks are ever growing and worth a look for anybody thinking about using a digital 'to do list manager'.

There is a useful guide to Google Tasks, by Jeremy Badiner, here.

Useful tip → Link directly to text and quotes

Rather than sharing a link to a whole webpage - you can now easily share a link to a certain line of text.

To create a link that opens directly to highlighted text: 

1. On your computer, open Chrome. 
2. Go to a page with text you want to share. 
3. To highlight the text you want to share, click and hold, then drag your mouse.
4. To open the context menu, right-click on the highlighted text.
5. Select Copy link to highlight. 
   • If you can’t select this option, this feature may not work for the selected content.
6. Paste the link anywhere, like an email or message thread.

Read more here.

Google Meet updates - some super interesting!

Live translated captions

Live translated captions are now available for our Google Workspace editions. It's not (yet) perfect but it is certainly an interesting development. Read more here.

Up to 500 participants

Users can now host meetings in Google Meet with up to 500 participants. Read more here.

New immersive backgrounds and styles for Google Meet on the web

Five new immersive backgrounds have been added for Google Meet on the web. The backgrounds feature "subtle animation that give your background life or change your lighting." Just because you can doesn't mean you should! Read more here.

Automatically move breakout room participants back to the original meeting

There is now the ability for meeting hosts and co-hosts to automatically move participants back to the main meeting room once breakout rooms end. The visual indicators have been improved for breakout room participants to indicate this movement. Read more here.

Using Jamboard with Project Zero thinking routines

If you already are using See Think Wonder, hang around. Cause Google Jamboard and STW were made for each other.

Glenn Wiebe

Super post from Glenn Wiebe at history TECH those has many applications outside of the 'history' classroom.

Google Tasks is Google's basic (yet very capable) to-do list manager. The easiest way to find it is to go to your Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets or Slides. You should see the icon on the right hand side of the screen. If you can't see Tasks app, click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen to expand the panel.

makeuseof.com recently published a post titled '5 Tips to Use Google Tasks Effectively' which is well worth a read if you are interested in making more use of Google Tasks.

Educators should consider showing students how to use Google Tasks to organise the things that they need to do.

To-do list managers work best when they are easy to access - when you want to add something or check what needs to be done.

Google Tasks can be found in the side panel from Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets and Slides.

There is a smartphone app available for Android phones and iPhones.

TasksBoard produces a desktop app for Google Tasks.

If you like a more 'kanban board' approach check out the Kanbanly Google Chrome extension.

You can split the screen on your Chromebook.

You can drag and drop windows. Just grab the window using the menu bar and drag it to the left or right edge of your screen.

You can us the maximize button. Just click and hold the button, located in the top-right corner. You'll see two arrows on the left and right of the button. Move over one of them while still holding down the mouse button and the window will be shifted there.

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to split the screen and move windows. The Alt + [ and Alt + ] shortcuts will move a window to the right or left sides of the screen.

Read more here → makeuseof.com - How to Use Split Screen Mode on Chromebook [12 September 2021]

You can add desks to organize multiple windows and multi-task on your Chromebook.

To create a desk →

1. On your Chromebook keyboard, press the Show windows key .
2. At the top right, select New desk.
3. Optional: To rename a desk, select the desk's name and enter in your preferred name.

To go to a different desk →

1. On your Chromebook keyboard, press the Show windows key .
2. At the top, select a desk.

Tip: To switch to a different desk on your touchpad, swipe 4 fingers left or right.

Read more here → support.google.com - Set up & manage multiple desktops with desks