The ed Newsstand Troy Reynolds

If you use Google Classroom there are some housekeeping tips every teacher should use to get ready for the next year. I scoured the internet to find the foremost authorities on Google Classroom clean up and I put together two lists. The first list consists of six things everyone agreed should be done with your Google Classroom at the end of the year. The second list consists of six unique ideas to help you stay organized and set up your Google Classroom for greater success in the years to come.

Eric Curts, from Control Alt Achieve, has a blog post with screenshots and a 23-minute video tutorial in which he discusses his seven tips for cleaning up Google Classroom. Kasey Bell, from Shake Up Learning, has a blog post with screenshots, GIFs, and a 31-minute podcast in which she shares her six tips for cleaning up Google Classroom. Alice Keeler, from Teacher Tech, works with OTIS for Educators, on-demand professional development, to provide a 52-minute video tutorial of Keeler’s eleven Google Classroom clean up tips. At the end of the video, you can take a short quiz to receive a certificate of continuing education time. Matt Miller, from Ditch that Textbook, has a blog post with 10 ways to clean up your Google Classroom. Finally, Shannon Moore, on the Google Workspace YouTube channel, has a 5-minute video that demonstrates her four tips to complete when you clean up your Google Classroom.

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This week I have three resources to help you get started digitally cleaning your personal and professional workspaces.

TCEA.org blog titled, “How to Spring Clean: Digitally.” In the article, Andrew Roush lays out 6 Principles to get started with digital cleaning and then looks at more specific examples and describes ways your can clean up your inbox, clean up your social media feeds, find out the access you have granted to your Google account, and how to take your digital cleaning deeper.   

Monica Burns, from Class Tech Tips, has “7 Digital Spring Cleaning Tips for Every Educator.” On her website she also has “10 Quick Tips to Organize Your Google Drive” and a podcast titled, “Spring Cleaning Guide: 5 Tips To Upgrade Your Digital Workflow – Easy EdTech Podcast 157.”

The final article comes from UCLA’s Office of the Chief Information Security Officer and they provide eight tips to “Clear Out Your Cyber Clutter With a Digital Spring Cleaning.” UCLA has curated these resources from the Better Business Bureau, the National Cybersecurity Alliance, and the Center for Internet Security.

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A few weeks ago I put out my newsletter sharing resources to sign up for a Canva for Education account. Throughout the newsletter, I demonstrated how to set up your Canva classes, some of the classroom features within Canva, provided you with links to blogs and playlists to get you inspired, and gave step-by-step instructions you can follow to get started. Now that you’ve had a few weeks to digest that information I wanted to provide you with some TikTok tips and tricks videos that I found helpful and interesting.

In the newsletter, I have also linked to Canva’s design school. Canva believes that anyone can make beautiful designs with Canva. On the website, you will find courses that you can work through. These courses will help you with everything from design basics to supercharging your design skills. Each class has a different number of videos but I’m sure there is something impactful in each video.

In TikTok Tech, I don’t have a TikTok video because the entire newsletter is a bunch of TikTok videos. What I have is a website called Knoword. Knoword is a game-based website that will expand your vocabulary. The website has over 2,00 different vocabulary packs and can be played with or without an account. In Tech Refresh, I want to introduce Manga High. Manga High is a website that boasts over 700 different math activities covering numbers, algebra, geometry, measurement, statistics, and probability. The website is designed for ages 5 to 16 but I found the games more difficult than the age to which they were designed. You can also play games on this website with or without an account, but it is a little more limited.

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Recently, Flocabulary introduced a new feature to their platform. It’s called Flocabulary Mix. Teachers will choose a Skill Video to pair with a Video Text to create a Mix. In a Mix, the videos will play back to back. The Skill Video provides direct instruction on a skill the students should demonstrate when they watch the Video Text. After students watch the Skill Video and Video Text they demonstrate their understanding in the new Break It Down activity. In the Break It Down activity, students practice comprehension skills through multiple-choice questions, an interactive text evidence-gathering tool—through which students literally select clips from the video to support their answer—and an open-ended question to explain the connection between answers and evidence.

Flocabulary Mix and Break it Down aims to help teachers strengthen student comprehension strategies. There are over 100 new Video Texts and 300 Mix combinations across grades K-12. Break It Down is also available on existing Flocabulary lessons and not just new lessons. Along with the Break It Down activity, Flocabulary still offers other engaging activities like Vocab Cards, Vocab Game, Read & Respond, Quiz, and Lyric Lab. Flocabulary Mix and Break it Down are available to users with a school or district Flocabulary Plus subscription for free until September 15.

In TikTok Tech, @teachingandtacoz introduces a fun, non-tech maze activity where students need to work as a group to try to solve the maze and get the entire class through the maze safely. Only one student is allowed in the maze at a time and you can choose to allow talking or have the students only communicate silently. It’s a really fun activity that builds collaboration and critical thinking and can be adapted for any grade level. In Tech Refresh, I just want to reintroduce you to Boddle Learning with my YouTube demonstration. Boddle Learning is a K-6 math-based game that is fun and can be personalized with standard-based assignments. Students also earn coins to personalize their character and design their character's house with furniture and knick-knacks. It’s also a great activity to introduce to students after state testing is over.

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I recently learned about Tango from several different creators on social media and I must say that this is going to be a game-changer for anyone that creates written directions for the internet. For example, if you need to create directions for how to navigate a website, how to turn in an assignment, or how to send an email. This website will follow every step and click that you make, immediately take a screenshot of the step, and provide written directions for completing the step. When you’re done you can go back and edit the screenshot and text, or add any more text and descriptions that you need. Once you’re satisfied with the document you can share the document in many different ways. Gone are the days of you taking your own pictures and trying to format text and pictures to create written directions.    

In TikTok Tech, @oxy.crypto introduces a website that will let you take almost any clip from a YouTube video and turn it into a GIF. In Tech Refresh, @edutechcoach will show you the website CoolSymbol so you can find more emojis and symbols to add to rich text fields.

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More and more people are discovering their love of Canva and the power it can have in the classroom.  This week’s newsletter is all about Canva for education. If you don’t know what Canva is, Canva for Education makes it easy to create, collaborate, and communicate visually in the classroom. Also, Canva is 100% free for K12 teachers and their students! As the teacher, you can create and share engaging assignments with your students for them to complete. Share those assignments or resources to whatever learning management system you use or from within Canva. Students complete assignments at their own pace and turn them back in for you to review, leave feedback, or approve. Throughout the newsletter, I want to demonstrate how to set up your Canva classes, demonstrate some of the classroom features within Canva, provide you with links to blogs and playlists to get you inspired, and give step-by-step instructions you can follow to get started.

In TikTok Tech, Jordan Cotten (@cottentechcoach), introduces the G RTF (Google Rich Text Format) extension. The extension can create rich text in places like Twitter and Google Forms when bolding, italicizing, or underlining aren’t available.  In Tech Refresh, @macrumos demonstrates Apple’s new Universal Control. Use a single keyboard, mouse, or trackpad of your Mac to control up to two other nearby Mac or iPad devices, and work seamlessly between them, provided all devices are up to date and using the same Apple ID.

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