Google Apps

It’s come to my attention that a number of my seventh graders have had trouble logging in to their Google Apps accounts over the summer. I’ve asked our new technology coordinator to look into it and hope to have this resolved as quickly as possible. In the meantime, please do not worry about logging in your books that you read this summer. We will take care of that next week.

Note to Seventh Grade Parents: It would help me tremendously if you would be so kind as to fill in the following form. This will allow me to build a contact list for all of you. And if you could pass this along to those who might not know about my blog yet, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

Google Apps Refresher

Hello My Seventh Grade Lovelies!

First of all, let’s review how you sign in to Google Apps. Start by clicking on this link:

Google Apps for Education

If you have trouble remembering your log-in information, send me an email. Once you log-in, you’ll see a screen that looks like this:

If you wanted to go to your blog, you would click on “Sites.” But let’s start with Google Docs. To create your document, click on “Docs.” The next screen will look like this:

Of course, your page won’t be filled with documents and folders, but you get the point. So, let’s get to work!

Click on “Create new” on the left-hand side of your screen. This will give you a drop-down menu where you’ll select “Document.”

Before you start typing anything on the next page, NAME YOUR DOCUMENT! Don’t make the teacher tense!

Time to share the document with your teacher. You have two choices, as seen here:

Click on either one of those and the next screen you see will be:

Add my email address at the bottom (if you just start typing “k…m…” it will come up for you).

And that’s it! You’re ready to type up your first Google Document.

Now, wasn’t that easy!?!

Google Docs Improvements

The folks at Google have made some outstanding new changes to Google Docs! I know my seventh graders will be excited about some of these improvements which focus on enabling greater collaboration among users. Check out this video that explains the enhancements:

You can read more about these changes here:

Google Docs Adds Major New Features

Happy Pi Day!

Google Celebrates Pi Day

While I may not have any pie to help us celebrate Pi Day, I have the next best thing. Screencasts!! What? You don’t think that’s the next best thing?! After all the screencasts YOU made??? Sheesh.

I can’t seem to get the screencasts to load here in WordPress, so I’ve added them to my assignment blog on a new page called McTeach Screencasts. Now you’ll be able to find your favorite screencasts all in one place! So, follow the trail to…

McTeach Screencasts

There seem to be some sound issues for some students. I’m not sure yet what’s going on, but I’m investigating. It sounds great on my PC, so I’m not sure where to start. But I’ll keep looking.

Gmail Accounts

One of the benefits of using Google Apps for Education is that every student is able to have a Gmail account with our school domain name. It is quite simple to use, but it still requires that we discuss how and when this email account can be used. I’m sure you all agree with me. RIGHT??!!! 🙂

To get started, you’ll need to log in to your Google Apps accounts and visit my assignment blog here:

How Do I…Check My Gmail?

Please read and follow the instructions you’ll find there. And let me know if you have any questions.