Save Time with Parent Communication Tools

Are you looking for a way to save time and simplify parent/teacher communication? We've posted about Remind as a communication tool in the past. Now we would like to share a few great options that incorporate more features and are all available on a variety of platforms. Both programs are safe and secure and have similar features. Explore them both and find the one that works best for your classroom.

Bloomz

(link)

• Available on iOS, Android, and web
• Private and/or Group Messaging for parents and teachers
• Share class updates about the day's learning or send reminders about assignment due dates, registration deadlines, etc.
• Send invites, reminders, attach permission slips, track RSVPs, and request and sign up volunteers
• Plan class activities and organize field trips, or track parent teacher meetings

Class Messenger

  Class Messenger Introduction from LAI on Vimeo.

Available on iOS, Android, and web

Share class updates and information through messaging options for parents, teachers, and students

Different options for receiving messages: email, text, or mobile app

Send messages, documents, sign ups, pictures, surveys, order forms, links

Staff Room: messaging designed for the entire staff at a school

Entire messaging history is saved in the message log

Both Bloomz and Class Messenger are really great options. Let us know in the comments which you prefer!

#Productivity #TipsforYou

What is the ONE thing that all teachers need? If you guessed time, you are right! This month, we are sharing productivity tips, tools, and apps. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Move an Email to Outlook Calendar- Select the email and drag it to the calendar icon (bottom left of the Outlook window). When the appointment window pops up, modify the date/time/details to block out time to address the email
2. Give your mouse a rest and review some keyboard shortcuts here.
3. When you receive a document that needs to be signed, don’t print it out. Save a tree and use Hello Sign. (Click here for an overview of how it works.) To get started, visit the Hello Sign web site or download the Chrome extension to use in Gmail. 

What are your favorite productivity tips? Do you have an app that you love? Leave a comment and share your favorites.

Digital Worksheets now Gradeable with Ducksoup

Need a way to turn forms or documents into fillable, gradeable digital files? Duck Soup may be the website for you. Here are just a few things I've learned about this site:

1. Duck Soup is a free site that allows you to connect to your Google Drive account. 
2. Duck Soup will show all Google Docs, PDFs saved in Google Drive or you can upload your own files.
3. Duck Soup allows users to create an "ESheet" from their Google Docs, PDFs in Drive or personal files.
4. Duck Soup allows users to create a classroom.
5. Duck Soup will grade ESheets created and assigned to a classroom. 

Benefits for Teachers:

1. Turn worksheets or forms into gradeable, online forms vs. paper handouts that are turned in for a grade.
2. Set how times student can respond when completing the ESheet and users can allow retries. 
3. Number questions.
4. Choose varies question answer types (Example: MC, text, number, paragraph, math show your work, etc).
5. Set question value of your own choice.
6. Add correct answer help text to questions.
7. Add help answer link to questions.
8. Watch live results as students work on the ESheet. 
9. Force turn-in of ESheets once assigned.
10. Download class results of assigned ESheet.
11. Lock the ESheet.
12. GAFE uses can upload ESheets directly to Google Classroom.

Cons for Teachers:

1. You must use the ESheet created inside the Duck Soup site. The ESheet cannot be downloaded and filled in by users outside the site. (I did send a request for this feature to be added.)
2. If your school is not a GAFE district, then you must create a classroom within the site.
3. Students must create an account to use this site. 

Getting Started:

Here are a few screenshots to help you get started...

1. Creating an ESheet

2. Dashboard

 3. Classes

4. Editing questions in ESheets (you must click on answer block to get editing feature)

Meet Google Keep - Organizing your thoughts wherever you go

This time, it's going to be different. With a brand new year, brimming with opportunities, one of the top ten new year's resolutions is to "get organized". With so much of our lives online, to say things can get overwhelming is an understatement. As you devise a plan to get more organized, Google Keep is a note taking application that you may want to look at. 

Google Keep is a note taking application developed by Google and is available as a mobile app for the Android and iOS mobile operating systems and as a web application.

Google Keep lets you:

• capture, edit, on your notes on any device, any device, 
• add notes, lists, photos and audio to Keep.
• organize your notes with labels and color coding
• share and collaborate your notes with others
• Automatically transcribe voice recordings created through Keep notes
• Archive notes and create copies of notes
• sync notes between devices using the user's Google account

To download go to https://www.google.com/keep/