Scheduling Emails in Gmail: Boomerang & Right Inbox

For those of you who are Gmail users, I encourage you to check out either of the following extensions for scheduling emails to send at a later date/time: Boomerang for Gmail and Right Inbox for Gmail.  With the free version of each extension, you can only schedule a limited number per month (10), but it's still worth it!  Besides scheduling emails to send at a later time, you can set up reminders, add notes, and set up recurring emails.  Here's a brief summary of each add-on:

Boomerang is a helpful Google Chrome extension you can add from the Chrome Web Store. Boomerang allows you to write an email now and schedule it to be sent automatically at the perfect time. You can also set up reminders so you don’t lose track of important emails and set up reminders if you don’t hear back within a specific time frame after sending a message.

                              

Similarly, Right Inbox is another Google Chrome extension that's also accessed from the Chrome Web Store. 

It integrates with Gmail and lets you schedule emails to be delivered at a future time.  Once the extension is added, you'll notice additional buttons available on your Compose window within Gmail:

Go ahead and add one of these to your Chrome extensions. You’ll love it!

Epic: FREE eBooks for Educators

Epic for Educators offers thousands of children's books to teachers and librarians for FREE.  The site contains instant access to 25,000 eBooks, learning videos, quizzes and more for K-5 teachers and students.  Epic can be accessed on any device: desktops, laptops, Chromebooks, iOs and Android devices.

Students can read books that interest them during silent reading or free-choice time. They can build their own collections, rate what they've read, and then report back to the teacher offline with a summary or a reflection on what they learned or liked about the book. Teachers can assign a theme (for example, biographies of important people in history) and let students find and read material on that theme. Or teachers can assign specific books based on reading level or by topic to get students investigating a particular subject or literature theme. Teachers can check on each student's progress through the dashboard. Given that this is a digital library, teachers also can project the book onto a SMARTBoard and read to the class. After reading, follow up with related activities.

To get started, teachers should sign up for a free account.  Then you can create unique student profiles and track students' reading progress.  Student profiles can be created on the web or you can import your roster from Google Classroom.  Students will then go to www.getepic.com/sign-in or use the Epic! app on their iOs device.  They'll click "Student Sign In", enter their classroom code, and then select their student profile.

For more information, access their Quick Start Guide.

Screen-sharing with Google Cast for Education

Google Cast for Education is an app accessible in the Chrome Web Store that allows you to turn your computer into a wireless projector for screen sharing from another device (similar to a Chromecast). Just install the extension, give your device a name, and invite your students to cast.

Teachers and students simply need to install the extension to set up devices for wireless screen sharing.  The teacher sets up Cast on the computer that's connected to the classroom projector and then invites a student to cast their screen.  The student casts their screen to the teacher's computer and the teacher can then project the screen to the whole class.

If you need step by step directions for running the extension for the first time, I encourage you to check out this post: https://eduk8.me/2016/11/how-to-use-google-cast-for-education

Watch this video for support:

Dotstorming as a Brainstorming Tool

Are you looking for a quick and easy tool to allow students or staff to collaborate on a topic and vote on their favorite(s).  Check out Dotstorming!

Once you create a FREE account, there are only four steps needed:

(1) Create a Dotstorming board

To start a new board, click on "Add a Board" on your Dotstorming homepage:

(2) Invite participants

To do so, click on the "Share" button in the top right corner of your board and you're given the option to share using a URL or embed code:

(3) Add your ideas

To add an idea, click "Add a Card" and enter your text:

(4) Vote on the ideas you like by clicking on the dot underneath the card:

Dotstorming creates a space where people can post digital notes that can have text and images.  Once the notes are posted, people can vote for their favorite.  As the creator, you can determine how many votes each person has (e.g. one, two, three, etc.).  Once everyone has voted, you can sort the notes based on the number of votes each received by clicking "Rank by votes".

Finally, as the creator of your board, you also have the following options:

If you're interested in viewing a quick tutorial video, I encourage you to check out Richard Byrne's video.  He even demonstrates how to import a Pinterest board into Dotstorming!