10 Features of Google Keep

I am a Post-it© note fiend.  I use them for reminders, phone messages and quotes for inspiration.  When Stickies showed up on the Mac computer, I started using those to remember key information.  The sad thing about Stickies is you can't access them from any other computer or device.  As a result, I stopped using them and resorted back to the paper Post-it© notes, but the sticky only lasts so long, especially if you move them frequently.

Last summer, I came upon a new tool called Google Keep.  I liked it better than stickies because I could access them on any computer, but the features were limited and I couldn't access them on my Apple devices.  Just this week I discovered that Google Keep has an Apple app and I've been taking a fresh look at this tool.  Here's what I like about this tool:

1.  It's free!  Who doesn't love free resources?

2.  It's tied to your Google account.  You know what that means?  No additional username and password to remember!  Because we are a GAFE district, students can also use this tool for reminders, notes and checklists.  This becomes the perfect digital agenda for students.

3.  Color!!!!  I'm all for using a variety of color!  Google Keep allows you to change the color of your notes.  I like to use this as a means of organizing my notes.  For example, red notes relate to my website, green ones are informational reminders, and teal notes relate to the Intel Courses.  Students could use different colors for different classes to help them stay organized.

4.  You can change notes from a regular note to a checklist with one click.  This is great for projects or daily to-dos, especially for those of us who like to see what we've accomplished and what is left to complete.

5.  You can add reminders on your notes by clicking the reminder icon (finger with a string tied on it).  Customize your desired date and time on your reminder and you are all set to receive notification reminders.  No more missed deadlines!

6.  With a simple drag & drop action, you can rearrange your notes and put them in any order that works for you.

7.  You can search and filter your notes by words, color, sharing, lists, images, and more.

8.  You can add images and websites to your notes.  This would be great for collecting images and websites for a specific lesson, unit or project.  You could also take a photo at a workshop of a key slide or information being presented and add it to a note.  Students could take a photo of the work for the week if their teacher posts it in the classroom.  This feature would also help students keep track of online photo locations for images they use on a class project.

9.  You can share notes with other people by clicking on the share icon.  They will receive an email message with a link to the note.  This would be great for sharing project responsibilities or sending out assignments to students.

10.  There is an app!  Android users have always had a Google Keep app option for their devices, but until recently Apple users had to just use the Chrome web browser on their devices.  Now you can see you notes and receive notifications on the go by installing GoKeep.  App Drawbacks - too many ads and no search or filter option!  Hopefully that will be an upcoming update.  There is an alternative app option called TurboNote for Google Keep.  You still have ads at the bottom of the screen, but they are not popping up over the top of your notes.

Some additional tidbits:

• You can download the Google Keep app onto your computer from the Chrome Web Store.
• There is a Google Keep extension - Category Tabs for Google Keep - that allows you to assign specific categories to your note colors.  However, there are some glitches with filtering the colors.
• This app runs offline!

Check out this video for a quick visual tour of this tool!

Google Calendar

As I've been polling the staff in our district this month, I'm finding that most of them use Google Calendars solely to view calendars shared with them by the administrators.  While this is one way to utilize Google Calendars, I bet there are some features and uses for Calendar that might surprise you.

Invitations
Some educators are using the invitation feature when they create a new event to invite others to attend.  When you invite others to an event, they are able to indicate if they will be able to attend or not.  With a simple click of yes, no or maybe from those invited, you will see who can make the meeting so you know if it needs to be rescheduled or who will need to be filled in on what they missed at the meeting.  Furthermore, when you invite someone to attend an event, they can add that event right to their own calendar.  No need to create a new event or find some way to remember that upcoming meeting.

Notifications
This leads us to another great feature - event notifications.  I use this with almost every event I create.  I can choose to receive an email reminder, pop notification or text message.  Personally, I use the pop notification most often, but you do need to make sure that you have your calendar open on your computer or you will never get those notifications.  I have recently started using the text notifications for my online courses, but I'll talk about that more a little later.  If you opt to use text notification, you will need to go through the Mobile Setup in settings.  Please note that Google does not charge for sending text notifications, but your carrier might.  You will want to check with them before setting up this feature.  You will find instructions for completing Mobile Setup at this site - SMS Notifications or via the video below; and since we're talking about mobile devices, you can sync your calendars to Google and Apple mobile devices.  You can also sync your calendars with iCal on Apple.  For more information on syncing with your mobile devices or iCal, go to Sync Google Calendars.

Learn how to create an event with reminders including SMS(text).

Lesson Plans
Another use for Google Calendar is creating your lesson plans.  As I've worked the past few years with elementary teachers, I know they like the "pretty" lesson plan templates.  However, if the decorative decor isn't a priority for you, you might consider creating a new calendar just for your lesson plans.  You can include standards, links to sites, and attached files.  You can easily share your lesson plan calendar with you administrator and don't have to worry if you submitted them to your admin for the week or not.  They can view your lessons at any time.  Printing your lessons for the sub is also an easy task.  Go to the agenda view and display only your lesson plan calendar.  Then choose Print under the More button to the right of your calendar view options.

Video explaining how to use Google Calendar as your lesson planbook.

Assignments with due dates
Another great use for Google Calendar is to create an assignment calendar for your students and parents.  This will keep them informed of tests, spelling quizzes, projects, book reports, and any other class due dates.  The beauty with this type of calendar is you can also attach your instruction sheet, rubric and any other handouts a student might need for a specific assignment to that event.  If there is an upcoming spelling quiz, then attach a list of the words so students and parents have them available without looking for that illusive piece of paper.  Your assignment events can also include details in the description as well as web links to sites the students might need while completing that particular assignment.

As a student, I created a calendar for my online courses so I could set reminders to complete specific tasks.  For instance, most of my online courses require you to comment on blog posts and then respond to comments posted by other class members.  So, I set an event to make my initial comment and then another event to go in and read/comment on responses by class members.  I originally set these up as pop notifications, but some of the event dates were on the weekend and I didn't always have my computer on to receive these notifications.  I eventually moved to the text notifications so I got the reminder on my phone, which for me was harder to ignore.

Field Trips, Holidays and Other Special Events
As I mention earlier, paper is easily misplaced and lost, so a special events calendar would be a great resource for parents and students to remember specific activities coming up at school.  It could include everything from trips to the community center to see a play to a Spanish field trip.  Some schools are choosing to put this type of information on a building calendar, but if that calendar is not accessible to your students and parents, then you might want to create your own just for your classroom.

Embed Your Calendar on Your Website
Most web creation tools allow you to embed html code so you can add multimedia elements created with other web tools into your website.  Each of the calendars you create in Google Calendar has an embed code that you can simply copy and paste onto another website.  Below are the instructions on how to embed a calendar onto a Weebly website.  So why would you want to embed a Google Calendar?  It's a great way to communicate specific event times and dates without having to put them in multiple locations or send home slips of paper that get lost before they ever make it home.

Embed Calendar in Weebly

More Ideas
Other GAFE Schools and Districts have also been embracing the use of Google Calendars in the following ways:

• Athletic and Extra-Curricular Events Calendar - class & organization meetings, sporting events, concerts, plays, etc.
• Practice Calendar - sports practice, play practice, scholar bowl practice, special music & band practice
• Substitute Calendar
• Library Schedule Calendar - includes teaching & library skill times, equipment reservations, special programs & events, etc.
• Building Specific Calendar - PLC & faculty meetings, extra duty assignments, special events and more
• District-wide Calendars - inservices, days off from school, holidays, school board meetings, grant deadlines, and more

As you can, these are just a few ways you can use Google Calendar to not only keep yourself organized, but to share important information with other educators, students, parents and community members.  Remember that not all calendars need to be viewed by everyone, so invite only those who need the information you are providing on your calendars.  For more on sharing your calendars, check out the video below.

Google Calendar Sharing

Google Apps in the Classroom

I recently presented a session to some educators on Google Apps in the Classroom.  As I was preparing the presentation and gathering resources, I learned some new ideas, features, tips and pointers for various Google Apps.  I've decided to start a weekly series showcasing different Google Apps including Calendar, Drive, Classroom, Google+ and more.  I'll start each post with some basic how-tos regarding the application and then move on to other tips and ideas for using that application in education.  OH, one last note about this series - since my district is a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) school, I will be approaching the applications from this perspective.  I'll do my best to note if some of the tips and features do not work the same with a standard Google account, but I might miss something, so don't hold it against me.

Today, we're going to kick off this series with commonly asked questions about GAFE and Google Apps.

Which browser should I use?
According to Google, their apps are supported in Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.  You can also use other less common browsers, like Slepinir, Opera and Iron.  However, seeing that the Chrome browser is owned by Google, this is the top recommended browser when using Google Apps.

What is Google Apps for Education (GAFE)?
It is a collection of productivity applications provided for free to schools and other educational institutions.  These applications focus on the ability to communicate and collaborate.  School districts also gain the ability to administer all teacher and student accounts under one domain.  This provides a more secure environment for students to work in as they create documents, presentations and more in their Google account.

Why are schools choosing to use GAFE?
Districts choose to use GAFE for various reasons, but some of the top reasons include cost savings, privacy and security of data, collaboration abilities, and adoption ease.  For more on why your district should choose GAFE, check out these articles:

• Everything your school needs
• Top 5 advantages of Google Apps for K-12 Education

What tools are included in the GAFE for teachers and students?
The list is rather extensive, but the top tools are:

• Gmail
• Calendar
• Drive
• Docs
• Sheets
• Slides
• Sites

In September, Google announced they will be adding Vault as an additional tool for GAFE schools and user storage space will jump from 30GB to 5TB.  (Update:  Google did increase storage space for education accounts to unlimited.  They are still working on adding Vault to education accounts.)  You may be asking yourself, "Is that a lot of space?" or "How much can I actually store with 5 Terabytes?"  Let's get some perspective...

One gigabyte (GB) equals a pickup truck filled with paper.  It takes 1,024GB to equal one terabyte (TB).  One terabyte is equivalent to 50,000 trees made into paper and printed.  You will be getting five times that, so you do the math.  Here's another view, on average the memory capacity of the human brain is equivalent to three terabytes.  So you're two terabytes short from calling your brain 'The Vault.'  Want to know more about data storage measurements?  Check out this infographic:

History of data storage: Infographic from WebpageFX