Learning Shouldn't Stop When You are Sick: Use FlipGrid for Sub Plans

Learning shouldn't have to stop when you are sick! Why not use FlipGrid to house your sub plans?

FlipGrid makes it easy for you to record video instructions, share resources, hyperlink to important resources and tools, emphasize key points, and increase student accountability. Learn how to do that, as well as some tools for making your plans accessible to students, your sub, other teachers, and parents!

Scaffold Instructions with Google's New Document Outline Update

Navigating long documents can be challenging. Google Docs just created a cool new update called Document Outline, which collates all of your headers within your document into a sidebar. Users can uses the sidebar to navigate from header to header within their document.

This amazingly simple-to-use feature can provide teachers with a valuable tool to scaffold and support learning! Read on to learn how.


How Can I Access Document Outline? 

Accessing this feature is very simple! Go to the Tools menu and select Document Outline.  NOTE: This feature is only effective if you use the Heading formats in Google Docs.

How Can I Use This With Students? 

Not every student learns the same way, which makes providing students with scaffolds and supports are important part of giving instructions. Whenever I have given assignments in my classroom, I have always found that there are three types of students:

• The experts who wish you would go away and disappear. 
• The students who need you to hold their hand and guide them through (the students we should be working with)
• The frequently asked question students, who often feel bad for asking you questions. 

The Outline Document feature is a perfect tool to help students navigate step-by-step instructions, answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's), and access resources. 

For example, after I have composed my instructions in a Google Document, I often develop 3 - 5 frequently asked questions to address high-probability questions (and barriers). In order for it to appear in the Document Outline, I make sure that my questions (or section headers) are in Heading 1 - 5 Formats.

I often answer questions by providing resources, short video tutorials on how to complete the task, short text instructions. Frontload your instructions with scaffolds and supports, so that you can enhance learning and avoid frustration later. Now students can simply click on the hyperlinked question and get the answers they need!

Conclusion:

It is important to provide students with different ways to navigate documents and access information. The Google Document Outline is an easy-to-use feature that provides endless possibilities for teachers and students alike. 

Increasing #Accessibility with Improvements to Google Voice Typing

Several months ago, Google launched its Google Voice Typing tool in Google Docs. This free tool simply takes voice to text technology to help your students compose a writing assignment. Although not 100% accurate (when you think about it, what is?), it is still a valuable resource built into Google Docs.

Over the past several weeks, Google recently made several improvements to this awesome resource. Users can now make the following edits and formats in their document with voice commands:

• Select Text - you can use your voice to select a specific word, character, item, paragraph, or select all.

• Change Formatting - use your voice to change the alignment, text formatting, text color, or highlighting. Add bullets, indent paragraphs, change font size, or remove formatting. 

• Edit Your Document - copy, cut, paste, add headers / footers, and insert a table of contents. 

• Add / Edit Tables - insert rows, columns, and tables. 

• Navigate around your document

• Open Voice Typing help

• Turn on screen reader support

Click here if you want to see ALL of the options available from Docs Support.

Why This Increases Accessibility: 

Think for a moment about the barriers that writing assignments pose to students. One student may find it difficult to get their thoughts to paper. A student with cerebral palsy may find it difficult to type text, while a student with a broken arm may have the same challenges. How do you meet your learning goal of composing a paper, while addressing the needs of your students? Remember it's all about working smarter and eliminating barriers, so that students can spend more time learning and less time struggling.