1-28-2025 Tuesday Tech Tips

     

In today's edition, read about:  a troubleshooting tip for our movie streaming service Swank a new "grade all" feature in Google Classroom an easy way to dip your toe into the MagicSchool pool with their Choice Board Generator easily generating QR codes in Chrome and more! ➡️ ➡️➡️

💡 Quick Tip 💡 To create a QR code to link to a webpage in Chrome, right-click anywhere on the page, and choose "create QR code for this page."  You can then copy it, and include it in something like the "Quick Tip" in your Tuesday Tech Tips. Scan the QR code, or click HERE to access our help site. Always keep in mind that QR codes aren't for everybody.  If you're reading this on your phone, for example, that QR code may not help you.  So remember to always provide a direct link in addition to sharing a QR code, like we have in the caption above.

Do you have a tip or idea for the Tuesday Tech Tips? Or a request for a topic or question you'd like to know more about? Please let us know! You can email us at joseph.lombardo@greececsd.org with your submission. ___________________________

If you're having any technical issues with Swank, you will need to clear your cache in Chrome, and it should work fine from there. Directions on how to do that can be found HERE.

Swank is a movie streaming service for GCSD staff, which includes the ability to share links to movies with your students. Read more about it in a previous Tech Tip HERE.

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Click the image for a brief video showing how to use this new feature

Introducing the ability to ‘grade all’ in Google Classroom

You may remember that last year, Google added a "missing" grade state to Gradebook (details HERE). To further improve upon grading options for teachers and give them the ability to perform bulk grading, they just introduced "grade all".

With this new feature, teachers can quickly and efficiently grade all students' work on the Gradebook page by selecting "grade all". They can also choose to override existing grades and automatically return them to students after grading.

Not only does this update save time by eliminating the need to enter each student’s grade one-by-one, but it also provides a solution to grading assignments based on completion rather than accuracy (such as exit tickets, due nows, classwork, etc.) where the grade is binary (‘0’ or ‘100’).

Read all the details HERE.

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For a "light lift" intro to MagicSchool, we recommend trying out the Choice Board Generator. Check out the image above, also linked HERE, for directions and specifics.

With minimal input from you, MagicSchool can help you generate a Choice Board for your students!

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For assistance with these topics, or anything else related to instructional technology, please click HERE to book an appointment with your building's ITT.

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1-14-2025 Tuesday Tech Tips

     

In today's edition, read our first installment of our digital wellness Tips, learn how to get the new 2025 GCSD mileage form, how to provide others with a direct link to make a copy of a Drive file, news on our AI tool MagicSchool, how to schedule technology integration PL, and more! ➡️ ➡️➡️

💡 Quick Tip 💡 To duplicate a tab in Chrome, just right-click on it, and choose "Duplicate."  Just like that, you've got a duplicated tab.

Do you have a tip or idea for the Tuesday Tech Tips? Or a request for a topic or question you'd like to know more about? Please let us know! You can email us at joseph.lombardo@greececsd.org with your submission.

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What is Digital Wellness? Digital wellness, also referred to as digital wellbeing or digital health, can be defined as the pursuit of a positive, intentional, and healthy relationship with technology, both in school or the workplace, and in personal life. We will periodically share Digital Wellness Tips to encourage and promote a positive, intentional, and healthy relationship with technology for all!

This month’s Digital Wellness Tip is…

Take Control of Your Notifications: Our smartphones are designed to capture and keep our attention. Taking control of your notifications will bring more calm and peace to your life! One way to do this is to turn off all non-human notifications. Do you really need to know from Facebook when someone has liked your photo? 

By intentionally choosing what and how you are notified on your phone you can:

• limit distractions

• decrease constant interruptions

• reclaim control over when and how you receive information

• increase your focus on your priorities

• engage with your smartphone and apps with intention and purpose

Check out this video for more info (watch up to 2:50 or more for bonus info!) and see how to adjust your notifications on Apple phones and on Android phones! The video is from a #WinAtSocial lesson. Want more information or PL opportunities about Digital Wellness…Contact Lynn Girolamo: lynn.girolamo@greececsd.org Let us know how this worked out for you!

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Willie says, "don't forget to use the 2025 mileage form, pardner."

Are you a staff member that travels between buildings and fills out a Mileage reimbursement form? Don't forget that with a new calendar year comes a new form, updated with the new IRS mileage rates. Click HERE to get the new form. The link will prompt you to make your own copy of the template.

Happy Trails!

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Did you see in that tip above how there was a link that forced you to make a copy of a Google Sheet? If you didn't, you can try it HERE. You don't even really have to do it, you can just click the link but not proceed from there. But you'll see that it only gives you the option to make a copy of the Sheet.

There's a neat URL hack that you can use so that you can share a link to a Google Drive file (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.) that prompts the user to make a copy of the file. We found instructions from the nice people at the University of Utah that explains how to do it HERE. ___________________________

Have you found the benefits from using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to enhance your teaching and work related tasks? Want to guide your students to learn the benefits of using AI? Join the MagicStudent Pilot for grade 3-12 teachers! Learn about the pilot HERE and contact your ITT to get started today!


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Are you looking for high-quality professional learning related to Instructional Technology? Contact your ITT if you’d like to customize PL for your building, team, or department. Also, be sure to check out the ITT page for Recommended Professional Learning opportunities HERE, where you’ll find webinars, certifications, and especially some new AI learning material…all for PL credit!

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For assistance with these topics, or anything else related to instructional technology, please click HERE to book an appointment with your building's ITT.

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12-10-2024 Tuesday Tech Tips

    

In today's edition, read all about how to personalize the icons and colors of your sections in IC, a fun and powerful AI tool from Google called NotebookLM, important changes to how Guardians receive Google Classroom summary invitations, and more! ➡️ ➡️➡️

💡 Quick Tip 💡 Is your Gmail inbox cluttered with more junk than relevant messages?  How do you locate all these messages to unsubscribe without going through every email in your account?   Speed up the process by going to Gmail and typing unsubscribe in the search bar at the top. A list of every message containing the word “unsubscribe” will appear. You can then go through these emails and click the unsubscribe link.

Personalize the icon and color for each of your classes in Infinite Campus by changing them from the default. For example, if you teach Earth Science and color-code your classes, you can have red, orange, and green Earth icons next to their respective classes. Just click the gear icon next to each of your classes, and personalize them today!

Thanks to Colleen Thorndike from ODY for sharing this awesome tip! Do you have a tip or idea for the Tuesday Tech Tips? Or a request for a topic or question you'd like to know more about? Please let us know! You can email us at joseph.lombardo@greececsd.org with your submission.

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There's a new AI tool from Google that we're very excited about: Notebook LM  

You can upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs, or Google Slides, and NotebookLM will summarize them and make interesting connections between topics, all powered by Gemini 1.5’s multimodal understanding capabilities.  NotebookLM's main purpose is to make a very specifically trained AI based on content you feed it. You can then ask it specific questions, it can make study guides, FAQ's, briefing docs, etc.  It even has a "Discussion" output that will create a podcast based on the information you supply. 

For example, let's say that you didn't have a chance to read the most recent Tech Tips.  Using NotebookLM, we turned them into a podcast that you can listen to any time HERE.  What better way to spend your time on your drive home from work today than listening to a Tuesday Tech Tips podcast?!  All it took was providing the link to the Tips in NotebookLM, and it created a podcast for us, which (like any output from any AI source), we could edit as needed.  

NotebookLM is available to GCSD staff (not students) HERE.  Give it a try!  It does not use your personal data, including your source uploads, queries, and the responses from the model for training.

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On December 9th, we made two important changes to how Guardians receive Google Classroom summary invitations. Previously, guardians received a one-time invitation when their child reached third grade or they first joined the district. If they did not accept this invitation, they needed to ask a teacher to remove and re-add them to Google Classroom to receive summaries. We updated this process so that, beginning in third grade, parents and guardians who have not signed up for Google Classroom Summaries will receive automatic invitations three times a year: in the first week of September, January, and March. To ensure that only parents and guardians with a legal right to receive this information have access, only those listed as Guardians in Infinite Campus will be included in Google Classroom. Any individuals who should not have access were removed on December 9th. If parents or guardians contact a teacher for access, please refer them to the main office in their building to file the necessary paperwork. After December 9th, teachers in Google Classroom will no longer have the ability or any responsibility for adding guardians. If you have any questions, please reach out to Brad Malone, Executive Director of Technology.

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Thanks to everyone who submitted a response to our Form letting us know what you think of the new Form rating scale question type. (Very meta, as the kids say.)

We like and appreciate all of you so much, we decided that everyone who submitted a response wins great prizes! They were just sent via interoffice courier, please be on the lookout for those soon.

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For assistance with these topics, or anything else related to instructional technology, please click HERE to book an appointment with your building's ITT.

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11-19-2024 Tuesday Tech Tips

   

In today's edition, read all about several clever ways to share YouTube videos (including clips of them) with your students or any audience, distance learning opportunities, updates to the teacher view of Lightspeed Classroom, an exciting new feature in Google Forms, another opportunity to win stuff, and more! ➡️ ➡️➡️

💡 Quick Tip 💡 Did you know you can edit images inside Google Docs and Slides? In just a few clicks, you and your students can add some pizzazz to your images in Google Docs and Google Slides. You can edit the size, crop, recolor, and more! See detailed directions HERE and HERE.

Do you have a tip or idea for the Tuesday Tech Tips? Or a request for a topic or question you'd like to know more about? Please let us know! You can email us at joseph.lombardo@greececsd.org with your submission.

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Update: as of 9/2026, Google has discontinued this functionality.

Did you know you can share short clips from 15 to 60 seconds of many YouTube videos by making a "clip"? You can also create and share a link to a YouTube video that will start the video at a specific point.

• An explanation on how to clip a YouTube video can be found HERE. That includes instructions how to configure your YouTube settings so you can use this feature.

• To define a "Start at" time, click the Share button under the video and look for the check box to choose a timestamp. You can also add a timestamp manually by typing special characters after the regular link. The nice folks at Lifewire have written up a detailed guide for both of these methods HERE.

And let's not forget, back in the 💯th edition of the Tuesday Tech Tips HERE, we showed how you can use Watchkin to share YouTube videos without ads.

Using these methods, you can, for example, share a video of Pink Floyd's 1994 performance of Comfortably Numb these three ways:

• A clip of a particularly spectacular portion of David Gilmour's legendary guitar solo HERE.

• A "Start at" link beginning at the first solo, or the 2:12 mark, HERE. (may have ads)

• An ad-free version of the entire video HERE.

This reminds us....even if progressive British rock isn't your bag, there are scores of distance learning opportunities in not just music but all subject areas available for you and your students. These include the Country Music Hall of Fame HERE and the Manhattan School of Music HERE, all available through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), which you can learn more about in a previous edition of your Tech Tips HERE.

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Lightspeed Classroom Management has introduced new thumbnails to assist teachers in troubleshooting why a student’s active screen is not appearing in Classroom Management. The appropriate thumbnail will appear to provide context and help explain why the screen is not showing.

Teachers will see different icons for various situations, such as when a student is viewing Chrome Settings, viewing a blank tab, doesn’t have any tabs open, and so on.

All the details, including examples of the snazzy new icons, can be found HERE.

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We rate this new feature five stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

To add to the list of question types that users can respond to in Google Forms and enable the collection of feedback in a more engaging way, Google recently added a rating question type.

This new question type enables you to customize rating questions by setting a rating scale level from 3 to 10, and include rating icons to offer a more intuitive way to gather opinions from an audience. You can represent your rating with Stars ⭐, Hearts 💖, or Thumbs up👍.

With this update, you'll be able to analyze responses to these questions (e.g. average rating of responses and visual distributions of ratings) using the Summary tab of the responses section. All the details on this new question type, and all Forms question types, can be found HERE.

What do you think of this new feature? Let us know (and get a chance to win great* prizes) HERE.

 

*As stated in a previous Tuesday Tech Tips Prize Giveaway, "great" is a relative term.  Pens, stickers, and other tchotchkes are, for these purposes, "great."

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For assistance with these topics, or anything else related to instructional technology, please click HERE to book an appointment with your building's ITT.

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11-5-2024 Tuesday Tech Tips

  

In today's edition, read all about updates on the AI tools available to GCSD staff and students, how to safely clean your Interactive Panel, searching the Web Help Desk FAQ section to get quick answers to your tech support questions, using Chrome's Reading Mode to cut down on visual distractions, and more! ➡️ ➡️➡️

💡 Quick Tip 💡 Are you tired of constantly entering two-factor authentication codes in Google Chrome? We've learned that some of our users are doing this A LOT.  As in, multiple times a day.  If you find yourself repeatedly signing in to your account, there’s a simple solution. In the address bar in Chrome, type: chrome://settings/content/siteData Make sure the option "Allow sites to save data on your device" is selected. Close Chrome and then reopen it. You should only need to sign in once more with two-factor authentication.

Do you have a tip or idea for the Tuesday Tech Tips? Or a request for a topic or question you'd like to know more about? Please let us know! You can email us at joseph.lombardo@greececsd.org with your submission.

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All staff have access to two fabulous AI tools for GCSD when signing in with your GCSD Google account. First, GCSD staff have access to MagicSchool (also found in ClassLink).

Visit our MagicSchool page on our ITT site for more information. MagicSchool is a great tool to increase your productivity and for various daily tasks for instruction and beyond! Be sure to refer to this poster of Best Practices for Using AI. 

Grades 3-12 teachers who have used MagicSchool may want to pilot MagicSchool for Students (MagicStudent) by visiting our MagicSchool page on our ITT site and contacting their ITT.

Secondly, Gemini by Google is a chatbot similar to ChatGPT. Watch the intro video here.

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The approved cleaning solution for ViewSonic and BoxLight Interactive Panels is the Ready-To-Use Non-Ammoniated Glass Cleaner, which can be obtained by contacting the custodian for your building.

Cleaning solutions should be sprayed onto a soft lint free cloth and then wiped on to the surface of the device to be cleaned. Cleaning solutions should NOT be sprayed directly on to computer devices, to avoid the potential of drenching the device with liquid which can damage the device.

This information can be found in the FAQ section of Web Help Desk. You can search the FAQ by going HERE and searching by category or even just keyword. What a great self-help resource!

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You can customize your reading experience on Chrome with Reading mode. This feature is conveniently located in the side panel and helps you:

• Focus more easily on text.
• Reduce distractions from images and videos on screen.
• Select alternate typeface and font size.
• Adjust letter and sentence spacing.
• Choose background color.

If you’re using a Chromebook, you can even hear the text on the page with Read aloud.

Reading Mode works on many, but not all, websites.  (Spoiler: it doesn't work on the Tuesday Tech Tips).  You can find all the details about Reading Mode HERE.

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For assistance with these topics, or anything else related to instructional technology, please click HERE to book an appointment with your building's ITT.

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