Spring Break is coming soon, or maybe for you already occurred. Either way, a fun project for students to do is to plan where they are going to go, or maybe show where they yet. My Maps by Google allows people to create an interactive map showing locations that can include detailed information and/or pictures. Creating a map is really easy as you can see from watching the tutorial video below, and maps can be shared via a link, so making it into a Google Classroom assignment is also a piece of cake!

If you are looking for some destinations to get kids ideas flowing, here are two websites that curated some interesting tourist traps from around the USA: ​20 American tourist traps that are actually worth your time and money and ​The worst tourist trap in every state.

Need a fun activity for students to do during this Thanksgiving week? Why not have them create a turkey using Google Slides using the pre-made template found here on edtech blogger Eric Curts' website: https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2017/11/turkey-templates.html

Direct Template Links:

• Build a Turkey (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Dx9XXUaDm_AdntWS0SDG8txFHOsEN_EKI3iULDWZP64/copy)
• Disguise a Turkey (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jq8EcJH28YzfnhifjAGcejNws4wO4HNhGGhA6xEm5S0/copy)
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Have a great start to this holiday week everyone!

The big question of the year has been Google Meets or Zoom. Many school districts have faced this question as they try to settle on one platform or the other to use. One big advantage Zoom had was the ability to do breakout rooms. Recently I found a blog post from claycodes.org that shows an easy and quick way to create breakout rooms in Google Meet without having to upgrade to the fancy paid version! All you need is a Google Doc and this link  https://meet.google.com/lookup/. Watch the video above to see an easy and free way to create breakout rooms for your Google Meet sessions! Thank you to Clay from claycodes.org for this awesome idea!

Useful Links:
This tutorial is based off of the website and info on https://www.claycodes.org/google-meet-breakout-rooms.

Mute Tab Chrome Extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mute-tab/blljobffcekcbopmkgfhpcjmbfnelkfg/related?hl=en

Google Meet Template Link:
 https://meet.google.com/lookup/

2020 has brought a lot of changes and twists to education that we never saw coming. One of those is the loss of face-to-face learning at times. This can be hard when we aren't able to talk with our students on a daily basis. The Chrome Extension Mote can help with this though. Mote allows teachers to create a simple voice note that can be inserted into the comment section of the Google Classroom grading window. Using Mote you can once again get that personal student connection that might have been lost otherwise during the suspension of face-to-face learning or the move to virtual learning.

Today we are looking at two Chrome Extensions, Auto Highlight (Chrome Web Store) and Talk & Comment (Chrome Web Store). Auto Highlight can help students who are struggling readers to find the main ideas in a long article on a website. Students can adjust the amount highlighted by simply clicking the extension. Talk & Comment allows a student to record their thoughts and then to share the recording via a link. 

While both of these extensions are great separately, but them together and you have an awesome resource for students to gather information and then share their findings via the learning management system of your choice!

. More Google Meet participant controls for education meetingsRecently Google added some handy Host Controls to Google Meet. You can now do things such as:

• Allow/Disallow Chat
• Allow/Disallow Participant Screen Sharing
• Quick Access - Make everyone be allowed in one by one

The first two give you some more control of what happens during the meeting. The allow/disallow chat messages that appear during a meeting on the side. The allow/disallow share screen stops participants from sharing the screen during a meeting.

The Quick Access feature allows people within your domain (school) to join without knocking. If you turn off quick access, everyone has to known to join, even if they were invited. This feature could be handy once everyone is in the meeting and you want to secure it down to be sure others don't pop in.

Below I have attached some screen shots showing where you can find these items during your Google Meet. If you would like to read more about the Quick Access visit this link: G Suite Updates Blog: ​More Google Meet participant controls for education meetings. 

Learn how to easily add more fonts to Google Docs. This method also works for other core G Suite products like Slides, Draw, and Sheets.

Spring is almost here...well...hopefully almost here, so it may be a good time for an egg hunt! Unfortunately for many in my neck of the woods we will probably have snow on the ground until July, but that is no problem when you do a virtual egg hunt!

Using Google Draw you can challenge students to create a scene using only the shapes available and their own creativity. You can see an example I created here: Find Ten Eggs - Google Draw. If you make a copy of the file for yourself you can see the variety of shapes I used to created things like the barn and the sheep. Below you can see the finished product:

This project can be adapted and expanded in several ways. One easy way is to also have students create an answer key. They can create a copy of their Google Drawing by going to File -> Make a Copy and then adding markers to show where the eggs can be found. I'll place an example of the answer key at the bottom of this post. This could also be adapted to fit other subject material and/or holidays just by using your own creativity :-)

I have to admit, this may not be the most educational of resources, but it sure is fun! Emoji Scavenger Hunt challenges players by showing them an emoji and them having them try to find the real life version of it. As long as the player keeps finding the emoji the game continues on. Once the player is unable to find a certain emoji, the game is over. At that point the website shows pictures of all the items they found, which in itself can be pretty humorous!

The Emoji Scavenger Hunt works on iOS (using Safari), Android (using Chrome), Chromebooks, MacOS, & Windows. Using a smart phone or tablet would be easiest, but I did find I could use a Chromebook to complete most of the challenges.

The Emoji Scavenger Hunt could make a great rainy day activity, team building activity, or even an ice-breaker.