FR Know & Go - Volume 5 | Issue 8

Parkway School District - The Ridge Library

Know & Go Updates @your Library

Library Services Volume 5 | Issue 8 GoFollett.com

Updates

GoFollett.com Access audio & eBooks from any desktop, Chromebook, Tablet, or Smartphone. ● ● ● ●

Google Teacher Tribe Have you heard about this? The Google Teacher Tribe Podcast is a weekly podcast designed to give K-12 educators practical ideas for using G Suite and other Google tools hosted by Matt Miller (Ditch That Textbook) and Kasey Bell (Shakeup Learning). Both of these national presenters are well spoken, easy to understand, and have some great ideas. If you are looking for new ideas and learn more about G Suite this is the place for you. A good place to start might be with 20 Reasons to Listen to The Google Teacher Tribe Podcast. It is the first twenty episodes at http://sumo.ly/2Ff3. They also have a professional learning groups where you can follow the Tribe on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/gteachertribe/ and on Twitter at @jmattmiller, @ShakeUpLearning and @GTEACHERTRIBE

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Open GoFollett.com: Missouri Enter the School: Fern Ridge High School Click Login in the upper right hand corner Click on the Google SSO button, which is your Parkway Google username and password Scroll down the page to see what is available in print or digital

Catalog Search ● Go to the Fern Ridge website ● Click on the Library tab ● Use the catalog search box on the homepage or ● Request a book to be purchased for the library

Curates Digital Resources & Tools Curates Digital Resources & Tools

10 Overlooked Google Slides Features Like any robust presentation tool, Google Slides has many features that often go overlooked by users. Some of these features will let you accomplish the things that you used to do in PowerPoint or Keynote while others will just save you a bit of time. Either way, here are ten features of Google Slides that you should know how to use.

1. Word Art Word Art is different than just changing your font size or style. Inserting word art lets you apply custom borders, colors, and shading to your font. It also lets you dynamically resize font to fit almost anywhere in a slide.

6. Play videos without using YouTube.

Last year Google finally added the option to include videos in your slides without those videos having to be on YouTube. Upload any video to your Google Drive account and then you can import it directly into any slide.

2. Live Q&A Launch a live Q&A channel forum for your audience directly from the Presenter View menu.

Your audience can submit questions by going to the Q&A link that is automatically displayed across the top of your slides when you have Q&A activated. You can also disable this feature at any time.

7. Make Interactive Diagrams Richard Byrne made a video about this last week and featured it in the Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week. By using the hyperlinking tools in Google Slides you can link multiple parts of one slide to other slides within the same presentation. Take the model to its fullest extent and your students can begin to build choose-your-own-adventure stories in Google Slides.

3. Import Google Keep Note Open the "tools" menu while editing your slides and you can choose to open a Keep Notepad. That will display all of the notes that you have saved in Google Keep including pictures and links.

8. Voice Typing Speaker Notes In the "tools" menu in Google Slides you will find an option for speech-to-text. This function only works for the speaker notes and not for the body of slides.

4. Integrated Unsplash Image Search You can use the "insert image" menu to launch a Google Images search, but that's not the best option for an integrated image search. Unsplash Photos has a free Google Slides Add-on that provides access to hundreds of thousands of images that are in the public domain.

9. Chart, Diagram, and Timeline Templates.

Within the "insert" menu in Google Slides you will find a handful of chart, diagram, and timeline templates that you can customize.

5. Add Audio to Your Slides There are two ways that you can do this. You could place a YouTube music video in your slide and then shrink it down and hide it in the corner of your slide. Or you could use the AudioPlayer for Slides Add-on which makes it quite easy to play music behind your entire presentation.

10. Import your old PPT slides If you still have PowerPoint presentations and want convert them to be accessible and editable in G Suites, you can import your old PPT files into Google Slides right from the "file" drop-down menu in Google Slides.

By Richard Byrne, January 2018, Free Technology for Teachers

Instructional Partnership Resources Top 10 Sites to help Students Check Facts In a political climate here sharing fake news has become commonplace, it’s more important than ever to rely on trustworthy and dogged fact-checking services to vet information.

Our job as citizens requires more than just being informed. We must also be vigilant about verifying information before posting it on social media. While taking a second look at claims made by politicians and even journalists is a start, we still can’t outsource our brains and our judgment, says Tessa Jolls, president of the Center for Media Literacy. “In my view, we have to look as critically at the fact-checking sites as we do the news articles themselves,” she says.

#ParkwyReads

Read a book on your phone!

Download the Destiny Discover app.

A good fact-checking site uses neutral wording, provides unbiased sources to support its claims and reliable links, says Frank Baker, author of Media Literacy in the K-12Classroom and creator of the Media Literacy Clearinghouse. He adds, “Readers should apply the same critical thinking/questioning to fact-check sites.”

Here's a rundown of 10 of the top fact- and bias-checking sites to share with your students.

AllSides. While not a fact-checking site, AllSides curates stories from right, center and left-leaning media so that readers can easily compare how bias influences reporting on each topic.

Fact Check. This nonpartisan, nonprofit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by U.S. political players, including politicians, TV ads, debates, interviews and news releases.

Media Matters. This nonprofit and self-described liberal-leaning research center monitors and corrects conservative misinformation in the media.

NewsBusters. A project of the conservative Media Research Center, NewsBusters is focused on “documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias.”

Open Secrets. This nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit website run by the Center for Responsive Politics tracks how much and where candidates get their money.

Politifact. This Pulitzer Prize winning website rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials. Run by editors and reporters from the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times, Politicfact features the Truth-O-Meter that rates statements as “True,” “Mostly True,” “Half True,” “False,” and “Pants on Fire.”

ProPublica. This independent, nonprofit newsroom has won several Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

ProPublica produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Snopes. This independent, nonpartisan website run by professional researcher and writer David Mikkelson researches urban legends and other rumors. It is often the first to set the facts straight on wild fake news claims.

The Sunlight Foundation. This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization uses public policy data-based journalism to make politics more transparent and accountable.

Washington Post Fact Checker. Although the Washington Post has a left-center bias, its checks are excellent and sourced. The bias shows up because they fact check conservative claims more than liberal ones.

By Jennifer Snelling, Feb 2018 www.iste.org

Select your location: state and school (Note: Click “Remember me on this Device before logging in!).

Click the Google SSO and login to your Parkway Google account.

Search for Ebooks.

To preview an ebook, click “Open.” (Note: if you just open a book, it will not be checked out to you, and you won’t see it the next time you log in).

Click “Checkout” on an Ebook you want to read.

Open the book and start reading!

The next time you open the app, you should see your book; if not, log out and log in again.

Your book will automatically return itself on the due date.

Personalized Professional Learning

EdCampSTL

Visit the edWeb Calendar for upcoming free webinars. Now you can also easily search and view over 1300 recorded edWebinars.

February 10, 2018 8:00 - 3:00 Ritenour High School 9100 Saint Charles Rock Rd St. Louis, MO 63114 Click here for registration

Want to connect with other educators and transform learning?

See upcoming spring learning opportunities offered through ConnectED Learning at connectedlearningstl.org Not going to METC? Follow the 35th annual METC conference on February 12-14, 2018 on Twitter at #METC18

Contact Information Bill Bass Innovation Coordinator: Instructional Technology & Library Media Twitter: billbass

Access the Library Services Webpage using the QR code or www.pkwy.info/pkwylibrary

Kim Lindskog Library Support Specialist Twitter: klindskog Amy Johnson Digital Learning Specialist Twitter: ajohnson106

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