It seems that Google Flubaroo has been going to work and updating their Add-On quite frequently.  The last update gave teachers the ability to share grades to student's Google Drive accounts as well as print off their grades for each assessment.  

Today, Flubaroo came out with 2 more neat features:

• Extra Credit - With extra credit, teachers are able to add an extra credit option to any question in the Google Form.  The point value can be set from 1-10.  This can be set in the first dialog box that pops up after you begin to grade your Google Form.  For more information on this, check out the Flubaroo Blog, or check out the picture below.

I am super excited about today as I am hosting a Sphero 2.0 PD at the HISD.  Here is a awesome video playlist that will get you in the mood!!

If you are looking for a great way to jot down notes, checklists, and then share them with anyone, Google Keep is your go-to tool.  I had first used Google Keep over a year ago in its most basic form, but it has evolved a lot into a great tool that can be used across device platforms.  

Of course you will have to have a gmail or Google account, but once you have that set up, you get access to this great service.  To get started on a computer, go to www.google.com/keep/​, click "Try Google Keep" and then "Add note" to jot down anything you want to remember.  If you want to use it on your smartphone, download the Android app or the IOS app.  Here are some ways that you can use this tool:

• Adding notes or checklists
• Color coding notes 
• Categorize notes for better organization
• Add reminders at certain times or locations
• Share notes with others and let them collaborate with you
• Take a note and turn it into a Google Doc
• Add pictures to notes
• Hand write your notes on the Google Keep app version
• Archive notes instead of deleting them
• Use the web and app version so notes are always available
• Use the app version to record a voice note (this inserts text and audio)

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To get a better idea on how to do these tasks, check out the video below.

So apparently I like Google so much that if they made a piece of cardboard, I would buy it.  Well it is more than just a piece of cardboard, its Google Cardboard!  This is fairly new, but I just got my box of cardboard yesterday and have been figuring out how it works (check out this video to see how Cardboard works).  This tool's main purpose is for VR (Virtual Reality).  There are plenty of free apps out there, but it works by looking at panoramic pictures or 3D videos through the Cardboard goggles with lenses inside.  The panoramic pictures are interactive by rotating yourself 360 degrees to see different parts of the picture.  Not only can you view Google Earth and StreetView through this, but you can take your own panoramic pictures and record sound while doing so.  For example, if your in the middle of the woods, you could take a panoramic picture while recording sound.  When you want to play it back in 3D, use your goggles and rotate your head to get a full 360 degree view with audio.  This will blow your mind!!

Here are a few ways this could be used in your classroom:

• Take VR field trips around the world using Google Earth.  
• Or even better, when you are on a field trip, students could take panoramic pictures of something that stood out.  These experiences could be shared with anyone and kept forever.  Use the app Cardboard for this.
• Have your students learn how to create their own Virtual Reality world using an app called Carboard Design Labs.

Because this is a Google product, it works best on an Android.  If you are an IOS user, here is a video on how this works with your iPhone.

Lastly, here is the coolest video I have seen with VR.  Check out the New England Patriots in a exclusive behind-the-scenes practice.  The YouTube video below is interactive.  Click and drag your mouse in any directions to get a 360 degree view of the practice.

This week is labeled "Computer Science Education Week," for those of you who have not heard.  This means that you are able to participate with your students in the "Hour of Code" initiative any time this week at Code.org.  There are clost to 1.5 million students who have participated in this experience, and that number will likely double this week.  

Coding and programming are the jobs of the future as all types of industries are going computer based.  An article from USA Today states that by the year 2020, there will be over 1 million unfilled computer science jobs.  That many unfilled jobs is greater than the population of Montana.

Please do a service to your students and get them thinking about Science Education this week.  It is not just a game on the computer they will be playing, but it will be providing them with an experience that may last them a lifetime.  

Most of us all have heard of mail merging before, but like myself, have never knew how to perform one....or why you would want to perform one.  Mail merging allows you to create letters, name tags, etc., using a single spreadsheet with information stored on it.  Instead of hand typing a personalized letter to each of your students, a mail merge can let you type up a template letter.  Your template letter can then be customized from information you have on your spreadsheet.  

In the video below, I am going to show how to have the responses from a Google Form be instantly emailed back to the person who submitted the Google Form.  Why is this helpful?  In many different situations, the individual who submits a form would like to have confirmation of what they submitted.  For example, if a person submitted an application, they may want confirmation that it went through and would like a record of what they submitted.  In the classroom, teachers could use this for confirmation of: book checkouts, parent communication, mass emailing of information, reminders for conference meeting times, etc.

I have known for a short time that Google Forms could be used with a mail merge, so here is my attempt to explain if to you.  The easiest way to do this is in a 11  minute video, but here are the basic steps:

• Create a Google Form or use an existing one.
• Open your response spreadsheet tied to the Google Form.
• Use the "Add-On" formMule
• Customize the mail merge to your liking.
• Sit back, relax, and let your mail merge do tedious work for you!!

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This week we will be looking at using a slow motion app to slow down part of a video clip. I use the app Superslo, which cost 99 cents for IOS devices.  Here are a few free slow motion apps that you can use for IOS: SloPro, SpeedPro, and for Android: Slow Motion Video FX, and Slow Motion Video.

Slow motion clips are a great part to a video as long as it follows a couple of rules of thumb:

• Only use slow motion for a short time frame.  If the slow motion clip is to long, your viewers will get bored.  
• Use slow motion at an action scene in your video.  
• Slow motion replays after the full speed video help stress the point of the clip.

If there was ever a day that I could take technology back in time with me, it would be today with this Google Flubaroo update!!  I taught 5th grade for five years and used Google Forms all the time.  The thing that it lacked was getting those grades out to the students.  My students didn't have email addresses, so I was stuck calling the students up to my computer to check their grade.  That was so inefficient and time consuming.

Google recently came out with a Flubaroo/Forms update that takes care of that issue. To learn how to use this update, you can read here or watch the video below. 

**Please note that if your students do not have email addresses, you are still able to save all your quiz results to your Google Drive and print them all off to pass out.**

I know very little about photo editing other than being able to put a filter on an image through a social media app.  I know that is really lame, but I do not have the time or desire to learn.  

For those of you who would like to learn or teach classes where students are working with photo editing, Polarr has the perfect tutorial for you.  This guide will inform you about all editing terminology such as: tint, temperature, highlights, whites, saturation, curves, and much, much, more.  

After you have learned the basics, download the free app, or use the free web version on Polarr.  With Polarr's tutorial, begin making changes to your photos and know what your doing at the same time!!