Gmail +1 for Elementary Accounts

This great tip comes from Practical EdTech and it's a winner! It shows a workaround for websites that not only require an email address, but require verification of that email address.   This is problematic for students in lower grades because while they have email addresses, the ability to send and receive mail is turned off for K - 6.  Check out the steps below that outline Gmail+1.  It's quick, easy and allows the teacher to control the accounts.

Elementary school teachers often ask me how their students can use services that require email addresses when the students don’t have email addresses. The solution is to use Gmail+1. Here’s how Gmail+1 works. Let’s say there’s a new service that I want my students to use but my students don’t have email addresses that they can use to register for that service. In that case I can quickly generate Gmail addresses for my students by using the Gmail+1 strategy.

Here’s how the Gmail+1 trick works:

1. Create a new Gmail account just for your class. Example mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com

2. Issue email addresses to students as follows mrbyrnesclass+1@gmail.com, mrbyrnesclass+2@gmail.com

3. Gmail overrides the “1″ and “2″ at the end of the mrbyrnesclass and sends all emails to the inbox at mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com however almost all other services that require an email for registration will recognize mrbyrnesclass+1@gmail.com as distinct from mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com

4. Students can use the “+1″ emails to register for services, but I get to see all of the emails coming and going.

5. Because of #4 above I may have to confirm all of my students’ registrations on a new service.

Disclaimers:

1. This hack doesn’t work on every service so your mileage may vary.

2. Don’t give students the password to the class email address (in the example above I would not give students the password to mrbyrnesclass@gmail.com) because if they have it they could all send and receive email from the account. The passwords that they choose on  the services that they register for should all be unique and they should not share them with each other.

The "New" Google Drive?

It's the time of year for educators where everything old is new again.  The same can now be said for your Google Drive account...IF you want it to be.  Google has recently updated the look of their Drive app which will change the way you view your  files.  To take a look at this new makeover just click the settings menu (the little gear in the upper right corner) and choose "Experience the New Drive".  If you decide you're not a fan, you can always toggle back to the old Drive by repeating the same steps.  Google Gooru has some terrific screenshots comparing the old look to the new and explanations of 11 features you need to know about.   Click here to learn more.

Google Forms: The Coolest App in Google Drive That You May Not Be Using - Part 1

It’s the end of July, folks.  The cicadas are sounding, the aisles at your local Target and Walmart are filled with excited kids and exasperated parents looking for all the items on back to school lists, and teachers are slowly making their way back to their classrooms to prepare for a new year.  To that end, I want to share some tips and tricks that might make the new year run more smoothly for you.  

All district teachers have a Hutchdocs account.  For those of you who’ve been sleeping or simply not reading my blogs (SMH), Hutchdocs is just another name for Google Apps for Education but it’s tailored to our district.  I digress.  One of the coolest feature of Hutchdocs is the ability to create FORMS.  Sounds boring, I know, but it can really be life-changing. In Part 1 of this three part series we'll discuss data collection.

Data Collection

The sky’s the limit with data collection and Hutchdocs when using Forms.  Teachers can collect:

• IEP Goals
• Intervention Data
• RTI Data
• Classroom Data
• Online Reading Logs/Records
• Parent/Teachers Conference Data
• Incident Reports

Administrators can get in on this, too!  Click here to see examples of walk-through forms, custodial request forms, school hotline forms and more.

For those new to Google Forms

Eric Curts does a fantastic job of explaining Google Forms.  The screenshots below are courtesy of his website.

Creating Forms

Adding Questions

There are multiple question types from which to choose.  In addition, Forms has updated to let you add pictures and video links as well.  

Seeing Results

The great thing about Forms and results is that they automatically are compiled in SPREADSHEET, Google’s version of Excel.  You can view the results by looking at the sheet, or by graph (automatically created for you).  This is such a simple way to collect important data!

Want more on Google Form creation?  Click here to continue to Eric's full tutorial.  Next up in our "Google Forms" series:  Behavior Management.