Google Voice: an Extra {Free} Phone Number

I've written before about Google Voice, but updates from Google and a new school year means I probably need to write a new post! 

What is Google Voice?

In a nutshell, Google Voice allows you to call and/or text anyone from an extra, specially-designated phone number from Google...all the while, concealing your actual phone number from the recipient.

Here are some more handy features of Google Voice:

• Call/text anyone through a browser on your computer
• Call/text anyone through a mobile device connected to the Internet {without revealing your "real" phone number}
• Call contacts that are already entered into your regular cell phone's address book {no need to enter information twice!}
• Automatically transcribes voicemails and puts them in your Google Voice inbox
• Listen to voicemails as they're being left
• Screen calls if the need arises
• Option to set "do not disturb" time {think of it like setting office hours}
• Block specific callers
• Ability to change the number 1 time {for a $10 fee} if the number gets into the wrong hands

Why would I use Google Voice?

You may be wondering why you even need an extra phone number. Think about those moments when you need to call a student's parent(s). Sometimes that parent's phone number is in a different area code, and you may not have the ability to make long-distance phone calls from your district desk phone. ...Or sometimes you have a lot of parent phone calls you need to make {like at the beginning of the school year when you make contact with each guardian to introduce yourself and say how excited you are about teaching their student this year}, but you don't necessarily want to be at school until 6 or 7 pm making phone calls. 

Google Voice gives you the ability to contact parents via call or text message right from your own cell phone, so you can contact anyone you want from the comfort of your own home -- without the risk of revealing your personal information to parents. {I know some teachers have no problem giving their personal cell phone number to parents, but I am a pretty private person, so revealing my cell number is outside my personal comfort zone.}

I'm interested. How do I start?

I created a fairly in-depth Google Doc with directions that can take you through all things Google Voice related. {It even has a Table of Contents where you can click the subject you're interested in learning about and jump directly to that section!} Click here to view the document.

How to Use a QR Code to Distribute More Than Just a Link

QR codes can be super-useful for quickly sharing links, but did you know you can share more than just websites?

Here are some other things you can put in a QR code:

• prompt scanner to make a phone call
• prompt scanner to send a text message
• prompt scanner to send an e-mail (you can even decide on the subject and body text!)
• an electronic business card
• a location on a map
• an iTunes or Android app
• a location on FourSquare
• a YouTube link
• the last tweet of a particular user on Twitter
• a tweet from Twitter
• someone's Twitter profile
• a WiFi network
• free-formatted text

My favorite QR code generator is a site called Kerem Erkan, and it's what I'll use for the screenshots in this post. 

Here's how to put more than just a link in a QR code:

1. Go to Kerem Erkan's QR code generator. Scroll down on the page until you see something like this:

2. Click the arrow to reveal a drop down menu with these options:

3. Select whichever option you prefer, fill in the blanks accordingly, and click "generate code" at the bottom of the screen:

4. Right-click on the QR code that pops up to save it to your computer. 

Ideas for use

1. Phone number: create a code with your desk phone number (or Google Voice or Convoi number) so that parents can call you quickly without having to dial a number. 
• Similarly, create a code with a mobile device phone number (use Google Voice or Convoi if you don't want to reveal your real cell phone number) that prompts parents to text you.
2. E-mail: create a code that connects to your e-mail so parents have one less thing to type. 
3. Google or Bing map: need to direct parents to a field trip or other off-campus location? Embed the Google or Bing map link in a QR code so parents can easily access it on their phone. 
4. iTunes or Android app: Ensure students download the correct app by placing the link to it in a QR code.
5. Twitter: direct students or parents to your Twitter profile or a specific tweet without making them search for it. 
6. Free Formatted Text: the possibilities are endless! I used to use this feature for creating a scavenger hunt (although now there is a tool that makes it even easier -- QR Treasure Hunt Generator). You could do a scavenger hunt or other challenge-based game to help kids get to know the room, school building, or rules at the beginning of school. You could also create a game over any subject or topic that hides the questions inside a free-formatted text QR code. 

Examples

1. My Twitter profile:

2. My favorite ePortfolio app on the iTunes store:

3. Freely-formatted text with a secret message:

4. Send me an e-mail:

Periscope: How and Why to Broadcast Live

A new app called Periscope is all the rage right now. This post will discuss what Periscope is, how to navigate the app, and why you might want to give it a shot. 

In a nutshell:

Periscope is a free app {available on both The App Store and Google Play Store} that allows users to broadcast a live video stream from their mobile device. 

More info:

Sign up for Periscope using either your Twitter account or your phone number. Choose your username wisely, as you're not allowed to change it!

follow me: @ckaras

Tapping the + icon on a person’s Periscope account (not shown in the screenshot above because I'm viewing my own profile) means you’ve followed them. Here are the benefits of following someone:

• you can join their public broadcasts
• their public broadcasts automatically appear in your watch tab
• you can chat during their broadcasts
• they can invite you to see other peoples’ broadcasts
• they can invite you to see their private broadcasts

Click the TV icon (called "the watch tab") in the bottom, left corner to see broadcasts from people you're following. As you can see in my screenshot below, I only had one recent broadcast (recent = within the last 24 hours), and none of the people I follow were live. 

Notice that live broadcasts are at the top of the screen. Public broadcasts that are no longer live but are less than 24 hours old are shown under the "recent" section. After 24 hours, old broadcasts expire and cannot be found on the app anymore. (Although it's important to note: nothing ever really disappears on the internet...)

If you think you'll want to share your personal broadcasts after 24 hours, go into the settings and click "autosave broadcasts" (shown in the screenshot below). This automatically saves your videos to your device, and then you can share them via e-mail, Dropbox, etc.

Find your settings by clicking on the farthest icon to the right -- the people silhouette -- and then the single person silhouette in the top, right. Scroll down and click on "settings." 

After the initial 24 hours are up and a broadcast disappears, a summary of the video (title, date, time, and location if the you chose to share it) is still displayed on the your profile, although you can delete it if you want. 

The map section (accessed by touching the world icon on the bottom of the screen) lets you look for live broadcasts around the world:

Note: the public can only see a user's location if the user has chosen to share it. Toggle whether or not location is shared by tapping the compass icon.

The camera icon (bottom of the screen) takes you to a screen that looks like the one below, and then you're ready to broadcast. 

I have yet to create my first broadcast, so I'm not entirely sure of this process yet. I assume the triangle icon on the left activates your location, the lock icon lets you toggle between a public and a private broadcast, and the Twitter bird lets you share your broadcast on your Twitter profile. I have no idea what that 3rd icon from the left does...if you know, please leave a comment so I can know, too! :) I'm going to try to go live at EdCampIT in Highland Park on Monday, July 20, so maybe I'll have an update about this section after that! 

If you mark your broadcast as live, anyone with the link can watch it. (Lots of people send their broadcast link out via Twitter.) People are able to watch your broadcasts from the web, but they can't comment or send hearts on your video. All broadcasts are, by default, public.

From what I've experienced through watching others' broadcasts, viewers from the app can comment on a video, and everyone -- including the owner of the video -- can see your comments. Viewers from the app can also send hearts, which is the Periscope equivalent to the Facebook "like."

If your broadcast is public, your followers get a notification that you are live, anyone can view the broadcast from the Watch Tab, and anyone can chat on your broadcast or send hearts. 

If you mark your broadcast as private, you have to select which of your followers you'd like to see the video. 

Ways to Use Periscope in the Classroom

The most obvious answer is that this can be a window into your classroom for parents -- particularly for those that have to work and/or can't make it to a class event. Here are some things you could broadcast:

1. Student presentations
2. A musical or play
3. Talent show acts
4. Parts of a sporting event
5. "Back to school/Meet the teacher" spiel (have a colleague stand in the audience and film you. If a parent has to work, he/she could catch your Periscope broadcast for 24 hours after open house, OR you could post the video to your class website for viewing at any time)
6. Special events like parties, parades, Jump Rope for Heart, etc. 

You could also broadcast yourself teaching a lesson (to help parents help their kids with homework) or part of a faculty meeting (as a "behind the scenes" type of thing). 

How to Collect Parent Information {Digitally}

As much as I'd like to push this fact to the back of my mind and forget it, I can't: it's mid-July, and back-to-school events are right around the corner. With that comes the gathering of all kinds of information about your new students. Here are some helpful hints about how to collect information in a paperless way.

Remind

I've written before about a free service called Remind; click here for more information. I highly recommend inviting parents to join your Remind class during a back-to-school meeting because you can clear any confusion immediately and make sure everyone is signed up before they leave!

Now you can use Remind's "stamp" feature to conduct polls or get feedback on your announcements. Not only would this be super-handy for collecting information at a back-to-school meeting, but it would be an extra incentive for parents to sign up for the service since they can't participate in the poll if they're not connected to your channel! Keep in mind that recipients are only able to send stamps from the app -- not from the web or through text messaging. {The Remind app is available in both the App Store and the Google Play store.} The stamp feature is applied automatically to all announcements, so there is no extra work on the teachers' side.

There are 4 different stamps. Typically, the ★ = the recipient acknowledging the message, the ✓ = "yes," the ✘ = "no," and the ? is self-explanatory. :) However, you can easily conduct quick polls of your own by giving new meaning to each symbol. Here's an example of using Remind to ask parents how their child will go home:

I sent a message to my "test" class, asking how each student would get home this year. If I'd been thinking clearly when I did it, I would've just copied and pasted the actual icons into the message to save myself a few characters. :)

A parents' view from the app: he/she gets the announcement you just sent 

A parents' view from the app: he/she clicks the star in the bottom, right corner to reveal the stamp options

If the announcement was sent to the entire class, parents can see an overall tally of each stamp (so they could see that you received 10 stars, 3 checks, and 5 X marks), but they don't get to see how each person answered.


As the teacher, though, you can see who answered and how they answered:

A teacher's view from the web: I can see the name of the person associated with the account and how they voted {in the picture above, "C TestParent" voted with an "X."}

Click here to read more about the stamp feature on the Remind website.


Ideas to Ask Parents at Back-to-School Meetings:

1. Travel: How will your child normally go home this year? ★ = bus, ✓ = walking/biking, ✘ = picked up in car/truck or by daycare
2. Internet: Do you have internet access at home? ✓ = yes, ✘ = no
3. BYOD: Can your child bring his/her mobile device to school for academic purposes? ✓ = yes, ✘ = no
4. Contact: How do you prefer to be contacted: ★ = phone, ✓ = e-mail
5. News: How do you prefer to learn about classroom news: ★ = blog/website, ✓ = social media, ✘ = e-mail, ? = printed paper
6. Tutoring: Will your student attend my tutoring club on Tues and Thurs from 3:00-3:30? ✓ = yes, ✘ = no

Ideas to Ask Students at Back-to-School Meetings or the first week of school:

1. Feelings poll: How do you feel about being in this new grade level? ★ = excited, ✓ = happy, ✘ = nervous or scared, ? = not sure or combination of these
2. Multiple choice pop quiz to assess prior knowledge: 45 - 12 = ... ★ = 57, ✓ = 33, ✘ = 35, ? = 24
3. Getting-to-know-you: Have you ever been to the beach? ✓ = yes, ✘ = no; Did you read a book this summer? ✓ = yes, ✘ = no; Coke or Pepsi? ★ = Coke, ? = Pepsi
4. Anticipatory set: What's your favorite genre out of these? ★ = non-fiction, ✓ = realistic fiction, ✘ = sci-fi or fantasy, ? = historical fiction

Google Forms

I heart Google forms! Forms are so easy to set up, all information is stored in the cloud so you can never lose it, and all entries are organized into a nice little spreadsheet that you can sort however you wish. This is perfect for collecting a lot of information, since you can ask an unlimited number of questions and receive answers in many different formats {typed/free text, multiple choice, checkboxes, scale, etc.}. Here's a blog post about utilizing Google Forms in the classroom.

Extra tip: Put the link to your Google Form in a QR code, and post the QR code by your door. Parents can scan it during meet the teacher hour or back-to-school meetings and quickly provide you with all the information you need.


Sign Up Genius {Or Volunteer Spot}

Need help in your classroom? Want to schedule Mystery Readers? Need to know who is running the class store on token economy shopping days? Organize volunteers the easy way by using Sign Up Genius. It's super-easy to use; just write down the days and times you need help, and send the link to parents or post it on your class blog/e-mail signature. Bonus: reminder e-mails are automatically sent to volunteers a few days before the event so you can focus on what's really important {like figuring out what you're going to bring to the staff luncheon STAAR testing}.

How to Get A Second Phone Number For Free

I've talked before about using Google Voice to contact parents, volunteers, substitutes, etc. instead of using my personal cell phone number, but there's a new guy on the block that may give Google Voice a run for their money: Convoi.

What is it?

Convoi is an app that is installed onto your iPhone (their website says an Android app is coming soon) and connects to your cell phone. You can use it just like you would a regular phone number: for calls, texts, and voice messages. The beauty of it is that your "real" cell phone number is never revealed, so you get to keep your privacy while still having a professional connection on your mobile device. 

Features

• No Google account needed -- just a cell phone number (unlike Google Voice)
• Free to download and sign up
• 30-second sign up
• Choose your area code (but not your phone number)
• Automatic transcription of voicemails
• Access all your contacts via your phone, but make the call from within the Convoi app to use your "business phone number."
• Free conference calling
• Option to call over Wifi or using your phone's data plan
• Individual and group text messaging
• "Do not disturb" feature lets you ignore communication during non-business hours

Any cons?

• Once you choose a phone number, it can only be changed once (so phone numbers are not disposable like Google Voice numbers are)
• If your mobile plan does not support long-distance calling (or has limited long-distance calling minutes) and you choose an area code different than that of your mobile phone number, you will be charged for calls as if they are long distance

Message Students & Parents Without Revealing Personal Information

I wrote about this service back in 2013, but they've debuted some new features since then, so I thought I'd update. :)

The service makes it super-easy to get the word out to your classes in that it:

• provides a PDF with step-by-step directions that you can print or post on your class website
• allows your classes to sign up to receive updates either by text message OR by e-mail 
• provides a widget code for you to cut-and-paste into your website so that everyone can see updates {regardless of if they've signed up to receive the updates on their personal device or not}

Other key features about Remind:

• free
• download the app for on-the-go updates
• pre-schedule messages or send them in real time
• ability to attach files to messages
• set up as many different sections or groups as you want {so you could have a section for your tutoring group, Spanish club, church's youth group, homeroom class, and daughter's basketball team if you want!}
• view subscribers in each group and the date in which they joined
• ability to make personal notes about each subscriber {I find this most helpful when I have parent subscribers because I can make a note of which child "belongs to" them!}
• view all your past sent messages and choose to send them again or tweet the message
• no deletion available {helps protect teachers and students!}
• chat feature {more information below}
• stamp feature {more information below}

-----

Chat feature: available starting in April 2015, but Remind is rolling it out a group at a time. For instance, app users on the wait list will receive it first, and then they'll roll it out to web users. Get your name on the wait list by logging in to the app and clicking on "chat." Learn more here.

• Unless otherwise enabled, only the teacher can initiate chats
• Can set "office hours" so you're only contacted during times of your choosing
• Transcript of all chat history is available
• Allows you to chat one-on-one with anyone in your group instead of sending a mass message

-----

Stamp feature: available on April 20, 2015:

• allows recipients of your message to provide instant feedback without the sender getting a barrage of messages
• Stamp options include these symbols: ★ ✓ ✘ ?
• ★ = I like it, I appreciate this, and/or this message is a favorite of mine
• ✓ = yes
• ✘ = no
• ? = I don't understand, I have a question, and/or I need more information
• Subscribers see an overall count of the results, while the sender sees how each subscriber answered
• Great way to check for understanding in class! 
• Remind's list of 10 suggestions for using stamps {some include using it as a quiz or polling option -- great idea!}

Have you ever used Remind? If so, have you used or will you use the chat and stamp features? If you haven't used Remind, would you consider it? Why/why not?

How to Send Digital Cards with Punchbowl

In case you're unfamiliar with Punchbowl, it's a free service that allows you to send digital cards to anyone with an e-mail address or anyone on your social media site(s). Users can choose from hundreds of designs, quickly create an eCard and send it without ever having to run to the post office.  This post gives an overview of Punchbowl and this one tells you how to send a digital invitation.

Sometimes, though, you just need to send a "regular" card -- not an invitation. 

As a classroom teacher, you could use Punchbowl to send holiday cards, "welcome back to school" cards, reminders about big events or projects, thank you cards to volunteers, etc. When sending a digital card via Punchbowl {as opposed to an invitation}, you have the ability to include a gift card, which I think is pretty cool. Here's how to send a "regular" digital card via Punchbowl:

1. Create a Punchbowl account. {This post talks more about the differences between the different memberships.}

2. On the home page, you should see something like this at the top:

The top of your page may look slightly different, depending on the time of of year when you log in.

Hover over the sections at the top to see more options, click "greeting cards" in the top, right to see all options, or type something into the "search" bar to look for something specific.

3. Click a card to choose it. I chose a holiday card for this tutorial so I can post it on my class blog and social media...killing two birds with one stone and all that. :) 

4.  Click the green, "continue" button in the top, right when you decide on a design.

5. Include a gift card? Or not? Click the answer that most appeals to you..

FYI: if you choose to include a gift card at the beginning of making your card, you can always take it out later if you change your mind. Gift card options include Amazon, Sephora, The Cheesecake Factory, Panera Bread, Regal Cinemas, Gap, Home Depot, Old Navy, Nike, Athleta, LL Bean, Spa Week, Golfsmith, Charity Choice, Banana Republic, Game Stop, Bass Pro, and Zappos. Gift card amounts start at $10 and can go all the way to $500. You can also send a gift card to more than one person in your card.

6. Personalize.

 
Change your card design at any time by clicking the blue, "pick a new design" button in the top, left corner. 

Clicking on the text lets you edit the font, size, and color.

Clicking the green "next" button in the top, right corner lets you move to the next personalization option.

Customize your envelope stamp, postage, and liner:

Punchbowl always puts coordinating liner, stamp, and postage on your card, so it looks great even if you don't want to mess with customizing it. However, for those that like the option, there are tons of designs to choose from, and you can "view all" or view only the ones in a certain category {for instance, "holiday"} to make your life easier. 

7. Click the green, "save and continue" button at the top of the screen when you are ready to "seal the envelope" and send your card.

6. Add recipients. 

As you can see in the picture above, you can add e-mail addresses and/or names individually, or you can import them from your e-mail's contact book. You can also send your card via Facebook, Twitter, or link {like I will probably do on my class Instagram account}.

Choose to receive an e-mail when each recipient views the card, get a copy sent to your inbox, and/or send the card at a later date.

Click the "view preview" button on the right to see what your guests will see when they open the card.

Click the green "send now" button in the bottom, right when you're ready to "mail" your card.

Here is my finished product:

   

How to Send Digital Invitations with Punchbowl

I've talked before about using Punchbowl to send digital cards, but now that I'm more familiar with it, I wanted to write a tutorial post.

In case you're unfamiliar with Punchbowl, it's a free service that allows you to send digital cards to anyone with an e-mail address or anyone on your social media site(s). Users can choose from hundreds of designs, quickly create an eCard and send it without ever having to run to the post office.  

Invitations let recipients RSVP to your event directly from your e-mailed card, and they send a reminder to people who RSVPed "yes" a couple days before the event. 

As far as invitations go, I use Punchbowl to send invites to Science Fair judges, and I think I'll post an invitation to Family Science Night on my class social media accounts next year. As a regular classroom teacher, you could send invitations to parents for class parties, field trips, presentations, etc. 

Here's how to send an invitation:

1. Create a Punchbowl account. 

2. On the home page, you should see something like this at the top:

The top of your page may look slightly different, depending on the time of of year when you log in.

Hover over the sections at the top to see more options, or click "browse all invitations" in the top, left to see all options, or type something into the "search" bar to look for something specific.

3. Choose your card. I'm going to choose an invitation to an ugly Christmas sweater party for this tutorial. :) All I did was click the design of the card I want to use:

4.  Click "personalize design" and start personalizing! 

Change your card design at any time by clicking the gray, "change design" button in the top, left corner. 

Click the drop-down menu under "event type" to choose whether to send an invitation with an RSVP or a "save the date" without an RSVP. Then just type the appropriate information in the correct fields.

Clicking on the text lets you edit the font, size, and color.

Clicking on the "envelope" tab at the top lets you edit the digital envelope, lining, postage, and stamp. 

You could probably spend quite a bit of time looking through all the customization options if that's your thing -- there is lots of choose from. 

5. Click the green, "save and continue" button in the top, right corner when you are finished personalizing your card and envelope.

6. Add guests. 

As you can see in the picture above, you can add e-mail addresses and/or names individually, or you can import them from your e-mail's contact book. Click the "view preview" button on the right to see what your guests will see when they open the card. Click the green "next" button in the top, right corner when you're finished. {FYI: you can click "next" even if you didn't add any e-mail addresses.}

7. Toggle options.

Most are self-explanatory, but I thought I'd throw this in: the message board feature sort-of reminds me of the eVite we get from CEF if our grant is funded.

You obviously can get as detailed as you want! Click the "?" next to any option to get more information.

Click the green, "next" button when you're finished.

8. Unless you have e-mail addresses typed in to the "to" field, you can only send a test card to yourself. But if you typed in addresses earlier, you can send your invitation now. 

9. After you've sent the invitation, manage it. Obviously, I can't manage my ugly Christmas sweater party invitation because I didn't send it to anyone. :) But here's what management looked like on my science fair judge invitation this year:

I love the ability to copy the invitation -- makes it easy to duplicate it next year, if I want

See who even opened the card {and when}, see the ratio of "yes" RSVPs to undecideds or nos, re-send your invitation to select guests, delete guests, or send a message to one or all guests, Pressing "actions" in the top, right corner lets you print your design, add the date to your calendar, or delete the card as a whole.

Very easy and very convenient!

Check back tomorrow for a tutorial on how to send digital cards {with an option for an included gift card}.

 

Tackk

If you're a fan of Smore {read my post about it here}, you'll love Tackk! I heard about it over the summer, but I figured there was no reason for me to have accounts at two very similar websites. Now I'm kicking myself for not investigating it earlier... 

What It Is

Tackk allows users to create online posters with text, videos, audio recordings, pictures, and embedded widgets and links. Each Tackk {poster} is stored at its own unique URL for easy sharing. 

Features

• 100% free
• Account not necessary to create a Tackk {only downside? Anonymous Tackks are deleted after 7 days.}
• E-mail address not needed to create an account or sign in -- kids can sign in with a social media account or with Edmodo! 
• Free iOS app
• Customize the poster's text, colors, and design
• Add headlines of different sizes, colors, and fonts to make them stand out next to regular body text
• Add photos -- upload your own, grab from Instagram or a specific URL, or use Tackk's partnership with 500px or Giphy to find a photo to use
• Adjust the size and add captions to photos
• Add video from 150+ {YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, U-Stream, Animoto, ShowMe, etc. included -- here's the complete list}
• Add audio from 22 sources {SoundCloud, Spotify, Rdio, Grooveshark, etc. included -- here's the complete list}
• Add a button to make links more visible:

• Ability to add "listings" of things you can sell directly from your Tackk {PTO and spirit shops, I'm lookin' at you.}
• Add a contact form -- all responses are sent to your e-mail inbox
• Embed widgets to things like other Tackks, a Poll Everywhere poll, Prezi, Listly, Screenr, SlideShare, Twitter, etc.
• Add an RSVP {I'm thinking of field trip, class party, extracurricular group event, etc.}
• Make your Tackk public or private
• Option to add password protection to a private Tackk
• "Tag" Tackks -- similar to tagging in Blogger or Evernote -- as a way to collect and/or organize data. {For instance, I would have my students tag their Tackks with special phrases to ensure I could find them easily.}
• Customize the URL {only downside? the URL is an extension of tackk.com and not your profile, so no other Tackk user can ever personalize their poster with the same name}
•  Add an interactive comment stream -- great for encouraging conversation between your students. {Admin rights gives ability to moderate.}
• Create an assignment template so students only have to click and edit {more about that below}
• Saves automatically every few seconds -- similar to LiveBinders 
• Duplicate your Tackks to save yourself time creating similar posters
• Transfer ownership of your Tackks to a different account
• Variety of sharing options when you're finished:

I like that I could embed all the class's Tackks onto my school webpage, or even create a Tackk that links to everyone's Tackk {how's that for a confusing sentence?} to show off student work to parents and the community.

Assignment Template Feature

I have to  share the assignment template feature with you. There is currently no tutorial on the Tackk blog that tells how to utilize the lesson template feature, but I got the inside scoop from a sweet and knowledgeable Tackk rep {shout-out to Andria!}. She's going to write a blog post about it soon, but I thought I'd share here, too. 

The assignment template feature lets you create a Tackk that is editable and share that with students. So instead of sharing a static page that no one can edit {here's example I created about ABCD drawings in a science notebook}, you share this editable page that acts as a template for the assignment. For instance, here's an editable template about the scientific method. If you give students the special link to your template, they can edit a copy of your template without ever changing your original. 

To create an editable assignment template:

1. Create a Tackk. 
2. Customize the URL under "Tackk options." 
3. Make the Tackk private, and then publish it so it's live.
4. Before sharing the link with students, edit it so that "/create/copy" in written after tackk.com. For instance, my scientific method page is www.tackk.com/scientificmethod. So to let kids edit it, I would share this link, instead: www.tackk.com/create/copy/scientificmethod

I love the idea of this for my elementary students! 

Because I only have 50-60 minutes total with each class per week in Science Lab, I often print a recording sheet to glue into the notebook -- especially for my youngest students. Not only does it help prompt them about what step in the scientific method comes next, it's a way to help speed up their writing so that we have time to do an experiment and write about it in our notebooks, too.

I can definitely see myself transferring some of my recording sheets into Tackk templates. From there, I envision students tagging each assignment with a specific phrase so that I can assess and share. 

I'll leave you with my first full assignment created on Tackk {link here if you want to see the full version on the Tackk website}. My fourth graders are actually in the middle of this assignment, so I probably will not get to use Tackk for it until next year. But now that I know the process, I'm sure there will be plenty more Tackk projects to come.

     

How to Add Social Media Buttons to an Outlook E-mail Signature

I talked in this blog post about adding social media buttons under your e-mail signature, so I thought I'd write another post to show you how to do that. :) You can click on any of the photos on this page to see an enlarged version.

1. Find social media buttons. {They're also sometimes called "social media icons."} This Pinterest board has several pins with free social media buttons for you to choose from, or you can just run a Google search for free ones.

2. Download the social media buttons to your computer. A lot of times, artists will make several different sizes of buttons and let the customer choose which ones to use. If that happens, the social media buttons will probably download in a zipped file. You can read this post to refresh your memory on how to unzip files.

3. Pick which buttons you're going to use. You can pick the size and which icons you need. For instance, in my work e-mail signature, I used a button for my science lab website ("homepage"), Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Since I don't personally use Facebook in the classroom, I linked to our campus's Facebook page.

The buttons I used

You won't typically find a social media icon for a homepage -- I made that one myself. But some button sets will come with a blank template. From there, I just found a picture of a white house and layered it over the blank template. You may also need to re-size buttons if none are to your liking. You can read this post to refresh your memory on editing pictures in PowerPoint.

4. In the Outlook program on your computer, click "file." 

5. Click "options" near the bottom of the list.

6. When the pop-up below shows, click "mail." 

7. Click "signatures." 

8. Type your signature as you normally would. If you want to add a funky font to your signature, you may want to refer to this post and this post.

Some information blocked for privacy reasons -- I don't actually have big green rectangles in my signature. :)

9. Click the picture frame icon (shown below) and insert a picture from your computer. {You can insert your social media button(s), your signature in a special font, our mascot/logo, or any other picture you want.} Keep doing this until all your pictures are in place.

"insert picture" icon

 10. Add link(s) to your picture(s). Select the picture you want to add the link to, as shown below {this example shows my homepage button selected}:

  
 11. While your picture is still selected, click the link button:

12. Make sure "existing file or web page" is selected, and then type the desired URL in the "address" bar. {Make sure to link directly to your profile on social media. For instance, don't link to the Twitter homepage at www.Twitter.com; rather, link to your profile page like this: www.Twitter.com/YourUsernameHere.} You can continue this process of linking individual pictures as much as you want.

 13.  When you're totally finished, click "OK" twice, as shown below:

 

If you're in CISD, shoot me an e-mail so I can see your new signature. :)