Monday 16 May 2016

The fastest way to write your reports - Use a spreadsheet to write your reports

When I was in the classroom report time was not my favorite time of year. I could never think of the words to get started, and it was all a little overwhelming.

At the same time I have always been fascinated with spreadsheets, and so put these two together and over the last few years I have come up with this spreadsheet that basically writes reports for you based on a comment bank that you set up yourself.

This new version puts the student name and gender pronouns using a basic code (### for their name, and #his/her etc for the pronouns.

Here is a direct link to the spreadsheet, and embedded here is a short video that will tell you how to use the spreadsheet.

If you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @shaunyk or leave a comment on this post.



Thursday 12 May 2016

Making the ultimate WANTED poster using Google Slides.

Recently as part of a social studies unit we had class I was asked to help create "Wanted" posters. Given our students have used Googles Slides for many projects this year we decided to create the posters using this tool. As a point of difference we used a custom slide size so that we could create portrait posters. A link to this template is here, as well as on the last page of the slideshow below. (It will prompt you to make a copy)


It was a great lesson and resulted in some terrific outcomes. I also gave students the option to use iPad apps such as "Over" or "PicCollage", but most of them ended up using Slides.


Wednesday 16 March 2016

Create a Simple Digital Portfolio using this Google Slides Template

Student led conference can be a stressful time trying to get student work together in one place, providing a structure for presenting the work as well as making it look reasonable. That's why I set up this very simple Google Slides template. These are the main advantages that I see for using a system like this:
  • Works on all platforms (iPad, Mac, PC)
  • All the work can be embedded or linked into the slides
  • The slides are easily embedded in Blogger or a Google Site
  • It provides a clear and simple structure for students to follow when sharing with parents
  • It's a one stop shop, managing text, images and videos.
If you'd like your own copy of the template click here.

Leave a comment if you think I've forgotten something or for any advice you have.