March 2015 ~ Engaging Tech Tools for 21st Century Learners

Google Apps Calendar comes with a cool built in feature called "appointment slots". You can easily create blocks of time on your calendar that people can reserve. It's like Sign Up Genius without having to create a separate account!

Here's how it works:
1. You create "appointment slots" on your calendar. You can set individual times or choose a block and tell Google how many slots to divide it into.

2. Share the event with specific people by entering their email address or copy the appointment page URL to send in an email.

3. People sign up by clicking a specific time slot and choosing Save. (Note: Users must have a Google account to sign up for events. Parents could use their child's GCISD account if they don't have their own.) Once a specific time has been claimed, it won't show up for other users to select.

Check out the Google help page for step by step instructions on setting up your own appointment slots.
https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/190998?hl=en

Teaching our students to be good digital citizens is essential. Since not all images on the internet can be freely used in web based teacher or student projects, we need to teach students how and where to go to look for legal and appropriate images. Remember that our GCISD filter is not foolproof, so good monitoring is ALWAYS necessary.

Here are some resources: (GCISD teachers can access this presentation online: http://goo.gl/r0bzoe)

http://quest.ed.com

http://schools.clipart.com
(GCISD teachers, view the slideshow or the
flyer below for the username and password.)

http://pics4learning.com

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Regardless of the source, it’s a good idea to cite all images used in student projects.

I put together a flyer of these resources with URLs and QR codes for easy sharing with students. GCISD teachers can access the document here: http://goo.gl/SnXrcw