40 Google for Education Updates for Summer 2021

Summer is a nice time to take a break and relax, but Google has instead been busy working on new updates and features for schools. 

On June 22nd Google hosted their "Anywhere School 2021" event (http://goo.gle/tas21) where they covered loads of announcements concerning 40 updates for Google Classroom, Google Meet, Chrome and Chromebooks, and Google Workspace tools in general.

In case you missed it, or are just trying to review through everything that was shared, see below for a list of all 40 updates that were shared at the event.

Podcast Spotlight: Easy EdTech Podcast - 10 Little-Known Google Tools

I recently had the pleasure to be a guest on the Easy EdTech Podcast with Dr. Monica Burns, where I shared about "10 Little-Known Google-Friendly Tools".

I and am excited to share the episode with you, as well as encourage you to dive into all the episodes of the podcast! This podcast is described as follows:

Monica Burns from the popular EdTech blog ClassTechTips brings you teaching strategies, tips and activity ideas. Each podcast focuses on how to make EdTech integration easy with a shout out to favorite EdTech tools for classrooms. Monica provides actionable, relevant tips for teachers so you can make this school year the best one yet! Join author, speaker, and blogger, Dr. Monica Burns for an EdTech podcast that helps take the stress out of integrating education technology into your classroom.

I was so excited to be a guest on the show! See below for a link to the episode and other relevant resources...

What's New in Google - May 2021

Catch up on everything new in Google Workspace for Education from May 2021, and see great ideas and resources!

Below is the recorded video from our May 2021 Google User Meeting, along with the meeting agenda with all the awesome resources and Google updates from the last few months. This includes lots of new Google updates and Google resources for your class.

The monthly meetings are hosted by the Google Educator Group of Ohio, but are open to anyone from any location. The purpose of these meetings is to:

• Connect Google-using educators
• Share the latest Google Workspace news and features
• Provide tutorials, demonstrations, and how-to’s
• Share best practices of how Google Workspace is being used within schools
• Ask questions and get answers

The video from the meeting is recorded and available for later viewing for those who cannot attend or connect live. See below to view the recorded video, agenda, and all the resources from the May 2021 meeting:

Google Docs Calendar Templates for the 2021-2022 School Year

With this school year winding down, many folks may already be planning for next school year. One of those tasks may be to put together a calendar for parents or staff or others.

Although I love Google Calendar for my own organization, as well as shared events, sometimes people still appreciate a quick one-page document with helpful calendar information for the year. Recently I was helping a colleague with that need and was not able to find a Google template that quite fit.

To help out I made two editable Google Docs templates that can work well as one-pagers with important dates and details for the 2021-2022 school year. See below for the links to get your own copies of these templates, as well as some basic directions on how to edit them for your own use.

End-Of-Year Google Classroom Clean-up Tips

As the school year winds down, most teachers go through some sort of check-out procedure for their physical classrooms, making sure everything is properly organized or put away for the summer. In much the same way, you may want to do some clean-up and close-out steps for your digital classroom ... Google Classroom.

Google Classroom is a powerful tool to help you and your students collaborate and communicate, but when used year after year, it can start to become a bit of a mess and a management challenge. To help with this, there are several suggestions to consider for Classroom when wrapping up the school year.

See below for six steps that may help you clean up your Classroom as you transition from one school year to the next. However, keep in mind these are all just suggestions and each is optional. While some may not apply to your situation, hopefully several will assist you in keeping your Classroom organized, clutter-free, and efficient for a new year.

(Note: The video below is from 2019 but the content is still relevant. I have updated a few of the images in the written directions to reflect some minor changes, such as "To do" now being called "To review".)

How Big is Space? 4 Simulations to Show

Astronomy has always been a favorite topic of mine. From the time I was a child, I have loved learning about the planets, stars, other galaxies, black holes, supernovas, and more.

One thing that I have always struggled with though is grasping the actual scale of space. This is a common problem for most of us, and something that can really help our students better understand scientific concepts they are learning in school.

So how can we get a better understanding of the massive scale of the universe and the objects contained within it? One option is to use simulations that can help model space. Thankfully there are several excellent online, interactive simulations that can do just that.

See below for four of my favorite space simulation sites. Each approaches the concept of scale a little differently, so check each out to see which ones will work best with your students. And be sure to let me know of other scale simulations you have found that I can add to this list.

Free Webinar - Mathigon

Mathigon is an amazing, free collection of online math manipulatives, activities, and instructional content for teaching and learning math.

I had the privilege to host a free 1-hour webinar with David Poras, the Head of Content for Mathigon, where we explored all the awesome features of this free site.

The webinar was streamed live on YouTube, but was also recorded, so if you missed the live stream you can still watch the recorded session.

See below to watch the video, and to read more about the features of this awesome tool for math.