Saturday, July 25, 2015

Must Have Faster than Lighting Tools for Class

A few teachers may not know about these super quick access tools in Google Search (omnibar). So to get you ready to start back, I'll remind you. Then keep them handy for easy to grab ideas. Really easy.

Shall we flip for it?  Simply type Flip a Coin as your search term and you'll have a very random coin to flip. Sure, you could pull out a quarter in class but this way everyone in the room sees the results. (no cheating).


Best use is to give students choice. "We can complete the questions or play the game first?" If you like to keep them at the edge of their seats, flipping a coin once in awhile is worth the 1 minute.

Search for Timer and you'll have a simple count down timer. Although there are tons of these available, none are as quick to access as the Google timer. Best part is the full screen mode. There is even an alarm sound to indicate when time is up. When students enter class a timer is a good motivator to get them ready for an activity. Use the timer for clean up, for moving to groups, for think time, for just about anything. You can even time the free time - they earn it as class goes on. Just keep increasing (or decreasing as the case may be) the time allotted.

Define a word. This is a google search operator that every student needs to know. Type define: in front of whatever word you want and viola, you will have the definition. It is great fun to have students guess the meaning prior to googling. Use this anytime you want to emphasize content words. 


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