Remind Launches a Chrome App for Communicating With Students and Their Parents

Remind (formerly Remind 101) has launched a new app for Chromebook users. The new Remind Chrome app allows you to send and receive messages, attachments, and stamps from your Chromebook. Students and parents who install the Chrome app will be able to login with their Remind or Google accounts to access all their messages.

The Remind Chrome app will allow you to access your message feed and see which students and parents have viewed your attachments and stamped your messages. For those who haven't heard of Remind stamps before, stamps are emoticon feedback options for students and parents. One way that stamps can be used it to allow students and parents to give a thumbs-up that they have received a message.

Applications for Education
If your school has gone 1:1 with Chromebooks, the Remind Chrome app could provide the perfect way to send important reminders to your students. Students whose parents don't allow them to install an app on a personal device can be kept informed through the Remind Chrome app on their school-issued Chromebooks.

Math at Mount Rushmore

CyArk is an organization building an online library of 3D models of the world's cultural heritage sites. Mount Rushmore is one of the places that CyArk is features in 3D. You can find the entire collection of places here.

In the CyArk lesson plan collection you will find a handful of lesson plans about the mathematics connected to Mount Rushmore. Scroll down to items 17 through 26 to find the lesson plans about Mount Rushmore. In these lesson plans you will find activities for teaching measurement, geometry, and algebra. There are lesson plans available for K-12. Some lessons are as simple as identifying shapes while others are as complex as predicting when two cracks on the surface of Mount Rushmore would intersect over time.

H/T to The Next Web. 

How to Create a Custom Map on Wikia Maps

Wikia Maps is a map creation tool that enables you to create maps on pictures that you upload to the service. Wikia calls those maps custom maps. You can also use Wikia Maps to create maps in a manner similar to those that you may have previously created in Google Maps. Wikia calls those maps "real maps." In the video below I demonstrate how to create a custom map on Wikia Maps.



Applications for Education
My first thought when I saw the custom option in Wikia Maps was that it could be a good tool for students to use to create maps about fictional places they have read about in their favorite books. To do this students would draw a map of what they think a fictional town or fantasy world looks like then upload the drawing to Wikia Maps.

How to Add Custom Backgrounds to Google Slides

When I design slideshows that are intended for sharing on the web I use Google Slides. (For in-person keynotes I use Keynote for the timing features that are built into it). One of my favorite aspects of Google Slides is the ease with which I can create custom backgrounds for my slides. In the video below I demonstrate how to add a custom background to Google Slides.

Three Nice Online Tools for Building Jeopardy-style Review Games

Playing Jeopardy-style review games is a strategy that most teachers have in their playbooks. It's a simple game and, when played in short spurts, kids get excited about it. The following three online services make it easy for teachers to create Jeopardy-style review games.

 eQuizShow is a service that was built by a high school student in New York. Unlike similar tools you do not have to download or upload any PowerPoint files to use eQuizShow. On eQuizShow you can build and display your quiz completely online. To build your quiz just enter a title, an administrative password, and your question categories. eQuizShow will then generate a grid on which you can enter questions and answers. If you don't have time to build a quiz or you just need some inspiration, browse the eQuizShow gallery. When you play the games you have the option to assign points to up to six teams playing the game. You can also play without awarding points.

Jeopardy Rocks is a newer (released in September) tool for creating Jeopardy-style review games. To create your game click "build now" on the Jeopardy Rocks homepage, choose a URL for your game board, and enter your email address. To create your questions just click on a square and enter your questions and answers. You can go back and edit your game board whenever you like by entering your board's URL and entering your email address again. When it is time to play your game in your classroom you can have up to six teams represented on the game board.

FlipQuiz is a another site designed to make it easy for teachers to create and display Jeopardy-style review games. To create a game just register for a free account then select "new board." Your new board will have six columns and five rows, but you do not have to use all of the columns and rows and you can add or subtract questions at any time. To create your questions simply type in the question and answer boxes. When you're ready to use your game click the "presentation view" to display it through a projector. Try a demo quiz on the FlipQuiz homepage to see how the presentation view works. FlipQuiz is free to use for text-based questions. A premium plan is available if you want to use images in your questions or answers. FlipQuizzes that you create in the free plan are automatically shared into the public gallery of quizzes.