How to Change Google Classroom Mobile Notifications

It's the weekend and your phone is blowing up with notifications from Google Classroom while you're playing with your kids, watching Netflix with your spouse, or finally finishing that house project. It doesn't have to be this way. 

You can take a break from "teacher mode." In fact, it's good for you and your students if you do take a break from "teacher mode" during the weekend. One of the best ways to do this is to turn off the school-related notifications on your phone. In the following videos I demonstrate how to change the Google Classroom notifications that you receive on your phone. 

Here's how to change the Google Classroom notifications on an Android phone. 

Here's how to change the Google Classroom notifications on an iPhone or iPad. 

Activities Across Grade Levels - Free Weekly Webinars

Every week I mention the free webinars that I do with Rushton Hurley on Thursday afternoons. But that's not the only free webinar that Rushton facilitates through Next Vista for Learning. He also runs a series called Activities Across Grade Levels. 

Activities Across Grade Levels is a weekly webinar series that Rushton Hurley and Susan Stewart offer for free to anyone who wants to join them on Thursday evening/ afternoon. In these half-hour webinars they cover a different activity or topic every week. This week's topic is Gamified Learning. Some of the past topics include digital citizenship, arts & culture, fake news, protocols, and time-savers. 

Last week's Activities Across Grade Levels topic was service to others. Watch the recording here or check out all of the previous episodes here. You can register for this week's webinar right here. 

ICYMI - Two EdTech Guys Take Questions & Share Cool Stuff

Every Thursday afternoon I join Rushton Hurley from Next Vista for Learning to answer questions from teachers, librarians, and tech coaches like you. We call these free webinars Two EdTech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff. We have fun doing and I hope that you'll join us for the next one. 

You can see the recording of the latest episode right here or as embedded below. If you go to the recordings page on Next Vista for Learning you can access all of the links and slides that were used during the webinar. 

In the episode we covered questions on the following topics:

• Copyright and Fair Use
• How to spend $10,000
• Music for classroom projects
• G Suite/ Google Workspaces Admin
• Alternatives to Swivl
• Gauging the mood of hybrid and online classes.

The Week in Review - The Most Popular Posts

Good morning from rainy Maine. It looks like it's going to be the perfect kind of day to stay inside to watch movies and read a good book. But I won't be doing that because I have toddlers, dogs, and an old house that always needs something fixed. We'll be putting on our wellies and jackets and going outside to play for at least a little while. I hope that wherever you are this weekend that you can get outside for some fun too. 

This week I hosted a Practical Ed Tech webinar about formative assessment methods for online and hybrid classes. An on-demand version of that webinar will be available next week. In the meantime, check out my other on-demand offerings including A Crash Course in Making & Teaching With Video. 

These were the week's most popular posts:
1. Two New Helpful Features in Google Meet 

2. The Easiest Way to Use Jamboard in Google Meet 

3. How to Create Your Own Online Board Game 

4. Addressing Two Common Copyright Misunderstandings 

5. How to Use Immersive Reader in Microsoft Forms 

6. How Prevent Weird Formatting in Your Blog Post Editor 

7. How to Create Citations and Bibliographies in Google Docs - No Add-ons Required

Thank you for your support! 

• More than 300 of you have participated in a Practical Ed Tech course or webinar this year. Those registrations help keep Free Technology for Teachers and Practical Ed Tech going. I couldn't do it without you!
• Pixton EDU is a great tool for creating comics and storyboards. 
• Cloud Stop Motion makes it easy to create a stop motion video in your web browser. 

Other Places to Follow Me:

• The Practical Ed Tech Newsletter comes out every Sunday evening/ Monday morning. It features my favorite tip of the week and the week's most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers.
• My YouTube channel has more than 30,000 subscribers watching my short tutorial videos on a wide array of edtech tools. 
• I've been Tweeting as @rmbyrne for thirteen years. 
• The Free Technology for Teachers Facebook page features new and old posts from this blog throughout the week. 
• And if you're curious about my life outside of education, you can follow me on Instagram or Strava.

Story Spheres - Create Immersive Audio Tours of Interesting Places

Story Spheres is a neat tool for adding audio recordings to 360 imagery. Story Spheres lets you upload short audio recordings in which you describe to viewers what they're seeing, the history of what they're seeing, and the significance of what's in the scene they're seeing. It's possible to upload multiple recordings. When you're done you can can share your Story Spheres story in a blog post, on social media, or any other place that you typically post a link. Take a look at this Story Spheres story about Uluru to get a better sense of what can be done with Story Spheres. 

Back in June I wrote out directions for how to use Story Spheres. You can read those directions here or watch my new video about how to make a Story Spheres story. 

Applications for Education

One of my favorite uses of Story Spheres is creating short local history projects. Students can explore their communities and capture imagery that they then narrate to tell the story behind what they have photographed. 

I used the Google Street View app to capture the 360 imagery for my Story Sphere, but there are many other free apps that will let you capture 360 imagery without needing to purchase a 360 camera.