Five on Friday

1.  Create a custom priority inbox in your Gmail.  Would you like to set up your gmail so that more important messages come to one place and other messages are stored in a different place?  Priority Inbox attempts to automatically identify your important incoming messages and separates them out from everything else. By default, Priority Inbox splits your inbox into sections.  Check it out below and then if you want to set up a priority inbox here is the link to give you more information on how to do it.  ​https://support.google.com/mail/answer/186531

---

2.  Gail Moore and I are Google Certified Teachers. That means we have worked through a Google directed process and taken a test to prove to Google that we know our stuff.  That's great, you say?  You think the certification process is only for those who are paid to work with technology?  NOPE!  Any teacher can earn their certification from Google. In fact, there is a middle school teacher, Teresa Howell who has not only earned her teacher certification but is working on her trainer certification.  It would be amazing if there were many of us who are Google certified teachers or trainers.  Please let me know if you are interested in this process!  For more information, check this out!  https://edutrainingcenter.withgoogle.com/

---

3.  A comment that I frequently hear goes something like this, "I would love to do these things, but not all of my students have computers to use." Fortunately, there are some great review games that can be played in classrooms that only have a handful of web-enabled devices.

• Kahoot,the quiz game platform, released a new team mode last spring. The team mode is designed to be used with students who are sharing computers, tablets, or laptops.
• ​Quizlet Live allows teachers to select a set of vocabulary words in Quizlet and that set as the basis of a review game that students play in teams
• Plickers uses a teacher's iPad or Android tablet in conjunction with a series of QR codes to create a student response system.
• You can use Flippity to create Jeopardy-style game boards through Google Spreadsheets.

---

4.  Here is a quote I stumbled over this week from an educator I follow on Twitter, William Chamberlain.  Something that sounds so simple but really is worth rethinking through.

​ No matter how great an idea or project is, it won't fit the needs of all your students.  

5.  Friday at the Movies:  I love the book series called Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, a photojournalist. Check out his series of books if you haven't already.  He also wrote a book called Little Humans.  Here is a video he did based on that book.