Using Find and Replace in Google Docs

In this animated GIF, you can see how to access the find and replace feature in Google Docs.

Use Command+F to access tbe find tool. Then click on the three dots (a symbol of more) to access the find and replace tool.

Effective Professional Learning-1

What professional learning is going to best prepare teachers to meet their students’ needs?
Part A: Typical Professional Development
Take a moment and jot down some notes on what typical professional development in your school looks like.

• Sit and get 
• Sometimes not needed -- could be unrelated to what I do, or I could already know it and be ready for the next step 
• Forced 

What is emphasized in this typical model?

• This model is a top-down approach. The choices come from the top with little or no input from teachers. What is emphasized? Whatever is determined as important is emphasized.
• From my own past experience, this can lead to disengagement or cynicism towards school-offered PD. 

Part B: Discuss Characteristics of Effective Professional Learning
Think of a time that you learned something from a professional development experience that changed your practice as a teacher.

A few PD days stand out to me:

1. Teacher workshop in Yokohama -- my first experience at a "real" PD event
2. Making the PYP Happen
3. Google Summit

What made the experience so effective?
In these PD experiences, I was able to take a few things back to school with me to use right away. I was given a "menu" of choices and decide which was best for me (except MTPYPH).


Take notes on the characteristics of this professional development experience.

• vibrant -- lots of energy
• community
• models what should be done in the classroom

People there wanted to be there, and were interested in learning and improving. 

Digital Citizenship is Everyone's Responsibility

The mantra of many international schools, and it should be, is that all teachers are English teachers. Students, especially non-native students, need to be receiving a constant, consistent message about how to communicate.

Grading some projects, I found some students taking liberties with material found on the internet and found some students copying code when writing HTML.

You can tell it's copied when the code has elements that are inconsistent:

I wonder if this student thought it was OK to copy and paste from a site without a citation. Surely this student knows this is a no-no in English or History class. But why try it in a blog post or when making a website?

I take responsibility for not being explicit enough, and/or not repeating the message enough in my class. But is this connection not being made with students? Is it a case of them thinking, "copying is wrong in this class, but not in another"?

How can I help the teachers at my school be consistent about the message we give?

Reflection

This year I have tried to keep up with all the great learning that is happening in the building, but it has been hard. I have an idea for next year where other teachers would write their own posts describing the great things they are doing in their classrooms.

I fear the additional burden the would place on teachers and I wonder if teachers would even be interested in this.

The most precious of resources we have is time. And there is never enough of it.

Today I listened to the Every Classroom Matters podcast. The topic was reflection with George Couros. He quoted John Dewey:

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.

When I brought this idea up to Victor, he suggested even devoting workshop time to use for teachers to reflect on their blogs.

How great would it be to have a period of 30 minutes to:

• put thoughts down in writing? 
• consider alternate ways of improving a lesson?
• write a blog post for parents to read about what's going on in the class?

We have students reflect on their learning all the time, what might it look like if teachers took more time to do the same?

Edit: George Couros just published a relevant blog post called Do I Have Time For That?

Google Image Search within Google Docs

One of my favorite tools within Google Docs/Slides is the ability to search for content and images. What a time save that can be!

However, you have to be careful and pay attention to the licenses.

I was watching a YouTube video where a professional designer was making a flyer for a school. He started off by using the image search feature within Google Slides to find an image. In the video, he points out that using Google Image search within Google Docs only gives you images that are safe to reuse.

Well, yes and no.

Even when Google has indexed an image as Fair Use, the license can change. And often the CC license requires an attribution. (And really, you are using someone else's work, so you should attribute anyway, right?)

The video below shows one example.

It is always a good idea to check the license terms yourself when using images you find.