Google Apps Certified Trainer

I just completed 35 hours of training at the Franklin office of SOITA to begin my journey to becoming a Google Apps for Education Certified Trainer!!  I am happy to say that after completing (and passing) all 6 tests I am now a "Google Certified Individual"!!

If you have the opportunity to participate in this training.... do not hesitate!   It was awesome!  I have been using Google Docs for several years and considered myself to be an advanced user.  I did however, learn a great deal more about using Google Docs. 

One thing I would like to share with you quickly is how to get a document to appear in two (or more) folders.  You may recall that before "Docs" changed to "Drive" you were able to have a document "belong" to 2 or more "collections".  This was great!!  I have several documents that I use in different classes.  Using Windows, I would have to have a copy of the document in each folder I wanted it in.  For instance, a parent letter that I use with all my classes would have to be copied to ALL my class folders.  Then if I edit the one in my Chemistry folder, I have to copy it to all the other folders!  Terribly time consuming and what happens if you forget to update the other folders?!  Chaos!!

Collections made that scenario of thing of the past.  I could now have my parent letter belong to each of my classes collections!  If I edit the one in the Chemistry collection it is also edited int the other collections because it is the same document!!   Then Drive came along, and "collections" were changed to "folders".  It seemed that no matter what I did I could not organize a document and have it "belong" in 2 different folders.

Well, thanks to the training at SOITA, I learned that all you have to do is hold down the control key and click..... So simple!  Why did I not think of that?!?!  

So, with the control key I can now organize documents into as many folders as I want..... Chaos has been averted!!

A nice file converting site

I am always in the need to convert one file type to another.  Wether it be an MP3 to M4A or AVI to MPEG  or JPEG to GIF.....  I recently had an issue with an XPS document.  This is microsoft's version of Adobe's PDF.  XPS stands for "Open XML Paper Specification". Windows Vista and 7 both have the ability to "print" XPS files.  You just choose "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" from the list of printers and away you go!

I needed a PDF version of a document on a webpage.  So, I decided to play with the XPS Document writer. (Yes, I know, I could have copied and pasted into Word or Google Docs then created a PDF from that, but hey, it was time to learn something new!!!)  I printed the page to the XPS printer, saved it and then went to Zamar, my trusty converting page.  But wouldn't you know it.... Zamzar can't convertXPS files!!  Oh nooooo!  Not to worry, a quick search and I found Convert.Files .  They can convert everything Zamzar can  but also XPS files!!  Whooo Hooo!  Upload my file, choose PDF as the output, and presto! All done!

Combining PDFs....for free!

Recently I had to combine several PDFs into one.  At school I have the full version of Adobe and boy it is real easy to use it!  However, I am not as school and I do not have the full version of Adobe.  So.....

A quick Google search gave me a large number of sites that could combine PDFs for me.  I found FoxyUtils.com  and gave it a shot.

I uploaded 3 PDFs, clicked on "Merge PDF" and very quickly was presented with a download link to my newly combined PDF!  Awesome!  One word of caution, before clicking "Merge PDF" make sure you have your files in the order you want!!  You can easily use the up and down arrows provided to rearrange your files to your hearts content!

Painless, smooth, easy and ......FREE!

An interesting quote

I was using Google Docs recently when a pop message told me about the "Research Tool" and to give it a try.  So, I did.  Wow!  Right from Google Docs you can research "Everything", "Images", "Scholars" and "Quotes". As a teacher leader with aspirations of becoming a principal,  I searched for a quote on "leadership".  True to Google form, I was getting real time results.  I ran across this one by  Jim Rohn:

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly”


Very powerful! It was a snap to add it to my Google Doc I was working on. I have only scratched the surface of the "Research Tool" but I believe I will be using it pretty frequently!

Common Core App

I know, long time since my last post!!  I have been very involved with the Dayton Regional STEM Center writing quality STEM curriculum.  It has taken a lot of my time.  But summer is approaching and I plan on being a lot more active with my blog posts.

So to start, a quick post about the "Common Core App" from MasteryConnect, Inc.  This app is for Android devices as well as the iPhone.  It allows you to view the common core standards in an extremely streamlined way.  I have already used it several times when creating STEM lessons.

The direct links to the app can be found below:
Android Common CoreApp
iPhone Common Core App

Two sites you might like

I have not written for awhile…. I have been a little busy!
I did however run across 2 sites that you might find interesting.  One is a file conversion site and the other, well, I can only say is interesting.
Most of you are probably familiar with ZamZar and how wonderfully easy it is to convert just about any file type to any file type.  However, at my school the site is blocked.  I was however able to get to DocsPal (at least on the day I tried it )  It is just as easy and wonderful to use as ZamZar.  Using DocsPal you can either upload a file or enter a URL for it.  Select what file type you want to convert it to and click convert.  You can have a download link sent to your email or wait for the conversion to be done online.  File conversion sites are extremely useful especially when it comes to video.  Digital cameras may record in an MOV format and you need it to be in WMV to use in Windows Movie Maker.  Using DocsPal the conversion is simple.
The other site is called CodeOrgan.  To really understand this site, you just have to go out and try it!  What it does is takes a URL, analyzes it and creates music based on the text it finds on the page.  Some URLs sound very happy, others sound downright scary!!  I can see this site being used by a computer science class or digital media class as they explore ways to make different sounding websites!  I am not sure exactly what other educational uses there are for the site, but I am sure someone will be able to come up with something!
(UPDATE: It appears CodeOrgan is no more.  If you find it, please let me know!)

A replacement for My Webspiration

In my last post I discussed how My Webspiration will no longer be free in April.  I also discussed how Google Docs Drawing no has connectors so it can be used to create concept maps.  Well, a few days ago I was searching through Google’s Chrome Web Store and ran across Lovely Charts.  If you are a Google Chrome user, you can install a free version of this very powerful diagramming application.

To use the free version you have to be using Google’s Chrome Web browser (here is the link to download Chrome). After you have Chrome installed, go get Lovely Charts here from the Web Store.

The free version does have a few limitations.  For instance you can only save one editable diagram at a time and can only collaborate on one diagram at a time (I have not tried this feature yet….)  Straight from Lovely Charts here is what they say about the free version:

Please note that Lovely Charts free version only allows you to maintain one editable chart of your own and collaborate on one chart at the time.
You certainly CAN create this new diagram, and you WILL be able to export it if needed, but you WON'T be able to save it for later revision, unless you delete the already existing diagram or decide to upgrade your account.
A premium account is exceptionally available from as little as €29/year for now, would you like to upgrade now?

I have “played” with it for awhile now and it is very user friendly.  It has a lot of stock symbols and shapes.  You can also import your own!  So give it a try, it might be just what you need!