To Learn Twice

This question came up today in the Google Apps Certified Trainer Group.  It is actually pretty easy to do.  To make the change you add &hl=XX where XX is the   language code   to the embed code . So - this calendar With this embed code:  <iframe src=" http://www.google.com/ calendar/embed?src= jkloc408t9h5rdv686c8d567hs% 40group.calendar.google.com& ctz=America/Chicago " style="border: 0" width="400" height="200" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> Requires  a simple change to display in Spanish (&hl=es)   <iframe src=" http://www.google.com/ calendar/embed?src= jkloc408t9h5rdv686c8d567hs% 40group.calendar.google.com& ctz=America/Chicago &hl=es " style="border: 0" width="400" height="200" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> Pretty simple! Some of our ESL teachers are displaying their h...

As we gather more data using Google Forms and Spreadsheets there are a lot of questions out there about how we can reformat and share this data in a more consumable understandable way. In the last couple of months the Maine 207 technology team of Mark Ordonez and Janice Cacciatore and Hank Thiele have tackled this issue on several projects and as a result have created a reproducible Google Script that takes the information off a spreadsheet and ultimately creates a unique document that can be shared with anyone. Our initial purpose of attempting this was not that exciting of a project, however it proved a concept that we believe will make gathering and sharing data in Google Docs a more powerful, dynamic, and interactive process. What we initially set out to do was take a spreadsheet with information about school payments and create letters that would be mailed out to individual families. This has developed into this repeatable process: To make this easier to replicate we...

Here is a tech tip I just sent out to my staff: I wanted to share a neat feature that Gmail Labs offers us for communicating with our students, parents, and community. You have the ability to turn on "Message Translation" which will use  Google Translate  to convert a message from another language to English (or to another language of your choice). Here are the simple steps to turn this on in  Gmail (link) . Of course, it isn't as good as having a live native speaker translate for you, but it will allow you to receive messages in 58 different languages (and growing) and it translated. I showed this to a group of parents last night and they were empowered with the idea that they could reach out, in a language where they are comfortable writing, to someone at school. Even understanding that it might not be perfect, but getting a general idea across was possible, brought tears to one mother's eyes. Please take a moment to set it up and ask a...

Each year when staff return to school I send out a review (through email) and sign-off form (using Google forms) related to our  district acceptable use policy (AUP) . This is something I do to help my staff clearly understand what responsible use of technology is, and it helps protect the district when someone acts inappropriately. Just in case you are doing something similar,  follow this link  to read the email and gain access to our FAQ's regarding our AUP.  After I sent this out last week, no more than five people followed up with questions. Most of them had to do with copyright and accessing personal email. In the past week two-thirds of the staff have followed up and have signed off on the agreement. I will continue to follow up with every last staff member until their questions are answered and everyone is comfortable signing off on the form. Having an AUP only protects the organization if people understand how to follow it. Image Credit: " Back...

I am excited to help to announce an upcoming first time ever event. The Midwest Google Apps Summit on November 3rd and 4th at the Glacier Canyon Lodge in Wisconsin Dells, WI. The summit will feature several Google Certified Trainers from across Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, will feature members of the Google Apps for Education Team, and will also have representatives from vendors listed in the Google Marketplace.  The two days will offer presentations around a  variety of Google Apps topics and tools. Sessions will include from hands-on, best-practice, classroom examples, success stories, and much more. The conference costs $250 and includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, refreshments, and LEARNING! Rooms are available for $70 per night.  Details and registration for the conference can be found at  tinyurl.com/MWGS11  and a flyer is here:  http://goo.gl/NQqrE We hope to see you there!

Notice of Board Workshop.9-15-11.pdf - Powered by Google Docs test 2 post 3 Estimado padre, - Powered by Google Docs test Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Although many of our teachers have been back for a few days, today kicked off the opening events in our district. By all accounts it was a great morning, and the room was electric with the energy of a new school year. In each of the past 4 years there has been an announcement about the changes we have made, or the cool new tools available. I actually covered this in a big email to the staff the other day. What is striking about today is that it was different because it wasn’t about stuff and nobody talked directly about technology. What happened this morning was remarkable. We had several speakers and the morning culminated with a panel of teachers discussing the work they have done as a PLC. Throughout these discussions there were all kinds of indications to the advances in technology in our district. Statements like: “check our blog for information on this topic” (from the Union President), and “everything you need is available form the website” (from the Educational Foundation)...