New Adventures + old files You Can Do

How's your summer going? It's still the early part of July, and I am fully enjoying the slower pace, the sunshine, and the over all relaxed atmosphere in my house. I'm writing this in one of my most favorite spots at my house ... the front porch.

One of the pieces of my job at the end of the year is to help those who are retiring or leaving our district decide what to do with items in their Google Drive. I know, based on the conversations in the Google Trainer group, many districts struggle with this. There really isn't any one perfect method. I'm not the biggest fan of Takeout or Transfer - too often you are taking a bunch of "crap" that you will never look at or use again.

Instead, I always recommend making 2 folders - "Keepers" and "I don't need". (Some of you may need a 3rd folder "Transfer ownership".) Create these, then go through your Drive and make FAST decisions. Don't open everything, don't stress about it, just decide. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you go through your Drive:

• did I use this file/folder THIS school year?
• will it help me in my future position?
• should I digitally "give" this to someone who is staying here?

You could also use the "Last modified" date to help you decide if you are unsure. If it wasn't modified in the pas 2 years or so, I'd say you most likely won't miss it. You might be surprised at what you REALLY end up taking with you.

Once you've done this clean up, don't worry about the "I don't need" folder. Just leave it alone. For the "Keepers", it gets a little tricky. You CAN share it with a personal or other school domain account, but that doesn't transfer ownership. You CAN make copies in your personal account ... but this takes a TON of time.

INSTEAD:

• right click on your "Keepers" folder & select download
• note where it downloads - it'll become a "zip" file
• click ONCE on the zip file - THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT ... ONCE. ONLY ONCE.
• you should now see a file folder named "Keepers". DO NOT OPEN IT.
• Open the Google account you want to move it to
• MAKE sure you have the setting turned on to "Convert uploads to Google Docs editor format" 
• drag & drop the "Keepers" folder in

VOILÁ!!!

You have just saved what YOU choose to take with you to your new adventure! It might even be smart to create a brand new Google account to keep your brain straight, or depending on how much you decide to keep, you might need it for storage purposes. 

Transferring ownership is a wonderful ability within Google Drive. If you are good with it and you don't have 1,000 files, rather than sharing or making others to make copies of files you own, you can transfer ownership. Yes, it must be done to each individual file - ugh - but it IS easy. OR ... share the folder with those who need/want these files and they can make their copies for themselves. One final option - if you have the ability, you could create a shared drive and drop files in there, adding on those who need/want them, and they can pull the files out and become the owners. This all depends on the sheer number and the comfort level of you and those you are sharing with.

ONE MORE THOUGHT ... have you thought about your email??? Let's tackle that next week!

Here's the link: New Adventures + old email You Can Do

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End of Year Tech You Can Do: Tip #2 Clean up your LMS/Google Drive

This week’s tip is very important. I know we are all exhausted - you might you are too exhausted to tackle this. But I promise you won’t regret it. Depending on your LMS and how your district is set up, you might think you are in good shape, but there are a few key steps you really need to make sure happen.

Step 1: Return ALL ungraded work. Most LMS’ have a handy spot to see what work this applies to. In Google Classroom, go to your “To Review” list. In Schoology, on your main page, there is an area in the upper right corner that shows you what work needs action. Ideally this is a step you do on a regular basis throughout the year, so it shouldn’t be a lengthy task.

Step 2: Archive/preserve your current content. This depends on your LMS. 

With Schoology, your district might have it set to archive your courses automatically when the grading period is over. They might not. If they don’t, make sure you know how to - the last thing you want is to see all of this year’s courses when you start off next year. You might also want/need to do this with any course or group that you have custom created during the year. While you can access your archived courses fairly easily, we still recommend out teachers save their courses - if they want to - to their resources.

With Google Classroom, you will need to archive your current courses to clean up your Classroom homepage. Your district might be syncing your courses for you, which will take care of this step - minus any manually created classes you created. Teachers might overlook this step, but this one is SUPER important for your students, too! Any class their teacher has not archived will still be there for them next year … and that makes it tougher for them as they are still mastering the use of digital classrooms. You can re-use content from these classes even when they are archived. It will also keep YOUR homepage clear of clutter.  If you are looking for a more detailed explanation, please check out my End of Year Google Classroom You Can Do.

Step 3: Clean up Google Drive. Using an LMS like Schoology or Google Classroom is beneficial when it comes to your Google Drive. Both of these systems take care of the organization with work and assignments. This will leave you time to focus on cleaning up/organizing the random non-LMS related files we all accumulate over the course of a school year. I highly recommend setting a timer for this step.

Steps to take if you are leaving your current district: 

Now, if you are NOT returning to your current district, please still complete the above steps AND keep the following in mind:

Decide what you want to and are allowed to take with you. This is not as clean as you might think. Check with your Tech Director or IT person to find out the steps to take if you want to take files with you. 

I recommend to our teachers to make a folder in their Google Drive and move any/all files in there they want. Then download THAT folder. It will create a zip file. Click the file ONCE and then move the blue folder onto a flash drive (or if you are able to, upload it right into your personal Google Drive). This will preserve the files as Google files. Don’t open the blue folder! Also, do yourself a favor ... don’t take everything! You don’t need it. It might feel better to take everything, but really, you are just taking a lot of unnecessary items that you aren’t using now and won’t use in the future. 

In Classroom, all work basically funnels through Drive, so as long as you take the files you want, you should be good.

In Schoology, there are a few different thoughts:

• if you are moving TO another Schoology school, this video by JillR "Schoology - Export Course Content/Importing into LMS (Schoology)" might be helpful
  
  
• if you are moving to another school that does NOT use Schoology, I did find a page Export AND Download your courses from Schoology from the Forest Grove School. It provides specific steps as well as what can and cannot be downloaded.
  
  
• I've never had much confidence in exporting for future use with Schoology - but that doesn't mean it isn't possible! If you create most of your items in your Drive and then use the Google Drive assignments, you should be good to go!

*** Every Monday, I share a newsletter with a collection of Tech You Can Do resources. It is delivered right to your inbox. Interested? Sign up here!  ***

Summer Sunday Tip #4: Organize Drive - Yes! You Can!

This week my focus goes back to technology. I've been seeing in lots of places teachers asking about switching jobs and how to take their files with them to a new school. It's entirely possible with Google Take-out, but the Google admin has to have allowed it and you have to wait and hope that it works. I'm not against trying it, but I also think there are a lot of possible things to go wrong, so I have a different way of tackling this job.

Since it's summer time, it's a great time to go through your Drive and clean it up a bit because if you weren't aware - Google will be imposing some limitations on storage. Boo! I've had my time to cry over this - and now I'm ready to make the best of it.

Nearly 2 years ago, I wrote a post "Google Drive Organization You Can Do" where I shared 6 steps to help you organize your Drive. I am sharing it again today because the steps still hold value. Organizing your Drive is NOT easy ... for most teachers, it's not fun, so I cannot stress this enough ... set a timer and do it over several days or even a couple of weeks. (I talk about this in Step 3.) You can set aside 10-15 minutes and you'll be shocked at how fast the time goes.

Now, for those of you leaving one school and going to a different school - now is the BEST time for you to tackle this. I find that we tend to hold on to a lot of unneeded files. Take this time to go through your Drive and decide what you REALLY want to keep.

I'd strongly recommend the following proceed in conjunction with the 6 Steps from the post above:

• in your CURRENT Drive make 2 folders "Keep" and "Don't Need"
• go through your Drive using the 6 steps - and quickly make a decision as to which folder you need to move it to
• once you're done, share the "Keep" folder to your PERSONAL account with editing
• in your personal account, make copies of all the files (you can select multiple files at one time and use the "make a copy" to make copies of all of them at once)
• you can un-share the "Keep" folder which will take the originals away from your personal account
  

Here is the slide deck with my 6 tips to Google Drive Organization.

Now, I suppose I should go practice what I preach and do some organization of my own!

Psssst! This week I am joining forces with Dr. Desiree Alexander for "Level Up with Google Sheets" on Tuesday AND "Level Up with Google Slides" on Thursday. Check out the website, "Leveling Up with Google"  devoted to sharing this entire series and the intro series from last year.

Comment below or contact me on any of the social channels - they are all linked above on the right side.

Google Drive Organization You Can Do

Last week I shared a Slide deck focused on the icons and pieces of Google Drive. I promised to be back this week with a Slide deck focused on organization. I hope I don't disappoint!

When I work with teachers, the moment we need to open their Drive, I'm met with guilty looks and the admission of "My Drive isn't very organized! I keep meaning to get to it, but ..." I do not sit in the judgment seat. As teachers, I believe we do our best and often, we are pressed for time. When I converted to using Drive as my "digital filing cabinet", I, too, struggled. I also have tried enough strategies to know that there is no one perfect method. What I've compiled below are some very simple and basic, no-frills steps to having a better organized Drive.

The top question I get when working with teachers, is "Sarah, how do you organize your Drive? I'll just do mine like yours." WRONG!!!!! My brain works differently than yours. I house different topics than you do. I do what I do, because it works for me. You have to do what works for you. Please know, what I'm sharing today works you through a process rather than give you a formula. You will need to dig a little deep, put some thought into it, but I promise ... it pays off over and over! 

It will be investment of time in the beginning, but once you hone what works for you, you will see it will save you quite a bit of time in the long run. You'll know where the files are you are looking for, you'll spend less time re-creating what you've already created, and you will feel more confident in sharing with others. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm still not 100% perfect, so don't stress. Searching your Drive is incredibly powerful and helpful, even for the most organized. Do I hear a topic for next week? Nah ... I've got you covered already! I shared "Better Searching in Google Drive" on my companion blog "TYCD: Resources". On this blog, I try to share out a resource or tip each Tuesday with a brief overview. I'd love it if you checked it out!

And because I am not the only one sharing about Google Drive, I've created a Wakelet collection for tips/tricks/resources I come across. You can check it out:

https://wke.lt/w/s/14k-EJ

Here you go! This week, my Slide deck is here to help you organize your Google Drive better. Feel free to use it for yourself, peers, and most definitely with students. I've based it off what I do with teachers on a regular basis. Some of this is definitely geared to ANY audience, but some is specific to teachers.  If you want to use it with students, great! You might want to make your own copy & take out what doesn't work for your students (or your specific teachers). Enjoy!

Here is a LINK if you want to make a copy & modify it for you. ***

Have a question or comment? Feel free to comment below, reach out to me on Twitter @kiefersj, or email me at sarah@techyoucando.com .

Getting to Know Google Drive You Can Do

I'm excited to be back after a 2 week hiatus! This is the time of the summer when my brain really starts to focus in on the coming school year. Today is all about Google Drive. If you are a Google user, you've heard of Drive, and hopefully either you've experienced its power or someone has told you about it.

The best way I can describe Google Drive is an endless filing cabinet. (Ok, to be fair, a personal Google account only comes with 15 GB of storage ... but even THAT is a LOT!) Any Google item you create is stored here ... AND you can store pretty much anything, even if it isn't a Google product here, too.

At the end of each school year, I pop into the 4th grade classrooms and do a Google Drive activity. We talk about the pieces of Drive, we do a little organizing so when they enter our middle school they start off in a pretty good spot, and we talk about some good long-term strategies for using & managing their Drives. I also work with numerous teachers on cleaning & organizing their Drives. IT CAN BE DONE ... and relatively painlessly.

I've broken this up into 2 parts ... "Getting to Know Drive" and "Organizing Drive". Today is the first part, "Getting to Know". I've found that while most people go to their Drives often, they don't always know Drive (especially students!). There are so many options to customize Drive and really make it work FOR you. The first step is understanding the various parts of Drive. 

I've made a Slidedeck to help you get to know Google Drive better. Feel free to use it for yourself, peers, and most definitely with students. I've based it off what I do with 4th graders and everything here is appropriate for them (so definitely for you, too!). If you want to use it with younger students, great! You might want to break it up into smaller chunks or just use a few pieces. By 4th grade in our district, our students have enough items that these pieces make a little more sense.

*** UPDATE (July 30, 2019): I added in a Slide to share my thoughts on whose Drive do you display? It all depends on your audience ... students or adults? Check out Slide 3!

2 Google Drive Shortcuts You Will WANT To Do

Back in January, I wrote about two of my favorite topics ↬ Google Drive and organization. You can read that post here: Google Drive Organization You Can Do.  Today, I'm excited to share with you TWO pretty awesome shortcuts you will definitely want to add to your tool belt.

Organization greatly helps your everyday life, and these shortcuts will help you even more. 

Now, you might be thinking ... why would I want to use these? Have you ever wanted a quick peek at a file in your Drive (probably because the title isn't super clear)? Or maybe you are in your Google Classroom folder and you simply want to scan through your student work? What if you are doing a clean up and you want to change names? These 2 shortcuts are invaluable!

Select a file, then click the letter P ↬ a quick preview of the file pops open. From here, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard (or use your mouse to click on arrows on the screen) to scan through ALL the contents of the particular folder you are in. 

Select a file, then click the letter N ↬ a window will pop open allowing you to rename the file. This makes me super happy, because I don't want double-click to open the file, wait for it to load, and then click in the title box. I know it sounds silly, but every little bit of time-saving is important to me. 

*** BONUS #1 *** ↬ Did you know there are TWO different views in Drive? Yep! To check it out, look for to change your view. It will be in the top right corner, below your profile image.

• "grid view" arranges your folders & files as small tiles
• PRO - folders arranged as tiles takes up less vertical space on your screen & provides tiny little previews of files
• CON - files as tiles take up more space & titles of folders & files are shortened
• "list view" arranges your folders & files in a vertical list
• PRO - the full title of the folder & file can be seen, as well as owner & last modified info
• CON - takes up far more vertical space

2 *MUST HAVE* Google Apps You Can Do

Trip planning is a daunting task but Google is here to help, yet again! The focus of this article - the 3rd in a 6 part series - is how to utilize the Google Drive app and Google Calendar (also an app, but can easily be synced to your preferred calendar app).

In this article for Nations Classroom, a student tour company, I highlight how beneficial using the Google Drive & Calendar App can be for trip coordinators. Easy & regular access are at the top of my list!

But don't think they only work for trip planning! 

I use Google Drive & Calendar numerous times a day & since I have them on my phone for my school work, for my home life, and for the various other activities I'm involved in. Google Calendar's allow me to manage my daughters' school activities, doctor appointments, my husband's word schedule, sporting events, and everything else! 

6 Ways Google Can Make Planning Easier For a School Trip Leader: Part 3 - The Google Drive App and Google Calendar

Check out Nations Classroom if you are interested in planning a trip.

• website (www.nationsclassroomtours.com)
• Twitter (@NationsClassrm)

Google Drive Organization You Can Do

🎉 Happy New Year! 🎉

I'm starting this year off with my favorite topics - Google & Organization - and when you put these two together, I'm in heaven!

Remember the days of 4 drawer filing cabinets ... I do!  They took up a lot of floor space in my classroom (I might have even decorated mine 😆 ).  These are fabulous organizational tools ... and, at the same time, organizational nightmares! 

You know what I'm talking about!  

A lot of thought and energy was put into the overall organization of these file cabinets, but we all kept a section for papers "To File Later" ... which we rarely did! Your Google Drive can easily become the same nightmare ... but it doesn't need to be.

The new year is a great time to make the decision to organize your Drive.  Below, I've shared some basics to get you going.  But I must warn you.  It will be an ongoing task.  You will never be "done". Organization is something you must do regularly and faithfully.

Get Started:

"My Drive" ... the big picture ...

How do you organize? How is your day divided up? Content? Periods? Do you manage groups? What are the biggest chunks of your day?  Make folders to match these groupings.  Don't get hung up on how to organize inside these yet. Then, drag & drop individual files or folders inside these "main folders". 

Tip - if you have files/folders that you have no idea what they are, I recommend opening them and decide to keep or delete.  Don't be afraid to delete ... this is an incredibly important organization feature! 

Folder Names ... an overlooked tool ...

When you decide names for your "main folders", think about this ... does your brain organize by dates? By names? Be sure to use terms/phrases that you are familiar with. Keep it simple and broad.