Google Slides is the digital notebook you’ve been looking for!

Did you have a Trapper Keeper when you were in school?

All the cool kids had them.

Trapper Keepers were awesome because they had cool designs and could be easily expanded and customized.

That’s exactly what Google Slides can do for your students!

Google Slides is the Trapper Keeper of the 21st century! ?

Google Slides makes a great digital notebook for organizing learning activities in one place…just like a trapper keeper!

? Google Slides is the only member of the Google Drive family that will let you work with text, audio, video, AND images.

? Google Slides will help your students stay organized. Every slide represents a learning activity. Focus on one thing at a time.

? By taking advantage of a neat add-on called “Slip-in-slide” you can instantly add a new activity to ALL of your student presentations…just like adding a new assignment to your digital notebook!

I created a digital notebook to illustrate the neat things you can do with Google Slides…take a look!

Tips for creating learning activities with Google Slides:

? Every slide is a new activity – The format of Google Slides makes it easy to “sandbox” an activity. Keep it simple – one task on one slide. If you need more space…just add another slide!

? Use speaker notes for instructions – I type my instructions in the “speaker notes” which allows students to hide the directions when they are working (take a look at slides 1, 3, and 5)

? Use the edge space – Stage your shapes and draggable elements to the right and left of the slide canvas. Students drag these elements on to the slide as part of the activity (check out slides 3 and 4).

? Use the Webcam – Students can use their webcam to add photos to Google Slides. This opens up some fun possibilities like a scavenger hunt (slide 14-15) and also gives you a way to digitally receive math and spelling worksheets (slide 11).

? Add audio to your slide! – You can use audio as the activity (see the musical example on slide 1) or use audio for instructions (slide 9)

? Add video to your slide! – Adding a video is a great way to increase student interest and attention. You can embed a learning video from YouTube (see slide 7) or record video instructions using Screencastify (check out slide 8).

⚙️ Just “slip in” a new slide – There is an awesome add-on called “Slip-in-slide” that will allow you to push a new activity to an existing slide presentation. This means you don’t have to have your entire unit planned out…push out the activities one at a time.

Watch this video to learn how to use Slip-in-slide with your Google Presentation!

? Keep Google Classroom organized – A Slide presentation is one assignment with an infinite number of activities. This keeps Google classroom manageable for you and your students.

What will you create?

If you end up creating some kind of digital “Trapper Keeper” with Google Slides, I would love to know! Tag me in a Tweet or Instagram post (@jrsowash on both).