10 helpful links you should visit!

As part of my daily routine, I scan dozens of blogs, visit a handful of Facebook groups and skim through Twitter. The goal: find the most helpful resources, tools, and articles that I can share with my teacher friends (that’s you!)

Here are my top 10 links for April 2020!

All of my remote teaching resources – for the past two weeks I have been creating lots of new videos, blog posts, and podcast episodes to help teachers adjust to teaching online. Here’s everything I have created on one page. 

Much needed updates to Google Meet – Google pushed out some critical updates to Google Meet that prevent students from kicking someone out of a meeting and reusing meeting links. These updates should be live for everyone by this time. 

Auto translation now available for Android – The latest version of the Google Translate app can translate spoken and written text in real-time. The Android app will run on most Chromebook making it a great tool for anyone who teaches ESOL. 

Google Groups is (finally) getting an update – Later this year Google Groups will receive a major visual refresh. IT admins can request early access to preview Groups ahead of the public launch later in 2020. 

It’s now a LOT easier to work with images in Docs – you can now “fix” the position of an image in a document so that it doesn’t move as you adjust text elements.

New “shortcut” option for Google Drive – This update will make it easier to place a file in multiple locations, even a shared drive. This update is rolling out over the next few weeks. 

“Flatten the curve” Scratch coding project – this simple simulation demonstrates the impact of social distancing. This example could be the basis of a CS project for middle or high school students.  

Choice boards for at-home learning – Steve Wick (@WickEdTech) collected two really nice choice boards with ideas for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. 

Audience reactions in Google Meet – add Facebook-like reactions to your next Meet session by installing this simple Chrome extension.

Free virtual epidemiology course from Johns Hopkins – Interested in knowing the science behind tracking and predicting viral outbreaks? Johns Hopkins is offering a free beginner course on epidemiology through Coursera