Two Must Have Google Sheets Templates for Teachers

October 27, 2015
Google has recently revamped its template galleries for Docs, Sheets and Slides and introduced some handy pre-designed templates to use with students in class. The galleries are still a work-in progress and feature only a limited set of templates but more will be released in the upcoming weeks. We spent sometime sifting through the Sheets gallery  and picked out these two beautiful templates for you to use in your daily teaching. You can customize the templates and change the values to include yours.

To access and use any of these templates, go to Sheets Gallery and click on 'More' on top right hand side and scroll down to  'Education' category.


1- Grade Book

This is a wonderful grading sheet that allows you to calculate and save students grades. Using the Grades tab, you can enter the assignments, quizzes and tests in Row 2. Then assign the total points possible for each one in Row 3 and students grades will automatically calculated and displayed in columns C/D. This sheet also includes an ‘Individual Report’ tab that lets you view reports for individual students. There are also illustrative charts that are generated automatically for grade distribution based on class average and for average scores per assignment.

2- Attendance 

Use this template to easily record class attendance using four major values: present (P), late (L), excused absence(EA), and unexcused absence(UA). You can customize these values from  the Attendance Key tab and use the ones you want.

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Two Wonderful Google Sheets Features for Teachers

October 23, 2015
Below is an excellent video tutorial from Google for Work in which John and Debbie explain how to use the new Google Sheets features. As you probably know, Google has recently added a number of powerful new functionalities to Sheets allowing users to do more with their spreadsheets. Two main features are reviewed in this tutorial: Explore and Templates. Here is a quick overview of these features from Google Docs Help page.

A- Explore
Explore allows you to see automatic charts and analysis based on the data in your spreadsheet. You can also use it to find patterns in your data and add the charts directly to your spreadsheet. This is how to see charts and analysis automatically on your computer

• Open a spreadsheet. If you want to see information for a specific portion of your data, select a range of cells. Otherwise, you will get insights based on where your cursor is.
• In the bottom right, look for the Explore icon . If the icon is green, click it to see recommendations and tips.
• If the icon is gray, there is no analysis to see at the moment.
• Charts and analysis will appear, showing trends and patterns from the data in your spreadsheet. Hover over a chart to see which data in the spreadsheet is being used in the chart.
• You can continue to see more recommendations by selecting different parts of your data.
• To close the Explore panel, click the X in the top right corner.

This is how to add a chart or formula to your spreadsheet

To add a chart or formula from the Explore panel to your spreadsheet, you can drag the chart or formula into your spreadsheet. You can also add a chart by clicking the Insert chart icon .
Note: You can only add a chart or formula to a spreadsheet if you have permission to edit the file.

B- Templates
You can now select from a number of pre-designed templates to use with your Sheets. These templates are arranged into four main categories: recently used, personal, work, and education. To access the templates gallery click on sheets.google.com then select one of the featured templates at the top of the page. Or, to see all of the templates, click More in the top right.

Watch the video below to learn more about how to use Explore and Templates features. Enjoy

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8 Excellent Google Sheets Add-ons to Create Smarter Spreadsheets

October 20, 2015
In today’s post, we are introducing you to a collection of important add-ons to use on your Google Sheets to create smarter spreadsheets with beautiful designs and more sophisticated functionalities. Using these extensions will enable you to add different styles and fonts to your spreadsheets; remove duplicate values between two tables or in one sheet; find and clean up data; split names to several columns, search in values, formulas, notes and hyperlinks in all sheets at once; easily generate Gantter schedules from your sheets; add reminders to your sheets; smart autofilling of data into other columns based on the values of the other columns, and many more.

1- Styles

'This add-on will make adding beauty to your spreadsheet a breeze. It's so easy to use, all you need to do is select a few cells you want to style and then click one of the styles in the Style viewer sidebar.'

2- More Fonts

'More fonts works just like the default fonts in your spreadsheet. After selecting some cells to format, simply click More Fonts in the add-on menu and choose a font. If you want to choose from even more fonts and see what they look like, all you need to do is choose Show More Fonts in the menu. This will open the spreadsheet sidebar where you can see the full list of fonts formatted in their own style. '

3- Remove Duplicates

'Follow 5 simple steps to find duplicate or unique values between two tables or in one sheet. This add-on comes with two useful wizards. One will help you compare two different tables or columns and remove duplicates; the other will search for unique and duplicate rows within one sheet. '

4- Power Tools

'One-click solutions for daily tasks: split cells, remove duplicates, change case, find and clean up data, work with formulas & more. Power Tools add-on cuts the clicks on repeated tasks and brings features for organizing and unifying data in Google Sheets. '

5- Split Names   

'Enable this add-on for your sheets if you ever need to have first and last names in different columns. You can complete this task in a click: choose the name parts you need and click "Split" to have them pulled out to separate cells. That's it!'

6- Schedule Generator    

'This add-on allows you to quickly generate Gantter™ schedules from Google Sheets. With one click, you can highlight a list of tasks in Sheets to create a Gantter™ schedule or use a template to create a more robust schedule with start date, end date, resource, and notes! Once your Gantter™ schedule is created you can use Gantter for Google Drive™ to open and save your files directly from Drive and use all the power of Gantter™ to develop gantt charts, assign resources, track cost and completion for all your project tasks.'

7- Add Reminders   

    

'This spreadsheet can be a simple personal task list or a project-management interface that requires team-wide coordination. Add Reminders lets you receive email reminders before dates in a specific column of your spreadsheet are reached.'

8- Smart Autofill

'Smart Autofill add-on uses Machine Learning via the Google Prediction API  to fill missing values in a column of data, based on other data in the column and the data in adjacent columns. It will look for patterns in the rows of data where there are values present in the column, and apply them to fill in the missing values of the column.'

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Two Important Google Sheets Tips for Teachers

July 30, 2015
In today’s post, we are sharing with you two important Sheets tips pertaining to email notifications. You can use these tips to receive email notifications and keep track of the forms you create and share with your students. The first way is through the use of Sheets integrated feature called ‘ Notification rules’ and the second one is through using a third party add-on called Form Notification.

1- Notification rules
 This is a feature we have covered in an earlier post a few months ago. 'Notification rules' allows you to receive a notification email  every time a student submits a form. You can select whether you want to be notified each time a change is made to the form or only when a user submits a form. Similarly, you can also choose whether you want to receive a daily digest email or an instantaneous email. In this way, you will be able instantly track all the forms submission from your students and determine who submitted what and when. Here is how to activate it:

Head over to your Google form, and click on “ Tools” and select “Notification rules”

Select from the options provided in the box.

Watch this video to learn more about this tip.

2- Form Notification
This is a great Sheets add-on we discovered through Time Saving Tips. 'This add-on allows users to create and configure email notifications that are sent when a Form receives submissions. Users can have emails sent to the creator of the Form and/or send short, customized reply emails to the Form submitter.'

Watch this video to learn more about this add-on

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Excellent Google Sheets Tools for Assessment and Grading

July 29, 2015
Google Sheets add-ons store has a multitude of excellent educational apps teachers can employ to enhance their productivity and improve their classroom workflow. Today we spent sometime wading through these extensions and curated the list below. This is a collection of some useful add-ons to help you with the assessment and grading of your students work.

1- Flubaroo

‘Flubaroo is a FREE add-on to Google Forms/Sheets which lets you quickly grade and analyze student performance on multiple choice and fill-in assignments. Within a minute you'll be able to:

  * Get scores for each student, and identify students in need of extra help.
  * View average score, and a histogram of scores.
  * Quickly identify questions which a majority of the students missed.
  * Email students their scores, along with optional notes to the class and/or to each student.
  * Assign your own score to open-ended questions.’

2- Doctopus

‘Doctopus gives teachers the ability to mass-copy (from a starter template), share, monitor student progress, and manage grading and feedback for student projects in Google Drive…Doctopus increases student collaboration and enables a powerful shift in teacher workflow --  scaling teachers' ability to manage and assess writing tasks and projects that motivate rich, authentic student production and collaboration (e.g. the development of core career, college, and 21st-century skills).’

3- Super Quiz

‘Super Quiz adds brilliant functionality to a quiz made with Google Forms. By completing the quiz once with an answer key, all future submissions are automatically graded correct or incorrect. What’s more - you can get a break down of class understanding and a list of incorrect students for each question - perfect for intervention!’

4- Online Rubric

‘Use Online Rubric for any assignment, including presentations, performance, and participation grades, and send grades to your students without the hassle and waste of paper and copiers.Online Rubric supports multiple emails for each student in the case of revisions and allows you to use previously created rosters and rubrics within the add-on.’

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A Handy App for Converting Google Sheets into Google Docs

March 27, 2015
Save As Doc is an excellent Google Sheets add-on that you can use to convert any spreadsheet created in Google Sheets into a Google Document.The app is especially helpful in improving the legibility of lengthy cell text entered manually or through a Google Form. Some of the features Save As Doc provides to its users include:

The ability to choose any number of adjacent cells to output
Customize column headings by choosing any heading style you want
You can add a page break after each row of data
Generate a Google Doc to keep in your Google Drive

Here is how to use it:
1-Choose "Save As Doc > Start."
2. Select the cells to include or choose "Select all data".
3. Enter a file output name.
4. Modify the output settings in the sidebar.
5. Choose Save as Doc.

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An Easy and Quick Way to Grade Quizzes on Google Drive Using Super Quiz Tool

February 22, 2015
Super Quiz is an excellent Google Sheets add-on that allows teachers to add some amazing functionalities to the quizzes they create through Google Forms. For instance, when you create a quiz, you only need to complete it once with an answer key and all future submissions will be automatically graded according to the answers you provided. Another important feature of Super Quiz is that it enables you to get a break down of class understanding and a list of incorrect students' answers  for each question in case you want to stage an intervention.

Also, “By filling out a few cells of information, you can also generate personalized differentiated written feedback emailed to students as soon as they submit a response. No need to monitor and ‘re-grade’ - just set-up and go!You can split your quiz in up to 4 different topics, and provide specific feedback on each. If you don’t want to email students, you can choose to print feedback on a 2x2 array, too.”

Watch the video below to learn more about Super Quiz

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