Everyone Needs a Little Google Fun This Time of Year

Why not have your students enter the Doodle for Google Contest?

Each year Google holds a Doodle for Google Art Contest for students in grades K-12 and not only is it a creative way to challenge your students, it's also fun! Plus your students have the chance to see their doodle featured on Google.com and to win great scholarships and tech packages for their school.

What is the Doodle for Google contest?

Glad you asked. Google Doodles are the creative pictures that you see incorporating the letters in the word Google when you visit Google.com. Students have a chance to create one each spring for the Doodle for Google contest. To enter, students create a doodle on the acceptable Doodle for Google Entry Form and teachers submit their masterpieces either by mail or electronically here (using a .png or .jpeg file) by February 26, 2021 at 11:59 PM (Pacific Time). Note: Forms require parent permission.

Is there a theme? 

Yes, this year's Doodle for Google theme is I am strong because...
Students should focus their entries what makes them uniquely strong. (Great SEL connections here!) 

What is in it for my students (or me)?

This year's national winner receives a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 tech package for their school, plus their artwork displayed on Google.com for a day. (Not too shabby if you ask me!) Click here for details on other prizes. 

How are entries judged?

Several great judges will narrow the number of entries to 54. Then the public will be invited to vote online. (You can impact who wins!)

What do the past winners' entries look like?

You've probably seen them, but in case not; here are a few of the United States winners since 2011.

Drawp Does NOT Drop the Ball

 

Drawp has recently released some free resources for GOOGLE SLIDES users. The resources can benefit teachers from most curricular areas. The free theme categories include: comprehension, flow (including flow charts), maps, story (including graphic organizers), tables, time (displaying various clock slides), and wheels (including a venn diagram and other graphic organizers using circles and ovals).

The possibilities are endless.  Students and teachers can utilize maps to teach Geography and History. The graphic organizers can assist students in organizing their thinking and so much more.

Continue reading to find out how to add this resource to your Google Workspace account and utilize the templates.

Installing the Drawp Add-On

1. From Google Drive or Google Search, select SLIDES from the APP LAUNCHER:
   
   
   
   
2. From the NEW SLIDESHOW, select GET ADD-ONS from the ADD-ONS menu:
   
   
   
3. Search for "drawp" in the GOOGLE WORKSPACE MARKETPLACE:
   
4. Click the ADD button:
   
5. Click INSTALL:
   
6. Click CONTINUE:
   
7. Select the preferred GOOGLE account:
   

   
8. Click  and

Accessing the Drawp Add-On Inside Google Slides

1. Select ADD-ONS in the menu bar
2. Select DRAWP FOR SCHOOL > GRAPHIC ORGANIZER TEMPLATES (FREE):
   
3. Be patient while the DRAWP ADD-ON loads:
   

Using the Drawp Add-On

1. While in the Drawp Add-On inside GOOGLE SLIDES, select the LANGUAGE from the drop-down:
   
2. Select the THEME from the drop-downz:
   
3. Click the preferred background template:
   
   And the template will be added to a NEW SLIDE at the end of the presentation:
   

Removing the Template 

1. Right-click on the preferred slide
2. Select CHANGE BACKGROUND
3. Click
4. Click DONE

Spring Cleaning: Declutter before Google Does it for You!

 

Spring Cleaning: Declutter before Google Does it for You!

For all of you who embrace G Suite to its fullest potential, a new change is coming that might affect you. Previously, Google did not limit storage for photos in Google Photos, but starting June 1, 2021 Google is going to hold tight to the 15g they give you for free.

Remember, your free 15g storage is shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. 

If you utilize all of these services, that storage allotment fills up fast. Google Photos has been around for around 5 years now, so imagine 5 years full of photos you might have housed there. That could be a lot! If you have the app on your phone, it might automatically sync your photos… Think of all of those screenshots you might not need to save forever…

Also, Google is going to start DELETING accounts that have not been used in two years. They promise to send multiple reminder emails and warnings in the application prior to deleting any content.

Basically, you need to keep your account active and stay within your 15g storage allotment unless you have purchased more. If you are worried about how much storage you have used, there is an easy way to check. 

Go to www.google.com

Sign in at the top right corner.

Click on Your profile picture in the top right corner.

 

Click on “Manage your Google Account”

If you scroll down Google has made it easy to see how much storage you have used. They even divide it out between Google Drive, Gmail, and Photos so you can see which application is using the most storage.

For a breakdown of storage, click “Manage Storage”.

Breakdown of storage in each application:

Now comes the spring cleaning. You have until June 1, 2021 to clean out your storage. If you are any where near the 15g mark, it might be in your best interest to do some spring cleaning. Google made it easy. They have a place to see where you are using the most of your storage. 

Click “Free up account storage”

Three main areas that would be a quick clean are your deleted emails, spam emails, and deleted files. Sure, Google will  clean these out for you every 30 days, but it you are close to the 15g limit, it might be prudent to get into a weekly routine of cleaning these out. Don’t forget to permanently delete your trash in Drive, Gmail, and Photos.

Emails with large attachments, large files in Google Drive, and large videos and photos. They will even show you “Other items” that you might not realize you are storing. 

A great way to quickly delete bulk unwanted emails is to search for a sender. Then you can select all and mass delete. I do this frequently because I tend to get a lot of marketing emails that can just go into the trash. Don’t forget to delete your trash forever after purging emails.

In photos you can search by screen shots, videos, etc to see which items you would like to delete! Again, remember to empty the trash after deleting to remove the deleted items from your storage.

This does not affect GSuite for Education accounts and Keller ISD Google Accounts… You’re unlimited!  But if you think you’re leaving KISD any time in the future, think of how you can backup your Google goodies!

For more information from Google, go to: https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-changes/