my version of transparent, collaborative leadership...with a Teamann twist

5 reasons you should join #TCEA…TODAY! (you don’t want to miss reason #5!!)

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I love techieness. I love learning. I love organizations that focus on TEACHERS and SUPPORT. TCEA, my friends, does BOTH!

 

I’ve been a TCEA fan from way back in my teacher days, and they just keep expanding and adding more resources to their memberships to make it worth your while. My first TCEA conference I attended b/c as my principal put it at the time, “you deserve to surround yourself with like-minded people because of all you do for our campus.” what kinda intro was that?? It was destined that I would always be a fan!

Especially with what we have experienced this past year, you can’t stress enough the importance of having a community to be connected to, and @TCEA is a great one! It is so very important it is to have a variety of voices, in a variety of roles sharing perspectives and experiences.

We need our “edtech” voices in all educational spaces.

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Conferences are offered regularly, support is at a variety of levels, and this week, there’s a bonus reason to join!

5 reasons you should join TCEA right this minute:

  1. Educational, Easy to Access Webinars – Learn how to use Google Calendar to optimize your time, discover YouTube features and content that can enhance your classroom, or stay in the know about the latest trends like esports, STEM activities, and how to discuss digital citizenship with your students. They also have a PD library of all recordings going back three years! TCEA’s incredibly knowledgeable professional development staff hosts 35 Lunch and Learn webinars each year, so you can sharpen your skills and fill your toolbox with fresh ideas right on your lunch break.
  2. Access to Experts and Peers on the TCEA Online Community – Wish you had a veteran colleague on hand to answer your tech questions? Or are you looking to share your own discoveries about how to enhance the classroom experience? The TCEA Online Community has over 30,000 of your peers ready to listen and help!
  3. Professional Development – From the TCEA Annual Convention & Exposition to the Lunch and Learn Webinars, we empower educators by providing professional development opportunities tailored to their specific needs and learning styles. This year the conference was virtual and my goodness did they set the standard for what learning could like! No waiting, on-demand, and nationally renowned speakers! All from my couch!
  4. Online Resources – Learn about the latest iOS and Android apps, evaluate recent discoveries on their TechNotes Blog, or explore fresh ideas for educators on their TCEA eBook Library.
  5. And last but not least, for teacher’s appreciation week, IT’S FREE TO JOIN! How can you pass up FREE?? Even if you just join b/c it’s free, the resources that will float your way, the connections you make, and the opportunities above will more than prove that TCEA is a worthwhile membership you need as an educator!

Go here to join!

 

TCEA fanN,

Amber

You probably already how to do this, right? Forcing a copy in a google doc!

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A number of times this week I’ve noticed a shared google doc template becoming a copy of the last person who used its response…which means someone somewhere has lost their original doc. When you’re sharing a Google Document with someone else, it’s usually because you’d like their feedback or their help with editing the presentation, document, or spreadsheet. But sometimes, you really just want your recipient to make a copy of the original document. Maybe you’re sending a worksheet to a class of 20 students and you want them all to complete and return their own copy of the original worksheet. Or maybe you’re sending a template roster document to several group leaders and you want them each to copy and complete their own copies of the agenda with their notes.

Either way, it’s easier than you think!

  1. First, open your template document (the one you want to distribute), click on the Share button.
  2.  You need to make sure that your recipients can view this document. You can grant them higher permissions (commenting or editing privileges), but in most cases “Viewer” is what you want.
  3. While viewing your template document, select the document’s URL and press Ctrl + C to copy it.
  4. Now, you want to get this link to your recipients via email, you want to make an important change to this long string of gobbly-gook. Paste that copied URL, delete the word “edit” that appears at the end, and replace it with the word “copy”.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yNpP9wbxiMTtmE4taVxXjzX36Vh03HUo/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1yNpP9wbxiMTtmE4taVxXjzX36Vh03HUo/copy

5. If your person clicks “Make a copy”, a new copy of the document will appear in their Google Drive. This new copy will be private to them. You won’t have access to it, and neither will editors or collaborators on the original template. (perfect, right??)

 

Extra fun facts for you:

  • This trick only works with Google documents (docs, sheets, slides, drawings, etc). It won’t work for PDFs, JPEGs, Microsoft Office documents, or other non-Google formatted files.
  • While this URL-editing technique will give your recipients the option to make a copy of the original document, it doesn’t prevent them from viewing (and if they have permission, editing) the original document.
  • If you change the final word of the document URL to “preview” (instead of “edit”, “view”, or “copy”), you can force the recipient to view the document in ‘preview mode’, which gives them a look at the document without any of the editing tools visible. Might be hand when sharing for collecting feedback later!