Collection Management with Google Forms

Music educators have to be top-notch organizers - when we are managing groups, trips, and materials for 30, 50, or 70+ students in one class period, we have to be on top of our game.

Enter Google Forms!

Our school has a collection of 800+ different pieces of music (and that's the pared down collection). We've never had a systematic way to keep them organized and catalogued, and the products available for music departments aren't really the product we're looking for at the K-8 level. (For example, we don't need to keep track of fees ourselves, we don't need to track uniform pieces, we don't have to worry about elaborate trips abroad, etc...) We really just need it for cataloging information, so Google Forms is the perfect solution for that.

I created a Form to collect all of the information for each piece including...

• Title
• Composer/Arranger
• Voicing
• Number of Copies
• School Collection
• Accompaniment

Let me explain the "School Collection" entry: we have 5 schools in our district, four K-5 buildings and one 6-8 building. But there is a lot of crossover with unison, 2-part, and easy 3-part music. So to share our titles withe other music teachers in our district, we all use the same Form. That way we can avoid ordering music that colleagues may already have in their schools' collections.

One thing to keep in mind with the new Forms: The responses tab doesn't always keep things in the same order they were entered. To best search and organize, click on "Create a Spreadsheet" to see the information for each title in your collection.

If you need to make the results available to multiple people in your district, you can "Add Collaborators" on the Form and invite from there (click on the three dot menu in the top right corner). This will allow them to view the Responses sheet, not just to view and submit information on the Form.

Want to make things really easy? Enlist the help of music students looking for service hours for graduation credit, Tri-M, or Honors Society and send the Form for them to use while cataloging your music!

Take a look at this copy of the Form, and feel free to copy and then edit for your own use:

District Choral Music Library Form
** This is NOT connected to my school music library collection, it is a copy of the Form. I encourage you to enter in test information so you can go through the form yourself to see how it works! **

Student Recordings and Reflections

If you've ever taken a performing ensemble to a large group contest, you are probably familiar with the practice of judges talking into a small recorder while the performance is taking place. The first time I adjudicated this type of contest, it took some getting-used-to. I mean, you're not supposed to talk during a performance! But then, I realized how valuable it would be for two reasons:

1) Directors and student musicians get a sense for what goes in in an audience member's head during a performance - what do they pick up on? What are they listening for? What do we need to emphasize differently?

2) Instead of referring back to a point in the music or relying on memory, you get feedback as soon as it happens in the performance and you have better contextual understanding of their comment in your performance.

Why not make students an active part of this same type of practice in their own rehearsing and assessment?

Here's what that could look like:

Jane is working through her Clarinet methods book and ready to mark off a new scale on her progress report. Small group lessons are so jam-packed, though, that its hard for her director to hear everyone at the same time. So, she gets out her iPad and films herself playing the scale using iMovie. When she goes back and looks at it, she realizes that she keeps stumbling over a certain section because her fingerings are wrong. She knew it before, but now that she can see it, it makes more sense and she goes back, practices a few more times, and re-records herself playing the scale. That evening, she e-mails it to her director, and when she gets to school the next morning, she finds an e-mail from her director in her inbox congratulating her on accomplishing another step on her progress report!

David is a high school choir director and is looking for ways to efficently assess his high school boys group without doing it during rehearsal time (because goodness knows you've got to keep them engaged 100% of the time otherwise they'll be doing the spider up the doorframes!) He wants to know both their vocal progress and also how they self-evaluate. He assigns his ensemble to play the YouTube video of David playing the accompaniment for mm. 21-29 of Laura Farnell's "She Walks in Beauty" and at the same time, take a QuickTime movie of themselves singing along. Then, they are to go back, play the student recorded video, and at the same time, take a QuickTime audio recording of their comments and observations during the 8 measure passage. It seems like a lot of jumping between apps, but once they walk through it in rehearsal, the boys have no problem. In fact, they have some fun over the weekend recording the bass part and then singing the tenor part over it!

Valerie is a grade school music teacher who wants to let her fourth grade students continue progressing on their recorders even though she will be at a conference for two days. She asks them to practice in class, and then has the sub allow two to go into the hall at a time - one to perform an assigned song and one to record the performing student using Quick Voice Recorder. Then they switch performer and recorder, and once they are both done, they e-mail the file to their teacher to review.

Google Keep

Did you know about Google Keep?
Because I didn't know about Google Keep.
Why didn't you tell me about Google Keep?!

Lists, notes, photos, reminders... its all here. I honestly don't know if its a new App or if its been around for a while, but whatever the case, I'm excited.

So, Google Keep is a way to create lists, reminders, and cultivate resources, and, being Google, one of the best parts is that you can collaborate on these too!


Group project for school or with colleagues? You can create to-do lists with alarms and reminders to ensure things get done.

Like to over-organize and color code things according to topic? You'll feel right at home here.

Writing a grocery list and sending your spouse to the store? No worries - you can add and change the list after sharing it so that you get exactly what you need because it synchs across devices!

Finished with a note or list, but not ready to delete it yet? Being Google, you don't have to - just archive!

Can you tell the Type A in me is getting really jazzed about this App?

Check it out for yourself at keep.google.com.

How will YOU use Google Keep?

Quick Tip: Google Drive

I was listening to the Google EduCast on the EdReach network on my way in to school this morning, and when I heard this, though I was alone in my car, I said out loud, "No way!"

Did you know that you can include your Google Drive in your Chrome search engines so that you can quickly and easily search your Drive without having to navigate there first? Here's what you do:

1) In Chrome, go to Settings and find Search and click "Manage Search Engines."

2) Under "Other Search Engines," go down to where you can add new search engines.

3) In the first box, name it whatever you want it to be. The suggestion on the GoogleCast was "GD," but I'm so used to typing "drive.google.com," that I just named mine "Drive."

4) The second box should be the short URL - <drive.google.com.>

5) The third box should be the actual URL to search your drive: <https://drive.google.com/#search/%s>

6) Hit "Done," and refresh your page.

7) Now, when you go to your address bar at the top of your browser, just type "Drive," hit "Tab," and search for your document which will open Google Drive.

You're welcome, and have a great day!

Searching with Google

Teaching research is hugely important for 21st Century Learners. We are beyond the point of teaching facts and figures - they can look those up anytime, anywhere. But how efficiently are they able to seek out those facts and figures? Are they using quality resources and double-checking their material? Are they able to synthesize ideas from different resources and sift out unnecessary information?

A huge shout-out goes to my school Library Media Specialist, Miss Rudenga, who does so much to teach our students the Big Six research skills. But we've found that even with lots of guidance, sometimes the world wide web is a little too "wide" for students learning to research. 

Enter Google Custom Search Engine!

This is a great tool for a topical search assignment - maybe you're doing a quick question to start off your class ("What song is #1 on the Billboard Country Music Charts this week?") or doing a large-scale research project ("History of Jazz Music"). This can allow your students to practice their independent research skills in a controlled environment. 

Let's take a look at how to set one up for your class...

1. Navigate to www.google.com/cse and click "New Search Engine."

2. Start by adding sites that your Custom Search Engine. These will be the sites that your search engine will use to gather results.

From the CSE site:
You can add any of the following:
Individual pages: www.example.com/page.html
Entire site: www.example.com*
Parts of Site: www.example.com/docs* or www.example.com/docs/
Entire Domain: *.example.com

3. Name your podcast and click "Create."
4. You have two options for sharing your CSE with your students:

• Embed HTML Code: If you're able to use HTML code for your website/school web host, click "Get Code," copy the code in the grey box, and then paste it in the appropriate place in your website editing page.
• Generate a URL to Share: Click on the "Public URL" which will take you to a stand-alone site. Copy the URL in the address bar which you can then e-mail, post, or otherwise share with your students.

5. On the next screen, click "Control Panel" to customize your search engine. If you look on the left side of your screen in "Control Panel," you will see options for still more features such as "Look and Feel" (display), which also includes how the search engine comes up on the screen. If you make changes, be sure to click "Update" at the very bottom of the page.

I'm sticking with the basics right now, but play around with the advanced options, using keywords to generate results for your CSE, etc...

Happy Searching!

Cool Tools

Thanks to the Google EduCast for these two cool tools!

If you ever need a random sample and don't have the materials needed, as long as you have the internet, you're good! Just go to your Google search bar (in any browser), and type in Roll a Dice or Flip a Coin.

This could be great for calling on students randomly, splitting students into groups, etc... 

And think about math class... no more worries about handing out and collecting all of those die!

Have Fun!

6 Possible Things with Google

Recently, I've started the process to become certified by Google - first as a Google Certified Teacher, then a Google Certified Trainer, and hopefully one day have the opportunity to become a Google Certified Educator.

As I go through the process, I'll share a few tidbits that I've discovered along the way. Maybe connected, maybe just interesting, and hopefully some things that will make your life a little easier!

1) If you are composing an e-mail in Gmail and include the word "attachment" in the message and do not attach a file, it will ask you if you want to send without an attachment. How many times have we done that?! A cool new feature.

2) When doing a Google search, you can narrow down the results by reading level (Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced). For example, I did a search for Dorothy Irene Height, an American activist featured on Google's homepage today. If I'm looking for materials to use in my middle school homeroom, I would probably want information at the basic to intermediate level. To find this information, type into the search bar as normal, and when your results come in, click on "Search Tools" under the search bar, and then click on the "All Results" drop-down menu and go to "Reading Level." From there, you can select for which level you would like to see results to read and start discussion on the work of an important (but little-known)
figure in American history.

Reading level options to learn about Dorothy Irene Height

3) Google Images can be a fun and interesting way to see the world, but a little overwhelming if you are looking for something specific. Clicking on "Search Tools" after doing your initial search, you can narrow down the results by size, color, type, time, and (perhaps most importantly) usage rights. After all, we should set a good example for our students by using others' work responsibly and respectfully. Go Digital Citizenship!

Limiting my results to "Labeled for Noncommercial Reuse"

4) Trying to plan a meeting with a group that is constantly on the go? (Just try planning a meeting with a music department that has two teachers at one school full-time and three teachers that teach part of each week at five different schools each!) When you go to add a new event on your Google Calendar and go to "Edit Event," scroll down the page and click on "Find a Time" (in gray). From there, you can invite others to the meeting and if they are colleagues who also use Google Calendar and have shared their calendar with you (even just to view), Google Calendar will find a time at which you are all free to meet.

5) Since YouTube is owned by Google, here's a shortcut for you - in your address bar in Google Chrome, if you start typing "YouTube," Google will recognize the address and auto-complete. Once it recognizes it, hit "Tab," and search for whatever video your are looking for (and eliminate students getting distracted by whatever ad YouTube has featured on their frontpage).

6) Give your students and yourself extra practice researching online with Google-A-Day. (New feature - you can play the basic game without a Google+ account.) Make it a class competition to see who can find it the fastest or compete with other homerooms or class periods for a little team-building. Or just learn a fun fact each day and get really good at researching while you are at it!

What is your one incredibly helpful, fun, or interesting Google Tip you can pass along?

Google Extensions for Teachers

Being a self-proclaimed Google-phile, I was excited to learn about Extensions for Google Chrome. My first question: What in the world is the difference between an App and an Extension? Think of an Extension as a small part of an app that makes it work that much harder and more efficiently for you. 

And a shout-out to my colleague Scott for showing us this huge aspect of Google's offerings at today's Institute Day!

If you're looking for a place to start, here are 7 Google Extensions to install in your Google Chrome browser*:

1. Save to Google Drive

If you're looking at a website, pdf, image, or video, use this extension to save it to your Google Drive. Then, click the link that pops up to go directly to the document.


2. goo.gl URL Shortener

To quickly shorten a URL to send out or to easily generate a QR code, navigate to the website and click on this extensions in your toolbar. You'll have the option to copy the shortened URL or generate a QR code that you can then print or project to your students to instantly use.


3. Print Friendly & PDF

Tired of printing websites with adds, links, and unnecessary page elements? This extension generates a .pdf that you can go through and delete elements or text you don't want students to see. From there, save the .pdf to post or distribute electronically.


4. Webpage Screenshot

Here's an extension that allows you to take screenshots of an entire webpage or just the content that is visible in a window. It will immediately open in a new tab - from there, you can save, annotate, edit, and share the screenshot from that tab.


5. EasyBib Tools

This is a powerful tool that will help students learn to properly cite and evaluate sources. While visiting a website, you can find out how to cite the information and instantly find out if the source is credible, questionable, or if it has not yet been evaluated.


6. E-Mail This Page

Without having to copy and paste the hyperlink, use this extension to quickly send a webpage. Take a moment to choose if you want Gmail or your default mail server to send the e-mail before getting started.


7. Docs Quickly

With one click, you can open a new Google Doc, Presentation, Spreadsheet, or Drawing without typing in the address or opening a new tab - it is a simple extension but it will surprise you how efficient this makes your workflow.










* You have to be browsing in Google Chrome and you should also be signed in to Chrome. In order to do this, click on the three bar icon in the top right corner of Chrome and go through the sign-in process to fully customize Google Chrome to your preferences!