How to Use Google Play for Education

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I love using Chromebooks in my classroom, and over the past three years, I’ve been enhancing my instruction with all of the education applications made available in the Google Play store.

In years past I had to send a help desk ticket to our technology department when I wanted certain apps to be added to my students’ Chrome accounts, but not this year! If your school district has enabled Google Play EDU for students, you can skip the middle man, and send apps straight to your students!

Check out this tutorial to find out more about Google Play for EDU and how you can send apps to your students. If you’re already using Google Play for Education, you have to tell me your favorite apps!

How to Understand Your PowerSchool Grades

PowerSchool Grades How To Tutorial

Two common questions I get from parents and students is, “Mrs. Leonardo, what was this assignment?” and, “Mrs. Leonardo, why did I get ____ points out of ____?”

I always encourage students (and parents) to contact me whenever they have any questions about grades, but one important goal of mine is to teach my sixth graders how to be independent and self-sufficient learners.

PowerSchool makes it easy for students to start self-monitoring. Once students have their username and password, I encourage them to check their grades at least three times a week. Parents also have the ability to access grades using the PowerSchool web based application or the smartphone application.

The video tutorial below shows you how to

a.) figure out what an assignment was/where to find the assignment

b.) determine why you got a particular grade.

You can use this information for all of your classes–not just mine! I apologize for the lengthy video; I’m trying my best to get these tutorials to be straight and to the point!