Themes and Colors in G-Mail

Gmail just launched a "themes and colors" section under settings in G-mail. You can customize the look of your gmail account with a variety of different looks. Here are a few examples! I went with the notebook but will probably change often...I love how Google doesn't only make life easier, but the make life more fun!

SearchWiki-Customize your Google Search

Google just announced that you can begin to customize your search preferences with "SearchWiki." You can add notes to your Google search, rearrange the order your links appear in your search and see how other people are organizing and annotating the same Google Search. Watch this short video from one of the Google SearchWiki engineers to show you how to use this feature.

Geography Awareness Week Nov. 16-22

Google partnered with National Geographic to bring the world Geography Awareness Week! The site My Wonderful World is an amazing resource for students to participate in geography games, puzzles, quizes, and more to find out about the world around us. Take some time to explore this site!

Google Earth- Ancient Rome Contest

Google just announced a new layer in Google Earth that models the ancient city of Rome. Now they are hosting a competition to gather curriculum from around the Globe to compliment this new layer. Enter the contest with your Ancient Rome Curriculum!

Explore the new Ancient Rome Layer!

Self-Grading Quiz with Google Spreadsheets

This is a screen tutorial from a fellow Google Certified Teacher Jesse Spevack on how to turn a Google Spreadsheet into a self-grading quiz. Thanks to these amazing teachers that I am connected to through the Google Certified Teachers I am able to share so many excellent resources...Google and non-google.

Build Your Wild Self

Just wanted to post a fun site that I found. I think it could be used as a good story prompt for Fantasy writing! First the students create their avatar and then write an adventure, or a “How Molly got her wings” type story…Have students create multiple characters for their story! Too fun!

It is called Build Your Wild Self. Students could create fantasy creatures that look like themselves. It also gives you information about each of the animal features that you choose! Students could use this information for their story!

Here is my example!

Google Bus

Announced on the Google Student Blog, the Google Apps Bus just made a nation wide tour to many different College campuses to see how students were using the different Google Tools. Watch this video for more ideas for how to use Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Calendar and Google Talk.