I’m confused! Google Docs? Google Drive?

Google offers many online apps for everyone. If you have a need, Google has you covered! At every level of DKG, groups or committees can work together on a project using Google apps that make the work easier. However, if you are like many people, you can’t sort out the difference between Google Drive and Google Docs. Aren’t they the same? I can access my documents in both. So what does each do?

Simply put, Docs is like a word processor, and Drive is the place where all of your documents, of any sort, are stored.

Google Docs is a web-based editing tool (read word processor) that allows users to create, share, and edit documents.

Google Docs:

●    Allows uploads of Word and other text-based documents;

●    Allows multiple users to work in real time adjusting margins, adding photos, editing content, and putting finishing touches on documents;

●    Allows multiple version of documents to be stored;

●    Allows owner to determine what privileges are given each user;

●    Allows the completed project to be saved and transferred to a desktop in Word, OpenOffice, RFT, PDF, or HTML format--as well as having the option to be placed in a zipped file.

Google Drive is a cloud storage solution for storing all of your files. Drive is set up to allow multiple users to have access to files and folders.

Google Drive:

●    Stores documents, presentations, music, pictures, videos and any other files that you want to save;

●    Allows you to search for anything, including text in picture files;

●    Is accessible from any device;

●    Is free for up to 15GB.

There are mobile apps for both Google Docs and Google Drive. In addition, if you are logged in to your Google account, you can access both via the Google Search page (google.com) > Google “waffle” [In the upper right corner] > select app. (See image below)

Share how you use any of the Google Apps. Your DKG sisters may be able to use your ideas!

Pinterest for Teachers

In early December, this blog gave a general overview of Pinterest. A quick review: Pinterest is a social media platform that’s used to share ideas, designs, and inspiration of all types. Pinterest is a virtual smorgasbord of images. Think of it as a visual catalog where you can bookmark your interests. Instead of bookmarking great sites to your Internet browser and immediately forgetting about them, you can Pinterest to save, store, and then call up those pins quickly and visually.

Should you, as a teacher, be on Pinterest? YES! If you are not already a Pinterest user, this Guide will help you get started. After your account is set up, this link will give you an excellent overview on how things work.

What can you do?  You can curate pins for :

• Your students - Appropriate content may include research, study ideas, and project help.
• Yourself - Appropriate content may include ideas that can help you build a better classroom
• Other teachers - Appropriate content may include lesson plans and educational resources
• Parents - Appropriate content may include student portfolios and classroom policies.

How should you organize your boards? Boards can be organized in whatever way makes sense to you. They could be arranged alphabetically, topically, or seasonally.

If you don’t already have an account, set one up. Play around with it. Share specific ideas for use! You can also check out the DKG Pinterest account:

https://www.pinterest.com/DKGSI/boards/  Great boards there will get you thinking!

Reflections on a Regional Conference

“It’s a small world” seems like a cliché, but it is becoming more and more evident

that our planet is shrinking, at least in thought. DKG has shrunk borders between

states, nations and continents for me but, at the same time, has broadened my

worldwide experiences. I recently returned from the NW Regional Conference in

Spearfish, South Dakota. For anyone unfamiliar with regional conferences, they are

similar to a high school or college reunion. Hugs and squeals of excitement are

commonplace during the conference. For some, it has been only a year since they

last saw their DKG comrade, but for others it has been a decade. Walks down

memory lane fill many conversations. If someone attended a regional conference

solely for this reason, it would be money well spent, but there is so much more to

offer.

Our general session speakers reminded us of our importance to education and

the difference we, and those before us, have already made. They made us think of

courage, determination, connectedness, empathy, and involvement. DKG women

embrace all of these characteristics! Training, break-outs, and 10-minute

takeaway sessions offered us the opportunity to look forward and to plan for 2029 and

beyond. As I reflected on my involvement in DKG, my heart was full, knowing that

across the globe, 75,000 of my sisters are leading education worldwide. I was also

reminded that physical borders may separate us, but the bond that is created among

DKG women surpasses rivers, plains, and mountains. I left the conference with a

renewed pride in DKG and look forward to our International Convention in Austin

next summer.

Beginning and Supporting

Educators are beginning new school years. I love that time of beginnings—a blank slate of a school year, new students, new learning for all, new possibilities. Some educators are beginning their careers or considering career changes or retirement. Our possibilities for making a difference in the lives of others never ends even though those possibilities look different at different stages of our lives and careers.  Women educators give and give to their students and schools. Don’t forget to give support to each other—and just as important, accept support offered to you. When someone accepts an offer of assistance or hears someone else’s recommendations, the giver and the recipient are valued. Please know that you are valued and that YOU give value. Know that your actions and reactions change your students, your colleagues, and your DKG chapter.  

Focus on the Future: Forward Moving Ever

Let’s focus on where DKG is going instead of where we have been. 

This Society is continually evolving. Often the way we evolve is very slow. For example, taking 4 years to make constitutional changes in a world filled with communication devices and at-our-fingertips exchanges is a throwback to how we were forced to communicate in other historical eras. Before typewriters and party lines existed, communication could only be slow because of the delay between exchanges. (The dateline at the beginning of a newspaper article originated before telegraphy of news. The dateline indicated the city of origin of a news item, and a reader could determine the currency of the information by counting the number of days it took a pony express rider to travel from that city to the reader.) Then typewriters and private telephone lines speeded up the process. Now, with email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram—and whatever else has come into being since I wrote the first sentence of this paragraph—we exchange formal and casual information in nanoseconds. We can make decisions–and should be—with fresh information at lightning speed. Just because “we’ve always” taken a long time to make decisions, affect needed changes, move forward, it doesn’t mean we have to continue to be delayed. We should be using our resources resourcefully to be “forward moving ever.”