Sunday, March 19, 2017

DocStickers: A Docs + Keep Integration for Old School feedback

Today, I'm excited to tell you about  DocStickers!  If you can give me 90 seconds of your time, this video is worth a watch!  Otherwise, continue below.




I remember getting papers back with stickers and stamps as a kid.  While I may not remember the specific assignments and what I learned from them, but I remember how it made me feel when I saw a sticker or stamp on them.  While my teachers were just taking stickers from a page and adhering them to all of the student papers, it meant something because they took them time to do it.  They didn't have to do it, they cared enough to do it.  It meant something to read "Excellent!" "Great job!" "A+!" and even better when it was the coveted scratch-n-sniff sticker!
Sticker: "Grape Job"
One of my students asked for this sticker, so I made it.
I may have to provide grape bubblegum with it for the full effect though!

With most of my assignments having gone digital, I still want to be able to bring this joy to my students.  I've kicked this idea around for a while, but there really wasn't a seamless way to get images/digital stickers into a Doc...until the latest Google Keep update (in Docs).  So while I can't bring you a way to make your student papers smell like grapes, cherries, or bubble gum, I can show you a way to bring the joy of stickers to your students' digital assignments.  DocStickers was born!

Photo example of a DocSticker in a student assignment.
Example of a DocSticker in a student assignment.  "Now you're flying!"


Brought to you by the wonderful integration of Google Docs and Google Keep.  Enjoy!

Some goodies for you to get started (links open in a new window):
"Starter Pack" of DocStickers (links to a Google Folder...which I will continue adding to)
Quick-Start Video (in case you can't view the one above)
Quick-Start Flier (also pictured below)
*new* Tutorial: Creating Stickers in Google Drawings (2 min video)
*new* Google Drawing Template (make a copy to edit your own)

One thing I want to make VERY clear.  This isn't about turning a worksheet into a digital assignment just to add a sticker to it.  It isn't about creating more work for you as a teacher.  It IS about helping you give feedback to students (and making your grading time a little bit cheerier).  It IS about making sure we aren't just "passing back" (returning on Google Classroom) assignments without some sort of feedback.  Much of the work my students do has gone digital.  This was true in my math classroom, and it is a reality in my computer science classes.

There are many forms of feedback I utilize and this is a complement to written and/or verbal feedback.  Can it be more than that?  I hope so.  The Google Keep integration lets you insert more than just images, and Keep is very much a lesser known tool despite it's power for cross-device bookmarking, shared lists and notes, etc....the possibilities are seemingly endless.  I look forward to sharing more ways you can utilize this tool both as a teacher and with your students.

I have high school students who remember getting stickers and stamps on their work when it was handed back.  And although it may seem childish, they miss it.  They miss the way it made them feel.  I want to make sure that joy doesn't go the wayside as we go paperless.


Tweet me @i3algebra #DocStickers I'd love to know what you think!

If you would like to share this idea (edcamp, tips session, etc) I'd also love to collaborate with you to help you share this idea in the greater context of student feedback.



Click the link above to access this pdf
Quick-Start Flier



51 comments:

  1. This is such a great way to integrate with Keep. Where did you get the sticker designs? What app did you use to make them?

    Love this idea and totally stealing it.

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    1. I made them using Google Drawings (believe it or not)! Good old fashioned shapes, text, and free-form drawing combined with some positive affirmations! Steal away!! Use the shared folder above to get started with some of my designs. I'll add more as I make them!

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    2. Thank you so much for sharing

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  2. Love this!!!! Thanks for sharing and for creating such easy to replicate tools and tutorials.

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    1. Thank you for the #DocSticker love. Working on some more basic tutorials...planned on having them out but it's been such a crazy week!

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    1. Aww...thank you Matt!!! You have no idea what that means coming from you! I'll admit, I did imagine how much fun it would be using the big ViewSonic screen to demo these! If you're in the booth at ISTE again I might try to steal some screen time from you!

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  4. Love this idea and will share it with my school. Quick question for you. Is there a quick and easy way to have only your stickers show up in your google keep sidebar in docs? All my other notes show there and all I can think of is using the search feature. Thanks for sharing this awesome idea!

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    1. Thanks! If you have them added to a label, use magnifying glass in the top of the Keep pane and type in the name of the label and it will filter it. It doesn't need the whole name, once I type in "S" it pretty much pulls all of mine forward. Unfortunately Keep is going to default the most recent to the front as more is added. This is useful for other uses, but unfortunately more difficult here.

      Thanks for asking this! I'll have some more screen captures/videos out to help with this soon. Let me know if there's anything other questions you have.

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  5. Could this be easily used for badges in a gamified classroom leaderboard?

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    1. I don't see why not! It mostly depends on how you have your documentation set up. This is just giving a shortcut to insert an image. It can go into any Doc, even inserted directly into a table...just can't go directly into the header/footer.

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  6. Love this! Kids love stickers and I love sharing ideas with my school staff that make learning fun! I could not add the stickers to my Keep directly from Google - had to download first. But have them working now!

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  7. I LOVE THIS!!!! It could be because I love stickers but this is awesome! Thanks for sharing! I think I'm gonna lock myself in my cloffice and make some stickers now.

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    1. Just be sure you let yourself out to go home for the weekend! Glad you are excited!

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  8. Thank you so much for sharing! I'm going to make some fun French ones and would be delighted to share them with you if you're interested ;)

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    1. You're welcome! I have Spanish and French translations I'm working on to the ones already posted so those versions will be out soon! If you would like to contribute any you have made, just send me an email!

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    2. What's your email address? If you prefer to keep it private you can email me at Stephanie.Jackson@epsb.ca and I'll share the French stickers I've made with you.

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  9. Thank you so much for sharing! Students will love these. I'd love to see a tutorial on creating the stickers in Google Drawings. :)

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    1. I posted a video tutorial and template in with the links in this post yesterday. I hope you find them useful!

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  10. How do you make the stickers. I love the ones you have, but where should I go to add more sticker options? This is awesome btw!!!

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    1. Thank you for the support! You can make your own (drawing tutorial soon), have students create, pull in images and crop...lots of possibilities. There are clip art images that can be used through insert > image as well. Those can be downloaded and added to Keep so the are all kept together (pun intended).

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    2. I posted a video tutorial and template in with the links in this post yesterday. I hope you find them useful!

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  11. Brilliant idea! Thanks for sharing.

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  12. This is a WONDERFUL use of Keep! Thanks so much for sharing your ideas, your hard work and your talents!

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  13. I love this idea. I am a media specialist in charge of 3 middle schools and am going to share this with all of them. Thanks for sharing.

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  14. Such a great idea, and fun way to give students feedback, be creative with types of stickers you use, therefore it's more meaningful and​ authentic with your classes. I have always been a fan of stickers, Really like this! thanks so much for providing such a great explanation awesome!! :)

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  15. Thank you for sharing this great idea!

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  16. Thank you! These are perfect!!! What a great idea! Do you know if there is an easy way to keep the stickers at the top of your google keep? Are yours archived in keep?

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    1. The Keep sidebar displays most recent notes at the top. Since I have the stickers tagged, I can type "Sticker" and they come back to the top. Often I don't need to type the whole word. I hope this helps!

      If you would like to send feedback to the Keep/Docs team, they would love to hear suggestions! It would be a great idea to have a "Favorite Notes" feature where those are always displayed first.

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  17. This is so great! I cannot wait to share this with staff at my next PD session. They will LOVE it.

    Quick tip that worked well for me: I changed the template from 2x2 inches to 4x4 inches. The actual size of the sticker didn't change when I downloaded it, added it to Keep, and dragged it into my Doc, but the resolution of the sticker was crystal clear.

    Thanks again for the fabulous idea!

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    1. Thank you! Yes, the resolution is better with larger, but depending on how/where you add to the Doc, you may just need to resize since it tends to load true to size. Inserting into a table does auto-size it though!

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  18. Sure! Send me an email stephanie.filardo at gmail.com and we can get some going!

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  19. Hi Stephanie! Love this idea. One issue I'm having is that I do not get the Add to document menu option if I am using the Header. I can place a sticker anywhere in a document, just not the header. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

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    1. Sorry Chris, that is a limitation on the Keep add-on. I’m working on a way to add these more efficiently, stay tuned!

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  20. Stephanie,
    How do I get your images into Google Keep to use them on the google docs?
    Jay

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    1. I download them as .png and create a new note with each in Keep. That said, stay tuned for an update that will simplify this process!

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  21. Thank you! This idea is great! I have mastered making badges in Google Drawing, now you have opened my mind to endless possibilities!

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  22. Thanks, Stephanie! Great ideas! Even a beginner like me can be successful!!

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  23. I love this idea, but it's not working. I'm trying to do this, but in Google classroom, when a document is "turned in" to me, I cannot open the Side Panel that has access to my Keep. Not sure if any of the directions in your video have changed now that there is a quick side panel, but I definitely do not see any thing in the tools menu that says Keep Notepad.

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  24. Thanks for the helpful video! For some reason when I go to tools "Keep Note Pad" isn't there. Any ideas? I do have the Google Keep extension on my computer...

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  25. Thank you for sharing this out! I will pass it on to my colleagues!

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  26. Great post! Your insights are valuable and the way you explain things is easy to understand. Thank you for sharing.Couplings

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