Create Your Own Command Center in Google Slides - Free Template

If you're like me, you have specific websites that you use all day, every day.  It can be Google apps, grade books, school specific sites and many more.  I have some of the sites on my bookmarks bar, while others are Docs that have been shared with me and buried deep in Google Drive.  

I ran across this post written by Micah Shippee on Kasey Bell's Shake Up Learning site that talked about creating an "app" using Google Slides.  I loved the idea of using Slides to help simplify how we access information.  Our students utilize so many resources on a daily basis.  It only made sense to use this concept to create a "command center" to help them quickly get to where they needed to go.  

Once I had this set up for students and saw how well it worked, I had to create one for myself.  I have the same apps that the students use and included links to my Google Calendar, specific Docs, Forms and Spreadsheets I use daily to manage our 1:1.  My own command center has about 25 buttons.

Because I pretty much live inside of Google apps all day, using Slides made more sense for me to use than another outside site.  I can easily make changes and have them appear instantly.  

My command center is set to open as soon as I open my web browser.  I leave that tab open all day and go back and forth as needed.  It really is a time saver!

Sharing with Students

To make sure students had access to this resource, I included it in our library orientation training and revisited the site while helping them set up their public library card.  

Students can choose to bookmark it, pin it or have it open when they open Chrome.  

Creating Your Own Command Center

To help you get started, I've created this template.  

1.  Click on any button and replace the text with your information.  You can add pictures as I did above by creating the buttons in Google Draw.  

2.  Click the shape and click the link button to add links to your favorite sites.

3.  When you are ready to use the slide, go to your share settings and either make it public or anyone with the link can view. 

4.  Copy the web address and replace "edit" at the end with "present".

5.  Open Chrome settings and go to the On Startup section.

6.  Choose open a specific set of pages and add a new page.  Paste the link to your presentation.  Click Add.

7.  Close and reopen your browser.  Your command center should be ready to go!

I'd love to see how you set up and use your own command center.  Please be sure to share your creations in the comments!