Unit 4: Save Time Communicating

By knowing what tools are available via Google, my time can be used efficiently and I will be able to share more information with my students, their parents/ guardians, and the community as a whole. This can be completed by Gmail, Hangouts, Groups, and Sites.

Using Gmail to Communicate with Your Classroom Community

Gmail can benefit my classroom with its flexibility to compose, organize, and respond to messages from any device. A video was attached of a teacher who uses Gmail on all of her devices to complete her work faster. As the teacher proposed her thoughts on Gmail, a few sentences stood out to me:

“Our students speak a variety of languages at home, and for many, English is not necessarily the main one.  Hablo español, but I don’t yet speak Arabic, Mandarin or French. Luckily, Gmail has a built in message translation feature. I can write the message in English and Google Translate does the work for me. It’s helpful for parents and they appreciate it.”

This goes to show that Google does try to accommodate everyone. Any diverse population within the school community is still fully involved in the learning process.  These communication lines with families and community members are now open that would otherwise be left out of the school conversation.

Organize and Search Gmail to Save Time

Gmail inbox can be organized by creating filters, customizing the inbox types, staring similar types of conversations, and creating multiple labels for messages. When a Priority Inbox is created, Gmail notices your email habits, specifically what you mark as important, delete, label, and star. Conversations that have become the most pertinent are placed front and center. Filters and stars allow for similar capabilities to streamline teacher workflow. Any email can be searched by the following criteria:

• Sender
• Subject
• Content
• Attachments

Use Hangouts for Real-time Student Communication

Hangouts instant messaging can be used in a number of ways: to remind students of upcoming deadlines, as a backchannel during teacher-led instruction, or while watching an instructional YouTube video. These hangouts allow myself and my students to instantly message anyone around the world. This provides a connected classroom and provides opportunities for students to communicate, collaborate, and solve problems with peers both inside and outside of the classroom.

There are a tremendous amount of benefits for using Hangouts with my students. A few of them are as follows:

• Students are able to find answers from other students before relying on the teacher for an answer
• Students receive real-time feedback even when they are away from the classroom
• You can share announcements and important information with your students even after they have left the classroom
• You can monitor the conversations of many groups from your one device

Use Google Groups to Build Better Class Communication

Google Groups acts as a discussion board. Those in the group can create, post, and respond to discussions and questions via the group. There are four Group types for you to choose from:

• Email list
• Web forum
• Question and Answer (Q&A) forum
• Collaborative inbox

Selecting Email List or Web Forum will determine how the group will engage in discussion either by email or web platform. Choosing a Q & A forum group is great for teaching students to work together to find answers instead of relying on the teacher. A collaborative inbox allows for group members to assign topics to each other.

In class, we often have the student who does not like to vocalize his or her opinion. By asking thought-provoking questions using Groups, students can now offer their feedback to the question and to their peers. This create a more open and accessible discussion. Again, Groups can also be used to foster relationships with parents and guardians. Resources and best practices can be shared with parents and also other teachers.

Share Your Students’ Work with the School Community

Google Site can help communicate student work with parents and the school community. Not only is it a way to strengthen communication lines, but it also allows students the opportunity to create above and beyond projects. Because Google Sites are so easy to customize, students and teachers can be as creative as they want. The creator can customize everything including the fonts and colors, footers, URL addresses, and display language.  The following task was asked of me to create a Google Site:

1. A blank template site with your name as the site title.
2. A layout that has three columns on your homepage.
3. Text with a different font.
4. An embedded Google Doc on the homepage sharing your class syllabus.
5. One additional page within your site for only your administrators to see with an embedded Google Sheet. This could student progress or a class roster.

Summary

I found it challenging at first when creating my first Google Site. There were many options to manipulate, but just like the students,  I enjoyed trying something new. There is obviously a learning curve the first time you try something, but the more exposure you have with the topic, the easier it’ll become.

Unit 3: Have a (Mostly) Paperless Classroom

It has always been a race to the copier room. However, once you have that prized position as the first one in line, you still have to worry about frequent paper jams, running out  of staples, reloading more paper, or emptying out the hole punch waste. A “mostly” paperless classroom seems like a dream come true thanks to Google.

This unit gives a brief overview on the following Google products:

• Docs
• Sheets
• Classroom
• Slides
• Drive
• Forms
• Drawings

Understanding Cloud Storage

Having documents stored in the Cloud allows for access 24/7, even when internet is unavailable. To account of offline access, Google Drive can enable offline storage. Any changes made to these documents will be automatically saved until the next online login.

Meeting the new Google Drive

Google Drive has been coined as a USB stick without the stick. It is a safe place to store documents, slide shows, pictures, videos, spreadsheets and the list continues. It is easy to insert these documents into Google Drive by dragging and dropping the contents from a desktop or an actual USB device.

Make Fewer Class Copies

One of the biggest pros to Google Docs is that it is a live document so any edits that are being made are being made in real-time. Google Docs suite, which is a Google App for Education, allows for this real-time document. The Google Docs suite includes:

• Docs - A word processor
• Sheets - A spreadsheets application
• Slides - Slide decks and presentations
• Forms - Online surveys/quizzes
• Drawings - Graphics and images

During the training, Google offers helpful hints and tutorials on how to complete tasks such as uploading, converting, and sharing files. Google does not assume that users know how to complete every task and thus applies its teaching techniques to every type of learning style.

Bring Your Quizzes Online Using Google Forms

I have become a frequent user of Google Forms; it is a quick and easy way for me to gather information about my students. It also allows me to analyze data by having the results compiled in a spreadsheet. My students also use Google Forms by building surveys, especially in AP Statistics.

In this section, the following scenario and follow up question was posted:

Mr. Reuter is a history teacher at a high school where most of the students bring a mobile device to school each day. He decides to start today off with a quiz to assess how much his students remember from yesterday’s discussion on World War I. However, Mr. Reuter also wants to ask them a probing question to get them thinking about today’s lesson. He’d like to quickly look at the results of the review questions to check for understanding but also project the results of the question to begin the day’s discussion.

If you were Mr. Reuter, how would you create a quiz and provide instruction to your students to meet your objectives? What types of questions would you ask?

If I were Mr. Reuter, I would create a simple quiz, consisting of about three questions for my students. The first question would a be a formative question to make sure a review of any of the previously taught material does not need to be had. I would look at the Summary of Responses to get some insight as to my students learning targets. The second and third questions would be an introduction to today’s lesson. Students might have to watch a short YouTube clip and then answer the follow up questions. Once the form is  complete, I can share it with my students by generating a link and posting it on the board or on the Google Classroom page. Responses will then be stored in a new spreadsheet or stored in an existing spreadsheet.

Summary

This unit was a quick overview for me. The information here was a lot of previously known knowledge, but it is never a bad idea for a refresher. I am looking forward to diving into the unknown concepts of Google.