Thing 45: Anything Goes Google
What an exciting module to explore now that my school has 1:1 chromebooks for all students K - 5. We received them a few months ago and the progress the students and staff have shown on these devices is absolutely amazing since many of us have no training on them. We all know that we can achieve fantastic things once we know how to do more things - already my mind is turning over the possiblilities for next year! I spent a lot of time looking at the list of possibilities but decided to try and narrow things down to a more manageable list of things I can achieve next year with the information provided and a summer time to plan.
I began the journey with the article "A new generation of Chromebooks..." to see what things are available on the newer devices - of course my chromebook is in school so I could not completely compare what they talked about in relation to what we have. The article was helpful in that in introduced some things that are most likely on our devices and if not it's something that I can inquire about to our technology department.
After reading that I decided to explore Google Classroom because I have a few saavy teachers that are currently using it and I would like to branch out to that next year. I began with the "Tour of Google Classroom" by Alice Keeler where she did a really nice job walking you through the steps required to set up a classroom. I really like the images provided so that you can follow along on your own device. I was really happy to see that she cowrote a book on how to do this which I have just ordered to provide me more ways/information on how to use this feature effectively. This article was good for getting started but I actually enjoyed the other article, "11 Things to Start with in Google Classroom." I thought this article took it a step further and provided more information on what to do with your classroom once you have set it up. Number 11 really hit home for me because one of the suggestions from my Principal after my observation (and something I thought of after he left that day) was to use Google Classroom to push out the websites I want to have the kids on. This would be exremely beneficial with my primary students who struggle with the alphabet and with my low kids in all grades. I had projected the website on the smartboard but kids still had a little trouble so a bit of time was wasted as I went student to student.
This also got me thinking of how I could use this to create a "library" of helpful hints that could be in everyone's classroom folder so that if they weren't sure how I did something I could direct them to the instructions with graphics included. This would save an incredible amount of time and frustration when I'm being asked the same question over and over. It would also provide those low kids another way to learn things so that they felt empowered by doing it themselves. I was also pleased to see that both of these authors cowrote the book 50 things you can do with Google Classroom and the companion book 50 things to go further with Google Classroom. I have just purchased both to use this summer as I plan my year.
The next thing I explored wat the webinar on Google Sites but to be honest I didn't compete this because at this time it's not an area I think I will be using any time soon. It's saved to my favorites to go back to once I figure out a way to use it successfully.
The link I really fell in love with was the Primarily Google site. I did get a little worried when the link went to a disclaimer from Google but decided to push forward and explore. I'm so happy that I did because there was so much great stuff there that I can easily see myself and my teachers using. Of particular interest were the text set pages where the teacher created the page based on what they were learning and then put up images of all of the books the kids could read. They then provided a link from the cover of the book to a read-aloud version of the book on Youtube. I see so many uses for this for students of all ages not just primary students. In the short term I'm thinking I could create one for next year's Battle of the Books that the kids can link to a book talk or book trailer of each of the selected titles. I usually do this the "old fashioned" way by talking about each book which I would continue but I wonder if this will help some of the kids decide to join once they learn more about the books. This may also be helpful for the 3 Apples Award.....the possibilities are endless! On a more academic track this would be helpful with some of the collaborative lessons I am trying to do with the teachers - I would also like to link BrainPop and PebbleGo to this.
I also really liked the magazine cover idea that would be terrific as an end product for the biography projects I'm doing with 3rd grade and perhaps a fun activity for the 2nd grade mythology projects we did earlier in the year. I have found the kids really become engaged when they get to learn and master these cool webtools that allow them to suceed in areas they may not have been able to in the traditional methods of pencil and paper. I'm really excited to delve in to some of these projects to share with my teachers as we plan for next year.
I also explored the 100+ Great Google Classroom Resources for Educators. Again, so much information that I could spend a week exploring! I like that there is so much information on there in a variety of formats. This is definitely a link that I want to share with my teachers, some of whom are nervous about using Google Classroom.
I felt this was a terrific module to explore to help me learn how to use the chromebooks more effectively and to be able to help teachers as they learn as well. The technology is really wonderful and I think it has definitely given the students an amazing way to learn and create. I love being able to tap into their creativity and to help the kids who don't have access out of school move forward in their learning. Thanks for finding all of this terrific information!
I began the journey with the article "A new generation of Chromebooks..." to see what things are available on the newer devices - of course my chromebook is in school so I could not completely compare what they talked about in relation to what we have. The article was helpful in that in introduced some things that are most likely on our devices and if not it's something that I can inquire about to our technology department.
After reading that I decided to explore Google Classroom because I have a few saavy teachers that are currently using it and I would like to branch out to that next year. I began with the "Tour of Google Classroom" by Alice Keeler where she did a really nice job walking you through the steps required to set up a classroom. I really like the images provided so that you can follow along on your own device. I was really happy to see that she cowrote a book on how to do this which I have just ordered to provide me more ways/information on how to use this feature effectively. This article was good for getting started but I actually enjoyed the other article, "11 Things to Start with in Google Classroom." I thought this article took it a step further and provided more information on what to do with your classroom once you have set it up. Number 11 really hit home for me because one of the suggestions from my Principal after my observation (and something I thought of after he left that day) was to use Google Classroom to push out the websites I want to have the kids on. This would be exremely beneficial with my primary students who struggle with the alphabet and with my low kids in all grades. I had projected the website on the smartboard but kids still had a little trouble so a bit of time was wasted as I went student to student.
This also got me thinking of how I could use this to create a "library" of helpful hints that could be in everyone's classroom folder so that if they weren't sure how I did something I could direct them to the instructions with graphics included. This would save an incredible amount of time and frustration when I'm being asked the same question over and over. It would also provide those low kids another way to learn things so that they felt empowered by doing it themselves. I was also pleased to see that both of these authors cowrote the book 50 things you can do with Google Classroom and the companion book 50 things to go further with Google Classroom. I have just purchased both to use this summer as I plan my year.
The next thing I explored wat the webinar on Google Sites but to be honest I didn't compete this because at this time it's not an area I think I will be using any time soon. It's saved to my favorites to go back to once I figure out a way to use it successfully.
The link I really fell in love with was the Primarily Google site. I did get a little worried when the link went to a disclaimer from Google but decided to push forward and explore. I'm so happy that I did because there was so much great stuff there that I can easily see myself and my teachers using. Of particular interest were the text set pages where the teacher created the page based on what they were learning and then put up images of all of the books the kids could read. They then provided a link from the cover of the book to a read-aloud version of the book on Youtube. I see so many uses for this for students of all ages not just primary students. In the short term I'm thinking I could create one for next year's Battle of the Books that the kids can link to a book talk or book trailer of each of the selected titles. I usually do this the "old fashioned" way by talking about each book which I would continue but I wonder if this will help some of the kids decide to join once they learn more about the books. This may also be helpful for the 3 Apples Award.....the possibilities are endless! On a more academic track this would be helpful with some of the collaborative lessons I am trying to do with the teachers - I would also like to link BrainPop and PebbleGo to this.
I also really liked the magazine cover idea that would be terrific as an end product for the biography projects I'm doing with 3rd grade and perhaps a fun activity for the 2nd grade mythology projects we did earlier in the year. I have found the kids really become engaged when they get to learn and master these cool webtools that allow them to suceed in areas they may not have been able to in the traditional methods of pencil and paper. I'm really excited to delve in to some of these projects to share with my teachers as we plan for next year.
I also explored the 100+ Great Google Classroom Resources for Educators. Again, so much information that I could spend a week exploring! I like that there is so much information on there in a variety of formats. This is definitely a link that I want to share with my teachers, some of whom are nervous about using Google Classroom.
I felt this was a terrific module to explore to help me learn how to use the chromebooks more effectively and to be able to help teachers as they learn as well. The technology is really wonderful and I think it has definitely given the students an amazing way to learn and create. I love being able to tap into their creativity and to help the kids who don't have access out of school move forward in their learning. Thanks for finding all of this terrific information!
You've come up with some really nifty ideas for Google Classroom! And thanks for noting that the Primarily Google link came up with that weird disclaimer. Looks like they moved their site. Just updated the link on the CoolTools lesson. So much google stuff, we could just turn CoolTools into an all GoogleCoolTools workshop!
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