Monday, February 7, 2011

A Day in the Life: Google Apps for Teachers

Notes from a breakout session at TCEA 2011 Google Academy

A Day in the Life - Google Apps for Teachers
Julia Stiglitz - Business Development Manager Google Apps for Education

50 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom - Great presentation with links to many of the examples!

Google Moderator Site for this Presentation: http://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=5847a

GOOGLE DOCS IDEAS

Collaborative Writing with Google Docs - Teacher can review revision history to see the writing process of students and which student contributed to each part of the document. You can even see when they wrote it (last minute? took sufficient time?). Gives teacher great insight into the student's writing process. Teacher can also add feedback for students to the document using Insert Comment feature. You can also share comments with other teachers to see if everyone is on the same page regarding requirements. In the end, students can publish the final product to the web.

Reading Response Journals - Students write reading responses. Teacher does not have to carry around notebooks and can give more immediate feedback.

Google Translate - Write a letter to parents in English and use translate feature to change it to Spanish or whatever language you need it to go to.

Sign Up Sheets - Post a spreadsheet on the web where parents can sign up for a time to come to a conference, etc.

Science Experiments - Use Google Form to collect data. Several groups can contribute data to the same spreadsheet. Insert a Google Gadget - Ex: Motion Graph. Can then publish data to the web for review or extended learning.

Flash Card Center Gadget- Create flash cards from a Google spreadsheet

GOOGLE FORMS IDEAS
  • Formative and Summative Assessments - Especially good in 1:1 environments. Can adjust lesson on the fly based on student background knowledge or learning during the lesson.
  • Student Surveys
  • Teacher or Student Observations - Can work anywhere with a browser, including with a smart phone
  • Online Reading Record - Student can enter reading hours and responses
  • Track Discipline Referrals
  • Rubric for Grading Student Work or Presentations - For teacher or for whole class to peer evaluate
  • Collecting Info from Parents or Teachers
  • Spelling/Multiplication Tests - Write a formula to grade it for you!
  • Collect Science Data
  • Survey School
CALENDAR
  • Standards Mapping - keep everyone on the same pace in scope and sequence
  • Check out shared resources
  • Share calendars and schedule grade level, team, campus, etc. events
GMAIL
  • Translate and send emails in other languages
  • Remember to check out Google labs for useful gadgets
GOOGLE TALK
  • Bring guest speakers into your classroom without them having to travel to your physical location
  • Invite grandparents or other guests to read a story to the class
  • Hold "office hours" to give homework help
  • Hold class on a snow day!
  • Video chat is just 1:1, but text chat can be between multiple people
GOOGLE SITES
  • Teacher Websites
  • Student ePortfolios - Every student at Clemson University uses a Google site to create a portfolio
  • Embed calendars, documents
  • Student Newspapers - Brown University