Classroom: Introducing a new product in Google Apps for Education

Happy Summer everyone!  Hope you had a great school year :)

I just received an email about a new, FREE, Google App for Education called Classroom.  I clicked on the link, read the info, and watched the video trying to figure out why this would be any better than the program we have now, Hapara Teacher Dashboard.  The verdict is in.....I was very excited to say the least!!  The BEST part is any assignment you share can have a due date and the teacher can close the assignment after that date.  But there are a lot of best parts.  It is completely linked to Google Drive for easy organization for teachers and students.  And the grading procedure.....AWESOME!!  It also looks like it has some type of classroom blog too!!  It isn't available yet but I did sign up for a preview and I'm hoping I can try it in the fall.  Follow this link, watch both videos (at the top and the bottom) and see what you think!

Here is a blog including a summary of Google Classroom.  I hope I get to try it out!!

Hope your summer is relaxing and rejuvenating (seeing this new app really helped me)!
Jen

Khan Academy- Online videos and practice for math, science, and world history

Khan Academy- This a a great website with videos that teach students how to do certain topics.  The website doesn't have ready-made note worksheets like some sites but I created a template for it and can just change the titles of the videos and the examples from the videos.

Back of the worksheet- Each box is labeled with it's title
and separated into example and notes columns.

Front of worksheet- The VIDEOS are the
titles of the videos on Khan Academy

What is really great about Khan Academy is that it is a really simple login for students using Google.  Once they are logged in their Chromebook, they click the Sign in with Google button and they are set.

You as a teacher can set up classes that your students would add you as their coach and you can then track their progress.  You can see what videos they watch, what practice they do and what progress they have made.

I send them the links to the specific videos and practice via email so it cuts down on the time spent searching for the specific videos.  Hope this helps to start and/or continue your Chromebook/online teaching and learning.  :)

Jen

Todays Meet vs. Google Moderator- Creating a backchannel during classroom lessons

Really quick post tonight. I'm presenting at our teacher technology carnival tomorrow and Thursday and needed to add this!

I wanted to talk about TodaysMeet and then I came across this blogpost from Teaching Like It's 2999.

I am going to try Google Moderator and love all of the things that it can do like participants voting on posts to rate them.

I can't wait!
Jen

Google in Education Lesson Plan Search

While I was looking around the Google education website I came across this search engine of lessons using Google tools.  You can search the lessons available and make them fit with your curriculum.  Two ideas I saw that I would like to use are using Google calendar as a timeline project for Geologic Time and using spreadsheets as a introduction to data collection for the scientific method.












Each lesson has a grade or age range (which I think most of the younger grade level lessons can be used for middle and maybe high school depending on concept) and is written out with an Overview, Materials List, Instructions, Related Links, Video Tutorials, Evaluation and Standards.  They are written out very well with a lot of information.  I really like the tutorials and related links and think they would be very helpful for students.  Check out these lesson examples.

Science: Lesson Plan: Introduction to Scientific Method - Marble Stacking Using Google Spreadsheets

Language Arts: Lesson Plan: Historical Novel

Social Studies: Lesson Plan: The Great Immigration Debate

Math: Lesson Plan: Slope and Y-Intercept

Some of the lesson plans on the site also include Google Earth lesson plans.  Since I teach 6th grade science, I am really excited about the plate tectonics and food chain lesson plans!

I encourage you to go to the lesson plan search engine in the link at the top and click on a subject (I wouldn't narrow the search much more than that since the age and grade ranges are flexible). Look at all of the available lessons and you might find something you can use with the Chromebooks.

Happy Browsing!
Jen

Google Tools Day 6- Templates

Instead of starting from scratch with a document, spreadsheet, form, presentation or drawing, Google templates offer pre-made templates for the user to just fill in.  There is a "Student and Teacher" category that offers a variety of templates ranging from certificates to lesson plans, rubrics, presentations, and project planners.

Thoughts

There are so many templates I find it easier to use the search bar at the top of the templates page.  This would be a good place for students to start when first using Google docs since it will give them some guidance on creating their own.  I also like that within each category you can narrow them down by the type of doc you need to use. Some of the templates are too specific and would need editing but that is what is great about these too, they are editable.

How I have Used It

At this point I have only used the templates for ideas and have not directly used one.  Looking through what other teachers and students have done helps to get my thoughts flowing on how to use them for my classes.  

Enjoy!
Jen

Hapara Teacher Dashboard- A bird's eye, real time view of student activity on the Chromebooks

Did you hear our district approved this software for teachers to go with the Chromebooks?!  I am very excited about it and can't wait to use it this year.

While I was piloting the Chromebooks, one thing I really wish I had control over was what the students were doing REALLY doing on the Chromebooks (my students were always on task...haha).  Of course I was walking around the room, trying to monitor each student to make sure they were doing what I had asked them to do.  And of course, there were students that were trying to get away with doing other things (listen to music, playing games, etc. Luckily I was able to figure out what to look at on each Chromebook, over their shoulder, to make sure they didn't have another tab or window open to something else.)  But this got really overwhelming and tedious.  I wished there was something available so I could "see" exactly what they were doing during my class.  Then on day the light came on, angels sang and my wish came true!  I was at a technology meeting for our district and another teacher (a teacher trained at Google in California, so cool!) showed us the Hapara Teacher Dashboard for the Chromebooks.  (I swear I heard birds singing outside ;)

Thoughts

I can not tell you how awesome this software really is!  Here are a couple of things that this software can do.

Teacher Dashboard 

One application of this dashboard is that teachers can share docs and websites to students directly and students can more easily share docs with teachers.  They just have to drop their doc into the folder for the correct class (already set up for them) and the teacher has access.  Much easier than having a huge list of shared items in your Google Drive "Shared With Me" folder. Watch this video for more information about the dashboard.

Remote Control 

Now this is the best thing EVER!!  You can push websites to each student in your classroom and it will be opened automatically onto each student's Chromebook. The best part, you can see what they are doing on their Chromebook during your class in real time!  You can close tabs and windows that the student has open when they shouldn't. Now I can make sure all of my students are on task. :) Watch this video for more info:

Seriously, cool or what?!  (Do you hear the birds singing too? :) 

Jen

Google Tools Day 5- Read & Write

Read & Write works from a toolbar within Google Docs and provides tools that are useful for all learners, including a robust dictionary, image dictionary, fact finder, translator, and text-to-speech tool.  This is a great tool for students on IEPs, but this assistive technology can be beneficial for all students!

Thoughts

The dictionary in Read & Write will read the word and the definition out loud.  The picture dictionary will show images to make the definition understandable.

Students can use the "text background color" to highlight information.  Students can choose different colors to highlight different ideas and the Read & Write tool will extract the highlights in a pop-up window and sort by color or order, students choice.  The highlights can be copied and pasted wherever the student chooses.  As I type this I can see us using this when we do CAR (Close and Analytical Reading) including highlighted reading.  Teachers can upload any document into a Google Doc to be shared with students.

Students can set the voice and speed for the speech aspect of this tool.  Students can have any part of the text read to them.

Students can highlight words from the document and click on the Vocabulary button on the Read & Write toolbar and it will create a list with definitions and pictures!  ( I can just see my students using this while reading a science text!)












This tool seems to trump the Google dictionary and image dictionary but it costs money. You can add it to a Chromebook for a free trial but the full version has to be paid for, which seems to have a lot more to offer like a speech recognizer (students speak into the microphone and it writes their words for them).  I did use one but to have it embedded into Read & Write would be great! Our district has money in the bond for apps and I hope this is added to the list. (I plan to give my suggestion to the powers that be :)

How I Have Used It

Since I found this tool later in the school year, I have only used it with a few students, mainly students with IEPs.  They used their headphones and had the text read out-loud to them.  They also used the dictionary for help with unknown words.  It also helped for them to hear what they typed out-loud.  Sometimes hearing what we write helps in the editing process. I hope to use it more next year, especially the extracting of the highlights, that looks very interesting and helpful.  And that vocabulary list?!?! WOW!!!

Becoming more of a tech geek everyday,

Jen