Day 2 Blog Challenge Educational Technology

Day 2-Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year, and why. You might also write about what you’re hoping to see out of this edtech integration.

I am really excited about Google Classroom this year.  It rolled out at the beginning of the school year and our district immediately signed up.  I already have my students enrolled in their classes and we have “played” with it.

As a Social Studies teacher my plate has become full with the Common Core State Standards.  I have my  curriculum to follow, World Geography, but now I need to add Reading Informational Text and Writing Argumentative and Informative Essays. Hold up...all in 180 days with snow days, students being sick and all the other interruption thrown into the Social Studies Department. I could barely get through my curriculum to begin with and now you want me to do WHAT?  I am not Superwoman (but sometimes I do feel like it.)  By integrating the Google Technology into my lesson plans, I figured out it was not that hard, I am Superwoman.  The Reading and Writing Standards were easily integrated into my regular curriculum. This integration did not take any time away from my curriculum and I actually  have data that shows my students last year “got it” more than the students a year before.  (If you want to know more about this come to AMLE2014 in Nashville November 6-8 and see my session, The Write Stuff: Improve the Writing Process with Technology, #shameless plug).

Honestly...Google Drive was not perfect.

1) There was no good way to pushing out documents to the students.  I could create a document, then share it with all 186 students or have them find it on my website, have them make a copy for themselves in the drive.  Whew, for a 7th grade student that was a lot of steps to follow.

2) When collaborating students would share documents and give editing rights. The editors would make changes and it was difficult figuring out what changes were made. I actually had a student break down in class because a change to his document.  I was extremely thankful for Revision History.

3) When students wanted to resubmit an assignment,they had to message the teacher if they didn’t there was no way to tell if I needed to regrade the assignment.   My inbox was packed with messages from students, I could not figure out what was resolved, what was resubmitted, what was ignored and what changes were made.

Now with Google Classrooms all of the above have been fixed.  I can push assignments out to students making sure they get their personal copy.  Students will NOT give editing rights to other, only commenting/suggesting rights.  Students can submit and resubmit in Google Classroom, giving the teacher notifications in Google Classroom, not junking up emails.  

Using Google Apps for Education in my classroom worked wonders. The collaboration on projects was the best asset to my room.  Students collaborated with others from Canada, Australia, Germany as well as their own classmates.  Confidence rose, self-esteem on projects went flying through the roof.  There was no more “I can’t” or “I don’t know how.”  I was able to give immediate feedback to students and put them on the right path when they strayed.  Google Classrooms takes all this to the next level.  I cannot wait until we can dive deeper into the App.  Google Classrooms has made  me even more pumped for this new school year.