The first session I attended was Google Tools for Teaching and Learning presented by Tammy Worcester.  WOW is the first word that comes to mind.  The first tool she demonstrated was iGoogle.  This is a personalized Google page.  It’s an easy way to keep up with your “favorites” from any computer. As educators we already rush to get everything done.  It can become overwhelming and time consuming to check a laundry list of web sites and blogs to keep up with the current news and trends.  iGoogle lets you create a page and have it all available with one click. 

The next tool she introduced was Blogger. If you don’t already have a blog, I recommend using Blogger.  Blogger is very easy to set up and maintain and and even has a private setting to help keep your students safe.  I have shared Blogger with some teachers at my school and the fourth and fifth grade teachers have begun using a blog for their reader’s workshop.  They post questions about the book and the students have to log in and comment.

Next, Tammy shared Google Docs.  She mentioned that a word processer and presentation option were available, and quickly showed them to us so we could see how similar they are to Microsoft Word and Power Point.  She shared the collaborative feature and explained how each member of a group can have the document open and edit.  I shared this with our Middle School Languar Arts teacher and she has been having the students do some peer editing with Google Docs.  Tammy then said she wanted to spend a little extra time on Google Spreadsheet because Google had spent some time improving the application.  She opened a spread sheet, set up a quick poll about favorite candy, and made the document public.  She then had those of us with laptops log in and enter data.  While data was being entered, the audience was able to watch the entire process on the screen.  We discussed how you could create a spreadsheet and have the students go home for homework and fill in their information then return to school the next day and immediately have data to graph or manipulate in other ways.  To go along with Spreadsheets, she demonstrated Google Forms.  You can go in and create multiple choice questions, true/false questions, or open ended questions.  When the form is filled out, the information is automatically added into a spreadsheet for easy data access.  Tammy also showed how easy this was to add into your blog so the students could take little surveys or quick quizzes and you could see the results quickly.

Another cool Google application is Google Notebook.  This is a terrific tool to use when you’re doing online research. You can quickly paste information you find and access it from any computer. You can also right click and choose “add to notebook” then click on the note button for that clip and add a quick note about the information. You can also publish your note book and use other users’ notebooks for collaboration. This could replace all the loose index cards students often during a research project.

Overall, it was a remarkable session and Tammy was a wonderful presenter.  She has written books on various topics and they are available through Sheridan World Wise.  Coincidentally, she has a new book shipping in January titled Google Tools for Teaching and Learning.

The other Google session I attended was Book in a Day with Google Lit Trips.  I didn’t think there was any other feature to learn about in Google after the last session, so I figured I was going to get some more ideas to teach literature using the tools I just learned. You can imagine my surprise when these ladies pulled up Google Lit Trips.  I wish this had been available when I was a classroom teacher and a Media Specialist.  These ladies took the book Seaman by Gail Karwoski and read it in one day with their students.  Each student was assigned a chapter to read. There were a few students who worked in pairs.  The teachers modeled the process by reading Chapter 1 aloud then filling in the visual map each student would have to complete for the assigned chapter.  On the visual map, a summary and illustration had to be provided for the assigned chapter. When the reading was completed, the chapters were presented in order to the whole class.  Next, they went to Google Earth and plotted a point for the location mentioned in their chapter.  When the entire trip was plotted the students could return to Google Maps and look at the trail Lewis and Clark followed. At each pin, you could read what happened in that chapter.  Their trip (and others) can be viewed here.  What a wonderful and engaging way to present this book. 

In order to use all these Google tools, a Google account is required.  The account is free and easy to set up.  I am now working with our teachers and administrators to determine the best way to have students begin using these in our school.  Some parents do not want their children having commercial email accounts so we are looking into setting up a class set of logins. 

I had been away from GaETC for a few years so I was excited when I was given the opportunity to attend and as always I walked away with so many new and exciting things to try and show my teachers.