Google Forms! Google Slides! Google Sheets! Oh my! In part one of the Going Google series, I wrote about the most basic feature of Google--Google Drive and Docs. (I just finished using my Drive to write our lessons for the kids of parents in a special training at my church this summer. I modified the lesson plan I have used for teaching before.) In my teaching, I've also used Google Slides and Google Forms. They have been tremendous tools in my teaching and I know that there are tons of teachers who use these frequently. They're kind of like Google Docs.
First off, as a teacher, Google Forms can be a tremendous help. I've seen them embedded in teacher websites, as a way to collect parent and student information at the beginning of the year. With answer options of multiple choice, checkboxes, short and long answer there are so many ways to use Google forms at a school or in your classroom. When I submitted my presentation proposal at iPadpalooza, it was done through forms. During my year teaching sixth grade, I used Google forms for quizzes. I created my quiz, copied the link to a shortened Google URL, and then made it into a QR code. I always projected the assignment, writing topic of the day and homework at the beginning of class. I also embedded the QR code for quizzes. Students used the iPads to scan, take, and submit the quiz. Forms gives you the option to make your form a quiz so I was able to quickly assess based on the answer key I created. There is an extension called Flubaroo that I used for these quizzes to quickly assess. With one click in the spreadsheet of student responses, I was able to find out in minutes if my students were understanding concepts. It gave me data as soon as my last class period of the day ended and I knew what I would need to go back and reteach.
Two more features of Google I love are Google Slides and Google Sheets. When they added the ability to add pictures from the iPad app to Slides, I was thrilled because I could finally work on my presentations without using my laptop or school desktop. It was easy to create teaching tools for my students and my iPadpalooza presentation which I ran from my personal iPad. Reflecting from an iPad to a projector and SMART board is an amazing thing. I did not have this my first year as teacher of record and I missed it a lot. Google Slides is my PowerPoint replacement for creating slide shows for direct instruction and it's so easy to use. I never had my sixth grade students create a presentation with it (we used other iPad apps) but I definitely plan to wherever I end up teaching next. I also have Google Slides presentations from conferences such as TCEA and iPadpalooza saved in my Drive. It's easy to access these professional development tools from both my iPad and my laptop.
Google sheets is also awesome for teachers and students. You can create databases for student information. When I was conducting student writing conferences at the beginning of my first year teaching, I had a form that I used. In that form, I included things like favorite type of writing to do, writing strengths, areas where the students could improve, etc. As I was conferencing with my students, I used my iPad to take notes and then all my student data showed up in my Google sheets. I didn't have to worry about losing the data since it was in my drive. (I plan on re-creating that form for my next school since I lost it when I left my district) Sheets is also great for math and science. Students can collect and organize data and then create a graph or chart right from Google Sheets. Such a simple process for our students. As a teacher, we also used Google sheets for signing up for things like library or computer labs times.
Google Forms, Sheets and Slides should be part of every teacher's teaching. There are so many uses and they're so easy!
-Elle
First off, as a teacher, Google Forms can be a tremendous help. I've seen them embedded in teacher websites, as a way to collect parent and student information at the beginning of the year. With answer options of multiple choice, checkboxes, short and long answer there are so many ways to use Google forms at a school or in your classroom. When I submitted my presentation proposal at iPadpalooza, it was done through forms. During my year teaching sixth grade, I used Google forms for quizzes. I created my quiz, copied the link to a shortened Google URL, and then made it into a QR code. I always projected the assignment, writing topic of the day and homework at the beginning of class. I also embedded the QR code for quizzes. Students used the iPads to scan, take, and submit the quiz. Forms gives you the option to make your form a quiz so I was able to quickly assess based on the answer key I created. There is an extension called Flubaroo that I used for these quizzes to quickly assess. With one click in the spreadsheet of student responses, I was able to find out in minutes if my students were understanding concepts. It gave me data as soon as my last class period of the day ended and I knew what I would need to go back and reteach.
Two more features of Google I love are Google Slides and Google Sheets. When they added the ability to add pictures from the iPad app to Slides, I was thrilled because I could finally work on my presentations without using my laptop or school desktop. It was easy to create teaching tools for my students and my iPadpalooza presentation which I ran from my personal iPad. Reflecting from an iPad to a projector and SMART board is an amazing thing. I did not have this my first year as teacher of record and I missed it a lot. Google Slides is my PowerPoint replacement for creating slide shows for direct instruction and it's so easy to use. I never had my sixth grade students create a presentation with it (we used other iPad apps) but I definitely plan to wherever I end up teaching next. I also have Google Slides presentations from conferences such as TCEA and iPadpalooza saved in my Drive. It's easy to access these professional development tools from both my iPad and my laptop.
Google sheets is also awesome for teachers and students. You can create databases for student information. When I was conducting student writing conferences at the beginning of my first year teaching, I had a form that I used. In that form, I included things like favorite type of writing to do, writing strengths, areas where the students could improve, etc. As I was conferencing with my students, I used my iPad to take notes and then all my student data showed up in my Google sheets. I didn't have to worry about losing the data since it was in my drive. (I plan on re-creating that form for my next school since I lost it when I left my district) Sheets is also great for math and science. Students can collect and organize data and then create a graph or chart right from Google Sheets. Such a simple process for our students. As a teacher, we also used Google sheets for signing up for things like library or computer labs times.
Google Forms, Sheets and Slides should be part of every teacher's teaching. There are so many uses and they're so easy!
-Elle
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