Professional Development for Google Apps for Education Pilot

At the end of August, I completed professional development for the teachers who will be piloting GAFE.  It was a two day session for 3 hours.  I am happy to say that it was very productive.

The first day, I introduced the domain to them.  They logged on to the domain and we explored many apps, such  an Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Forms and Presentations.  We also explored many apps that were installed in the domain such as:  LucidChart and Voicethread.  The second day, the teachers were able to set up their classroom by creating groups, classroom folders, (using gClassFolders script), and create a form to gather a class roster.  

While I was preparing for these sessions, I created documentation for the teachers.  If necessary, please refer to these user guides for detail documentation:

• Google Calendar User Guide
• Gmail User Guide
• Google Drive User Guide
• Google Docs User Guide
• Google Sheets User Guide
• Google Forms by Eric Curtis
• Google Drawings User Guide

Since the school year has begun, I have been meeting with the pilot teachers once a week to help them prepare and better understand the domain and all it offers.  

These mini-sessions or meetings have been productive, especially explaining the gClassFolder script and the folder tree structure it creates for the teacher and the students.  I am able to focus more on a specific tasks, explain and model it to the teachers so they have a better understanding of the concept.  

Also, I am allowing the teachers to experience hands-on mini exercises by having them create an assignment or rubric, and hand it out to the class, which includes my test student.  They are able to understand the flow of a paperless classroom by putting the assignment in the appropriate folder.  They are also able to see how a student will hand in the assignment for grading.

Although there are many ways to complete this, the pilot teachers and I are trying to make this process very simple and productive at the same time.  I am finding the gClassFolder script to be very helpful.  

TeachMeet NJ 13

I attended TeachMeet NJ in August which is a FREE technology unconference with sessions that are usually 20 minutes long.  It was amazing! It is always a great experience to meet with new people who have similar job responsibilities, who are using technology in their classrooms, who are willing to share ideas, provide professional development and information to others and so much more!

I met some amazing people who were from Southern Regional School District in Manahawkin, NJ, Liz Calderwood @Liz1544 and Kate Baker @KtBkr4.  Others who I met with were William King @wkingbg, a principal from Kentucky, Paula Naugle @plnaugle, a 4th grade teacher from Louisiana, Ross LeBrun @MrLeBrun, Meredith Martin @Geekyteach, Jeffrey Bradbury @TeacherCast, Alicia Mackall @AliciaMackall, Regina Schaffer @ReginaSchaffer, and so many others.  I enjoyed speaking with each and everyone of them.  They provided me with so many ideas.  If you want more information about these people, you can follow them on Twitter.  I provided their twitter name as well.

I wanted to share some of the tools and concepts with you.  Here is a list of apps/websites that were demonstrated in the Appsmack Down:

• VisibleTweets
• Elementary tech teachers
• Mediacore  - makes a cleaner version of youtube without ads
• ipevo - free whiteboard that you can save as .jpeg files
• Blendspace - formally known as Edcanvas
• Toonoisy app - monitors the noise in your classroom
• Zite app - collects articles on your interests
• Polleverywhere - gets your audience to participate in a discussion using their mobile device
• Remind101 - allows you to send text messages to remind students about events/tasks, etc
• 121writing - will allow you to highlight and create comments on papers, no red ink
• Gobstopper - will allow you to post articles to your students, an e-reader 

Other sessions I attended were, Mystery Skype, an awesome idea!  The students have to guess where they are skyping to.  Programming in the math classroom, Digital Portfolios using Google Drive and shared folders, How to become Google Teacher Certified, No Red Ink, Track Evidence on your iPad, Introduction to Inforgraphics, and much more!

I also would like to thank Kyle Calderwood @kcalderw, for creating and organizing this wonderful event! 

If you are in the southern New Jersey area, I would highly recommend you attend this unconferernce.  I plan on attending and even apply to be a presenter next year!