Google

Introduction

It is very important to find online resources that allow for people to conduct an online learning environment.  Many school districts have begun to move to a strictly google apps format.  In MISD, I do know this as a fact as for many years now they have used google apps especially google drive.  Recently they have moved to other google applications that have made learning in the classroom better, such as Google Classroom.

Google Classroom

In recent years my school district has been using google classroom, before we were using moodles or weebly to do online assignments.  I think that is has changed the way teachers are teaching in the classroom to make their rooms more innovated.   I know that many of my colleagues have used Google Classroom, as a teaching tool in their classroom.  However, from what they tell me they haven't gotten really innovative with it as they are just using it as a place where they can go paperless in the classroom.  I have even tried to use it in my classroom, but found myself doing what my colleagues where doing and using it for a place where my students could get notes if they weren't in class or turn in assignments.  However, the problem that I ran into when it came to classroom was that my students would either not have access because they were a transfer student or didn't have access at home.  No matter the problems, this week I got to take a more in depth look at Google Classroom and it was when I finally began to see how and what I might teach through this tool.

Pedagogy

The how I want to teach them is to create online learning modules that are broken up by unit.  This way they can find it very easy, they can still find missing classroom and other information that might have been given out in classroom, but I want the learning modules to be easy to find.  I took World War II as my example unit and began to plan out what I wanted to do for my learning module.  First, I took a google form and attached it the assignment for which I titled it WWII learning module.  From there I began to create my learning module, first starting out with a recorded video from me about the topic of the learning module.  Then it was followed by a series of videos that students would watch, followed by quizzes.  After that students would then be directed to a google doc where they would complete a guided reading.  The last portion of the online module would be participate in a class discussion, by posting a response to a question and comment on their classmates posting.

Content

The learning outcome is that I want students to collaborate, this why I am making them participate in an online class discussion.  I have found that when I teach and ask questions, students are not participating mainly because their friends are in class and they just don't want to be that "student" in class.  However, when I use like a poll everywhere, they are all into it and asking questions and of course participate in answering questions.  You take the face value out of a discussion students are more willing to participate.  However, the ultimate goal is to get a better grasp of the important concepts that I need them to know to pass STAAR. 

Google Books

Since I am teaching Dual Credit US History next year and I want my students to read more historical works, I decided to try and explore Google Books.  I have used it during my graduate degree studies, but it was mainly to look up a book or a few pages, I never really explored it.

Pedagogy

The way that I would teach from Google Books is that I would find a few books for the students to read, excerpts from and have them read it.  The problem with Google Books is that if you want the full book you would have to buy that book.  So the best that I could do with Google Book is find a book that is no longer in publication, which for historical knowledge that isn't good because new theories about history always emerge.  So what I would do is just have them read excerpts that are printed and have them analyze what that historian is trying to say and then have them present it in class.

Content

The  learning objective from using Google Books would be just to get them to read at a college level, instead of the easy guided readings they might get in other classes.  I also want them to read something other than a history text book, especially when they have to do their own research writings in class. 

Google Sites

The last tool that I took a look at was Google Sites, I have a colleague that swears by Google Sites.  When I first started teaching I did try to use Google Sites, but the formatting was terrible back then.  In recent years they have made vast improvements on Google Sites. So as the last tool that I wanted to explore this week, I decided that it might be worth taking a look.

Pedagogy

The way that I would use Google Sites would be for a class website, Google Classroom could be used for that but the way it is organized could be better.  With Google Sites you can arrange it with different categories, instead of just straight down a page.  I can attach documents, especially the work that students miss in class and then they could turn it into Google Classroom. It is a great way for information to be sent out to the students.

Content

The learning objective for Google Sites, would be organization.  I have seen students with their bags crammed with papers, by having a place where they can find their information very easily formatted, I think might help improve grades in my classroom.

Conclusion

Google has many great applications, and I think it would take me all summer to play around with the different applications to finally figure out what exactly I would use it for.  However, until then I think these three applications will suffice in helping me create an online environment to make my classroom more innovative.