Week One of GAFE in Gairloch High School

Post date: Sep 12, 2015 5:33:58 PM

Gairloch High School staff and pupils are delighted to be able to use Google Apps for Education to assist teaching and learning. We received our logins just a week ago but there’s already been big developments and changes within the school in that short time. Favourite moment of the week was a group of Higher Geography pupils racing each other to find typos whilst proof-reading each others essays before submitting. That was rounded off with them coming back again at lunchtime as they hadn't got around everyone's and they only felt it was fair that if someone had proofread theirs they returned the favour!

1. ICT Working Group re-established

In order to take forward the implementation of GAFE and other ICT policies, an ICT working group has been re-established. This a group of teachers from a variety of curriculum areas who wish to be involved in the development of different strategies and take advantage of educational technology available in GHS.

2. 1-to-1 Support for Teachers

Using a mentor model, we’ve been spending time with interested teachers 1-to-1 in order to get them set-up and explore the potential of GAFE. This has allowed personalisation for different subjects and also addressed the different skill levels of teachers unfamiliar with Google tools. This has taken between 30mins - 1 hour and has encouraged teachers to explore the tools themselves, getting in touch with the mentor via hangouts as questions arise. Some staff are now looking to Google’s training and certification as their next step to investigate the tools offered by Google and ensure they have a grounding across the different apps.

3. Organic Growth for Pupils

Rather than hand out logins to everyone at the same time, classes and groups of pupils have been introduced in a similar way to the teachers. In some cases, whole classes have been introduced in order to complete work via classroom. Using one of the IT rooms with managed devices they’ve logged on, spent time exploring and then begun to complete an assignment via Classroom. Many of the pupils have then gone home and continued to work on this as they can easily access their documents via Drive so there is no longer the barrier of needing a memory stick, having to email work to themselves or not having access to Microsoft Office on devices such as tablets or phones.

In other cases, individual pupils or small groups have been introduced as time has allowed. This has ensured that when whole classes or year groups are given logins there are some pupil experts who can assist the teacher/mentor in the task of getting everyone set up.

Pupil’s initial reaction to GAFE has been universally positive - they are pleased to have their own space, glad of the easy access from wherever they are and have loved collaborating on Google Docs!

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4. Ideas abounding

Ideas have already emerged about utilising GAFE in different classes. In Computing, pupils will create an “About me” site and learn about cloud storage. In Geography, pupils have been completing essays at school and home and finished off their week by using the share function to proofread each other’s work before it is submitted. The French department has been busy creating online quizzes via Google Forms to accompany vocab and grammar books that are already in use. In Maths, pupils had been asking for reminders to bring in homework, so Google Classroom will be introduced next week allowing them to receive email and phone notifications if the teacher posts a reminder about work due in class. Each subject has the luxury of looking at how other teachers across the globe are using Classroom and other apps by a simple search online!

We’re also thinking about establishing a series of calendars (Parents, Pupils and Staff) to replace and extend the way we currently communicate information with these different groups.

5. Learning Records

Developed in Geography, these could help support developments in the School Improvement Policy Project for Personal Support. It should improve communication and reduce the amount of paperwork produced. The documents being piloted provide an accessible record of a pupil progress in meeting assessment outcomes. In other sheets, space is provided for pupils to reflect before more formal learning conversations, making that valuable time spent in class addressing personal support more productive. Thanks to Google Drive’s sharing settings, pupils have a link to access their (and only their) Learning Record via About in Google Classroom.