Madison Schools now uses G mail, for staff and students. With that comes a suite of products to use in creating lessons, setting up classroom web pages, and for students to work on assignments.
Google Docs allows users to create and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. These can then be sent to others to view, or to edit. This allows students to collaborate on projects from across the room, to across the world, and they can even simultaneously work on the same project. Teachers can add comments, and review all of the revisions that have been made on student work, even viewing who made what additions or changes.
To use your Google Docs, log into your G mail school account, and on the top left side of the page, click on Documents. This will open up your documents page, and allow you to view all of the documents you have created, or have access to.
Googletools4tchrs: website has variety of ideas and ways to use google docs in the classroom.
Webcast: EdReach school guide to google. Click on the play button to listen to the show.
Using Google Docs to support Professional Learning Community
Documents: This is very similar to working with Microsoft Word. To begin a new document, click on create, and then highlight and click on document. This will give you a blank page with many of the same tools as word. You can change the font, size, layout, etc. When you have finished working on your document, it can be shared with others to either view, or edit. You can also print it. If you have a classroom Web page through Google sites, your document can be loaded onto the web page. This can be useful if you want to have a welcome letter, a syllabus, or even an assignment you are posting for students. Here's a video that demonstrates how google Docs is helpful.
Spreadsheets:
If you've used Excel, then this should be very familiar to you. Spreadsheets allows you to collect data, organize information, and even create graphs to depict your findings. This can be used to create a graph with classes, to record ongoing data collection (like a weather page), or even to keep address lists, or other information you may need to keep track of about students. It's helpful for tracking data, such as Text Reading Levels, because it can be updated as needed, and even show a graph to depict student growth.
Presentations: Presentations is a way to create a slide show, very much like using Power Point. The nice thing about this program is that it is web based, so if you are working on net-books with limited access to programs, this is something that can still be used. It can also be used and viewed by multiple people at the same time, so students can collaborate on a project. One of the features that also makes this a nice thing to use for student work, is that it can be shared with the teacher, so only one G mail account needs to be accessed, in order to show an entire class's projects.
If you have a class that has used power point, or presentations as a way to demonstrate understanding, or share learning, I would suggest trying to use Prezi as an alternative. Power Point presentations can be very visually interesting when done well, but Prezi allows a new level of visual interest, and it also allows students to incorporate more in terms of links, videos, and graphics.
Presentation Video: What it's capable of (if you really get to know what you are doing!)
Forms: Forms is a really useful tool for teachers, as well as students. As a teacher, you can use forms to create a quiz, test, survey, etc. You can then add your students to the list of people able to view/use your form. Once the class, or group has sent in their answers, forms automatically creates a spreadsheet with the results posted. This can be used to analyze anything from what the favorite lunch choice is, all the way to how many students showed adequate understanding of that day's lesson. Because it creates a spreadsheet, it can also generate a graph of the data given. This can be a very useful tool to assess students, and can provide a simple way to analyze that data for immediate use. Here's a video on how to use Forms. Using Google Forms in the classroom
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In addition to creating a quiz for students, you can use forms to make the quiz an assessment that kids can get instant feedback from. It can be a great exit slip for kids to respond to a lesson, and for teachers to evaluate a lesson and determine that next teaching step. Here's a screencast on how to create that type of quiz.
Drawings: As the name implies, this program allows people to draw a picture using their mouse. The picture can then be saved, edited, shared with others, or even added to a webpage. This could be used to create diagrams, so students can demonstrate their understanding of how to create a closed circuit, or to show a map of locations in a book, or in myriad other ways.