Google Meet
Using Google Meet for Meetings, Mini-Lessons, and Office Hours
This page is part of a series of "remote learning" and "remote working" pages being maintained by the IT Training Center. Please visit our Remote Learning/Working page for more resources.
Google Meet is available at meet.google.com
In situations where we need to be physically distant from our co-workers or students, Google Meet may be another tool to help round out our workflow in or out of the classroom.
Google Meet can help you with three different purposes that you may need as a teacher or staff member:
Holding meetings with co-workers remotely
Recording mini-lessons to get shared in Schoology or Google Classroom
Holding "office hours" for students to check-in with you about questions, making up work, grades, etc.
Please see these two videos to first get you oriented with Google Meet.
This video was created on March 6th, 2020, by the IT department of Wagner College. It's a quick tutorial on how to use Google Meet. Consider trying it out while you watch - you can start a Google Meet with no-one in the meeting. Try things out with an empty meeting room before you try and do anything live!
This video was created on March 16th, 2020, by BVSD teacher Dan Laman. It is meant to show off the features of Google Meet in a BVSD-specific context, thinking about holding remote meetings, recording mini-lessons for students, and holding "office hours" for your students.
"Digital Etiquette" (for Adults) During a Video Meeting
Each group of people will want to spend some time working on norms that will make their team's video meetings and chats go smoothly. There is not one set of etiquette guidelines to fit all our BVSD staff, so just consider this list as a jumping off point for creating your own norms with your groups/teams:
Default should be everyone on mute. Start getting used to turning off mute when you want to talk, and turning it back on when you are done talking
Have one meeting facilitator who is off mute the entire time who can help when there is crosstalk
Meeting facilitator may want to share their screen with agenda (or just a blank screen) to avoid the faces popping up constantly
If the call is starting to slow down, turn off as much video as you can
Put questions in the chat - meeting facilitator should regularly make space for questions, and/or check chat for questions, and "throw" to the person with the question
It might help to think of an online meeting as only one person having the "talking stick." That person can give the talking stick to another person, but you have to do it verbally - e.g. - "What do you think, Jay?" or "Back to you, Jay."
Consider having a note-taker for the meeting, different from the facilitator - focus on helpful links shared in chat, summary of key points from meeting, etc. Share meeting notes at end of meeting or link to agenda that was used for that meeting
Consider having a time-keeper, and be clear of how long a meeting should be - we'll need some help staying on task in this new format
Consider viewing Google Meet in "Sidebar" mode - it's the mode that feels best to me. Your mileage may vary.
"Digital Etiquette" (for Students) During a Video Meeting
Thanks to Lynn Gershman for this helpful resource to help set video norms with your students. If the image is too small to read, you can see and download the full size here.
Other Google Meet Resources
Record a Video Meeting - Google Support
Set Up a Secure Meet with Students in Google Meet (only accessible when signed in to BVSD)
How to see your participants faces while presenting something from your screen - video
Create breakout groups for your meetings and classes using Google Meet