Google Tools for Learning

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is an excellent tool for managing workflow with students and for having classroom discussions and private conversations with students. Many Kearsarge students are well versed in this platform and could easily adjust to using this tool for a remote learning scenario. This tool comes with my highest recommendation as a top choice for use for both daily teaching and remote learning. Even if you use other online tools such as an online textbook, Google Classroom would be a great place to organize, manage and communicate daily expectations in a private environment. It offers two way communication (something your teacher website does not offer) and it allows you to share private information such as password reminders that shouldn't be shared with the same audience that can view your teacher website. It also offers a way for you and your students to remain connected to each other as a community of learners.

Google Drive: Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawings, My Maps, Sites and Forms

Google Drive offers a broad selection of creativity, productivity and communication tools that students can use to show what they know. These tools are easy to use on a chromebook. Students can collaborate on all of these tools for group work even in a remote scenario. Our education account with Google offers unlimited storage of files in Google Drive. Students can use Google Classroom to turn in their work or share files directly with a teacher if for some reason a teacher does not want to use Google Classoom.

Google Drive Tools include: Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Google Drawings, Google My Maps and Google Sites. It also includes Google Forms which can be used for assessments.

One idea is to have the students create the artifact and then use screencastify to create an up to 5 minute explanation of what they created and why. This way you can hear the students' thinking as you are viewing their work and it allows the students to give you more detail and feel connected to the learning process. It also helps to authenticate that the student is the one who completed the assignment.

Another idea is to use a Google tool such as Google Docs, Google Slides or Google Sheets and use both the commenting feature to engage students as well as the chat feature available on these documents for students to interact as a class on a particular assignment.

GMail, Google Group and Google Hangouts

Don't underestimate the power of using email. You can use the IM feature to communicate with students and students can use this same feature to communicate with each other. You can create a Google Group to communicate with your students, however, Group messaging is easier to accomplish by using Google Classroom because you don't have to set anything up. You can simple email every student who is a member of your Google Classroom with one click. Finally, Google Hangouts is an easy way to have live interaction with students using their school Gmail. ( With Skype and Facetime, you need more setup and you must know usernames and cell phone numbers. This is not an ideal scenario.) Google Hangouts (video chats) is a great resource for having face to face conversations with one or two students to connect socially or for assignment assistance.

Be sure to set boundaries of when students can contact you using these tools to ensure that both staff and students have time away from the computer. You can create online office hours for live chats (example 1-3 PM) and you can set reasonable times when you will respond to email such as 8 AM to 3 PM.

Google Meet

Google Meet is a great tool for remote learning. Teachers can invite students to join them live in a video conferencing format. This allows students to feel connected to the classroom. Teachers can also record the session and share with students who are unable to attend live. Meetings can be started on the spot and students can be invited directly by email or a teacher can share the link on Google Classroom. If you don't see the ability to record your session, your Google Admin needs to turn on this feature. Google Meet is all web based with nothing for the teacher or the student to download or install. The teacher can keep the sessions private by limiting who can join the online meeting.

Google Meet is a great tool for teachers to use to interact with each other to plan lessons or to just say hi during remote learning times.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a great tool for learning. Teachers can use a Google Site to set up a lesson on a topic or students can use Google Sites to create a website on what they are learning. Since this is a Google tool, it is collaborative. Students can add other students as editors and can keep things private to just the Kearsarge domain. Teachers have experience with this tool because it is the platform for their teacher website. Students have experience with this tool as it is the platform for their digital portfolios.