The Chromebook app hub has offers from partners and a huge range of apps for education supported by idea sparks from teachers
The Google for Education 'Education on Air' Webinar Series and On Demand recordings of past webinars
A site with a collection of GSuite resources can be seen at this location.
The Latest updates about Google Meet can be seen at the Keyword blog here and information on how to start Meet calls from within a range of other GSuite tools can be found here
A series of excellent help videos can be seen on the YouTube channels of Eric Curts and Chris Betcher
The top tip for teaching with GSuite is to have your Chromebooks managed with the Chrome Education upgrade. This provides a management service on the Chromebook that keeps it safe and secure for the student and the school. This management can be controlled by the school as they see appropriate for their students. The Chromebook can be a school device at set times and a student device at other times ie you can switch it into a school device with school level controls from 9 to 4 and then switch back to a student controlled device outside of these hours. Information on the Education Upgrade can be found at edu.google.com/chromebooks/
Use Google Classroom as the central hub for information. That way students know where to go to find any information. Google Classroom can be used anywhere from a subject class to a sports team to a cultural group to enable seamless communication and coordination.
Have one common model for your school. The students find it easiest to coordinate their day when there is a common way of doing things. Pick a tool that works for you and use it consistently, allowing for some teacher personalisation of course.
Stay current in practices and thinking. We ask our students to be life long learners so I believe that we should be too. Things change in the education world and especially around the use of Digital Tools for learning. Our students have so many experiences available to them through the use of digital tools for learning that we needed to understand how to best use these tools for our students.
Join the NZ Google Educators Group, the NZGeG, on facebook to keep up with the local educators group, the courses available to you and the many opportunities to collaborate with other NZ Google Educators. The GeGnz page can be found at gegnewzealand/home
Top 3 go-to support resources for educators
The three main places to get information about the updates, new developments and enhancements available in Google for Education are our social media channels via Twitter @GoogleforEdu and Facebook @GoogleforEdu
-- The Keyword Blog - Google's official channel of information - https://blog.google/outreach
-- GSuite admin help - The Help page for Admins - https://support.google.com/a
-- The Google for Education Teacher center is the official site with Training and Certifications for Educators edu.google.com/teacher-center/
The links above will provide most of the support our teachers need, we have a network of partners who work with schools to provide support and training on the best use of our tools. The teach from home site has some excellent resources at https://teachfromhome.nz/ and you can email Steve here
There are a couple of certifications you can do that are really helpful in your upskilling
https://cloud.google.com/training/admin - admins
and
https://gsuite.google.co.nz/intl/en_nz/training/ - admins
As well as the educator certificates that are good to work through to be able to discuss skills with teachers
https://teachercenter.withgoogle.com/