Module 4: 

Please go through all of the following resources for Module 4:

• Readings

• Articles

• Videos

Then answer the discussion questions found in your LRP 

In this Module I will summarize the benefits and challenges of using Google Forms and Sheets as a Behavior Intervention tool.  I tried to do my best to be transparent about each of the strategies and how it has personally benefited my teaching, but also provided me with some challenges.  If you want to explore the strategy more, please use the resources/videos provided with each summary.

For this section,  I have created tutorial videos and have also attached YouTube Videos to further your understanding.  Please feel free to review any/all resources necessary to complete the discussion questions.  

*Note: if any video doesn't load, just simply refresh your page.  

Digital Reflection Tool:

Tardy Tool:

Parent Communication Log & Form Mule:

Digital Referral Tool

The Benefits:

Automatic email for parents to be informed: There are many *add-ons for Google Forms and Sheets.  One of the best ones I have discovered is called Form Mule.  Once a response is submitted on a google form, an automatic email to be sent to whomever you pre-select.  This is perfect for addressing behavior and providing consequences.  Instead of taking the time to write out and send many emails after school, I have students complete a Google Form, and their responses are automatically sent to parents/guardians.  

Students know what's expected of them: A lot of time, students are unclear of consequences they will receive for negative behavior.  Using a Digital Reflection tool, students know that they will have to complete this Google Form and their responses will be sent to parents/guardians via Form Mule (email).  This allows students to reflect on their behavior and keep an open line of communication with parents/guardians.  

Detentions/Consequences are productive and reflective: Using a Digital Reflection tool allows students to reflect on their behavior and think about possible alternatives to address their behavior.  While this can be done on paper, I like to have students fill out a Google Form, because all of the data will be stored on a Google Sheet.  It is all about data collection.  If I assign detention, I have them complete this Google Form during that time.  This allows detention to be productive and specifically addresses the reason the student is there in the first place.  

Additional Resource: Teaching With Detention (4 Social Change, 2020)

All data is stored in one place, making it easily accessible: Having an entire team, grade level, or school on board with a Digital Referral Tool allows for all information to be stored in one place.  This can be particularly useful for teachers and admin to see which students received a referral and what interventions were given.  Submitting Referrals digitally will give admin one place to look at and address the referral, likely making their response much quicker.  Data collection on which students received a referral, how many times they received one, the date they received one, and the teacher that "wrote" the referral could all be stored on the Google Sheet.  You could include more or less information if you wanted to, all depending on how you set-up your Google Form.  

Address tardies: Tardies are inevitable and keeping track of who was tardy and when they were tardy used to be very overwhelming for me before using Google Forms and Sheets.  Again, data collection can be such a powerful tool to use in the classroom, but often times teachers are in the middle of an important lesson when a student walks into class late, and either forget or don't have the time to log this information.  Yes, infinite campus will log the tardies under attendance, but I have used Google Forms and Sheets to record the data on my own, along with a simple intervention to address the tardy.  I use the *add-on Form Mule to send an automatic email to parents/guardians when a student completes the Tardy Google Form.  This process is efficient, because it allows me to keep teaching, while the student completes the Google Form.  Also, all of the data is transferred to the Google Sheet and parents/guardians are informed, while I am teaching.  The lengthy process of sending the student to the office to get a tardy slip is eliminated with this, and this is something that can even be adopted by a team, grade level, or entire school.  

Data Collection for IEP Student Behavior: Sheets is great for data collection.  This can be very significant when dealing with students with IEPs.  Using Google Forms to collect data on behaviors and having it automatically organized in sheets can make data collection a lot easier for special education teachers, along with general education teachers.  A simple form would be to record how often a certain behavior occurred and the duration of the behavior.  This information would be submitted to your Google sheet, which also records the day and time the behavior occurred.  This information can then be shared with variance teachers, or used at IEP meetings, demonstrating accurate data on the student.  

The Challenges:

Takes preparation time: There are may different Google Forms you can create to address any type of behavior you feel your classroom needs.  In my own classroom, I have created a Google Form for a Digital Hall Pass, Digital Reflection Tool, Digital Tardy, and a Sign-in/out Sheet for an after school program I run.  This required me to create 4 different Google Forms, which links to 4 Different Google Sheets (there is a way to merge all the sheets onto one).  I also had to create 4 different Qr-Codes for easy student access.  Obviously, this takes time to prepare, and I often make adjustments to the Google Form/Sheet if I noticed something is not working they way I wanted it to.  The good thing is that once you create the Google Form and Sheet, you can use it forever.  The minor tweaks you make to it shouldn't take that long either.  In the end, I feel that it is well-worth the time put in at the beginning of implementing these strategies to see the time saved in data collection throughout the school year.  

Students may not take the form seriously: This has always been a concern of mine, when addressing behavior through a digital platform.  The benefit of data collection could come at the cost of a genuine response from the student.  If the student doesn't take the digital form as seriously as a paper reflection/tardy consequence, then that defeats the purpose.  In my experience, I have found almost all of my students take the Digital Reflection/Tardy pass seriously.  In fact, most student treat it more seriously, becasue it's a process that is new to them.  For the few students who put in one-worded responses, I simply ask them to complete the form again.  Unlike my Digital Hall Pass procedure, I review the Digital Reflection Tool before they submit.  Students are only filling out this form if they displayed negative behavior that dirupted the learning enviornment in some way.  I like to go over the answers the submitted with them to ensure that behavior doesn't happen again.  I have also had students "forget to" or accidentally type in the wrong parent/guardian email address.  This does take some time to look-up the email or go back to put the correct email in.