Happy New Year! Welcome, 2017!!

Welcoming in the new year, I have made a goal to include how you could apply the Technology Tool of the Week to your classrooms! I am hoping to give you more practical examples and explanations.

Technology Tool of the Week:

(Image from https://goo.gl/P5bbs9)

Recently, I sent out a survey to EHS teachers to collect data on teacher use of Google Classroom. Here are the results!

(There were 69 teachers that participated in the survey).

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The best times for offering Google Classroom Help Sessions were; 1- During a Department Meeting, 2- After school during Wednesday, Teacher Tech Time

(2:30-3:30pm), and 3- During your prep period.

From the responses that were given in the survey, I realized that there may be some confusion with understanding the differences between Google Classroom and Google Sites.

(The information below are excerpts from this Teacher Cast article. I highly recommend reading the full article, as it does an excellent job with detailing the differences of Google Sites and Classroom).

Google Classroom

What is Google Classroom?

Google Classroom is a simplified blended platform that allows teachers to create, distribute, collect and grade assignments quickly and efficiently

What isn’t Google Classroom?

Google Classroom isn’t a website. Unlike a website, It is “closed environment” where parents cannot access and other students cannot access. Google Classroom also isn’t a full LMS because it doesn’t have a grade book and work cannot be organized into units.

Google Sites

What is Google Sites?

Google Sites is another component of Google apps. Essentially, it is a free service to build and maintain a website.

What isn’t Google Sites?

Google Sites is not a learning management system. Students and parents can interact with a Site by visiting, reading it, and downloading the files. However, they cannot turn in assignments like they can on Classroom. In training other teachers, I say that Classroom is for the students, while Sites is for the students, teacher, and parents.

HOW CAN I USE GOOGLE CLASSROOM WITH MY GOOGLE SITE?

My aplogies for the watermark! I am trying a new program. :)

(I am happy to help you at any time if you want to try this!)

Did you know there is a “Share to Classroom” Chrome Extension??

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When you have the “Share to Classroom” Chrome Extension, you can share any page online that you are visiting directly to any of your classes set up on Google Classroom! This includes if you are working ona Google Doc! Students can ALSO share to the Classroom if they have the extension as well!

“35 Awesome Applications that Integrate with Google Classroom” Article from https://goo.gl/nXD2F3

“Use this list to explore apps you may already be using, or find new ones that will allow you to share easily to Google Classroom”.

* (Just found this one!)
Actively Learn

(create reading assignments with added notes, images, and quiz questions embedded into the document)