This year my district decided to have 4th-6th-grade specials every other day for 10 weeks. Well, this is great if I was actually in the district every other day. I'm not and I haven't been. For the past five years, my shared position has been cycle days "2,3,5" which has worked great up until this year. With the change this year a different teacher (the technology and woodshop teacher to be exact) has been "teaching" my classes on the days I'm not there. To help with this I implemented Google Classroom this year to be able to teach to my students when I'm not in the district. This has made things both very complicated and difficult, to say the least. Not only am I trying to get through the difficult tasks of teaching databases, research skills, media literacy and more I now have to rely on someone else to "hopefully" do the same. It has been a horrible schedule and hopefully, it'll be fixed for next year.
However, Google Classroom and it's new integrated grading from forms has been a lifesaver when it comes to having a short quiz on the days I'm not there. I can simply go in- grade and it will import the grades over for me. It will be fantastic if and when Google plays nicely with SchoolTool and then our grades import right into our grade books. Creating a multiple choice quiz that grades itself and then imports those grades has helped tremendously and I hope to keep up the work with Google.
Another way that I use Google Classroom is through my summer reading challenge. This year I have created Bookopoly where students will complete 10 tasks and a final reflection running from June 1st-September 21st. This allows students to submit their work right to me and I can view and "grade" as they turn it in rather than waiting until September 21st for it all to be handed in. Google Classroom really helped with this last year so that I could get students their prizes quicker and our pizza and movie night happened a lot sooner than previous years. Using Google Classroom also allows students to interact over the summer with friends they may not get to see as often. This year I have approximately 30 students interested in the challenge. I hope that the majority of those students stick with it and participate.
I plan to continue to use Google Classroom in the future and to fully explore all of the features it has to offer. It is a great way to keep everyone updated and in contact with each other. My co-adviser for the yearbook and I use Google Classroom to keep students up-to-date on meetings, and deadlines that need to be met. I also use it as the senior class adviser to keep students informed when we have fundraisers coming and other important notices.
However, Google Classroom and it's new integrated grading from forms has been a lifesaver when it comes to having a short quiz on the days I'm not there. I can simply go in- grade and it will import the grades over for me. It will be fantastic if and when Google plays nicely with SchoolTool and then our grades import right into our grade books. Creating a multiple choice quiz that grades itself and then imports those grades has helped tremendously and I hope to keep up the work with Google.
Another way that I use Google Classroom is through my summer reading challenge. This year I have created Bookopoly where students will complete 10 tasks and a final reflection running from June 1st-September 21st. This allows students to submit their work right to me and I can view and "grade" as they turn it in rather than waiting until September 21st for it all to be handed in. Google Classroom really helped with this last year so that I could get students their prizes quicker and our pizza and movie night happened a lot sooner than previous years. Using Google Classroom also allows students to interact over the summer with friends they may not get to see as often. This year I have approximately 30 students interested in the challenge. I hope that the majority of those students stick with it and participate.
I plan to continue to use Google Classroom in the future and to fully explore all of the features it has to offer. It is a great way to keep everyone updated and in contact with each other. My co-adviser for the yearbook and I use Google Classroom to keep students up-to-date on meetings, and deadlines that need to be met. I also use it as the senior class adviser to keep students informed when we have fundraisers coming and other important notices.
Sounds like a great use of Google Classroom. Crazy that you have to rely on other teachers to teach your classes, screwy schedule!
ReplyDelete