Unit Reviews

This was primarily an introductory unit for google fundamentals. In this unit we were introduced to the tools that we would be learning about within the google program. It also discussed ways in which we could incorporate reading into our lessons via google tools instead of the traditional textbook readings. It also introduced different ways to create safe learning environments online for ourselves and our students and how to effectively use information that we find online in fair way respecting copyright laws. 

In this unit we explored how to find help with troubleshooting issues within the google tools. I especially enjoyed learning about Google Groups. I was unaware that we had that option and plan to create a group for our department to make it easier to collaborate with one another on lessons. I also like that it gives us an option to go to our group with questions that we may have within the school. Our school can post different activities within the group. I would almost compare it to a private social media platform that we can create within our system. It is not only limited to our system though, we can connect with other educators internationally. This unit also explain how to find experts who have been trained by google to provide professional learning to groups. 

In this unit I learned how to better utilize google drive to keep up with my class resources. I have created a folder for each class and created subfolders for each unit. It also discusses how I am able to create documents and share them with colleagues via email instead of printing documents and having to keep up with a paper trail. This unit also explores how to created use Google Forms to create quizzes, warm ups, or tickets out the door. It also teaches how to link the results from Forms to a Google Sheet to better assess the data. This unit basically helps you to created a "digital paper trail". 

This unit explains how to communicate effectively with parents or students who speak other languages, communicating face to face, and providing information to parents. I learned how to used Gmail more effectively by creating filters to keep up with important emails. I was most excited about using this unit to communicate with my Spanish speaking parents. Typically, I have to contact our ESOL teacher if I need to discuss grades or behavior in my class. Through Google Translate, I will be able to type what I need to say in English and it will be translated to whatever language I need to communicate. I was also excited about using Google Sites to communicate with parents. I plan to create a website for each of the classes that I teach and this unit really helped me explore how to make it better and more effective in communicating with my kids parents. It also teaches how to use Google Meet and Google Chat for real-time communication.

This unit also discusses how to create Google groups, but my school technologist has not given me access to create groups. I have emailed him to ask for access. 

This was one of my favorite units. I have had a Google calendar for a long time and used it religiously for a couple of years to keep up with all the things going on within my family between work events, vacations, sports events, and doctors appointments. I always tell everyone that if it's not on my calendar, it isn't happening. We have a shared calendar with my family so my husband doesn't have an excuse to miss events. 

I have never created one to share with my students. I plan to utilize this with my classes. I always put assignments that are due on my board each week. By using this method instead, it will free up some prime real estate on my board in class. I really look forward to utilizing this in the upcoming year to help students work on their organization skills. 

 This unit goes in depth with explain how to create meetings using Google Meets. It discusses the importance of creating a calendar event with inviting people so it can be added to their calendar as well. It also teaches how to keep up with meeting minutes and create an agenda to share with attendees through Google Docs. I have joined several meetings, but I have never had to create one. This unit helped build my confidence in creating them. 

This unit expanded on how to integrate assignments into Google Classroom.  After organizing all of my work into weekly units, I have been able to go in and separate students copies of assignments that usually print. This will help in the creation of assignments in Google Classroom. When assigning work in google classroom, I have access to each copy of student work. Therefore, when a student has a question about their assignment, I can actually go into their assignment and help them through or make comments about changes that need to be made. I can give immediate feedback as they are completing their work. It also makes it easier to collect students work when they have finished the assignment. They can select turn in, and I know it is complete. However, even if a student has not click "turn in", I am still able to grade the assignment after the due date. 

This unit really helped me with data organization. It dove into creating quizzes and surveys in Forms and the use of Sheets to help organize the data. By linking my quizzes or questionnaires to Sheets, I am able to analyze my data much more efficiently. I learned to use the data in Sheets to help visualize data. Creating charts to help see trends more quickly in sets of data is made much easier in Google Sheets. Through sheets, you can organize your data into different types of graphs and charts. These graphs and charts also allow educators to see trends in student's growth over time after remediation efforts. It makes it much easier to see progress or results from RTI methods. You can also use this to display your information and present it to other people or share it with administrators. 

This unit is useful for teaching students and educators how to use Chrome and Search more effectively. It is second nature to just type a question into the search bar and have Google answer it for us, however that is not the most effective way to find what you need. By typing in specific terms, you are more likely to find the link to the informational website that you need. This lesson also explains the difference in Ads that are paid results and natural results that are not paid. We also learned about the importance of filters to help limit the results of your search. 

This unit also explores the different facets of Chrome such as different google apps and extensions that you can add to enhance your experience and find more resources to use in your classroom. 

I really enjoyed this unit. It covered the Learning Center, Google Earth, and Slides. The learning center was awesome, because it breaks down what to do each week to get yourself organized within Google workspace. It also prepares you to be able to use your phone if you do not have your computer is not accessible. It makes it a lot easier to be able to incorporate all that you have learned in the fundamentals training to your job. 

I am excited about using Google Earth in my history class to incorporate it in some of my lessons. Being able to make interactive lessons for students is so important in a history class because students are so disconnected from what they are learning. Especially when it comes to ancient history. I plan to use Google Earth to make mor interactive lessons for students in both my World and US history classes. 

The Google slides portion of this unit explains how to make more attention grabbing slideshows by different slide transitions or animating objects within slides. It also explains the importance of adding photos, videos, and attractive colors to slides to make them more engaging. We can also share a Slide through our Workspace to allow students to make a copy for themselves and take notes right under the slide. 

Your Plan, Your Planet is another tool that discusses how we impact our environment. I plan to share this with the environmental science teachers within my high school.

This unit discusses how to find quality videos and to create playlists in YouTube. I really found these interesting as a review or for students who misses a day or two from being out sick. I can create a playlist that includes information that was covered to help keep them informed without adding more to my to do list. It also includes information on how to share videos from YouTube through slides or forms. It also discusses the importance of subscribing to certain channels when you find content that you really like. Having videos included keeps students engaged and helps to break up lectures. 

This unit teaches how to collaborate with other educators and how to facilitate group work among students by using apps within Google Suite. Students are able to collaborate with one another by creating one document and sharing it among the group. I like this feature because when it is shared with me, I can look at the history of a document and see who added different information. I can also see comments that students make to one another and make comments myself to help students. I really like the feature of being able to restore earlier revisions. I actually used this feature on this site when I accidently deleted a bunch of information and didn't realize it. I closed everything out, published my page and realized that I lost information. Being able to restore my work helped me tremendously! This unit also discusses the usefulness of Keep. I like using this as a section for my to-do list. I had never considered creating a to-do list for projects in Keep for my students. I usually print a to-do list for students, I plan to use Keep this year for students to use instead, because I always run into an issue of students losing the printed ones. 

This unit discusses the importance of teaching internet safety to our students. This is one of those things that we think is second nature to kids who have grown up in the digital age, but it isn't. They still have to be taught what to look for so they don't access questionable links or go to dangerous websites. It also discusses the importance of using strong passwords to keep people from being able to hack into your account. It is also important to remind students to always log off of shared tablets or computers to keep their account safe and private. Students also should be reminded about communicating how to communicate with people online so they can remain safe. They should keep their information private and have good behavior online toward others.