Now a Google Certified Educator

After seeing droves of people flock the EdTechTeam booth at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference, I finally decided to look into what might be getting so many people excited! When I learned that EdTechTeam was educating teachers to harness the power of tools that most of us already have access to, I started to get more interested.

I learned that it is possible to become a Certified Google Educator and thought, “I love to use Google tools for Education. I should take and ace this test right now to get my certification!” My ego was quickly deflated when I learned that the Google Certification test was 3 hours long and notoriously challenging.

I returned to the Google for Education online training center and got ready to learn whatever they had to teach. While I had experience with several Google Tools, the course opened my eyes and my mind to many new and interesting ways of using those tools that I hadn’t previously thought of. For instance, I’ve made multiple Google Sites, but the training helped me to see how the creation process of a Math Website can be vastly improved by making it a collaborative student effort. On the other hand, I’ve had many students fill out forms to collect information throughout the years, but I never thought to fill out my own forms to collect information quickly and efficiently. After consistently struggling with organization at the start of class for years, I will now use the Multiple Choice Grid option in Google Forms to quickly record student information related to Attendance, HW, and Participation. Finally, while I’m being honest, if a student told me he or she was being cyber-bullied, before this week, I would have had no idea how to help. Now, I totally have it in the bag!

The course was well organized and thorough, and when it was time to sit for the certification exam, it was a breeze, thanks to the Google for Education Trainer Center and EdTechTeam! I will definitely prepare for the level 2 and trainer certification soon!

Nicole Hamilton was born in England, raised in Jamaica, and moved to New York at the age of 18. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics at Vassar College and her Master of Arts in Secondary Mathematics Education at CCNY. Nicole started her teaching career as a seventh grade math teacher in a middle school in the Bronx, then continued her path in education as a teacher and tutor for the Princeton Review. In January 2006, Nicole started teaching mathematics in the Diploma Program at a private school in Manhattan. She is now Head of the Math Department and teaches math in the International Baccalaureate Program and online.