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Road to Level 1:  Google Teacher Certification

   If anyone has been to a Google for Education Summit, you know the genuine aroma of inspiration that comes from attending the sessions and colliding with other educators.  This is where I obtained the Google Teacher Certification introduction.  My facilitator was Kasey Bell, and I soon figured out why she was an EdTechTeam expert, because I left feeling I could achieve more for myself and my students.  

   Committing to the three-hour test can be intimidating.  However, I suggest attending to all the cards on the certification training website.  Differentiation in your own learning can come from watching YouTube tutorials from Kasey Bell and many others who are gracious enough to share their knowledge.  

   Included in your preparation phase should be practical and applicable I call “work-study”.  Incorporate as much of the tools into your everyday practice.  Explore tools you might not even “think” you need. Familiarize yourself enough to comfortably lead your class through a lesson and implementation.  

   I had the privilege of participating as a group within my district.  This support and blind excavation was an advantage as we were able to bounce off unthought-of questions, inquiries and explore unknowns together. I suggest this as the best asset in preparing for the Google Teacher certification test.  We can always rely on what we do not know to hold us back.  However, we never know what we do not know until someone is able to bring that unknown into the light.  Find a group, start a twitter chat to prep together, or attend a certification boot camp.  There is power in numbers and together we achieve more.  

   Lastly, I will say, failure is not an option.  I did not pass my first time around.  Missed it by two points. But after following the advice above, I got a resounding yes in my throat as I received the “success” email. Failing to try, is a path to nowhere.  Navigating the path to success gets you closer to your goals.  Now onto Google Teacher Level 2 Certification, as I follow the recommended steps above.  

 

 

Ericka Mabion
K-8 Computer Teacher
Google Certified Educator
Kansas City, Missouri

 

 

 

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Coding with Chromebooks

The Hour of Code is upon us which reminds me of a question I am asked more often than I would believe,

“Do my students really need to learn to code?”  

I think what is really behind this question is, “If I’m not a programmer, is this really useful to me?” To which I respond a resounding “YES!” Here is why I believe it’s so important. When a weightlifter goes to the gym, they’re not exercising with the expectation that they’ll come across a barbell-shaped problem, but that their workout will prepare them for whatever obstacle they may come across.

Photo by Cyril Saulnier

This is the same with most education and especially coding. Coding is a mindset that exposes students to critical thinking, troubleshooting, and especially problem-solving. Not only do students need to dissect the problem they are motivated to come up with the most efficient solution. And when something inevitably doesn’t work as planned, they need to iterate, iterate, iterate because that’s how coding works. It’s important for students to develop the patience to unpack a problem and make thoughtful adjustments and methodically test the results of their changes. This is a difficult skill that is important for kids to develop.

If you are worried your students may not have the background needed if your students have basic math skills they’re ready to get started. Like anything, it’s the application of the knowledge that is important.

Photo by Angelina Litvin

On this point, there’s an apocryphal story about mathematician Carl Gauss that relates here. The story goes that when Carl was 8 years old his teacher assigned the class the task of calculating the sum of 1 to 100.
Basically mathematical busywork. Most students dived into the onerous task of 1 + 2 + 3 + . . . + 99 + 100 which they certainly could figure out given enough time and pencils. Gauss deduced that when you pair the first and last numbers: 1 + 99 = 100 and 2 + 98 = 100 and 3 + 97 = 100 you get 49 x 100 = 4,900. And throw in the remaining 50 and 100 for a grand sum of 5,050.

So, instead of taking the afternoon to calculate the result, it took him a few minutes. Now, there is some debate if this story is true, but the point is that with a basic skillset, he applied a creative way to address the problem. That’s coding at it’s finest. There’s usually a ‘brute force’ method like actually added all the numbers 1 to 100 but with practice, students begin to uncover techniques they can use.

Photo by Caleb Woods

At the youngest grade levels, we start conversations around following directions and giving instructions. A fun activity that the students like is to pair them up, then give each pair a matching set of legos. Each creates a model with the legos, then write out step by step instructions on how to recreate their model. We take ‘before’ photos of the models and students then swap their directions and try to recreate the other students’ lego figure just with the directions. This is a fun way for students to appreciate the importance of making clear instructions (which is basically what coding is.)

There are numerous sites that offer coding courses and lessons online. Here are some of our favorites that are organized from simpler and straightforward to more complex and open-ended. This is not a comprehensive list (for example we do some Minecraft Coding in the middle levels) but the criteria was that they have a free version and can be accessed with a Chromebook.

  • Code.org includes the Hour of Code projects which is a great place to start, but much more. The site is split up by ability level and has a ton of lessons where kids will recognize the characters they are moving around the screen. These include Star Wars, Minecraft and more.

  • CS-First is from Google and provides a set of lessons that educators can use with the ability to track lessons, provide certificates of completion and more. The lessons are geared to ages 9 – 14 and as
  •  Scratch is the language students were introduced to in CS-First and again uses the block programming metaphor. An important aspect of Scratch is the remix. Students can ‘see inside’ another coders work and remix it. This furthers the idea of sharing and learning from each other. It also provides a more open-ended platform kids can build whatever they’d like.

  • Tynker is another block-based programming language and a great compliment to Scratch. It’s designed for mobile input and will work on an Android-enabled Chromebook. One of the best aspects of Tynker is that it easily connects to devices in the real world. These include Sphero’s, Parrot Drones and more. Once students are comfortable coding on a computer, there are substantial benefits for them to see the results of their work in real life. Moving a character across a screen is cool, but very game like, where sending instructions to a physical object and having it react is very rewarding!
  • Parrot Blockly – This system is specifically for Parrot Drones. The benefit is any laptop with Chrome and Bluetooth can connect to the drone. You do not need a tablet or mobile device to fly it.

  • Code Combat  – This site will appeal specifically to students who are interested in a game-like environment of coding. Students can select which language syntax they will learn. It covers a range of topics but if you’re not into that style of interface it may not be for you.

  • MIT App Inventor – If you’re looking for mobile app development,  this is a great place to start. It is currently for Android only, but looking to crowdsource the funds to add iOS. Once you’ve created an app, it’s pretty easy to get the results onto your device and see the results!

  • Code Academy – Moving away from the blocky or graphic based coding options, this site also has you select your programming language of choice, but has great tutorials that guide you through the process. This is a more realistic development environment that is text-based and displays the results of your code as you tweak it.

 

  • Google Script – Students can use the scripting option to build tools and see the results already included with their Google Accounts. While there are no tutorials built into the system, there are plenty of tutorials found online.
    • Here it’s worth mentioning the site: Stack Overflow. Not a resource I would use with younger students, but an invaluable online community of other developers willing to help and share tips on coding.

  • Caret – Finally, if you are looking for a more realistic development environment check out Caret. Totally open-ended for students looking to work with the tools of the trade.

One of my favorite experiences in education is introducing students to coding (especially during the Hour of Code week!) and watch the light bulbs go off and hands raise around the room as they code, play, and learn. So, check these sites out or better yet, have your students check them out and learn by coding!

 

Kern Kelley
Director of Student Agency
EdTechTeam
@kernkelley

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Cook up your Communication with Parents using Google!

We all know that G-Suite and its related core applications are a powerful learning tool for students.  In fact, I have yet to even come close to filling the grocery list of ideas that these tools can do within my four classroom walls.  The personalized activities, collaboration, and project-based learning that students are doing these days in Google are like an endless buffet- there is no end in sight!  Why not make this learning visible to parents?  Why not share out some of these delicious student recipes and creations with parents? With the help of Google, we can easily flambé the way we connect and engage with parents on a daily basis.

Google Sites:  

A classroom/homework site is an effective way to communicate important reminders and homework to your parent and student audiences.  Google Sites a great way for parents to have a glimpse into the daily school life of their child without feeling like they are nagging or being too intrusive.  The fluency of Google even allows you to easily connect other core applications with minimal clicks here so it becomes a great platform to showcase student work or connect valuable resources for parent support.  You can even embed a Google Calendar into your site that will keep parents up to date with all the important comings and goings of the classroom- saves time and energy on mundane and boring emails.

Google Drive:

This is where the parent communication can really heat up and start simmering.   I really encourage educators to create folders for each student that they teach (subfolders under a classroom folder works great) so that you can compile a collection of student work over the year.  These folders can be shared with parents just one time and then they will continue to have a sneak peak of their child’s work and learning progression over the remainder of the year.  These digital portfolios can be home to a number of tasty things- docs, slides, sites, photos, videos, and more!  From my experience, parents love and appreciate the convenience to have their child’s visible learning at their fingertips.

Google Docs:

Time to add a dash of flavour!  Students frequently collaborate with their peers in a Google Doc to create some powerful work.  I encourage parents (from time to time) to be a part of the collaborative process as well.  Some students could use a little extra encouragement here and there and what better place to get this from then a loved one?  Parents have the capabilities to add some positive reinforcement and garnish to their child’s learning.  An inserted comment here and there in a child’s Google Doc can go a long way to tightening the connections between home and school and expanding the community of support and encouragement for a child.  We all know that palette feels better with good company!

Google Slides:

This publishing platform is where I like to kick up the spice on my classroom menu!  Google Slides has the capacity to make the most gourmet advertisements and publications.  These five-star designs can then be added to a Google Site as an automated slideshow (switching every 5 seconds or so) or be delivered directly to parents and students through the sharing features of Google.  The eye-catching creations can highlight key information that parents should know, or create fun graphics that highlight classroom themes or activities. Class collaborated anthologies add the perfect amount of kick to any classroom website.

Voila!  Your parent communication is perfectly cooked, served with a minute to spare, and with chart-topping ratings on YELP.

 

 

Emma Cottier
Certified Google Trainer & Innovator
Middle School Teacher & Technology Support
Saanich School District 63
Twitter: @EmmaCottier

 

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Top Three “Do-it-This-Week” Takeaways from Queensland Summit

The dust has finally started to settle after the absolute whirlwind that was Google EdTechTeam Summit: Queensland 2017! What an amazing few days of learning!

Asking around, people had so many takeaways that it was impossible to pick a single favourite. So I’m going to share my Top Three “do-it-this-week” tools that I’ve already applied in classrooms, and you can too!


#1 Google Choropleth Maps

I actually presented on this one, but so many of our teachers have adopted it so I thought I’d share it here. Did you know you can create choropleth maps (those fancy ones where data is shaded in different colours) using Google Sheets?

  1. Add your data to a sheet.
  2. Highlight the data you want to graph.
  3. Click the ‘Insert’ menu and select ‘Chart’.
  4. In the ‘Chart Type’ drop-down, select ‘Geo Chart’.

It’s as easy as that! Have a look here at a sample version. Such a great way for students to visualise data, and more effective than bar graphs for helping students understand the big issues of population density, mortality rates, and more!

#2 A-Z of Lesser Known Googley Goodness

I could have written entire articles about every part of this presentation by amazing Google Goddess Kimberley Hall, but I’m going to go with my two sub-favourites: Quick, Draw and GeoGuessr.

Quick, Draw is an experiment in machine learning and is a great way to demonstrate how computers ‘learn’. You are challenged to draw a specified object in a short time period and the machine tries to identify what you’re drawing. The input from millions of other users helps to teach the computer what lines make up standard shapes. You could use this to teach psychology, perspectives, and fine motor skills, or you could just do it yourself because it’s so much fun and a very good use of a spare period!

GeoGuessr provides you with images of a specific location and you have to try and get as close as possible to that location with your guess on a map. Think of it as an amped-up version of “pin the tail on the donkey”. I have it on reliable authority that some very clever Year Six students started trying to use reverse image searches to try and get closer to the right spot! This is a great opener for geography lessons, or an excellent time-waster when you really should be marking!

#3 360 Photos

We’ve all loved Google Streetview for some time, but the very talented Jim Sill gave a presentation on 360 photos and how to create your own! This one is so exciting. Grab your phone, and download the Streetview app. Click the camera icon and ‘follow the dots’ to complete your 360 photo. You can either share your finished image with the world or just keep it for yourself.

I wandered up to our local mountain and took some shots to share with my kids on Google Cardboard when we got home. So many possibilities for school tours, geography excursions, and more.

I took my phone and a Google Cardboard into a Year Three class and allowed the kids to explore the Palace of Versailles during a History unit; Tokyo, China and Bali during a Geography unit; and then all over the world during a wet weather lunch. I loaded Streetview on the touch TV for the bulk of the class while the Cardboard was passed around. The kids loved it and it really brought the concepts to life.

My favourite thing about Google is that all the ideas are so easy to apply in the classroom. Bite the bullet today and just pick one! You’ll be amazed at how your students respond.

 

Daena Scheuber is a Google Certified Trainer and currently works as eLearning Facilitator at Emmaus College, Rockhampton while also running her own arts and technology training business.

Send her a tweet @dscheuber

 

 

 

 

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Creating Educational Scavenger Hunts Using Google Forms

Over the summer, my son and I tried to find interesting things to do around Jerusalem. After a little online research, I found a company offering some exciting scavenger hunts around the country. There was a phone number to call and schedule a hunt, and I excitedly started dialing. The “tour operator” explained that the tour is designed for groups of 8-14 members, and costs the equivalent of $400US. Shocked, I thanked the lady and hung up the phone.

When I told my son about the call, he was quite disappointed. After all, this was the only exciting-sounding activity we found. With a Maker attitude, I asked him if he would like to create our own scavenger hunt. “Let’s go to the Mall, find interesting shops, snap some shots, and create a scavenger hunt for your cousins”. I was delighted to see his face glowing again, and within five minutes we were ready to go. Mobile phone and a clipboard in hand, we headed to the mall.

After completing our short assignment, which included running around from shop to shop, him posing in front of interesting objects as markers, deciding on clues, and what the grand prize would be (ice cream, of course!), I came home and was ready to put the clues and images into Google Forms. I knew that the Response Validation option in Google Forms would allow me to lock areas until answers were entered correctly. From there, it was simple. I entered clues and the correct answer, typed in an error message, and voila! The Hunt was ready in no time. We even decided to create an easy version (with image clues) and an advanced one (without the images)!

My son was so excited to not only run around, take notes, and create a scavenger hunt, but also to be of use to others (his younger cousins, in this case).

Classroom Applications

As an educator, I realized the potential of creating and using scavenger hunts to engage my students and quickly assess their progress (or just let technology do the dirty work…).

There are two versions of these scavenger hunts- an active and a passive one. The active version allows students physically run around and look for clues. The passive one means hunters work from the comfort of their chairs- using their devices, they search for clues within the dungeons and dark corners of the Internet.

I started exploring the classroom application of scavenger hunts by creating a simple, passive “Around the World” scavenger hunt (you can copy it here), in which students were to find information about different continents by conducting Web search and watching videos. I then moved on to create an active scavenger hunt for new students. It was composed of locations as clues and required file uploads as evidence. The new students were paired with a returning student (their “buddy”) and were tasked with finding key locations (Office, Counselor, Lunchroom, etc.) and taking different selfies (sometimes silly, sometimes serious) to show they found the place.

Next, I decided to take it one step further, and look for a more educational application in my classroom. My esteemed colleague, Jill Fenn, was one step ahead of me and already created a scavenger hunt to assess her students’ reading comprehension of the fantastic book Freak the Mighty. Willing to share her intellectual property and hard labor, she allowed me to digitize her scavenger hunt and test it on my own 5th graders.

This hunt (answers; make a copy) needed to be more complicated than the previous one, but not as complicated as the scavenger hunt around the Jerusalem Mall. The clues were already made, so all I needed was to decide how hunters will show their understanding (taking a picture of an object? Solving a puzzle hidden around school?) I decided to have them reach the place, find a particular marker, and enter it into the Form. Using Response Validation, they will be able to know if they found the correct answer.

Students were extremely excited to get into teams and do the scavenger hunt. Actually, they were so excited, they even forgot to eat their lunch…

What to Look For

When creating scavenger hunts in Google Forms, you need to be familiar with a few features:

  • Media Use- You will need to insert a variety of media (images, videos, etc.) which would serve as the hunting grounds (where the clues are hidden).
  • Sections- All questions are entered within the Form’s Sections. All questions entered in one section are viewable at once, while questions entered in the following sections are locked until the hunter correctly answers all questions in the previous section.
  • Response Validation- This option (the 3 vertical dots at the bottom of questions) allows you to set one correct answer (or a range), which, until it is entered in the correct spelling/ format, the answer is marked as “incorrect”, hence hunters will be unable to move on to the next section until all questions are answered correctly. You can use answers in the format of numbers, dates, letters, etc. Note that the correct format in Response Validation can make it frustrating to students, so make sure your instructions are very clear and specific.

The Benefits

So… Why should teachers create digital scavenger hunts as educational activities? Let’s look at their benefits:

  • Engagement- Kids love running around and finding clues (both physically and electronically). They are so immersed in the mystery and excitement, that they don’t even consider it an educational activity.
  • Collaboration- When looking for clues, the more hunters the better- everyone is valuable, and everyone contributes to a common goal.
  • Independence- All students need is a device. The rest is already there for them!
  • Repetition- Digital scavenger hunts allow you to use clues as many times as you want since no one takes them along their hunt.
  • Assessment- When students solve clues, it indicates they understand the content of the scavenger hunt. When they get stuck on a clue, you know where you need to re-teach!

Ronen Cohen
13 years of international education
Currently: Grade 5 teacher at International Community School of Addis Ababa (ICS-Addis), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Twitter Handle: @eduronen
Blog: Blog.RonenCohen.info