Thursday, September 24

Google Tips

Have you ever written an email and pressed send before you were actually ready to send it? Or, maybe you wished you could reword a few lines. With Gmail, that ability now exists. Earlier in September, Google introduced an undo feature to their email. When set up, you have 30 seconds to undo the sending of an email. It isn't a lot of time but it does give you the ability to "unsend" your email. To set this feature up in your email, follow the directions in the video below. 

A Gathering Place

At the end of the 2014/2015 school year, I asked for some feedback from all Grasslands teachers. One item that came up many times was the desire to have a space where we could collect examples of lessons and student work. People said to me they would really like to see what their colleagues were doing in their classrooms. There are a number of ways we could to this. However, to me, the easiest way is to use this blog as a gathering place for lessons, activities, assessments, or student work that you would like to share with your colleagues in the district. As such, I am putting out a request for anything you would like to share. I am not looking only for lessons which utilize technology in the classroom. Rather, I would like to share what you are proud of. If you have something you would like to share with your colleagues, whether it is a lesson or a piece of student work, please email me and we can discuss the best way to showcase what you have. 

Education for All Success for Each

During our Welcome Back PD session, Superintendent David Steele used the phrase above to plot out the goals of Grasslands. The phrase exemplifies the values of Grasslands Public Schools. These include being a welcoming and safe environment for all of our students and ensuring that each one of them is successful in their learning journey. Success will not look the same for every student, and, as teachers, we need to be aware of this and ensure we have the appropriate tools to make this happen. Over the course of the year, I will try to use this blog to point to different tools, resources, and practices we can utilize to achieve the idea of education for all and success for each. 

One such tool we have access to is the Google Drive. This is a powerful resource to utilize with our students, due to the ease with which we can share, collaborate and provide feedback. One way you can use your Google Drive to promote student success, is to ensure all your students have access to your class notes. You can create a folder on your drive where your students can access the notes for your lesson. In this way, if the students miss something in the lesson or if they were away, they have the ability to catch up. In addition, it provides them with a resource to prepare study notes. By universally providing access to this resource, we can potentially increase the learning outcomes for all of our students.

If you would like help setting this up on your Google Drive, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to help!