Classroom Websites Using Google Sites

Creating a classroom site can be very beneficial for teachers, students, and parents because it can open the channels of communication between all parties.

There are many website creators - technically called a GUI (graphical-user interface) - that assist users in creating and updating a website easily.  One of those tools is Google Sites.

If you're not familiar with the basics of Google Sites, here is a quick video that can help:

I created a Google Site for my classroom.  Being able to easily integrate other Google tools into the website was great.  I embedded Google Docs, Google Forms, and Google Albums.  There were also a number of templates and formatting options that allowed me to personalize the page.  

Two of my favorite features were the ability to insert an album that would rotate through pictures. 

This is great when you want to share some photos from a field trip (like I did), from class, or from a sporting event.

Another one of my favorite features was the ability to embed a Google Form.

Using Google Forms is a great way to gather information from various stakeholders.  I elected to create a form that would collect contact information for the parents and guardians of students in my class.  This will help me when I'm trying to contact home.  Too many times, information in our student system is outdated.

If you would like more assistance in setting up your own Google Site, check out this website by IP&T Ed Tech.

How could you use a Google site  

Digital Field Trips

One of the newest trends in education is the digital field trip.  Being able to transport your students to places around the state, country, and world without leaving the classroom is a great tool. While the new virtual reality technology is so exciting, not every school has the available technology.  (If you do have iPads or smartphones, check out LittlStar- it's doesn't require a viewer!)

Google Tour Builder makes it possible for teachers (and students!) to create these virtual field trips. 

It's very easy to use, but if you're interested in watching a video, check this one out!

What I like about Google Tour Builder is its simplicity.  Students can easily create a tour by signing into their Google account.  You can add photos, links, descriptions, and time frames to the different spots. 

I can see many different applications for Google Tour Builder.  English teachers could map locations in a book or different story settings from the same author.  Social studies teachers could do so many things - mapping locations of battles in a war, mapping areas that represent different land types, mapping important cities in a country...the possibilities are endless!

As a business teacher, I can see myself using Google Tour Builder to have students create virtual tours of business, virtual tours of sporting venues, or virtual tours of a person's life. I can also see using the description feature to pose questions to students to answer during the tour. 

I made a sample tour of some Kansas City sports and entertainment venues to test the tool out.  To see my tour, click here.

How can you see yourself using Google Tour Builder?

Google Story Builder in the Classroom

We've all seen the commercial where Hall & Oates collaborate on their song "Maneater."  If you haven't, see below...

A tool that can be used to create short videos like this style is Google Story Builder.  Google Story Builder allows users to create short videos with different characters that will interact.  In addition to being a fun tool, there are many ways that this can be used in the classroom.  Here are some that I came up with for my classroom:

• Have students reenact a conversation that explains a concept discussed in class
• In a business classroom, we could explain the 4 Ps of marketing, the components of an effective resume, or the steps for creating a formula in Excel.

• Have students resolve conflict between two parties
• In a business classroom, we could venture into ethics.  In an English classroom, students could resolve conflict between two main characters. 

• Have students restate classroom expectations 
• In any classroom, students can create a conversation that explains classroom procedures, like what to do when you enter the room or how to prepare to leave the room. 

Here is a short how-to video created by a fellow teacher - in addition to showing you how to use Google Story Builder, she provides some possible uses in the classroom. 

One feature that I really like is the easy ability to share the video.  Users don't even a Google account to create the video.  Once the video is created, a shareable link is generated.  

The videos are really simple to create, but I recommend that you preview your story frequently to make sure you are on the right track and things are running the way you intended.  Once you have generated the shareable link, you are unable to go back and edit the video - this makes previewing the video very valuable. 

We were asked to create a short, fun Google Story for my graduate school class, so I decided to reenact the discussion my students had with me during dismissal on Thursday.  On the last day of the week, I tell my students to enjoy their weekend and make good decisions.  The video is a true life story! 

How would you use Google Story Builder in your classroom? 

Google Calendar for Lesson Planning

Each teacher lesson plans, but rarely do it the same way.  I've gone through several different approaches to lesson planning in the short 3 years I've been teaching.  This week, I found a new method that uses Google Calendar.

Google Calendar has many great features that make it conducive to lesson planning.  Here are some of the features and a few videos to show you how to create a lesson plan in Google Calendar.

Multiple Calendars 
Google Calendars allows users to create multiple calendars for their main calendar.  You can create a personal calendar, a calendar for professional development, a calendar for each prep - the sky's the limit!

Repeating Events
Creating repeating events is fantastic if you have a standing appointment, like a team planning period or special.  You can set the days to repeat, the start date, and the end date.

 If you convert to Google Calendar for lesson planning, you can use this tool for everyday things.  For me, I would use it for my anticipatory sets.  Each class period has 10 minutes to work on a bellwork activity. 

Adding Attachments
Google Calendar allows you to add attachments to your events. This is great to attach specific handouts need to assignments.  The attachments can be added from Google Drive or uploaded from a computer.

This can be helpful if you share your calendar with co-teachers or a student teacher. 

Easily Rearrange 
Google Calendar allows users to drag and drop events to rearrange their calendar.  This is great if your perfectly planned lesson is thrown off by a fire drill, surprise assembly, or surprise snow day - not that any of these things every happen...

If you're intrigued by this method of lesson planning, see two teachers demonstrate how they use Google Calendar for lesson planning!

5 Reasons Google Drive is Great!

I learned about Google Drive in 2008 when my college advisor and I started our Collegiate DECA chapter.  At first, I was irritated...why did I have to create something 'in the cloud' when email worked just fine?  The more he had us use it as an officer team, the more I fell in love.  Fast forward a couple years and it's one of my favorite Google tools.

Here are some of my favorite things!

• Accessibility
  Google has, in my opinion, done a great job of making Google Drive and its file types accessible to many people on different platforms.  We are a 1:1 iPad district that uses PC computers...this presents many problems when students do work on iPads and forget to convert to PDF or Word when submitting them.  With Google Drive, I don't have to worry about that type of thing!  Students (and teachers) can also share documents and collaborate!
   
• Apps
  The apps for Apple, Android, and Windows are great, too!  I have been on a field trip with my iPad and I needed to jot down a few notes.  I was able to do it offline and then the document uploaded to my Drive when I was able to get Internet connection.  One thing I wish they would update, is that you need an individual app for everything - a Docs app, a Sheets app, etc. 
   
• Organization  
  I love the ability to create folders and organize my documents.  When I look at a student drive on our desktops, I typically twitch because they haven't exactly mastered the concept of file organization - they are getting there...less files named alskjfi...but there is still room for improvement!  With Google Drive, you can create tons of files and change the file color - I think it makes organization much prettier.

• History & Customization
  Another nice feature is the ability to see a change history - similar to the revision history in the documents, you can see things that have happened over time. You can also adjust general settings and manage applications for your own Google Drive from the settings tab.  These features are great for the basic Google Drive user, as well as someone who wants a little more control.

 

However, my absolute favorite thing about Google Drive is...

• FREENESS!
  All of it is free!  I have never paid a dime for my Google Drive account...now I'm sure if I need to increase storage (I have 17GB) at some point, I will have to shell out some dimes, but not right now!  I work in a district that is 75% low income.  While students have access to Microsoft One Drive, they will lose it once they graduate.  With Google Drive, students will have it until they close their account.  I encourage my students to create Google accounts so they can save the things they are proud of - like a resume - and be able to access it anywhere. 

Here are some more great features of Google Drive.  What are your favorite Google Drive features? 

6 Google Tools for Teachers

Google and Google Chrome are some of my favorite things on the Internet.  I mean, Google has become it's own verb.

My love for Google has lead me to create a list of some of the things I love the most...

1. Define ___________
As you can see above, if you type define and a word, Google gives you the definition nearly instantly!  This is one of the tips that I teach my kiddos when they are struggling with the definition of something.

2. Google the Spellchecker
I'll be one of the first to admit...sometimes spelling is hard.  Monday mornings and Friday afternoons being some of the most difficult times in a week to spell.  If you type a word into Google and spell it wrong, it gives you the correct spelling and runs a search with the correct spelling.

3. Quick and Easy Timer
When I trying to pace things or use transitions in my classroom, I use the Google timer.  I open a new tab, type "10 Minute Timer," and hit enter.  The timer automatically starts!  Its a great tool for me because I can help students and not worry about watching the clock.

4. Google Calculator
I'm not a math teacher, so I don't require calculators in my classroom.  However, when we do our business math unit, I need them!  One quick and easy tool is to use the Google Calculator.  Students will also use the installed Windows calculator or their phones, but this is a quick option.  Google will also do math problems that you type in the search bar.  Try it!

5. Google Translate
My school is very diverse and some of my parents have limited English skills.  If I'm aware of this, I will try to send communications home in their native language (most often is Spanish for me).  Google Translate is a great way to translate brief messages!  I will caution you that this is more formal Spanish and doesn't really consider dialects, but it can get the point across.  I will typically have a student who is bilingual read through it and let me know if I have the general gist of the message.  It also has a speaking function so you can hear what it should sound like.

6. Specific Search
This weekend, I was creating a PowerPoint presentation about banking and was looking for YouTube videos showing students how to fill out deposit slips, record transactions in a checkbook, etc.  I could type my search parameters in Google and add the word YouTube to see only results from YouTube.  This is a great shortcut for me!

These six tips barely scratch the surface of all the things Google can do.  Here are 17 Google hacks (I've mentioned some, but there are others!) you can use. 

What are some of your favorite Google search tips?

Google's Custom Search Engine

Next to "stop touching each other," one of the most used phrases in my classroom is "Google it!"  As much as I love Google - and I remember using it before it was a verb - it can be somewhat of a challenging space for students.  With over 100,000,000 gigabytes of information in Google's search index, information overload can be a real thing!  (If you want to learn how Google finds all the websites, check out this video)

Google Custom Search Engine (Google CSE) allows for users to create search engines that only search selected sites.  As a teacher, this is a valuable tool for many different areas of education.

This semester, I am trying something new - each week, students are responsible for completing a current event.  They are asked to find a news article, summarize the article, explain why that article interested them, and tell me how it could be tied to business.  Things went pretty smoothly the first week, but I noticed students were spending a lot of time sifting through search results.

When I heard about Google CSE, I decided that I would create a search engine for my students to use when searching for their current event article.

It is very, very easy to create a custom search engine - in fact, I was able to do it while watching football!  If you're a visual learner, like me, here is a video.  I had the video on one side and snapped my CSE window to the other side and just followed along.

I selected a wide variety of websites, including news and sports, because I let my student pick a news article that interests them.  In addition to websites, you can also search by the top-level domain (.edu, .gov, .com).

 

You can add and remove websites and top-level domains in quickly, as well as customizing the results format and theme.  Another feature that I like is the ability to use speech input.  Speech-to-text is one of the many accommodations that I make for students in my classroom.  Users can also choose to enable image search, too!

This seems like a very valuable tool that teachers (and parents!) can use to make the Internet a more navigable place.  To test my search engine, type your search parameters below: