Slider

Google Drive: A Innovative and Collaborative Tool in our Classroom

Saturday, February 20, 2016

"Modern learning is about doing authentic work in the world that can be amplified by technology." (Will Richardson)

Technology is just one way we enhance our pedagogy and provide flexible structures for ourselves as a teaching team to capture what our students are saying, doing and representing as part of our assessment practices and daily programming. As an active explorer of different types of technology and through a lot of trial and error and much reflection over the years, I feel that this year has been pivotal for me in developing a collaborative system between myself and my teaching partner that capitalizes on the use of Google Apps for Education as an assessment tool. 


This post will highlight a few examples of how I have organized my Google platform and used it as a catalyst for collaboration when capturing our ongoing observations, conversations and products of student learning. 

In previous years, a clipboard, a digital camera and my favourite pen would be attached to my hip throughout the school day because I didn't want to miss an opportunity to capture learning in action. While this way of assessing was great at the time for us as a teaching team, it also involved a lot of paper, extra steps for digital downloading (e.g. of images, organizing them, etc), and then doubling up with the notes and photos captured by my partner. We didn't really have an effective and efficient organizational system that allowed us to correlate, collaborate and/or coordinate our paper assessments. This is where Google Apps has been incredible for my practice because it has taken all the "pros" and "cons" of my past assessment tools and combined them into one online, collaborative, and innovative space!  


On our Google Drive, my teaching partner and I have a "Class Folder" that is our main "hub" for all of our assessment folders. These subfolders are easily organized by content area and accessible across any of our classroom devices (iPad, iPhone, iMac):



If we click on "FDK: Mathematics" for example, we again have subfolders set up based on the strand to allow for easy organization and tracking:

Presently, my teaching partner and I use Google Docs as a collaborative way to capture observations and anecdotal notes of student learning throughout our day and with the focus on various curriculum areas. Since we can both be "online" and on the same document at the same time, it has allowed us to be incredibly proficient, organized, and reflective on the observations we're making, what student needs are evident and where we can take the learning next. I have set up the Google Doc to resemble what I used to have on my clipboard whereby the paper included the area of focus at the top, curriculum expectations linked to our "look for's" and squares for each student. However, Google Docs can eliminate multiple photocopies if you run out of room, and can be easily manipulated and duplicated since you're not restricted on space. 

Using the example from above, here is what one of our Google Docs looks like for capturing student learning:



As you can see, we have included the dates for observation at the top, the curriculum strand and overall and specific expectations for reference, as well as our "look for's" and guiding prompts to support our interactions with students. The same template is used for other curriculum areas. Below is an example of our Grade 1 and SK Print Awareness template:

GRADE 1:
SK:
In addition to Google Docs, I was inspired by a colleague, Ashley Michaud, a Grade 1 teacher in York Region, who uses Google Forms as a formative assessment tool. She was generous enough to share with me all the wonderful ways she uses this Google App in her practice. Since I've been learning as I "tinker," I decided to create my own Google Forms specifically for Math to start small and see how I can use this app to support my understandings of what my students can do. Here is an example of one of my forms:




Lastly, and as part of our Learning@School Collaborative Inquiry, my teaching partner and I decided to challenge ourselves to use Google Slides as a "digital portfolio" of sorts to capture the learning of our small focus groups. The spark for this idea came from my wonderful friend and inspiring colleague, Angie Harrison, who showed me how she uses Google Slides over one of our lovely coffee dates! 



Each slide leaves room for us to capture our observations, refer to question prompts and include a photo(s) of the student in action.


I hope that this post leaves you feeling inspired and I'd love to hear how you may be using Google Apps in your classrooms! Please leave a comment below!

For those of you that may not be familiar with Google Apps, here are two short videos that highlight the purpose and practicality of how they can be utilized in the classroom:

9 comments:

  1. I LOVE your idea on using google forms for documentation. Our FDK team uses google drive for all of our collaborative planning and documenting, and pretty much everything else, but I hadn't thought of using google forms like that! Looking forward to reading more about your tinkering with google drive! - FDK team, TDSB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your comment and I'm so glad to hear you found my post insightful :) So nice hearing how others are using GAFE so thanks for sharing!
      Jocelyn

      Delete
  2. Amazing and so well thought out Jocelyn. We use Notabality in which each child has a file and then we upload to Google Drive. Love how you have created the google form. You definitely continue to inspire!!Diane King

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderfully written Jocelyn. Very inspiring. We use Notabality (each student has a folder) in the classroom and upload to Google Drive, where each child has a folder with subfolders and strands. I also really like how you have used Google forms. Thank you for sharing your thinking!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Diane! I have yet to work with Notability because in our board it's considered a "red tool" (data is not stored on our board server) but I have heard great things about it! I like that it can be connected to Google Drive for easy organization too! Thanks again for sharing your thoughts! Always love learning from you!
      Jocelyn

      Delete
  4. Thank you for sharing this post. I use Google a drive for my assessments as well and I have been trying to figure out how Google Forms could work with k documentation. You have provided a strong example of how it can be effective with the k curriculum.

    One way I use Google Drive is integrating Google Slides. We are using Google Slides as individual Stufent portfolios. As we make notes in a Google docs we can insert a photo right into the child's Google Slides portfolio. The slides can be exported as PDFs and shared with families. It's a great way to organize all of the photos.

    Thanks for the nudge towards Google Forms.
    Angie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts Angie! I always love gaining your insight and expertise :) It is because of you that I ventured out into Google Slides for capturing student's learning in a portfolio-type way - so thank you for the inspiration! I love how they can be exported and your extension with sharing with families! You've given me lots to think about as usual!
      Jocelyn

      Delete
  5. Hi Jocelyn, I love the way you have created your google forms. is there a place where we can access them on google drive?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sara,
      Thanks for taking the time to read and for posting your question. Unfortunately, my post was intended to inspire others to begin to "tinker" with Google Drive and in particular, Google Docs, Forms and Slides to create their own templates. I truly value in the process of guiding one's own learning and hope you can respect my approach to sharing :)
      Happy Tinkering!
      Jocelyn

      Delete

CopyRight © | Theme Designed By Hello Manhattan