Google Sheets

Google Forms Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a Google Sheets spreadsheet to track returning students' summer growth or slide data. I used formatting, formulas, and conditional formatting in order to make data easier to interpret.

• What went well for you?

         Most of it worked well for me. I was excited to hear about the "Explore" button! I have always had issues with creating charts so it's nice to know that Google Sheets has already done what I was probably going to do anyway.

• What was challenging?

        Two or three of the tutorials froze and would not resume playing, even after rebooting and starting them again. That was frustrating. I also couldn't figure out how to create a header or footer other than by typing them into the spreadsheet itself.

• What did you enjoy? 

        I enjoyed working through the tutorials and setting up the spreadsheet. I am hopeful that I will enjoy creating a chart that will be easy to interpret when I get the data in September.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use Google Sheets a lot! I like the fact that the Sheet can be shared. I will teach my students how to use Sheets during the first month of the year and am thinking about having them keep a spreadsheet of some sort that they use to track information throughout the year. My department tracks IEPs on a shared Google Sheet. I don't see a use for this in order to communicate with families.

Google Forms

Google Forms Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

         I created a Google Forms quiz. I will give students this quiz once they get their Chromebooks. It is designed to see if they pay attention to details. I used the new "quiz" format which allows for selection of correct answers and feedback to students. 

http://goo.gl/forms/WwdxaRqGWkCntPvn1

• What went well for you?

         Most of the challenge went well. The Synergise tutorials are very helpful. I was finally able to learn how to change the "theme" of a form as well as collect email addresses. I wish there was a way to set it to collect email addresses as a default. I was excited to try the new "quiz" format. I was able to assign points to each question as well as provide the correct answers and feedback to be given based on whether the student got the correct or incorrect answers.

• What was challenging?

        Nothing was too challenging. I wish I knew a way to make it default to collecting email addresses. 

• What did you enjoy? 

        I enjoyed setting up the quiz and creating the feedback for each question. I'm looking forward to using this in class the first week of school.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use Google Forms to assess student knowledge (formative and summative). I will use it to assist in creating seating and group assignments. I could use Google Forms to get information from parents at the beginning of the year (for those that have computer access at home).

Google Calendar

Google Calendar Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

        I created a Google Calendar to use with one of my classes. I will use this calendar to help students know when assignments are due and when important dates are coming up. I hope this shows the embedded calendar here:

<iframe src="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=edmonds.wednet.edu_hqikee9abdb4g2a22t93eld5og%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Vancouver" style="border: 0" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

• What went well for you?

       Most things went well. The Synergise lessons were easy to follow, although I wanted more information than they gave in those lessons.

• What was challenging?

        The instructions were to embed the calendar in my website. I don't have one that I use right now. I communicate with my students through Google Classroom and with their parents through email and phone calls. I should probably set up a class website, but don't have one right now. One challenge will be to make sure that I know how to give the parents access to the calendar just for their student's class. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

• What did you enjoy? 

        I enjoyed setting up the calendar for fall. I look forward to organizing my lesson plans on here so students can see what's coming up and "What did you do yesterday?" questions can be answered on their own.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I will use Google Calendar to organize information for my classes. I will use it to schedule all of my IEP meetings for the year and will share that calendar with all of the teachers at our school. Now that I know I can make it public, I can use it to communicate with parents as well.

Google

Google Maps Challenge

by Katherine Ramsey

• What did you create, and why? 

        I created a lesson on Google Maps. Students will learn how to find information using Google Maps. My students generally have a difficult time with estimating distances, so that will be the focus of the lesson. 

https://docs.google.com/a/edmonds.wednet.edu/document/d/13QcbhXDRSxynRlfYXbdJDRaGpD8fPDAWQIzutdsv5mA/edit?usp=sharing

• What went well for you?

       Everything went well in this challenge. The tutorials were easy to follow. 

• What was challenging?

        Nothing was challenging on this one. It was even easy to figure out what I would need to teach my students on how to use Google Maps.

• What did you enjoy? 

        I enjoyed using Google Maps to see that they had updated the Street View of my house finally. We painted five or six years ago and they had still shown the old color until very recently. I'm looking forward to teaching the lesson this fall as my students will groan when they realize I'm using Pittsburgh information. I love the Steelers vs. Seahawks discussions that we have in my class.

• What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families? 

         I can see using Google Maps for estimating distances as a warm up exercise at times to make sure that we get good at the skills needed to find places and estimate distances.

Challenge: Chromebook Apps and Extensions

What did you create, and why?

I downloaded a few extensions for use in my work and work with students. I chose Dualless and Add Blocker Plus because I think they will help me as I work and also help when I present information to students.

What went well for you?

I love how ABS gives me peace of mind while using my laptop with groups. I never know what might pop up, especially when showing kids how to search. It was easy to download and started working right away. I also tried Dualless which was really cool. I wish I had had this while I was working on my Master’s! There are times when I would really like to see more than one webpage at a time (I am an admitted tab-aholic).

What was challenging?

Nothing! It was easy to find, download, and start using both of these tools. I highly recommend both of these tools.

What did you enjoy?

I enjoyed playing with the different ways you can split screens using Dualless. It really optimizes what you can see, and with endless options for splitting there is a view for every project. Using ABP is just plain enjoyable, who doesn’t want to hack away at bothersome adds that come up while you surf the web?!

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

These two things will help me as a teacher while I look for lesson ideas, research, and surf the web by streamlining what I see. I will most definitely share these with teaching partners because they will improve anyone’s internet quality of life. These will also help with using my laptop to present information to my students. ABP will help with unexpected adds that pop up while I teach web searches. Dualless will help with lessons I teach on evaluating web sources. I won’t have to flip back and forth between screens to compare. I am very excited to use these!

Challenge: Google Forms

What did you create, and why?

I created a Google form for my parents to fill out at the beginning of the year so that I can find out more information about the best way to contact them, helpful information about their child and family, and ways we can help them with homework. I created this to help collect information from parents at the Welcome Back Dinner.

What went well for you?

I love how simple and easy it is to create a form. It’s streamlined and easy to navigate. It was fun to play with the different response types, it helped me to think of more questions to add. Well done Google!

What was challenging?

Nothing! The only thing I wondered was if responders could check all boxes that applied to them, but I found out they could after I finished the form and tried it out.

What did you enjoy?

I enjoyed finding out how the different response types worked, it helped me think of more questions to add to the form.

What ideas do you have for using this tool with your students, grade level, staff or to communicate with families?

I envision having a computer available for parents to come by and fill out the form as they meet with us during the Welcome Back Dinner or Curriculum Night. My hope is that this can get us more responses that traditional paper/pencil surveys that we send home.

Google Calendar Challenge

What did I create? Why?
I wanted to create a classroom calendar that I can use to communicate information with families in my classroom. I wanted to have one space that I can share District, school, and classroom specific information with families. I plan to post this to my classroom webpage as well as sharing it with families.
What went well? Challenging?

I found the process of creating a calendar pretty easy and I especially liked how I could color code events to keep things visually organized. Trying to make this calendar now was a bit challenging as I did not intend to use it with my 4th grade students as much as communicating with families. This meant that I had limited events to add other than district dates, as the school's events are not yet determined. I will plan to add school and classroom events as they become available throughout the year.
Ideas?

One of the things that I am thinking about trying to add is family community events, so that families could have opportunities to do free/inexpensive things together as a family. 

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=edmonds.wednet.edu_le98obadl6kqseckflq7d2mt7g%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Vancouver