I know what you're thinking. "I know what Google is, and I know what a classroom is . . . but what is Google Classroom?"
Google Classroom is a digital management system for instruction, assignments, collaboration, and feedback. It's everything you remember from school in the 20th Century, only digital for the 21st! Students can view videos of instruction that I have posted, complete an assignment I have created, collaborate with each other, and receive feedback from me all in Google Classroom.
Dillingham City School District has purchased enough licenses for every middle/high school teacher to have a digital classroom and every student to have a digital seat. Each account is based from a district-provided gmail account. In order for your child to participate, they MUST have a signed technology user agreement on file with the office. This really is absolutely necessary if your student is to succeed in my class.
Google Apps for Education
DCSD has also purchased licenses for MS/HS students to access all Google Suite applications. These are web-browser based applications that store saved work in the 'cloud', so you must have internet access to use these products. Applications available to students include Docs, Sheets, Forms, Slides, Sites, Classroom, Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Hangouts, Plus, YouTube, and more. Students should use their school district username/password for GSuite-based assignments.
GSuite Direct Links
Google Drive
Google Docs
Google Slides
Google Classroom
Gmail
My students use Google Docs to...
My students use Google Slides to...
GSuite Direct Links
Google Drive
Google Docs
Google Slides
Google Classroom
Gmail
My students use Google Docs to...
- Work on a project together - Its real-time, group collaboration capability is fantastic. Students love seeing their contributions fly across the page alongside their peers.
- Brainstorm and organize ideas together - Students use one document to build on each other's ideas and knowledge.
- Peer edit each other's work - Students invite their peers into their documents on certain assignments (particularly in Writing), and these extra pairs of eyes are extremely helpful in pinpointing simple grammatical and mechanical errors.
- Collaboratively annotate a text together - Students read short texts in groups and insert comments as they read, asking each other for clarification and posting analytical questions to scaffold each other's understanding.
My students use Google Slides to...
- Create multimedia presentations
- Design their own computer graphics for projects
- Publish digital books
- Generate mind maps and organize information
- Create flow charts and understand organizational structure