Get a Jump on Technology

Powdersville teachers are excited to use Google Classroom with their students next year, and the summer is an excellent time to give it a test run!

As a way to support teachers over the summer, our A1 Instructional Tech Team put together four tasks to help teachers "Get a Jump on Technology" before August arrives, and we are using Google Classroom as a platform for the course. This is a great way to experience Google Classroom from the student perspective before diving in with students in the Fall. The tasks listed below are designed to give teachers an opportunity to create things that will be useful in the year ahead.

Task #1 Make Google Forms Work for You
Teachers are asked to create a useful Google Form for next school year, (i.e. a student introduction form, reading interest survey, parent night survey). Then, create a QR code that links to the form and turn in the QR Code image. (Thanks to Alice Keeler for sharing her Quick Start Guide!)

Task #2 The 4Cs: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking
For this task, we asked teachers to watch a Common Sense Media video on the 4C's and use a Google Docs template to transform a particular unit of study to include the 4Cs and technology tools. I have enjoyed getting to see the exciting things that teachers are planning and adding comments to the doc. Adding comments to a Google Doc is simple and effective!

Task #3 Creating Task Cards to Spruce Up Your Centers
This task has been my favorite! We asked teachers to watch a video from Learning in Hand, view some sample task cards, and create their own station/center task cards in Google Slides. Instead of turning in the presentation as an assignment, I asked my teachers to post the link as a comment and mark the assignment as done. This is a great way to have students share work for the entire class to view! I created a Padlet Wall to share their work here.

Created with Padlet

Task #4 End of Summer Presentation
For the final assignment, teachers are to create a multimedia presentation to document their summer using one of the following apps: Adobe Voice, Adobe Clip, Adobe Slate, Book Creator, Haiku Deck, Flipagram, or PicPlayPost. Again, I asked teachers to post a link in the assignment comments for all to view their final product. I'm excited to see the fun things Powdersville teachers create!