Reflection on teaching Google Classroom to my peers #FéilteBeag

I heard of #féilte beag at this years Féilte 2016, the idea being to share teaching and learning with our peers/colleagues.  So this is my reflection.....

A few weeks ago I asked would any of my colleagues be interested in staying back after school to learn about google classroom and google sites which we use for student ePortfolios.  Below is my lesson plan, but I was a bit ambitious as it took one hour to cover google classroom alone.    I must say I learned as much from my colleagues as they did from me, as I showed features eg create an announcement, my colleagues spoke of ways they would use it in their subject area.  We also agreed to share knowledge in the future as more teachers commence using google classroom across a variety of subjects.

In summary, I use announcements for recording homework which absent students can check, also use it for uploading revision handouts, powerpoints, and youtube videos to recap on a topic.  The reuse feature allows for posts to be reused again for revision/repeat classes which is a user-friendly feature for teachers.  I use the assignment feature to set a task for students with a deadline date for submission and any file can be uploaded and shared.
The use of the question feature was a big hit!  I have used this in class, whereby students worked in pairs to answer a question displayed on the board, they would submit their answer, then they could see other students answers and could improve/edit their answer again if need be.  This is a good way AFL,it  is quick and students liked it and learned from each other.
Once classes are created as well as giving access to students, the classroom can be shared with other teachers/colleagues.  Using google classroom allows for differentiation, sharing and peer assessment among students.



Lesson Plan

Wednesday 30/11/2016

4.00-5.00 but can start at 3.50...

Learning Intentions:

Google Classroom:

1. Set up Google classroom and create a class.
2. Invite students to join your classroom.
3. Create announcement.
4. Create assignment.
5. Create question.
6. Sharing my classrooms with another teacher

Google Sites:

Part 1-

To Create a Teacher website/ePortfolio:

1. Create Google    ClasswebSite/ePortfolio

2. Set up Themes: header,Banner,Fonts.

3. Create new pages

4. Insert text boxes

5. Insert images

6. Insert links

7. upload documents

8. Insert documents from the drive: Documents, Presentation, videos, forms, images.

9. Publish site

Part 2- Student ePortfolio:

Students to add teacher as collaborator to enable access to student ePortfolio

Or use eportfolio class emails.