Cultural Comics with Google Slides: a 3rd grade experiment

It was the beginning of June and my colleague Ms. Conklin and I met to talk about a final project. A project the students could have a lot of fun with through the last month, but also a project that would also incorporate their cultural universal unit of study.

We decided to take their research on a location and turn it into a comic book style travel guide. A comic book they create from the ground up and build collaboratively.

We decided to use Google Drawing and Google Slides to make comic books...

My Google Gradebook

There are a lot of apps out there for classroom management, seating charts, and grade books. I decided to give a Google spreadsheet s try.

I wrote about the start of my experiment at the beginning of this past school year. I think it went well. Having it as part of my Google Drive (we are a Google Apps school) meant it was always accessible, as well as mobile, I edited the sheet on my iOS app while walking around the room, grading assignments, and so froth.

Here's what I did...

Taking Google Apps Data With You...

This post originally appeared on ps10tech.blogspot.com as a tutorial for 5th graders who were graduating and leaving the school but wanted to take their Google Apps data with them.

5th graders,

Over the last few years you have created quite a lot content here at PS 10. Between your classroom and the computer lab you have produced a lot of great work.

In the last year everyone has been using Google Drive to create and store projects.

Here is how you take it all with you:

3rd Grade Google Presentations

I am posting this here because I have to admit, I'm a bit proud of it. I introduced students to Google Apps for Education (GAFE) this year, in grades 3-5. It's been a long process, but as the school year approaches the fruits of our labor are starting to show.

With 3rd grade I focused on Documents and Presentations. First basic Document use like writing and formatting, then sharing, commenting, and collaborating. We then moved to Presentations. As 4th graders they will use Presentations in Science and with their classroom teacher (on class Chromebooks) so I wanted to give them a good baseline of how to create a Presentation.

We are now wrapping up the year and beginning to publish. And by publish I mean using the "Publish to the web" feature in Drive and posting it on the computer lab blog. And now this blog too. True digital publishing.

It's been a wild ride this year, getting over 400 students up and running on GAFE, as well as implementing over 100 Chromebooks in those grades. But it's been well worth it.

I will be updating this post as more student finish, but I am very proud of the work my 3rd graders have done so I felt compelled to show it off on this blog too...

Google Voice, my new favorite edtech tool...

Takeaway: Google Voice is a great way to stay connected and provide access without compromising personal space or information.

I, like most teachers, am often asked by colleagues and parents for my contact information. Most often my school-based email will suffice. There are times, however, where a phone number is the best way to communicate. Do I want to be publicizing my personal cell number for the world to see and for 24/7 unfettered access to me?

I am the technology teacher and technology coordinator for a school of 850 students and almost 200 staff members. I not only teach 700+ of those students but I manage all the in-house IT issues including our own tech support system. I teach a full schedule and handle all IT issues before or after school.

As with many teachers I don't necessarily want to be giving my personal cell phone number to every parent and staff member that asks for it. As it is I receive requests for tech support at midnight on Saturdays via email I can only imagine what would happen if my personal cell number was made available.

This is where Google Voice comes in...

... I activated a Google Voice number for free, tied it to my school's Google Apps For Education based email. Now I can have those phone interactions and publicize my number without sacrificing the ability to "disconnect" from work when I'm at home.

With my Google Voice number:

• I get texts to my email inbox
• I voicemails to my email inbox
• When logged in I can answer a call directly from my inbox
• The iPhone app allows me to call out from my cell using the Google Voice number as the outgoing number (the person I'm calling sees that number on their caller-ID, not the number of my personal cell)
• My Google Voice number is in my cell phone contacts, and when someone calls that line, my cell phone caller-ID shows "Google Voice," so I know it's a work-related call
• I can access texts and voicemails from my iPad
• I don't need a cell phone to have a cell phone

Our in-house tech support is a web-based system which sends me an email when someone fills out a help request form. The biggest issue for teachers was "what if my problem is that I can't get online, how do I submit a help request?" With Google Voice activated they can send a text to that number and I get the information directly in my inbox throughout the day, with no need for me to actually have a cell phone.

Google Voice allows me to provide a cell phone number for parent contact and staff assistance while keeping my actual cell phone off and out of sight. Between my iPad and my Google Voice number I can quickly receive texts, check voicemail, and more efficiently respond to all inquiries I receive.

I want to be accessible to the people I work with and the parents of the students I teach. At the same time I want to know I can step away from my work life to enjoy some disconnected personal time. Google Voice allows me to offer accessibility without compromising personal/family time away from school.

Chromebook, the new tool for the shed...

I spent my day at Google's New York office, in the venerable Commerce Building of the Port Authority of New York building (which Google recently purchased for themselves for the paltry sum of $1.9 billion, yes, with a b).

I was there for the final event in a series of Chromebook Classroom roadshow presentations. We got to spend the day using a Samsung Chromebook and getting insight, tips & tricks, and the overall picture of the various ways we could use a Chromebook in education.

Those who know me know I'm a Apple guy to my core (yes, pun 'tended) so I went with skepticism on the hardware front but an affinity for Google products in general. After about 30 minutes of using the book and hearing the pricing pitch I tweeted this: