Collaborating on Homework Calendar Through Google Docs

Description:  I taught my fellow first grade teachers about Google Docs and used this as a way to collaborate with them before printing the monthly calendar for our students.

Standards: TF- V.D (Productivity and Professional Practice)

Hours: 4 hours

Population: First Grade Teachers

Reflection: Once I learned about Google Docs I was excited to share it with my teammates and discuss how we could use it in the collaboration of the homework calendars we send home at the beginning of the month.  Often when we have a letter that needs to go home to parents or a homework calendar, we end up sending it to each other via e-mail and it will then be revised by someone and sent out via e-mail again, and so on.  Using Google Docs we can invite each other to look over and revise on the spot and then take the final copy from there instead of sending it to one another over and over.  This worked fairly well once we had determined how everyone logged in and what e-mail addresses were being used (some made it hard to determine who was who).  Now it makes a lot of sense to use this tool in so many different areas.

Thing 19 - Let's Work Together On This One

I have never used Google Docs before now.  How could I have missed such a great tool?!  I used it today when putting together our 1st grade homework calendar.  I shared the doc with my fellow teachers and allowed them to edit as needed.  I think this is a great way for our collaboration to reach the next level.  Just a few weeks ago we were sitting in a teacher work session and one of the teachers had put together a field trip letter to go home.  She sent it to us via e-mail and asked if there were any changes that needed to be made.  I edited a few things and sent it back to her and the rest of our team.  Then someone else found something that needed to be changed and the letter was edited again and sent back and out to everyone. I'm sure you get the picture.  Crazy thing is.... I didn't know that there was an easier way to do that until now.  With Google Docs we could have saved ourselves a lot of time by all looking at the document on our computer and making changes as needed without sending it back and forth to each other five and six times.  I love when life is made simpler.

I did notice that not everything worked exactly as I would have hoped.  There were some graphics that did not transfer from my original and a shape that did not transfer the way I wanted it to, but the main idea was there and available to others for editing and feedback.  I also did not like that when my teammates clicked on the web address to get to the document they were then directed to sign in to Google and then sent to another page before getting to my document.  I had not had the opportunity to explain to everyone yet what my plan was for the Google Doc, so some of them did got frustrated and did not go past the first page and another signed in using an account name that I was not familiar with causing me to allow her to "view" but not "edit" because I didn't know who she was.

I can see how Google Doc is useful for teachers in this kind of collaboration.  I also like the idea of using it in the older grades to help with editing student work and provide teacher feedback.  This is a great tool and I intent to use it again very soon.

Thing 18 - Very Social

I love social networks!!!  I was a huge fan of Myspace.  It reminded me of a big scrapbook page that was ever-changing with backgrounds, pictures slideshows, calendars and countdowns, and music.  It was so much fun until my friends moved from Myspace to Facebook.  I refused to get on Facebook in the beginning (out of loyalty to Myspace and because I thought the set up was very boring). But, like I said, all my friends were now using Facebook, so I converted and now I can't get enough.

I am one of those people that think FB or something similar should be used with students for students to collaborate on homework and class assignments. I think it would be a beneficial co-learning place for students to feel free to help others on certain assignments and also gather advice from other students who had previously taken that same class and done similar assignments and activities.  Having said all that, I see the problem that teachers have with becoming "friends" with students. I have a strict rule that I do not accept students or class parents as friends on FB.  It seems that FB is not the only way to engage in a social network.  I have just recently been introduced to Ning.  Ning is a social network site that allows you to make a group and invite people to be a part of that group to provide ideas and generate discussions about the topics posted.  There are all kinds of groups that you can join. I chose to join the Classroom 2.0 group. I loved all the information that I was able to get from the site and the fact that I was then able to find other groups that better connected to my needs like the Classroom 2.0 Beginner Group and the Elementary School 2.0.

My only problem when exploring these sites was ALL the information available.  Between my RSS feed, Twitter sites shared, and now the Ning groups, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with information. I am glad to know that I can find a plethora of information at my fingertips, but need to find the best way to take in all this great info.

Thing 17 - Watch What I Can Do!

YouTube amazes me! Seriously, I cannot get over how many videos there are to see and learn from. Just this year I learned about Zamzar and how to convert YouTube videos so I could download the videos from YouTube and show them to my students. When studying Benjamin Franklin, we watched a Storm Chasers video to show how Benjamin Franklin was actually the first "storm chaser". The kids loved it, and still ask if we can watch the Storm Chasers video again. People are so visually stimulated that it definitely helps to have a video that goes along with the concept being taught. Podcasts are great and useful when you are listening in the car or on the go, but if I have the ability, I want to SEE something. For instance, the videos that are linked to our weekly class lessons mainly provided by CommonCraft, always help me fully grasp what I am supposed to do or how something works.

I also use SchoolTube which is similar to TeacherTube. I have a channel where all my videos are and I can find them easily. I also tag my videos for easy access. Some of the videos created were for learning fun, like the Doubles Song we learned for addition of like numbers:


 or the one I made up and taught the kids to help them remember the parts of speech:

My co-teacher and I also decided it would be a great idea to help parents see how we were teaching a certain concept that may be challenging. We've only done one of these so far, but I'm sure there are more in our future. This is the one we created to show how to teach students to count mixed change.

We had some good parent feedback after posting this one to our site.

Here is one I found on YouTube that I thought was beneficial. It's called "How To Deal With a Screaming Child While Shopping".  :)


This is also a great way to put technology in our students' hands with the proper guidance.  Students can use smart phones, flip video cameras, digital cameras, etc. to record something and share with others, in some cases, immediately.  We had a 4th grader recently use her smart phone on the bus to video what was happening and post it on YouTube before she was dropped off at her stop.  She, of course, got in trouble for doing this because she did not have permission to video the bus driver or the other students on the bus.  When asked about the uploaded video, she said she just wanted to show her   experience as a kid on the bus.  The students already know how to use this kind of technology, so why not let them in a way that is allowed and educational.  This could have been a good school project or documentary of the goings on of the bus if it had just had the right permissions and a little guidance.

Thing 15 & 16 - Can You Hear Me Now?

Before I was sure about what a podcast was I had a general idea. Then I read the chapter in our textbook, got completely overwhelmed.  My general idea had been on the right track, but there was so much more that I was unaware of.  

Now that I've had some time to "play" and reflect, I'm interested in podcasting, but not quite sure the best way to go about it.  I had read an article that got my attention about podcasting for students where kindergarten teachers recorded themselves reading a book and would send home an ipod touch and the book for students who were struggling with reading to listen to each night.  What a novel idea.  This would be a great way for me to use the podcasting skills I've learned. I've mentioned this idea as well as one more in my podcast below.  Hope you'll take a moment to listen.

Found a site I thought had a lot of different podcasts called Learn Out Loud.  Click here for a pretty extensive catalog of all they have to offer.

Multimedia Project

In my multimedia project (aka Webquest), my students will be challenged to explore what animals need to survive.  Students will have the tasks of determining what is important when learning about how animals: eat, find shelter, protect themselves, and relate to plants and people.  Students will navigate through several websites listening to information and watching videos and record their answers to questions regarding the sites visited. 

i.e. Students will use the site: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/7770/preview/

which provides videos of a mama and papa eagle taking care of eggs and then baby chicks to answer the questions:

How do mama and papa protect the eggs/babies?

How do the mama and papa feed the babies?

What do you think the babies learn from the mama and papa?

What was most interesting to you?

I plan for students to have 2 weeks to work on the webquest.  Some activities will be completed whole group, while some will be completed during center time.

Thing 14 - Good, but Not Sure About Delicious

There is a lot to explore with the Delicious  site, and I am still in the exploring process.  I hate to judge before I've seen or used all the things it has to offer. Check out my page: www.delicious.com/ybates

Here's what I've liked, so far: 

•  Delicious has an easy way for capturing sites to put in favorites page.  The ability to have a designated spot in the tool bar so you can just drag and drop is very user friendly. 
•  The ability to search by subject for topics is great and then being able to immediately save the suggestions to your page is fast and easy too.
• The tag system makes is a good "filing" system to find sites later and relate them to eachother.
• The "social" part of the site allows you to follow the favorites of others that might relate to you and your interests, which gives you access to more sites without all the searching work on your own.
• Being able to have a web address that I can give out for others to use would make a good way for students and parents to use access sites easily from home.

Here's what I don't like, so far:

• I'm not a huge fan of the way the page is laid out.  I'm not sure exactly what it was, but something seemed off.  Again, I'm still evaluating and exploring, so it could just take some getting used to. 
• Even though I like the social aspect of following someone else's sites, I felt somewhat overwhelmed.  There were so many sites that I tired of looking at other sites. 

I have used a bookmarking site before called I Keep Bookmarks.  I like the layout of the site with my categories and folders housing my sites where I can find them easily.  It is appealing and easy for me to find things on this site, but that could just be ease of use due to my familiarity with the site.  It is not a site that is as easily accessible for other people to get to like Delicious.  It requires a username and password.  Also, you have to copy the sites you want to add and then edit your page to add them, instead of the simple drag and drop method of Delicious. 

As part of my field experience hours, I am teaching some college After School Programworkers at our school how to use some of these Web 2.0 "things" with the kids in ASP.  When developing a bookmarking site for ASP use, I will ask their opinions about Delicious vs. I Keep Bookmarks.  I'll be interested to hear their oppinions and feedback. The jury is still out for me.