12 Days of Our Favorite Resources to Engage Learners
I always try to remember it’s not about the tech, it’s how you use it. This being said, sometimes learning about a new tool or resource will open the door to bigger discussions about, creativity, pedagogy, and learning. Sometimes exploring a new EdTech resource can lead to some incredible learning experiences.
Day 11 - Google Classroom
Yesterday, Chris Skrzypchak shared Pear Deck, a great tool to add interactive questions to Google Slides. Today our guest blogger, Tania Moneim is sharing a great tool to help teachers and students go paperless.
Back in what seems like the dark ages, before tools like Google Classroom, I was a High School English teacher. I would collect assignments and then spend countless number of hours giving students meaningful feedback on their writing. Aside from correcting the mechanical and grammatical errors, I often posed questions to my student challenging their claims or questioning their evidence. I was certain that the feedback that I provided would make all my students better writers and thinkers. But, when I handed their assignments back, all my meaningful and thoughtful comments ended up in the recycling bin. It seemed that all my hard work fell on blind eyes and deaf ears. All the students cared about was the grade at the end of paper. I have come to realize that the problem was two-fold: the feedback was after the fact and the comments were no longer meaningful. Student’s had no reason to care about my comments.
Fast forward to 2019 and enter a little tool (Google Classroom) and it’s sidekick (Screencastify). Feedback no longer has to be scribbled in the margins with the hopes that someone would read them and do something with it. First off, I use the Private Comments to give my feedback. Rather than write the comments on the paper, I use the Private Comments in Google Classroom to create a dialogue with each student about their work. The private comments allow me to engage in a one -on- one conversation with each student regarding their work. You can have an entire conversation with their assignment in the private conversation. By using Google Classroom’s private comments, I am forcing the students to (1) Read my feedback and (2) reflect on my feedback - shifting the assignment from being a grade generator to being a learning opportunity. The important thing is to create the comments and the conversation while the students are still working - not after they have turned it in, Once the assignment is turned it, students view the assignment done.
Similarly, I can use Screencastify to record my feedback verbally as I am going over the parts of their assignment, I can read parts of their assignment - raising my questions that I would previously write in the margins. Aside from being a timesaver for my grading, it again forces the students to listen to the feedback. The students can then access the video and see/hear the feedback while they revisit their work. Once you create your video with screencastify, grab the link from your google drive and share it with students in the private comment section of Google Classroom.
Google Classroom can provide you with a comprehensive way to give meaningful feedback to your students before they finish an assignment. I am not going to lie and say that it will save you a ton of time, But, what I have found, by investing the time and providing the feedback while the student’s are creating, the student’s have become better learners and have grown exponentially from when I would hand back unread comments. In fact, WIth Google Classroom, with the help of my buddy Screencastify, I can reach students while they are working and guide through their work without spending valuable class time meeting with each of them one on one.
Learn more about Google Classroom using our Google Essentials Document linked in this post.
If you’ve used Google Classroom in your classroom in a unique way, please share your story in the comments below. If you have questions or other ideas, the comments below are waiting for you.
(Links to Each Day's Resource as They Become Available)
I will share our final resource tomorrow. The future is almost here!
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Tania is the Instructional Technology Coordinator at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, IL. I enjoy talking about best practice and utilizing technology to engage students and teachers in the learning process. Twitter: @EdTechTania
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