Google Tools Reflection

Google Tools: Reflection

Documents: Documents can be a great tool for students to work together. Working on projects can be much easier when used through Google documents. Communicating with your group, and working on a document can whenever and wherever you want. For my personal productivity I would use it as a tool to see the work that the students were doing. I would use it to see the progression of each group and who was contributing with the project.

Presentations: Presentation is a great way for teacher and student to communicate work that has been done. The students can work one with another to create a presentation and for the teacher to see what has been done. This tool can be used in my class to presents projects and assignments.

Spreadsheets: Using spreadsheets can be a great place to keep track of student's scores for assignments, tests, and daily participation.

Forms: At the end of the year this can be a great place to have student surveys about the class and how the topics were given in class. This tool will format the information for me so it can be a quick and easy way to read the information given to me from the students.

Calendar: Calendars are a great way to keep the students informed. I can include assignments, tests, and content that will be covered in class that day. I will include birthdays and school activities that will be going on. I plan on using it to keep myself organized as well as informed. Keeping a calendar will help me to be better prepared for my lesson of that week and month.

iGoogle: This tool can bring a whole variety for the students to choose from. They can have their own calendars and sites. iGoogle is a great link to any Google tool. Students can navigate their homework, projects, or discussion through iGoogle. For my personal use I plan on using this tool also as a navigation and guide. Providing calendars and looking at group projects and their progression in them. Students and I can communicate about projects and the different instructions given to them.

Blogger: I like submitting my homework through blogger it seems to make homework a little more enjoyable. With students it can be an easy way to reflect and communicate with the teacher or other students. Creating a blog is like creating your own personality on the web. It's fun and exciting and can involve a lot of creativity to be shown. For my personal use I can keep a class blog. I can communicate with my students about assignments or tasks we will be doing in the class through our emails on the page.

Reader: This tool is great for keeping up on all information given from my students and other colleagues. On iGoogle it can inform me of new posts and readings that I haven't gone to yet. This can make it easy to grade and follow students work. This can also make it easy for me to comment on any post I want.

Google Maps: Using Google maps can help me find locations throughout the world. As a PE teacher I can find where different colleges are that can provide different strengths in a certain sport area. Students could also use this to help with their projects (for example: recruiting)

Google Earth: This can be a wonderful place to see the earth and where different sports might have originated. Google Earth could also be a research site to find different areas of the world.

Groups: For my personal use it could be great to communicate with different colleagues about a study we could be doing together or different lessons that we have compiled together. This could also be used as a site for the class to work together on a project. The teacher could also work together with the students to create a project or research study.

Google Search Engine: This can be great to prepare the sites I want my students to be looking at and the take out the one I don't want them getting information from. My students could be finding research about different topics given in class. Finding the history and background of the different sports we cover in class could also be used at this site.

Notebook: This tool could be great at saving the sites or articles that you would like to read more fully in depth another time. It's like taking notes on a piece of paper. It can help highlight the things of importance that you as the teacher or student are looking for. It creates a good foundation for information that you are collecting. This can help my students with their projects and assignments.

Scholar: This site is great for finding reliable information, giving you facts and research that can benefit the classroom. This can be great for students and the teacher to find sources that can help with getting answers to a question or problem.

In my class I plan to use Google docs, Google presentations, Google spreadsheets, Forms, Calendar, iGoogle, Blogger, Google Search Engine. I believe that these sites can help with my classroom and benefit myself and the students. Google docs will be used in the partner and group projects to work together outside of the school, it will also help me grade each student to see the work completed by each student. Google presentations will also be used in groups but also in individual projects. Presentations will be done for the student's end of the year projects. I will use Google Spreadsheets to organize scores of the students. I will be using the forms at the end of the year for student surveys. These forms will help me to build my teaching knowledge and foundation to help the students who come next even more. Google calendar will be used in my classroom for announcements, homework assignment, and a layout of the semester, and anything else to help the students be organized and on task. iGoogle will help to navigate with my calendars and will be a great site for the students to use a variety of outlets to help with the class assignments. Blogger will be one way I have student's submit different assignments. I will also use it to communicate back and forth with the students about their assignments or everyday class topics. Google search engine will be great to find research articles that I want the students to be using in their projects or presentations.

These are the main one that I see could be most beneficial for a PE class, although others may help and throughout my teaching career I'm sure I will experiment with many of them to see the outcomes that come with each tool. Many of these Google tools provide a variety of ways to communicate with the students and for them to complete homework assignments. I think that these tools provide great avenues for the students to really explore their topics.