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I have created a slides presentation related to the skeletal system.
I would use this for middle to upper primary classes. I added a video to the final slide and would assess student learning by posting a Google Quiz as well as the slideshow for students in Google Classroom. This I feel would be an engaging way for them to show what they have learned.
I have some experience with Google Slides from teaching in the US, but have not been using them as much recently. This course has reawakened my love for using the Google Workspace in my classroom and beyond. Using the Google Workspace everything is easily accessible, relatively easy to use with practice, and for the most part very child friendly. At the moment access to technology in my school for students is improving, and I plan to implement many of the things that I have learned in this coming school year. I don’t see Meets being as useful in the primary school sector as it was during the Covid period, but it still has many fantastic features and it’s always good to know about it. I love how everything is easy to share, store, access and the platform really makes life so much easier for teachers to collaborate with colleagues, and also for student collaboration. I plan on sharing some of my learning with my colleagues upon my return to school. While I was familiar with the Google Workspace, there have been many new features added which I was not aware of and can implement professionally.
Hi Deirdre, I really liked the format of your Forms assessment. I liked how you used a combination of pictures, and video. I saw that you were gearing your assessment at a special class and I think this format would work really well in that setting. Your assessment was concise which would alleviate any frustration on the part of the pupils. I geared my forms assessment at second to third class and used a similar layout 🙂
I chose to create a form as an mid/end of unit quick review.
It would be geared at middle primary classes (2nd – 3rd). I included questions based on images and a video. I was trying to be keep in mind that not all students of this age group are fluent readers, and that was why I included images and a video. I used mainly multiple choice questions, some being in the true/false format. I really wanted this form to be a quick, simple assessment focused on what the children know rather than becoming a reading test. I would use the results of the quiz to inform my next steps in either reteaching or reviewing the content. I believe that forms is an excellent way of doing this. I have used forms as an assessment tool in the past, and pupils respond well to this type of assessment rather than the traditional paper and pencil methods.
After reviewing the ‘Redesigning Education’ paper, the main thought I am left with is how we, as educators, have to make sure that we are moving with the times and creating learning environments and facilitating learning experiences that are both relevant and meaningful in today’s world for today’s learners. We are preparing our students for jobs that may not even exist yet, and we have to move away from the teacher being the imparter of knowledge and place more emphasis in the role of ICT as being a more central and integral part of student learning, as opposed to being an add on.
The learning skill that I chose to focus on is collaboration. I teach 4th class and I think this is a good age to teach and reinforce and provide opportunities for students to develop this skill. I believe children often learn more when collaborating with their peers on a meaningful task. One way that I think lends itself to the collaborative process easily, is project work. I can see myself using this to have children research countries in geography and create projects using ICT. One of the important parts of collaboration is shared responsibility. I would create a rubric with the requirements for the project listed. I would copy this rubric on a Google Doc for each group and allow them to ‘sign up’ for areas of responsibility that as a group they would need to discuss, agree and take ownership of. I think in the beginning this process would need a lot of conversation around it as a whole class, but that with practice, the children would really become invested in their learning. Group products could take the form of a Google Slide presentation for example, and pupils would also need to collaborate to ensure continuity in the end product. In this way the learning experience requires interdependence. This is just one example of collaboration. I have a million ideas buzzing around in my head and am excited to implement them in my classroom.
Here is the link to my classroom: Ms. Furlong’s Fourth Class
Last year I returned to Ireland to teach after 11 years teaching in the US. While there, I used the Google Classroom extensively, and wanted to complete this course as a refresher. While I’m familiar with a lot of the content, I’m happy to see that there have been updates and extra features added that will prove very useful such as more extensive grading and more features in relation to communication with parents.
I believe that the Google Classroom is an excellent tool, particularly from the middle and upper primary years and above. The scope of ways that teachers can use it for teaching and learning is endless. I really enjoy the flipped learning capabilities, such as posting a video to frontload a new topic, and having students comment or post on a Jamboard to interact with the video, for example.
Children these days are more adept with technology that ever before, so it’s really important that we, as teachers use this to motivate and engage them in their learning. Google Classroom provides many ways to do this. My former pupils really enjoyed creating Google Slides projects both independently and collaboratively. It was wonderful during the Covid period that I could provide them with opportunities to work/interact with their peers by assigning group tasks. I will be teaching 4th class this year and I think this is a great age group to teach students how to do this.
The possibilities for differentiation are wonderful. I can see myself assigning tasks at all ability levels, and pupils or groups of pupils could work at their level on a given task or topic without it being such an obvious thing. Assignments on Google Forms are a great tool as they provide teachers with instant feedback on a child’s grasp of a concept, so I know this is something that I will definitely continue to use.
I love the new features added in the communication section, where parents really are constantly informed and in the know about their child’s learning, assignments and grades. Google Classroom is a very safe space. I like that the teacher can adjust settings to how they want them, as deemed most appropriate for the group of pupils in their class. I’m really excited to use this platform with my class this year.
https://www.peardeck.com/</span></p>
This is a very versatile tool that would allow me to turn presentations and lessons into interactive learning experiences for my pupils. I teach 4th class and it would be very useful to make a Slides presentation with Pear Deck assessment features embedded on any given topic. Presentations can then be shared with my pupils. It’s easy for children to join as they get a unique code. After different sections of the presentation, Pear Deck would allow me to assess the pupil’s learning in real time. Pear Deck allows for assessment in a lot of different formats from drag and drop, multiple choice to open-ended questions. The beauty of it is that pupils’ responses are anonymous to their peers, but I can still see identifiable information. Shy students and those who are afraid or embarrassed to ask questions in front of their peers would have a venue to speak, share, and participate. This tool also supports multiple learning styles. Students can type or draw. I can see this being really useful across the curriculum, but especially in areas like literacy and SESE where I could assess pupil’s learning on topics like local history and geography or novel studies. This will increase participation and confidence levels. Pupils could create their own presentations with peers using Pear Deck features. This would serve to improve digital literacy as well as pupil engagement.
