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I would love to use Google groups for sharing calendars, emails and files too. I am really looking forward to getting the staff more involved with Google Workspace this year. Like I said in the last module forum, I am having serious trouble trying to get Google Workspace for Education set up for the school. If anyone has had similar issues please let me know.
As someone working in a team in SEN I think that the Google Docs are an excellent resource. The ability to edit and add to forms at the same time is super. It lessons the use of paper and photocopying and keeps everything in one space. It will also help when we are working together on SSP targets and resources.
The ability to share Google calendars is huge. As a staff of nearly 20 teachers we have so many different activities and timetables to navigate that it can be very difficult to get SET times in line with a class teacher’s P.E timetable, swimming lessons etc. This is one area I will be suggesting to my SEN coordinator to use as a resource when we return next week.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kP6lk6nyfZRJWN606UWLlQ9Pdilcoin5OMZNmJ33mEU/edit?usp=sharing
This is my interactive digital story on slides.
It is a simple presentation for children coming to my SET lessons at the beginning of the year. The digital story introduces the children to all of the adults in the school, from the teachers to the SNAs to the hot food lady, caretaker, cleaner etc. In the slides I’ve created I have left the centre of each slide blank for now. Obviously when I return to school next week I will get trigger happy with the camera and with the adults’ permission put their photos into the digital story. What I could do to make it even more interactive is have short videos of some of the adults speaking or even showing the inside of their room, the door number etc.
In terms of children with additional needs, whose auditory and visual processing skills and memory retention are more often than not poor, I think this is very important. It is very often over looked by teaching staff and I admit to fogetting this too until the child with the task of bringing a note to a class or the office wanders back into my room ‘lost’. We expect children to be able to retain names, remember who is where in the school, who teaches what class, how to get to the office etc. But it is a daily challenge for some children of all ages.
So frankly, this could be shared with my colleagues and all teaching staff right up to sixth class could show this at the beginning of every year to help children who struggle in this area.
Module 4 Part 1 Google doc
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MfBarxCMNIAkSF2AU9Ttx_0ePlbA3bl0mle_A8uk-ts/edit?usp=drivesdk
This doc is for children coming to my SET class at the beginning if the year.
The aim is to hear their voices and understand how they perceive their strengths and weaknesses. I would add the nformation to their SSP and use it to help generate real and meaningful targets for their year ahead.
Module 4 part 2
PAPER REVIEW
This section of the article resonated with me most. It states:
” an assessment functions formatively:
to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers, to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have taken in the absence of the evidence that was elicited. (Black & Wiliam, 2009 p. 9)”
This makes perfect sense as a teacher but generally too. It brings me in my mind to the Doctor’s surgery and to the patient waiting for a decision in what is the next best step in his or her care. If there are results of tests such as bloods or scans in front of the Doctor and patient then the next course of action is more likely to be “better founded” surely! Likewise with teaching and learning, unless we as professionals continually assess FOR learning, listen to the students voice, assess engagement and participation as well as gather product outputs or test results, we will not FORM optimum learning paths and maximise learning for the children.
Another section of the article that I found very interesting outlines the seven strategies that assessment for learning consists of.
I have copied them into the next paragraph and I have added in my own reflections on each.(*)
“Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis and Chappuis (2005) proposed that assessment for learning consists of seven strategies:
1. Provide students with a clear and understandable vision of the learning target.
*as someone who has been teaching for over 25 years, I must say that stating a learning intention at the outset of a lesson was not on my radar. And yet, it makes so much sense. At this year’s Oide courses, the facilitator stressed that the redeveloped curriculum stresses the importance of a teacher stating learning intentions at the beginning of every lesson.
2. Use examples and models of strong and weak work.
* I have used models of weak work more so than strong work if I’m being honest…the ‘what not to do’ example! Something I need to work on having read this.
3. Offer regular descriptive feedback.
* not just well done or try harder.
4. Teach students to self-assess and set goals.
* I think we are getting better at this strategy
5. Design lessons to focus on one learning target or aspect of quality at a time.
* sometimes we can put too much into one lesson as we are often constrained by an overloaded timetable.
6. Teach students focused revision.
*this is possibly more relevant to secondary school but I think it is a very valuable skill to teach from early on.
7. Engage students in self-reflection and let them keep track of and share their learning.
*student portfolios, gathering feedback on quizzes and surveys etc. and digital tech such as digital portfolios all add to this.
Hello everyone,
Can I ask you for some support please? If anyone could help me out I’d be very grateful.
In June I applied for our school to join Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals. I am the admin on the account. I created a school domain and gave the school roll number and details as required.
This should have allowed me to support up to 1000 email accounts on our Workspace platform and to access the whole suite of Google Classroom resources.
However, I could only set up 10 email accounts and received a message to say that the school is on a limited trial for Fundamentals. I duly followed the prompts to ensure that we had properly applied and now I am at a loss.
Has anyone else come across this problem? It has been two month now and I really need to get us going before the new school year begins.
Please help!
Anita
As someone working with children in the SET the option of voice typing is a game changer. So many of the children have issues with spellings and with processing speeds. Voice typing allows them to engage actively and independently which is a massive positive for the childs self esteem and sence of achievement. It is also a plus for the teacher.
Assignment module three
I’ve chose a Science lesson on sound for Third/Fourth Class.
Strand: Energy and Forces
The children would act as sound detectives How Can We Change a Sound?
Class: Third/Fourth Class
Curriculum area: STEM – Science
Strand: Energy and Forces
Topic: Sound
Resources: Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Forms
Learning intention: We are learning how sounds are made and how we can change the volume of a sound by changing the way an object vibrates.
Firstly the children would be given clear instructions in a Google Doc. I would use limited amount of text, images to support the information before them to aid visual learners like myself and links to other webpages or sites to support the info.
Then using Google slides they would show what they know by chosing from a range range of options such as by drawing, writing, adding text or labels to a diagram, by using audio or in fact by using a combination of these.
Finally they would complete a short Google Form with flexible options for answering such as multiple choice, short answers, yes no and grading difficulty levels one to 5.
This would give me both assessment evidence and pupil voice and help me decide the course of the next lesson.
Assignment module 2
For this module I chose an assistive tech lesson for a group of 5 fifth class children in my SEN class. The learning intention was that the children would generate a short and simple slide show to present to their classes. They had many previous lessons searching for information on educational websites such as on Britannica schools and on inserting creative commons images and on inserting links to webpages.
The topic we chose was Tropical Rainforests.
For my design choice I chose a pupil facing resource. I would make a template on Google docs which would help them to structure to overall layout of the slides, generating a beginning a middle and an end.
The structure of the template would be as follows:
Slide 1: how would you define a tropical rainforest? (What is a tropical rainforest?)
Image (photo) for this slide? yes or no
Source: (what website does the image come from?)
Slide 2: etc.
*the second sentence in brackets is for differentiation.
This template would support clarity and sequence and provide consistency for future tasks of a similar nature.
One adjustment I would make is I would add in bar graph/graph/supporting file or link to the option of ‘image yes or no’.
As a link to SSE I would gather feedback from the children to asses their engagement with the task and to assess the difficulty or ease of use. This would be helpful as part of the gathering evidence part of the SSE Digital Plan for the school.
This whole class story idea is fantastic. The idea that children work imaginatively and collectively to generate something themselves that could be shared among their younger peers in a comic strip is super.
I am like you Emma in that I am also a member of the SET team. There is so much to collaborate on and share as a team that a resource like this would be super.
I also like Kelly’s idea of using Google Slides for a My Local Area project.
I did a similar lesson this year with a group of fifth class children who were coming to me for assistance tech lessons.
We went for a walk of the local area together, the children brought school tablets with them and took photos of historical and geographical landmarks in the area…such as the local castle, the holy well, street lamps and wall murals etc.
They then uploaded them into a folder on their laptop and generated a PowerPoint. Finally they went in pairs to classes and presented their PowerPoints to their peers.
The children loved this task. At first they were hesitant to present but by going in pairs they felt more supported. By the end of the year we had created three similar presentations and their confidence had tripled.
If we get a Google Workspace for Education account up and running we could do similar with Google slides.
ASSIGNMENT Module 1
Consider how you can use Digital Technology in your classroom to enhance students learning?
I am in SET this year and have been using digital tech in my classroom with classes for a while now. The children can have access to tablets and laptops and I have a Prom board in my room.
With the older classes I have found that Kahoot is an excellent resource. I am looking forward to using Google Workspace for Education this year.
How can you now apply School Self Evaluation Guidelines to your teaching?
As AP11 with responsibility for IT in the school I found this section very helpful. I know about the SSE process for years and we have applied it as a staff many times over the years. But if was super to be brought through the step by step process here. I now know that there are templates and surveys ready to use in the SSE guidelines pack and from the Dept of Ed webpage when gathering evidence.
What impact can developing your own use of Digital Technology have at school level (SSE)?
As the post holder, by developing my own use of Digital Technology I can have a huge impact on positive use of digital tech in the school community: I can help develop a digital plan for the school, help generate conversations around learning and assessments using digital tech, set up a positive collaborative learning environment etc.
Explore the teaching resources area of Google for Education’s Teacher Centre. Choose one that you could use with your pupils in the new school year. Discuss how you would localise and enhance this for your classroom in this Forum as a reply to this post (150 words minimum) and how you would go about using it with your class. Include a link to your chosen resource
I had a good look through Google for Educations Teacher Centre. What I like about it is it seems to be very easily and readily accessible for any teacher who wishes to upskill in using Google Workspace. I am particularly interested in the course Google Workspcae fro Education Fundamentals for IT Admins as I am a post holder with responsibility for setting it up in my school. With the help of all the information I learn from this course and from other participants I should have a good understanding of how it functions and how best to put it into practice.
I particularly like the idea of using Goggle Classroom for assigning lessons and resources. This is an area that class teachers could really use to enhance teaching and learning across lots of subject areas.
In my own situation as an SET teacher I work in a team and we often have to share documentation and collaborate on SSPs and targets etc. By using Google Docs it would allow us to edit and add to docs in real time and then additionally give us the opportunity to share these docs with other colleagues or students across the workspace.