Great session Thursday night with district Google gurus, Allison Reid and Chris Shearer. It is always a pleasure when they share their wealth of knowledge with us. In this session, rather than navigating through a whirlwind of different Google resources, Chris and Allison took time to delve deeper into the Google Explore tool, highlighting a few choice features that can help teachers streamline their lesson planning and enhance students’ learning experiences. They demonstrated how teachers can strategically use these features separately or conjointly to assess student learning, capture data, and make research more targeted. They also showed how teachers can guide their students in using the tool to simplify research and projects. My favorite take-aways from the Google Explore feature were the instant access to student-friendly public images and the ability to create citations instantly for multiple media sources! No more slooowww mooooviiiing Son of Citation Machine. Click here for access to the presentation.
Move over Microsoft, there’s another kid in town!
One important thing Allison and Chris noted was the opportunity to take advantage of Google’s certification. Allison mentioned one school that she visited where all of the teachers are Google certified. The principal said that applicants who are not certified are not even considered. Good looking out, Allison! With this being the wave of the future and WCPSS’ emerging focus on technology integration, it is pertinent that we as teacher leaders stay on top of the most important technology trends. Our students will thank us for it.
Up for the challenge?
Now that we’ve got an inside scoop on what technologically savvy principals are looking for, what a great asset to have on your resume! America Moreno, Jeremy Hodge, and I plan to be Google certified by the end of the year. Anybody else up for the challenge?!
Taura Simmons
ESL Teacher, ELD Specialist
Zebulon GT Magnet Middle School
