The team at Region 4 has given us many opportunities to support teachers over the past few years, including The Classroom Chef workshop, Google Tools, and an upcoming full day of Desmos and how it can empower teachers and students.
This weekend was no different, with a room of teachers ready to take their knowledge of the Google Suite of tools to a new level.
We began the day by having everyone complete a Google Form that gave us some information about the attendees, but also to show off the quiz feature of Forms as each person answered questions about Polar Bears (a common theme for the day… you’ll see).
Once we had “taken attendance” with the Form, each attendee dove right into creating their own form that they could use in class – or role outside the classroom – this week. We saw a variety of Forms being created, from a 4th grade book review to a college visitation form to quiz about color palettes for an high school art course. The time was well-spent not only for the opportunity and freedom to create a product for their class, but to also see how others were using their newfound knowledge of Google Forms.
Next, we wanted to highlight some of the new features of Google Slides and to lean on some of its existing features that make presentations cleaner, more efficient, and more student-friendly. The group made a copy of our Polar Bear Slides template and built things like this:
More specifically, we introduced the addition and editing of video, insertion and masking of images, and theme design. After we all create an individual report on Polar Bears, the task became applying these principles to a slide deck that could be used this week, so time was given for the creation of a product.
For as little discussion that happens around Google Drawings, it sure is useful. From diagrams to flow charts to handouts and beyond, Drawings is the forgotten gem of the Google Suite; not in our workshop. All in attendance made a copy of a Bear Venn Diagram and sorted the descriptors, then created their own to use with their class.
This theme, along with Polar Bears, persisted throughout the day. When doing an advanced Google Suite training, we felt that it would be more useful to have a unit of study that teachers could refer to–and build on their own–before leaving for the day. After all, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
We closed by going through the various ways in which Google Slides can be presented, how content can be collaborative and shared, and encouraged everyone to take some risks.
If you are interested in having us come work with your staff on using the Google Suite of tools in class, head over to our reservations and get in touch!