Facilitate

I've learned a lot from Google's tutorial on how to use Google Workspace to better educate students in the classrooms. One of the big points from the tutorial was how lots of Google's tools and digital content, such as Google Docs or Google Keep, help to eliminate some of the more tangible parts of education that could create issues, such as textbooks. Some advice for how to digitize classroom activities is to use Google Drive in order to upload readings, worksheets, Google Docs, Slides, and Forms in a place easily accessible to students. This is extremely beneficial, as it allows us to easily share classroom materials without the need of mass printing, as well as ensuring students who may miss a class for whatever reason can stay caught up, and better fostering collaboration between students. Other Google apps, such as Hangouts and Gmail, help to ensure consistent communication between teacher and student/guardian. The most helpful tool Google provides, in my opinion, is Google Classroom, as it makes the process of assigning and receiving homework much more intuitive for both teacher and student, and integrates well with Google Drive to allow for ease of assignment. In summary, Google provides a vast array of tools that aid in many aspects of teaching.

I also learned many new tips and tricks for automating some aspects of a teacher's work in Google's "Automate Classroom Tasks" module. The first thing I learned was how to better automate Gmail in order to simplify and automate both the reception of emails and the creation of emails for students and guardians alike. One of the helpful tricks from the module (which is something I have already been using for a few years now) is Gmail's auto-advance setting, that lets you quickly move on to new conversations from other students/guardians after finishing up with an old one. Another helpful tool is Gmail's templates, that help you quickly create and send frequently sent messages without having to tediously rewrite every part of it. Another helpful tool for automation is 3rd-party addons which can be installed directly to the Google Chrome Browser (I use Edge, and it works for Edge too!) There are a wide variety of 3rd-party addons that address a variety of teaching needs, are easy enough for anyone to use, and help to automate many classroom tasks, such as grading or setting due dates. 

The last intermediate module I used was the "Organize Your Class Materials" module, which taught me ways to quickly put together and share my Google teaching resources with students and guardians. The first part of the module went over ways to make a class syllabus, with help from Google Docs. They show you a few helpful tips for using Google Docs that can help with making a syllabus, such as how to make a table of contents, tables, etc. It also helps by showing you how to share said syllabus with anyone who may want it. The second part of this module I found to be more useful, and it was information on how to create digital portfolios using either Google Drive or Google Sites. Hosting student/teacher work on Google Drive is easy, as it provides you with a lot of tools, namely folders and organization tools, that help keep student work together. You can also create a great portfolio using Google Sites (hey, thats what we're using right now!), and Google Sites is a great tool for being either the central point of the classroom or an easy tool for students to make their own portfolios.

Making Connections: How Do These Tools Help to Facilitate Learning?