Going Google

Students in Forms 5-7 have been using Google for the last couple of years to save all their files with much success. It is a strategy that will be very helpful for teachers when we migrate to a new laptop in June. If you have not already "gone Google", here's an introduction into how Google Drive works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXEi1KbTyX8

In our faculty meetings we will be working together to make sure that everyone has been set up and is ready for their new laptops in June.


In case you miss(ed) the meeting, here are the general steps we will be following (notes are available in the What Is Google Drive link below the image):



What Is Google Drive? - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Using Google Forms to Simplify Marking with Rubrics

By taking a few minutes to set up a Google form, you can drop your highlighter and pen and click away to get your marking done. All your results are saved in a spreadsheet for easy reference later.

Once you're comfortable with that, add on a script and have students receive their results by email once you've marked their work!

This will be covered in our Tuesday Tech-in-20 session on January 21st (12:10-12:30) if you are interested.

Step 1: Set Up the Form

This strategy is very effective when you re-use the same rubric over and over throughout the year. We developed this example rubric for assessing problem solving in math - the problems change throughout the year, but the rubric does not. A similar rubric has been created for evaluating oral presentations in French.

 

If you need help with creating a Google form, just let me know. 

Once the basic form has been created, you will want to:

• replace email addresses with students you will be marking repeatedly using this rubric (suggestion: put yourself in this list too so that you can use yourself for testing that it all works)
• set response destination (click the button to set the spreadsheet where the results will be saved)
  
  

Step 2: Try it out!

Go to the live form and enter some data. What assignment is it? Choose yourself as the student, and then assess your work.

Now check the response spreadsheet - you will see the summary of all the results you have recorded. As you use the form to record assessments over time, these results can be sorted to examine trends.

Step 3: Email students their results (entirely optional)

Your next step is to communicate the results to the students. If you want to conference with each of them, you have your marks handy in the spreadsheet, but it is even easier to click a few buttons and have the boys receive a copy of their assessment in their Gmail inbox!

Chad Kafka has a very thorough explanation on how to add the Form Emailer script to the spreadsheet and then configure it so that your students receive an email each time you hit submit on the form. I have also compiled a video tutorial showing you how to walk through this process. For example, a student might receive this message:

If you're interested in making this work for you, let me know.

Here's a 12-minute video tutorial showing you how it all works:

- Sarah

Google Calendar and Tasks - Keeping Our Students Organized

These tools will be the online replacement of the paper-based agenda for our Form 6 and 7 students next year. Teachers will need to model use of these tools so that students see them being used daily. Sarah, Lara and Kathryn will be around to help with this process throughout September. 

In preparation for next year, Sarah has been putting together a reference website for the students, but much of the material on this site is relevant for our teachers as well. If you aren't all that comfortable with using Google Calendar or the Google Task List, please watch this tutorial that Kathryn has put together. For Form 6 and 7 advisers, consider watching this during the first week of school as a whole class.

As always, if you would like to sit down and learn more about Google Calendar or Tasks, let us know. Sarah and Lara are always happy to help.