"I'm Googling it!"

Google is great.  I've always been a huge fan of it.  As this school year progresses I'm realizing the full extent of its awesomeness.  Up until a few months ago I thought the main purpose for using Google was to call people on their "bull".  Google really is the ultimate fact-checker; someone makes a sketchy claim, "I'm Googling it!"  Seriously, why do people allow random things to fly out their mouths without thinking about it first?  Well anyway, turns out you can do loads of cool stuff with Google!  I'm still pretty new to all of the wonderful things Google has to offer, but this year my school district switched over to All Things Google.  Bye bye expensive Microsoft Office, hello awesome free stuff.  So aside from the basics of Google documents, presentations, sheets and forms (which are pretty much identical to Microsoft, but thousands of dollars less for a school district), you can like, add stuff to them that makes it EVEN BETTER!!!  I know, this is for real, I promise, I'm not pulling your leg, you can even google it if you want to!  

So, about 2 weeks ago I had a student ask me, "Mrs. Dean, do you think Google is taking over the world?"  I'm sure you can already guess what my response was!  :)  Ok, so now that you've "googled" it, let me tell you some examples of how epic Google can be!

With google drive, you can share any document, spreadsheet or presentation and turn it into a collaborative piece of work.  Google "add-ons" for any of the google tools allows you to create anything from movies to cartoons!  After browsing some of the super handy templates I found a lot of great resources for the classroom such as project/report starters, lesson plans, rubrics, and syllabuses.  My students are your typical 21st century student, they want to create things, collaborate and share their work and ideas with their peers.  Google tools for the classroom allows students to do all of these things and much more.  Below are links to some great articles with ideas and tips on using Google Drive in the classroom.  

"20 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom"

"15 MORE Things You Can Do With Google Classroom"

"Google Apps in Classrooms and Schools"

"40 Ways to Use Google Apps for Education"

"The Paperless Classroom With Google Docs"

"21 Interesting Ways to Use Google Docs in the Classroom"

"100 Ways to Use Google Drive in the Classroom"

"Docs and Drive Level 2: Classroom Application" 

This year I started using Google Classroom in all of my classes.  I am now pretty much paperless.  The majority of student work is done online and turned in online.  No more excuses that "the dog ate my homework" or that they swear they turned it in, I must have lost it!  I know the exact moment a student turns their work in.  They can ask me questions about an assignment from home, or find out what they missed if they are absent.  I am able to comment on student work and return it to them quickly and easily if it needs to be revised.  Here is a video showing you how easy it is to set-up and use Google Classroom!