Google Classroom

Ok, so I am totally late to the party. But I can cope with that. I have been toying with trying Google Classroom for a while now. We have a VLE at school where we have to put our homework assignments, so it seemed kind of redundant for us. But then, this week I changed my mind. I wanted to find out what it was all about.

No guesses about the outcome of course. I loved it.

Why? Well, I loved that my students had to turn in their work. One of the major problems I was having with allowing my year 8s to turn in their work on Google Drive was that I never got it. They would spell my name wrong, or share it with the wrong email address. The email address I use for Google Drive isn't one I can actually get access to, so I never knew. With Classroom they have to turn in their work, and I can hassle the ones who are late in doing so. I can give them a grade that they have to look at, and leave them a comment with suggested targets for next time.

It's Tuesday. I've already used it twice. Already one pupil has asked if he can use it next week. I'd set his class a presentation task on the theme of sacrifice. I usually wouldn't see their presentations, but this time I can have a flick through before they present them and grade them before the rest of the class sees them.

Just in case this doesn't convince you. Here's a handy Youtube Clip with lush music.

Let's Geddit: OK?

Whenever I have been to teachers' conferences they have always spoken about how to assess learning has been accomplished in the lesson. As someone who teachers years 5-8 the often suggestion is to use traffic cones. This suggestion is to allow children to offer a response of red for not understood at all, amber for some good understanding and green for complete knowledge and understanding. While I think this is a good idea, in practice I have never given my pupils three cups of different colours and while I teach lots of different classes; 12 in fact, it has never seemed practical. I was therefore excited to find an online web tool where I can assess the understanding taken from my lessons; Lets Geddit.

The basic premise of this is that the teacher can both set the pupils questions to answer during the lesson and so can assess their learning. But above the question comes a bar char where they can input their level of understanding. This ranges from  being a master to showing some difficulty. You can also just have them just check in. As they do this they can make a comment to you, perhaps asking a question about something they have not yet understood. In this they can access you, without having to ask infront of the class which they might be too nervous to do. My favourite part of it is the hand waving which can be done at any point when your attention is required. All you have to do to use it is sign up, create some classes and then give your students the class code so they can get in too. In that way it works quite a lot like SocrativeI have used it several times; the first time I forgot to turn off my whiteboard. There was one girl who said that she had struggled and she was then embarrassed that this was on the board. But when I spoke to her afterwards she said that she had really liked the chance to express her concerns. She would not have done this if she had not had the software. I used it with a colleague in her class and they really liked it too. In particular it was really lovely to see some of the less able boys saying that they felt like masters. In the evening you get sent a report which summarises pupil responses so you have a chance to look over them once again, hopefully before your next lesson. 
I'm definitely going to continue using Lets Geddit, probably with the years 7 and 8s when we are discussing something difficult and complicated and when I want to get some honest feedback from them about their understanding. 

In my exploration of technology that I would like to start using in my classroom next year I have come across an App called Aurasma. It helps you to use augmented reality in the classroom. This to me, is a new and very exciting concept and I have heaps of ideas of how I will use it. In my excitement I began a little twitter dialogue with someone who was asking me about the difference between doing this and using a QR code. I will be honest, I had not even thought of using QR codes on worksheets and around the classroom but I can see that it would work too, but to me the idea of Aurasma is even more exciting. 

Here are some ideas of what I would like to start doing, (please bear in mind that I teach Religious Studies so my ideas are based around that subject).

1.) When I introduce a new religion and we look at different artifacts after the initial discussion of what the different objects are, have each one linked up to a website with an explanation of them. Then children can then find out if they were right of wrong. I could also get the children to work in groups and then link up the item so that another group could potentially learn from them.

2.) On worksheets have a video on YouTube linked which features a clip of the bible passage that we are studying.

3.) If a text has more complicated words in it I could link up a dictionary definition of the word.

4.) I think there is some scope for gifted and talented pupils having the opportunity to help their peers, by creating links to them.

5.) As I have a classroom which as some interesting artifacts on display all the time I could create some links so children could go around finding out what was displayed. This would work well with a science lab as well I thought, particularly if you were introducing your class to the dangers of a lab for the first time.

While investigating I found a very good blog, which has some fantastic ideas. I love the fact that when I wonder how to do something I can always find someone who has gone before me and has lots of tips and ideas. HOORAY.

I would love to hear your ideas about augmented reality and any ideas of good Apps to use and how to do it well.