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.

A webtool I came across last year was this; Tour Builder a Google Earth plug in. In fact I even explained this when I was at a conference in the demo slam. And I won!! So exciting. I've only used it a couple of times in class, but I do totally love it.

The basic premise of it is that you can create a tour across the world using Google Earth. This can then have different pictures and videos added to come up with an explanation of each stop along the way.

I used mine to create one about the journey that a Muslim will go on if they are doing Hajj. My Tour Builder began at Heathrow aiport and then flew across to Jeddah. There will links to the Ka'baa and the pillars of Jamraat in Mina. It was really easy to make and I loved using all the search boxes to find the pictures I wanted, rather than having to save them and then insert them. You could change the icons for the different places you stopped off at and then in the white box on the side insert detailed information to explain each one, or even link in a video. I did struggle to work out how to put the videos in. That is something I will need to work on as it wasn't quite as straight-forward as linking a youtube clip. 

What I really liked about it was the ability to see the distance that a Muslim will travel, thus realising that a tremendous undertaking it is. The class were seriously impressed by it. At points we could have done with zooming in on the writing, but we were able to make the pictures bigger which was necessary so that everyone could see. My normally not wonderfully behaved class completely lapped it up! I guess I will have to wait till next week to see if they actually understood or took anything in. One boy even said later that the lesson was too fun for him to have learnt anything. I think he did. They'll be a tough answer and question session for us to try out next week....

You can see it here. 

I have just implemented my first action from the Google in edcuation conference from last week. As I mentioned in my earlier post I wanted to start trying to use videos in my classroom more. We were shown some very simple ones at the conference where we were taken through some quiz questions about Harry Potter. At the end of them there was an anotation with true or false which took you to a new video. What a fantastic idea for creative revision I thought.

Tonight I have made my own Channel. I have started very simply with some videos about the Fall. I plan to use them in my revision lessons next week. Each one is linked to other ones so they should hopefully take you on a little journey.

I cannot imagine what my class will think of them, they are pretty dorky. But hopefully we will have a little bit of fun together.

Here is one of my first videos.

World War One in Religious Studies

With the centenary of World War One being commemorated this year, as a school we have been asked to teach lessons for a week which help further the understanding of the pupils into the war. We have been encouraged to fit this to our subject. Being a Religious Studies teacher this isn’t totally straightforward so I have been racking my brain over what would work. I finally sent my list of suggestions to the deputy head last night with what I am planning. I will of course be making good use of web tools.

• Year 6 will be looking at the lives of Jewish people in the First World War.

I have found some superb explanations of the accounts of Jewish soldiers on my learning. One of them is about Hyman Rutstein who kept his tefillin with him at all times and there are suggestions for questions to use in discussions which would help pupils to explore his having this would have meant to him. I also hope we will use resources such as the Google Cultural Institute to help us explore content online about the lives of Jewish soliders. I was very excited to see that the POLIN Museum of Polish History is now available on Google Street View.

• Year 7 & 8 will look at the cost of war.

I want us to look at the scale of the war, and look at Aquinas’ Just War theory to see if the war fits these requirements. As well as watching moving war footage we will look at the idea of trench warfare. In order to do this I’m planning to use a Google Earth Hack which is an overlay of Battle of Verdun. I think this will help to show the true cost of the war.

I am also hoping to find some letters written from the perspective of an army padre but haven't been successful yet. How about you? Is your school doing anything in November? Have you got any great suggestions of resources?

Copy of an article I wrote for Satips Magazine

I wrote an article about using IT in the classroom and it was published. A very exciting day for me..... http://t.co/mrXBXAgsiB

— Kate Pellereau (@whatkatepdoes) September 18, 2014

An article I wrote for Saptips magazine

If someone had labeled me as someone who encouraged collaboration back in the 1940s it would have been an enormous insult. At that time the only use of the term would have been to suggest assistance with the enemy during the last war. How things have changed! Within the Technology community this is one of the current buzzwords. On a recent Google in Education conference this was a big theme. I have lost track of the amount of articles I have read where new ways to collaborate within education are explained. If we take a moment to think about our teaching, I am sure we would realize that collaboration has become important. Perhaps we encourage it though group work, paired work or by setting a homework where pupils are working together on a presentation for the rest of the class. A new way in which collaboration is becoming more possible is through our use of ICT.

Technology within education is an emerging market that even traditional private schools are starting to embrace. At my school we have iPads, laptops and two ICT rooms. We have not gone along the 1:1 route, preferring instead to educate staff in what they could be using in their classrooms believing they are able to make the decision about what is relevant and useful for them. I am involved in this training providing one to one sessions focused on the particular needs a teacher has. I have begun regularly attending lessons with a few staff assisting them as they try to integrate ICT in their lessons as well as running INSET sessions for staff. For me this has been a fascinating journey that began only in September when 20 iPads appeared in my building. I picked one up, did some research, found some good apps and began using them. I teach Religious Studies, not a traditional subject to be linked with Tech. I found that as my understanding and knowledge of what was available grew, I was able to bring in easier ways to do things, and started having some wow lessons where pupils were engaged, excited and interested in what we were learning.

My experiences this year have lead to some reflections on the role that Technology can have in a Prep School. I am not a teacher who believes that the lesson changes to fit the technology; instead my lessons are enhanced by what I am able to do. Dare I say it; sometimes I am able to save time too!

What I like most is the fact that my pupils are able to learn from one another. In my view the time where the only way to teach was to stand up at the front and recite information is gone. While didactic teaching can have its place; this is not the only way to learn. For myself, lessons are a time when we come together to discuss a topic. Everyone can learn from everyone and often I find myself leaning on the table and saying ‘gosh, I had not thought of that!’ We do research together on iPads as we begin a topic and then pull our ideas together. Or I might set them a competition and they have to quickly find the answer to a question from the Internet. I am fortunate to Apple TV in my classroom, which is invaluable for this. With older children if we are trying to work out how to answer a particular Common Entrance question I might set up a Padlet wall and they log onto it and offer a response. After everyone has contributed we can look through and together decide which are the strongest. Being able to learn from one another encourages a positive working environment and setting Internet challenges teaches research skills. Those who might not have the confidence to put their hand up during a question and answer session might gain the confidence they need to speak from the knowledge their answer comes from the Internet.

The second reason I think the use of Technology is important is because it engages the pupils. Everyone in our school loves a lesson when they are using iPads. My year 7s have just completed a piece of coursework using Google Drive where they have shared their work with me and I have been able to make live comments on it; highlighting different sections that I was not happy with and making suggestions for improvements. They’ve been able to research easily, import pictures easily and even cite their sources easily. Another class enjoyed making presentations after visiting different places of cultural significance from around the world using the Google Cultural Institute. Our year 3s have even made Popplet mind maps about what they think Jesus is like after choosing and importing a picture they liked from the Internet. For these children technology is normal. Many of those I teach are fortunate enough to own a tablet and they will sit at home doing all kinds of cool things on them. What I want to do is bring that sense of wow into the lessons. I try to teach how the children want to learn; For a tech savvy generation that means bringing in use of ICT.

My final benefit for the use of ICT is the time saving it can offer staff. This I had not fully anticipated, but have very much been reaping the benefits of. The coursework already mentioned usually fills the entire Summer term, with some pupils catching up during the holidays. This has not happened this year. All of them are finished and the reason for this is the swift responses I have been able to make to their work through our use of Google Apps. Other time saving comes through simple apps which we use to make posters for our display boards. Or a member of staff might set up a quiz online which self marks and then the results are emailed to the teacher for them to input in their mark book.

Something I have recently been trying out has been personalized work for lower ability pupils. Using iPads I am able to set them a worksheet that has been changed to suite their learning needs. If they struggle to write sometimes completing this on an iPad is extremely profitable as their typing speed might be quicker than their writing speed. On the whole they enjoy this, and it boosts their confidence to not always be the last to finish a task. The proficiency they might have with ICT means that for once they might be able to help a peer with something. I had a lovely lesson recently when we took some year 8s down to a year 3 class and they helped one another to use Padlet.

Making the effort to use technology in the classroom is only worthwhile if there are benefits.

Reflections on Google in Education Conference: October 2014

I went on a conference last week. It was the first day of my half term and I travelled all the way up to London with a heavy suitcase that I had to lug around with me. This to me is evidence that I must have thought I could get something from it! Also evidence that I was going to sunny Sicily the next day. Now I am not someone who gives up holiday easily, so do so unless it was for something really special. It was a Google in education summit. As with the summit I attended in May I got a lot from it.

A few things which I have been pondering during my holiday have been the following.

• How to start using videos more in my lessons.
• To stop telling my students to just ‘research’ on an ipad
• To work out how to start using coding in lessons.

The other great thing was to spend time chatting with other teachers and hearing their perspective on technology and what they have been doing in the classroom. I’ve been really thinking about how to improve my coding which is so basic and heard about a website called Computing at Schools that has lots of different courses I could go on. So far they mostly seem to be a very long way away, but I will keep checking back. I definitely want to understand how the Raspberry Pi works.

With videos I have set up a Youtube channel which I am going to get going this week and I will try exploring some flipped learning with some of my older students.