Group items tagged

That said, Google has included most of the popular word processing features, including text formatting, headers & footers, image insertion, etc.

Students will need a Google account to create and share documents; this is the way Google assures that document access can be controlled by the creator.

What makes Google Drive different is the ability to share documents with others.

Finding #1)  “When feedback is corrective in nature – that is, it explains where and why students have made errors – significant increases in student learning occur.”

Finding #3)  “Asking students to continue working on a task until it is complete and accurate (until the standard is met) enhances student achievement.”

A project is meaningful if it fulfills two criteria. First, students must perceive the work as personally meaningful, as a task that matters and that they want to do well. Second, a meaningful project fulfills an educational purpose. Well-designed and well-implemented project-based learning is meaningful in both ways.

Teachers can powerfully activate students' need to know content by launching a project with an "entry event" that engages interest and initiates questioning. An entry event can be almost anything: a video, a lively discussion, a guest speaker, a field trip, or a piece of mock correspondence that sets up a scenario.

A good driving question captures the heart of the project in clear, compelling language, which gives students a sense of purpose and challenge.

They love that they have an audience and even more, they love to get comments about their work

Gradually, we begin to add drawings and use other media to show our learning, such as video, Audioboo (for voice recordings or podcasts) and Storybird (to make embeddable storybooks).  We have also used tools such as Animationish and the ScreenChomp app for the iPad. We have taken pictures of posters or other things they have made, or posted combinations of these if we feel that using only one tool is not adequate to show what we can do.

there are no big surprises at our student led-conferences.

Focus on the hard stuff. I remember early on in my teaching career realizing that while I was doing a pretty good job getting students to read and discuss literature, I was not really teaching them writing. So I decided to schedule the block day in our week as a writing day. Ten years and thousands of pages of creative writing later, I still had not successfully taught my students to write a research paper, so I blocked out three full weeks in our schedule to work through the process from beginning to end. Rather than focus on what I know is humming along fine, I look for the weaknesses. Usually, these are the areas that don’t come naturally, or that I don’t like very much myself. (And I still sort of despise research papers.) But when I focus on the hard stuff, I am a providing a much better learning experience for my students.

have tried some crazy things as a teacher. Some I realized were flops immediately, while some I pushed through for months before admitting that they weren’t working out. But some of those innovations have saved my sanity, and I would never have tried them if I had been afraid to fail

Seek feedback wherever you can.

Statistics are a great gauge for the number of visitors,

Be realistic about your design and expectations. • Make use of relevant models. • Instill a sense of ownership in the students creating the portfolios. • Communicate implementation strategies and timelines clearly. • Be selective in design and strategy. • Allow for continuous improvement and growth. • Incorporate assessment stakeholders in all phases and components of your efforts; that is, make sure portfolio content meets the needs of those assessing the work.

purposeful collection

. Over time, a student selects items from the working portfolio and uses them to create a display portfolio. Finally, the student develops an assessment portfolio, containing examples of his or her best work, as well as an explanation of why each work is significant.

Google Drive is particularly handy for teachers when revising students' work and providing feedback. It allows you and your class to track what changes have been made, save each revision, and collaborate in real time. And it's a great organizing tool -- you can easily upload existing files to Google Drive so that everything is accessible in one place

Google Sites is your place to create a digital classroom on the web. One of the best things about Google Sites is its ability to be that digital hub for your classroom. You can combine video, documents, forms, calendars, and other resources all in one place for student and parent access.

Google Classroom is Google's newest product (August 2014) available to Google Apps for Education users. Classroom helps teachers to streamline their digital workflow by creating a space where they can easily push out announcements and assignments, and give students a way to interact with the teacher and classmates, as well as turn in assignments electronically.

Sharing and commenting provide students with opportunities to receive immediate feedback on their writing from teachers and peers in the 24/7 classroom

Teachers create and publish a Google Form to be used as an In Box. When it’s time to turn in a Google Doc, students complete the simple form and submit a link to their Google Doc.

The features available in the drawing component of Google Docs are well-suited for online, collaborative brainstorming  sessions that provide students with opportunities to work together to develop ideas

Google Docs integrates seamlessly with EasyBib

“We’re really into authentic feedback, not having the teacher be the one person whose voice counts

To provide students with a more engaging, individualized learning experience, Central Unified is transitioning from traditional textbooks and working with a publisher to develop customized, interactive learning materials that will adapt to students’ learning levels and abilities.

BYOD policy

. CCSD had the tablets preconfigured and installed a district image and set of district apps,

Knowing how to craft learning experiences that meld technology with the curriculum is key to crafting digital-age lessons.

tudent-centered, personalized learning and shifting away from traditional teacher-centered classrooms.

The material appears on any student device, whether tablet, phone, or computer. The formative component allows teachers to embed quizzes, polls, a draw feature, and open-ended responses into the lesson.