GCE Level 2 Blog - KeriAnn Throne

 In Unit 8, we were shown the crazy amount of interactive sites and tools that Google provides for the classroom! There were the known ones, like Google Meet, YouTube, and Google Earth/Street View. These have been around for a while, yet not always made useful in the classroom. For me, I didn't know that Google Street/Earth have been upgraded to be used in the classroom for students to really understand the world around them. Knowing that my school uses Google Meet daily, I know the benefits of using it to make sure that students are signing into class, attending lessons, and understanding material from a distance. Lessons have been recorded and played back or sent to students who missed class. YouTube live was not something I had thought of. This might be more useful for when we have people coming to teach the class. Google Earth will be useful in social studies! We are talking about the world around us and students don't always know how big the Earth really is. This can put t...

 Unit 6 was all about how to make your students work available outside of the classroom. There was also talk about syllabus, but as a 5th grade teacher, I don't need to use a syllabus. Creating blogs, sites, drive folders for student work was new to me. The ability to create a folder for students to share work they are proud of is mind blowing. Normally it is a full filing cabinet, with paperwork, and making sure that you are not passing back a worksheet that could be placed in a portfolio. Not only that, this allows students to choose what they want in their portfolio. This will be a group of work they are proud of. Not just what the teacher is proud of but what the student themselves are proud of.  In my classroom, I see myself looking into it for conference season. With Google Classroom, there is a classroom folder created on each student's drive. This already houses the work for each student, the only issue is it is not shared with the teacher. By creating the folder, I ca...

Honestly when reading unit 5, my head was spinning. There was more information than I could visualize. I watched the video that was attached and it helped a little, but I am one who learns by doing. I read the whole unit 5 while thinking about the data I could use this for. All the possibilities swimming in my head didn't help my comprehension of the article I was reading. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to practice what I was learning with the challenge.  In the classroom, I see me using this daily. We are a data driven school and knowing the students data off the top of my head has been something I have been able to guess but without definite proof. I would look at all the data, put the major data points into a Google Sheet, and then not look at it until I needed to add the next data point. For me, the reason that I would create it and leave it, is because I would have lots of data points on paper or in notebooks that would get easily misplaced or lost. This was helpful in ...

 Unit 3 was all about maximizing what Gmail and Google Calendar can do for you! The appointment slot option will be super helpful when setting up meetings! This paired with the template emails will make communication easier! Not only is it streamlining how you schedule and communicate, it is ensuring that you are not double booking yourself, or forgetting something important in an email. Unit 4 was helpful for a reminder of all the ways that you can use Google to contact parents. How you can use Google Sites, Forms, and other summaries to communicate needs with parents. Google Classroom can share with parents automatically but it can get to be a bit much.  My school uses Outlook instead of Google for email. Honestly I can only see the possibilities of switching to Gmail. The biggest upside I see is for parent teacher conferences! Having parents sign up with a unique meet code and using the appointment slot would be great. The templates would be great for reminder emails! I use...

 While reading Unit 1, I realized the importance of needing a community. Teaching is not one teacher or team against the world. Teaching is teachers, parents, students, and admin working together to better the lives of their students. Technology is just one way that all of the working components can work together. Unit 2 explained the how of creating an environment for digital learning. What tools are available and how to integrate them into the classroom.  For myself, I actually would like to try the HyperDoc. As the Social Studies teacher for 90 students, I need to have all of my documents in one place. We do a colonies project at the end of our colony unit. I used to give them textbook page numbers, however with the new style of learning, a third of my students are virtual. Not only are a third of them virtual, I am lacking textbooks. I usually have students share a textbook and due to COVID, that is not possible. I have been uploading PDFs of certain textbook pages as the ...

 👋 Hello Cohorts! 🦖 I am KeriAnn Throne and I completed my Google Level 1 Certification with GVSU last year.  I am a dino loving 5th Grade at South Canton Scholars. I teach Social Studies for all 91 students as well as ELA and Math for my homeroom of 31. With this new transfer to all virtual learning, I feel that my experience in earning my Level 1 Certification has helped make this easier. I felt comfortable and confident in switching my teaching style. I knew how to make worksheets electronic. Making and taking tests through Google Forms was super easy! I was also asked to present a "Beginners Guide to Google Classroom" in front of my whole school. Colleagues call/visit and ask me to help them with their Google issues which is a big reason why I want to pursue my Level 2 Certification. There have been some questions I haven't been able to answer because I have not taken the time to learn these new apps. I want to be a better help to my students and colleagues. I also...