Skip to main content

Being Googly


Just over a week ago I finally sat down and took my Google Level 2 Certification exam! And I am super excited to announce that I passed! It has been a long few months of training - I would sit down whenever I could find the time, so it was so fulfilling to finally be able to complete it.

Truthfully, I was very nervous about this exam. There were a lot of new apps and material in this part of the training, and Sheets seem to be my nemesis. When I am practicing in Sheets, it seems to be okay, and it makes sense, but as soon as I stop practicing with pivot tables, etc. I forget it all!

Needless to say, when I finished the exam, I sat there in nervous anticipation, waiting for the results. It was a flood of relief when the results stated that I passed!

Now I need to reflect on next steps and how I plan to use my certification and the things I've learned to improve my teaching practice.

I'm really excited to sit down and incorporate Google My Maps into my ESL and Spanish classes - there is so much potential, and there are so many different things that I would like to do. My Spanish class is an International Baccalaureate class, and one of the important aspects of the program is culture - Google My Maps will allow my students to collaborate throughout the year to create a map with various cities/sites throughout the world. We could have a separate layer for different aspects of culture: architecture, ancient ruins from indigenous cultures, important museums or galleries, tourist destinations, etc. This way they could have a resource that includes images, etc. that they can refer to as they prepare for their exams, or prepare for their Written Task which is a cultural comparison.

As for ESL, Google My Maps could be an exciting way to share where my students are from, where they have travelled, etc. It's a great way to share and build community in my class. And this is just My Maps - there's also Google Arts & Culture, Google Lit Trips (which I tried out with my ESL students last week), and many other awesome apps.

As for the bigger picture with respect to my own professional goals: I want to work towards becoming a Google Certified Trainer. One of the requirements is to have 5 recent training sessions that I have led, and while I have led quite a few, I'm not sure I have led 5 technology-related sessions recently. And really, by starting fresh, I can meaningfully sit down and reflect on how the training sessions went, how I can improve, and I can also ask for feedback from the people in the sessions, which will really allow for some constructive feedback and improving myself. This should be fairly easy to reach, as Chrome Squad will allow for many opportunities to share what I know with staff and students.

Part of my challenge is that I'm not sure I totally realize how much I know. I always feel like I have so much to learn, so I don't compare what I know to what others know. I'm only starting to recognize how much I really do know about the GSuite and technology in general. I think that putting myself out there more this year has really allowed me to realize my strengths and what I have to offer and share with others.

I'm really happy with my decision to move forward this year with both the Level 1 and Level 2 Google Educator certifications. I feel like training and practicing for these exams alone have really forced me to slow down and take a look at what I already knew and then build upon that and learn even more exciting apps, add-ons, etc. I am looking forward to applying to become a Google Certified Trainer over the next year - even just the process alone will force me to put myself out there more and find effective ways to teach/show others the benefits of GSuite and integrating technology in the classroom.

That's it for now! If you haven't already, you should really check out the training modules that Google offers - they are totally worth the time! And let me know what apps, add-ons, etc. that you find useful in your classroom - I am always looking to learn more about what is out there!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Here We Go . . .

08/April/18 I am sitting here at the Ontario Google Summit in Cambridge, Ontario, digesting all of the new technology apps/sites, etc. that I have learned so far this weekend. I am always amazed at how much I learn at the Google Summit, not because I think I know more than most, but because it seems like so much information is jammed into a short period of time. The facilitators are always phenomenal, and they really make you think about your teaching practices and the why  behind the choices you make in your classroom. I suppose that leads into blogging, and how I have arrived at where I am now. I have been toying with the idea of blogging for a little while now, but never really seem to get the courage to just do it. I tend to lean back on this idea of being shy - I still get nervous putting myself out there, especially in front of colleagues. Well, this morning I listened to a fellow educator explain how we just need to jump, to take the plunge and try something new. If ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Can I Catch Lightning In A Bottle?

Some days teaching feels amazing - the students are making the connections on their own, and you feel awesome  about the lesson or activity that you did that day. And then, there are days where you just aren't sure about anything - the students aren't engaged, you feel like you are pulling teeth to get an answer or discussion going, and it is just so forced. This week has been a mix of those extremes, and man is it exhausting! In my ESL C class, we started our book study unit. There are three different novels (each of a different level of difficulty). At first the students seemed excited to start reading a book all in English. As a class we read "The Paper Bag Princess" to learn the skills that they will then be using in their own novels - and they loved it! It was so easy for them - they created an awesome list of adjectives, they could find examples of direct and indirect characterization in the story, and they were so excited to take that knowledge and find tho...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Reality Check

Every once in a while, we need to come down from our exciting, motivating high and realize that not everyone is ready for change, and that's okay! We all come from different lived experiences, with different motivations, and different goals, and it's impossible to make everyone happy all of the time. This is my latest lesson. I am beginning to realize that my excitement to learn new things and to challenge myself in areas that may not seem to connect traditionally to my particular courses are not always seen as useful or helpful by others. I get it. And while I want to advocate for teachers to have choice and control over their PD, I also need to accept that not everyone sees things in the same way. I always find that I have these conversations, and then I walk away, and five minutes later (or less) I wish  I had said something else! I wish I could be better at explaining things in the moment, so that these conversational regrets or what-ifs wouldn't happen. Life would ...
Post a Comment
Read more