Differentiating in Google Classroom

As much as I am a huge fan of Google Classroom it always had one pretty significant drawback.  The drawback was that all of a class got the same assignment when assigning documents,readings and worksheets.  I also got asked whether we could assign differentiated assignments with it more than any other question.  I am happy to see that they just added the ability to send an assignment to a subset of a class.  It's not perfect yet but it is certainly a huge step in the right direction.  

Here are some quick directions for assigning differentiated assignments. 

When making an assignment in Google classroom.  There is now a drop down menu  'All students' in the upper left hand corner.  See screen shot below:

If you click on it the names of the students in the class will drop down.  See screen shot below and you can unclick the ones you don't want to get the assignment.  See screen shot below.

Attaching docuemnts and creating the assignment is the same as it ever was.  The only downside is that you will have to post once for each version of the assignment you have and pick out individual students.  

Differentiation was the major item that Google classroom was missing.  It can be done through Doctopus too but its a little more complicated.

Google Classroom - The Classroom of the Future is Here

The future has arrived in classrooms like mine across the country.  In the last several years more and more classrooms have gone digital.  Many of the classrooms especially those that are 1:1 with Chromebooks rely on Google Classroom for the delivery of lessons.  Google classroom enables teachers to set up digital classrooms where students can get assignments and other class resources and then turn in their completed assignments.  



Google classroom has many advantages over using traditional methods, i.e. paper, to deliver educational materials to students:

• It can be accessed from any device
• Paperless - saves money on paper and copies
• Easily transportable - no more carrying reams of papers home
• Materials can be accessed and delivered anywhere
• Links, hyperlinks and videos can be included
• Students don't have to be physically present to receive or turn in materials
• Available 24/7 everywhere
• Teachers can prep days ahead and then deliver with a click of the mouse
• Self grading quizzes and tests using Google Sheets and Fluberoo
• Files student work
• Student work available to teacher for future use
• Teachers can give instant in document feedback automatically
• Student work is legible
• Easy to use and learn
• Documents can be uploaded and stored
• Synchs with Google Docs and many other programs.

The major disadvantage of Google Classroom is making sure students have equal access to internet connections and devices to connect with.  Although it is doable it is much harder to work with Google Classroom on a phone then it is on a tablet or chromebook/lap top.

The transition to using Google Classroom can be seamless with a little training and instruction on its use to both the instructor and the student.  
I have created the following videos tutorials to help out teachers new to Google classroom get started:
How to Set Up a Google Classroom  
Assignments in Google Classroom
One way to do DO NOWs in Google Classroom

Using a Twitter Account to Communicate with Students & Families

For those of you who don't know what Twitter is, it is a social networking site where members send out 140 character "tweets" to their followers.  These messages can also contain links and pictures.  Members have the ability to like tweets or retweet them to their followers.  Twitter is becoming more and more as a business networking tool where professionals are using it to keep in touch with trends in their industry, and network with others in the same field.

Twitter has two features that make it the ideal social media platform for teachers.  The first is  that you can set up multiple accounts for one person.  This gives you an opportunity to set up an account for each and every class.  I myself have several accounts.  I have one where I communicate with my friends, I have one where I follow the latest trends in education and I have others for each of the different classes I teach.  This allows me to use a class Twitter to just communicate important information to students and parents such as homework and test reminders.  

The other important feature Twitter has that benefits teachers, is that you don't have to have a Twitter account to receive tweets.  That means that students, that do not have Twitter, can still get my tweets sent directly to their phones.  To subscribe to receiving tweets on a cell phone all one has to do is send a text.   For example to follow my account  text "follow @MsMurraysStudents" to 40404.  This sets them up to get all of the Tweets from @MsMurraysStudents.  

It is a great advantage to be able to pick up my phone and type, "Remember you acceleration homework sheet is due tomorrow," and have it go to all of my students and their parents.  By typing one little sentence into my phone I can distribute it to hundreds of people.

Vocabulary Lists With Voice

One of the videos I made playing with Adobe Voice.

I teach science to ELLs, so there are new vocabulary words with every unit.  Some of them are difficult for my ELLs pronounce, so my ELLs are reluctant to use them in classroom conversations.  I came up with a new way to support my ELLs by making virtual vocabulary lists where the students see the words in English and Spanish, and then see and hear them being pronounced and used in a sentence in English.  Each word is also accompanied by the picture of my choosing.  The videos will be put on my class website where the students can access them at their discretion.  Here is an example of one of my slide shows.

The novel app I found for making these short slide show videos is Adobe Voice.  It is a available on the iPad and is free and it is very easy to use.  I easily made videos of my vocabulary list where I typed the word in English and Spanish and then made a short sentence to show how it is used in a sentence and give it some meaning.  At first I felt limited by the amount of characters that I could use as I had wanted to include a definition too.   In the long run it was probably better that I had to write short sentences to keep it simple for my students.  I picked out the templates from a large selection (one caution here not all of them allow for two lines of text).   I typed in my text and  added pictures, mostly by searching keywords in their database.   I then pushed a button on each slide to read my text and record my voice.  These were easy to redo if needed.  There is also an option for changing the music that plays in the background. 

I can see some great applications of this program in a classroom with iPads.   Students could write and illustrate and read original stories.  Students could use it to make or illustrate other projects.  The voice recording makes it perfect for foreign language language programs or working with ELLs.  It would give ELLs a perfect chance to hear their own voice on the playback.  

Below is a list of the Pros and Cons that I found in my usage of Adobe Voice

Pros of Adobe Voice
Free 
Super easy
Very fast
Voice recording
All aspects are editable at every stage and after completion
Great templates
Dubs appropriate volume music behind voice
Very well designed
Searches pictures in its own database
I didn't find any bugs or glitches

Cons of Adobe Voice
Limited to two lines of text
Only available on the ipad platform
Not uploadable to YouTube 
Adobe branding
Templates not customizable