47 Ways Google Can Help You Become A Better Teacher

While Apple products are known for their integration in classrooms, increasingly Google is the choice for schools and districts looking for something organized, useful, and inexpensive that’s available on tablet, laptop, Chromebooks, desktop, smartphone, and more.

In fact, the sheer diversity of Google products might make them a more natural fit in the classroom in lieu of the iPad’s gravity. Below we’ve listed 50 ways teachers can get started using Google in the classroom. 

1. Find YouTube channels to provide daily writing prompts, activity modeling, and out-of-the-box content area expertise that students find interesting.

2. Use Google Drive for cloud-based storage of critical curricula and other important files. (This one’s kind of obvious, but it’s among the most useful.)

3. Aggregate videos for blended learning via a YouTube channel.

4. Use Google Search to identify exemplars of project-based learning, blended learning, or mobile learning.

5. Use Google Search to source not tools, but reviews of tools–from curricula to apps, and other pedagogical tools.

6. Find curated collections of resources currently tucked away in the dark recesses of some obscure web page using expert keyword search tactics.

7. Check out YouTube for Teachers and their video resources.

8. Have students analyze emerging cultural trends using Google Trends.

9. Use Google Search to see how what other schools are doing in regards to school BYOD policies, technology in the classroom, or unpacked Common Core academic standards.

10. Have students use a combination of YouTube and Google Drive to create ongoing digital portfolios, that include their own reflections of the learning process.

11. Help students understand how to stay safe online at Google’s Safety Center.

12. Use Google Photos to quickly document and save student work samples for student conferences, portfolio pieces, and more. (Just be sure to not ‘publish’ the folder–keep it private and viewable only by yourself and/or parents of the student.)

13. Have students trace a fictional character’s journey through Google Earth.

14. Have students manage and communicate project-based learning work on Google Calendar.

15. Sync your browser tabs, search history, and extensions between devices with Google Chrome sync.

16. Use Google Search to locate teacher professional development, conferences or online courses to personalize your growth.

17. Hangout+ with author experts via Google+ Hangouts—and have students do the same.

18. Have students collaborate and published work to closed circles of peers on Google+.

19. Download mobile learning apps from Google Play to stay on top of the latest trends in mobile learning–The Sandbox, for example.

20. Use Google Drive to respond to student writing via comments, or collaborate real-time with distance learners.

21. Join Google to find communities and participate in a persistent professional learning community.

22. Find webinars, e-Learning courses, and other professional development resources to self-direct your own educator training.

23. Source MOOCs to supplement and extend the learning of students.

24. Use Google Scholar to review research on learning trends and strategies.

25. Use Google Search to find a blog–like TeachThought–to do all of the above for you.

26. In #highered? Sign up for a free G Suite for Education.

27. According to Google, explore ‘User-powered coding environments, enrichment materials, and inspiration to empower diverse student populations.’

28. Help students understand YouTube usage and online safety.

29. Show students how they can ‘type’ with their voice in over 40 languages.

30. Use Google Expeditions to plan virtual field trips with/for students.

31. Use Google Keep to share simple meeting notes or key takeaways with colleagues.

32. Manage your own online identity–and that of your family–with Google’s resources and tips.

33. Explore case studies to see how other classrooms are using Google Chromebooks. Even if your classroom doesn’t use the Chromebook, almost any computer can function in the same way (on a Windows PC, hit F11 and you’re halfway there).

34. Certify yourself as a Google for Education Certified Innovator.

35. Or train others in their Certified Trainer Program.

36. Use Google Forms to gather feedback or give assessments (and use the Flubaroo script to auto-grade).

37. Create a Google Drive series of folders (by topic, standard, content area, grade level, etc.) to share resources with your Professional Learning Network all over the world.

38. Use Google Sheets to create charts and graphs with data–or better yet, have students create and chart their own progress.

39. Use blogger.com as a class website.

40. Use Google Presentations to crowdsource ideas (and use the “Research” tool to find free images, quotes, & information for presentations with citations included).

41. Use Google Calendar to create “appointment slots” for writing conferences or parent conferences.

TeachThought Reader Nicole Naditz sent these recommendations:

42. Use Google Custom Search to create search engines which will direct your students only to sites you’ve vetted. (Love this one!)

43. Use Google moderator to capture student opinions, foster dialog and support analysis and synthesis.

44. Explore the most cited education topics and articles in the field of teaching and learning.

45. Use Google maps to tell digital stories with text, photo and video all embedded into a trail students lay on the map. With screen capture software, they can even narrate their “journeys”.

46. Connect art to your curriculum by creating and sharing galleries in Google Art Project. Or have students create, narrate (via screen capture) and share art galleries.

47. Use Google voice to have all students call and leave a short audio response to a prompt. (Make sure the google voice number is not forwarded to your cell phone!). Also great for providing students and parent with a number where they can call or text you without having your personal numbers.

How to Learn Faster with the Feynman Technique

What is The Feynman Technique?

In short, it’s a simple approach to self-directed learning that is based on distilling what you know. Albert Einstein is often credited with having said that (paraphrasing) “you don’t know something well if you can’t explain it to a child.”And that’s the Feynman Technique in a nutshell.

The technique is named after Richard Feyman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) an American theoretical physicist, who was involved, among efforts, in the Manhattan Project and has a background in doing exactly what you might expect: teaching himself complicated ideas.

For this post, we’re mostly interested in his contributions to learning itself, and Wikipedia helpfully offers some background.

When Feynman was 15, he taught himself trigonometry, advanced algebra, infinite series, analytic geometry, and both differential and integral calculus. Before entering college, he was experimenting with and deriving mathematical topics such as the half-derivative using his own notation. He created special symbols for logarithm, sine, cosine and tangent functions so they did not look like three variables multiplied together, and for the derivative, to remove the temptation of canceling out the {\displaystyle d}d‘s. A member of the Arista Honor Society, in his last year in high school he won the New York University Math Championship.[25] His habit of direct characterization sometimes rattled more conventional thinkers; for example, one of his questions, when learning feline anatomy, was “Do you have a map of the cat?” (referring to an anatomical chart).

Learning By Simplifying: How To Use The Feynman Technique

There is, of course, a difference between knowing something and knowing the name of something and that’s where understanding types of knowledge is crucial.

In order to understand something, you should be able to explain it briefly and accurately but in order to do that, you need to understand the kinds of things a person can and might know (declarative knowledge versus procedural knowledge, for example).

That’s a topic for another day. Today is about Feynman and his approach to learning: If you can’t explain something to a child, there’s a chance you don’t understand it well and by coming to be able to explain it briefly and accurately, you’ll be learning.

The video above from Thomas Frank at collegeinfogeek.com offers a nice overview of the Feynman Technique and below, I itemized the steps of this simple approach to learning.

The 5 Steps Of The Feynman Technique :-

1. Clarify exactly what you want to learn

Clarify the concept you want to understand and write it at the top of a blank piece of paper. The more specific you are, the cleaner and more efficient the rest of the learning process can be.

2. State (and self-assess) current understanding

In the plainest language possible, write down an explanation of the idea as if you were teaching it to someone who does not understand it at all

Note, it’s fine to start out with a broad summary and then get more specific, working through examples, scenarios, or other subtleties of the concept. Simply stating it broadly isn’t enough to fully demonstrate ‘understanding’ but rather is a kind of ‘foothold’ to work from as you do demonstrate that understanding.

3. Acquire new knowledge

If you can’t explain it fully, go back and reread, research, and relearn source material until you feel more or less confident in your explanation.

Note, if we lack expertise it can be difficult to know what we do and don’t know so this part isn’t perfect. However, as you become accustomed to the technique–and self-directed learning in general–you can develop a better instinct for what you do and don’t understand–and of the latter, what’s most important and where you should start.

4. Document new knowledge and clarify new understanding

As you gain new knowledge, reflect on and document new knowledge–especially how your understanding has changed.

Creating visuals, concept maps, and any of the various types of analogies is a useful way to clarify your own thinking. In short, you’re trying to–with both accuracy and precision–demonstrate a more or less complete understanding of the topic you’re trying to learn with the Feynman Technique.

As your understanding changes, your demonstration of that understanding should change. This will both deepen your understanding of the topic as well as illuminate the learning process itself (which can carry over into learning about new topics).

5. Restate evolved understanding (i.e., as compared to step 2)

Once you’ve ‘done the work’ of learning, try to–without checking your paper or other research notes or documentation–state your understanding again–from scratch and without reference. If you can’t, go back and repeat steps 3 through 5.

एकला चलो रे

यदि तेरी पुकार सुन कोई न आए तब चल अकेला रे 
तब चल अकेला, चल अकेला, चल अकेला रे।

यदि कोई न करे बातें, ओरे रे ओ अभागे, कोई न करे बातें 
यदि सभी रहे मुँह फेरे सभी करे भय
तब प्राण खोल कर
ओ तू मुँह से अपनी मन की बातें कह अकेला रे।

यदि सभी लौट जाएँ, ओरे रे ओ अभागे, यदि सभी लौट जाएँ
यदि गहन पथ पर चलते वक़्त कोई मुड़ कर न देखे
तब पथ के काँटे से
ओ तू रक्त सने चरण तले अकेला रौंद रे।

यदि रोशनी न दिखाए, ओ रे ओ अभागे,
यदि आँधी-तूफ़ान में अंधकार रात को घर के द्वार करे बंद
तब बिजली की तरह
अपने सीने के पिंजर जलाकर अकेला चल रे।

यदि तेरी पुकार सुन कोई न आए तब चल अकेला रे।

बांग्ला से अनुवाद

- रवींद्रनाथ टैगोर

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-अज्ञात