Google Ninja 1st Meeting

I meet with 4 great co-workers today who are going to help me pilot and rollout Google Apps at the high school.  I can not even express how excited I am about working with them.  I have a great mix of content areas (modern language, science, english and of course business).  I had use first start using a google doc and collaborativly writing what some of our goals are for using Google Apps for the school.  Then we went through and tried to categorieze them as immediate, intermediate and long range goals.

We did not have a lot of time on this but we got a start on it.  I also tried to give a couple Google tips that I have learned to help them hone their Ninja skills.  I do believe everyone did learn something with my tips.  I have been going through the Google Apps Certification test to make sure that I have the skills needed to lead our school down the Google Path.  So I took our goals and put it into a Word Cloud using a Spreadsheet Google Gadget.  Here is what our word cloud looks like.

I hope this document continues to grow and evolve as we look for ways to engage students in more of a digital lifestyle in school.

Tech Tuesday Training - Skype

My school has "Tech Tuesday's".  This is where teachers offer to do trainings on a variety of technology topics.  I have done one already on Animoto this year and this week I offered a session on Skype.  I got new computers in my lab at the end of last year.  One of my requirements for the computers were that the monitors have built in webcams (for Skyping and other technologies that may come up).  I also had Skype installed on all the computers so if students have Skype accounts they can contact anyone they need.

I have used Skype with my classes when I have been home with a sick child and students have Skyped with me for help on a problem or for me to give directions.  I set up a couple of colleagues to assist me with Skype (so I knew someone would be online to chat with).  Jessica Brogley a former teacher at Seymour and Sandy Heiden (Library Media Specialist for high school).  I had one teacher from the district attend that had never used Skype before, and other great friend who came for moral support (thanks CeCe).

I think the session went fine, got new an account on Skype and she called someone.  We did end up demonstrating how to have a conference call via Skype and had 6 people talking.  I also showed the people how to sign up for Skype in the classroom.  One other great tip I like about Skype is the ability to share computer monitors to see what the other person is doing on the computer.

Here is my question.  Out of the 50 teachers in the high school only 1 came (the other for moral support too).  Was the topic not relevant to them?  Do they not see the need to learn technology?  Do they not like my presentation style?  Did they already know the content?  These are all questions I have but don't have answers for.  It is easy for me to say well I won't do that again, or should I?

Google Apps Certified Test #2 - Doc

Whew!  I just took my second test and it was harder.  I already new I would struggle more because I had to read the content over 3 days (non-sequential).  The site said it would take 4 hours to go through and it did.  I read the last 2.5 sections tonight and told myself I need to take it now, before I forget I what I read earlier this week.

I passed the section but I was not happy with a couple of the questions.  There were specific questions on the Doc List view (which I could find some information on the search bar of the site, but it was not directly linked to the table of contents of the section).  Also it gave directions for the old view of Google Docs and I have been using the new version for well over a month.  So did I get information wrong because it is presented wrong??

I also had questions on drawings.  I did not find an specific trainings on Drawings from the table of contents, but when I searched I did find some specifics relating it to Chapter 7 in Module 4 (but again not in table of contents).

But I passed.  Now I have to schedule to get through: mail, calendar, sites and other tools.  The are all estimating 3 hours to go over materials (other tools is only 2).  So I have 11 hours of studying to do and 6 hours of tests to complete.

Google Apps Module 4 - Docs

So I started my 2nd section of Google Apps.  It is the longest section in the training material but the one I will get hit the hardest with questions.  I have made it through the general sharing explaination (did you know you can share a document with up to 200 people, but only 50 can edit it at a time) and docs.  I am saving spreadsheets, presentation, and forms for later.

I will say I learned some really cool time savers that if I had not decided to go through this training I would have never know.  I love learning this stuff.

Did you know that there is a addon to work with Microsoft Office and Google  Docs that you can download.  You can work in office and in docs at the same time.  I have downloaded it but have not tested it out yet.  You can bet I will do that Thursday!  It is called Google Cloud Connect.



Also a nice time saver I learned is that in using Google Chrome or current Firefox you can drag from your desktop to google documents.  You don't have to click upload.  WAY BIG TIME SAVER.  That is a two thumbs up for me.

This module does say it will take 4 hours to go through and I don't have that much time at night to devote to it.  So I will be chunking it to get through it all.  I hope to take the test within a week, so I don't forget it all.

Google Apps Test 1!

I have had a hard time coming up with what to write on my blog now that the school year is in full swing.  I am doing a lot of different activities and projects, but I truly believe that all educators do the same amount of work that I do, so why am I special.  A couple of items I do have on my burn to blog about would be the Google Midwest Summit (so awesome), so keep your eyes open for that.

That conference did inspire me to take a step to become a Google Apps Certified Teacher.  There are 6 parts to becoming certified and today I took part 1, Admin.  I have been using this the past couple of months to get our school ready to go Google.  I read through the training materials (on the site it said 45 minutes), of course I thought I would be able to breeze through it because I have been using it already.  It did take me that long to go through the materials.  No shortcut to get the information.  I also knew that I wanted to study the materials and then take the test in the same setting.  Since part 1 only said 45 minutes, I figured that would be the easiest of the 6 to get under my belt.

The exam is 60 question and they give you 90 minutes to take it.  I did use a full hour, because I didn't want to get tricked by all/none questions.  I reviewed 8 questions before I submitted my results.  I did change a couple of those answers so having the ability to mark questions I want to go over was VERY nice.

I clicked the submit button and waited to see if I passed.  I paid the testing fee of $15 out of my own pocket, because I believe it need to have this training to lead the staff in my building.  Maybe I will see if I can get reimbursed (probably not), but maybe.  They also stated that you can take the test over again only once if you did not pass it (and you have to pay for it too).

The results came and AHHHHH!  I passed with a 95% so I got 3 wrong out of 60.  Pretty good, now I have to carve out time to do the other 5 sections: Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Sites, Other Tools.  We will see when that fits into my schedule.  But it will get done.  I will keep you updated!

Tech Tuesday's - Animoto

Our district is having technology training on Tuesday's.  It is voluntary for people to participate.  So far I have attended a session on Google Search by Sara Berceau, very useful tool to assist students in using sites that have  the type of information required for the activity.

I facilitated a session on PowerGrade Book,  this was a required session for high faculty.  All faculty for 1 faculty meeting had to pick from 3 options for staff development.  I had almost 10 teachers in the room and I was glad to know that John Steltz was able to learn at least 1 helpful tip on putting in grades easier.  I know that I was covering materials too fast and did allow for discussion, but I just so much to share.  So next time I will pair down what I will cover.

Today I gave a session on how to create an Animoto video and to apply for a teacher account.  The teacher account give you access for 6 months to make full length videos.  Otherwise with the free account you can only make 30 second videos.  I had three teachers attend the session and they said they liked it.  I hope so.

PowerTeacher Gradebook Share Session

I gave a presentation to my peers today on tips and tricks for using Gradebook.  I had spend some time researching what are the new features to the program for this year and even went "old school" and created a handout for people to have when they left.  I was hoping they would use it for taking notes - don't know if they actually did.

One thing that I do know is that I had more information than time.  I don't know if I did a good job of prioritize what I should cover.  I did really enjoy the questions/tips from my peers, but I was worried that I was not going to get through my content and did not let their conversation develop into what could be a great peer sharing session.  That is one of my stumbling blocks on teaching technology I get stuck on getting through all the content I tend to stifle the conversation that can lead to good peer collaboration.  ** Mental note to work on that**

I did enjoy sharing my tips/tricks but I don't know if everyone there was wanting to learn or if they were there because they had to be one session.  I do hope that they walked away with at least one thing new!  The gradebook is a program that we are working in constantly and having a better way to work in it can really streamline your work efficiency.

At the end of the faculty share session I did send out a google form for feedback on which session they attended and what they learned.  I do hope everyone fills it out truthfully so in the future they can get what they need in a way they wanted.

I did learn while pulling together my handouts for this presentation that Word 2010 has a cool new feature for inserting screen capture images!  Check it out under Insert menu, it worked great and gave some very clear images.