Google Apps Certified Trainer

While I was recovering from my ACL surgery I got the email.  My application was accepted to be a Google Apps Certified Trainer.  I was super excited.  I had already passed the 6 exams to be a Google Apps Education Individual Qualification.  I was not told by anyone to do this, I wanted to do it.  I was given the opportunity to get Google Apps setup for my school district.  I was the one responsible for making it work.  I needed to know as much as I can so this is successful for students and teachers.  The only way I could make sure I knew the "stuff" was to take the exams.

Through the process of taking and passing the exams there was not a ton more to do to become a certified trainer.  Here is what I needed to do:

• Complete a case study demonstrating your experience in technology instruction and/or professional development. Additional strong references from school or business clients are required.
• Submit a 2 minute video introduction about your background, role in education technology, and innovative approach to using Google Apps
• Create sample learning materials and produce a short video which demonstrates your familiarity with Google Apps features.
• Demonstrate extensive experience using and training Google Apps to educational organizations prior to application.
• Commit to conducting at least 3 professional development activities related to Google Apps every quarter

So now I need to conduct training sessions and keep going Google.  Can you tell I am excited!

Chromebooks

Had conference calls and several, several emails, but we are getting some Chromebooks. I have been looking for a way to get Google Apps more streamlined into teacher's classrooms. The lack of availability to computers and the very slow boot up time to our older laptops does not make it conducive to use the equipment. I can not even say how excited I am for the new piece of technology to come to Seymour.

 I just hope that I have some colleagues that will jump on the technology wave and use it to change how they work with students. I am not looking for go to the computer lab and type a paper, but change the type of assignments and interactions with the students to online.

 I have been doing more Google Doc assignments. I had students review websites and then share their assignments with me for grading. Much easier than printing documents (and greener too). Students do not seem concerned with going with this technology, at what point to my fellow teachers become leary of using it. I struggle with this because I always look for ways to learn and use more technology.

Google Apps Education Individual Qualification

Well it has taken me almost the entire 90 days but I did finish all 6 of the exams to become a qualified. I did learn a lot and I was really glad that I set that as a personal goal. Going through all of the apps and reading got me very prepared for the training session I helped organized for my high school. I felt very confident that I would be able to answer questions that individuals had. What I became more concerned about closer to that day was "did I help to prepare my peers who were assisting me in presenting enough". This though and worry did cause me to lose some sleep and eat more chocolate. In the end it went great and we got some great feedback on what was liked. In my latest meeting with my Ninja trainers from Seymour I am looking at offering a Lunch and Learn where I would go over some Google "stuff" during lunch in my computer lab. Nancy tossed out the idea of calling "Gobble with Google". I am now looking at planning the course of presentations and trying to market this to my district. The techie people I talk to think it will go over and people will attend, only time will tell. I can certainly tell that I am glad to have taken myself down the road of become Google Apps Education Individual Qualified. Now I just have to become a Google Certified Teacher. I am ready for the challenge of making that video. On my hours count it is mid/end February and I have for the school year a total of 1448.5 hours in already (if I did the math right counting for 40 hour work weeks that would be already 9 months worked).

Reflection of the Year 2011

I started this blog as a way for me to document what I do as a dedicated educator. I love working with students in FBLA and in the classroom. I do what I can to help them succeed. Unfortunately many people in my community and even my family do not seem to respect the work that I do and feel it is appropriate to bash educators. I am not looking to change anyone's mind on the role of education in today's society but this is a way for me to see that "yes, I am making a difference". It has been stated that teachers don't work that much and get paid too much. Since the end of last school year (June 2011) I have been keeping track of the hours that I have put into my job. At the end of December I have documented over 1,000 hours towards my job. The school that I work with I got my first pay check on September 15 of 2011 for this school year. I had put in many hours prior to the start of the school year and I will continue to do this because that is what is in the best interest of education and my students. How many hours have you put in? Do you feel respected? I hope to continue to keep up on documenting hours and putting in blog entries. Happy New Year.

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.