Notes from Google Teacher Academy
Note: I took these notes in Google notebook and exported them to Google docs and after they were formatted, I posted to blogger from Google docs.
Google Teacher Academy
Teachers Going to Google :) Home - Teachers Going to Google :) 
This is what many of these teachers feel like -- 250 applications for 50 spots here. I wish everyone could come! 5 different countries - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Phillipines, 56 people in the room.
Chris Walsh - Introduction - Google Teacher Academy
Chris Walsh 
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Google for Educators Site -
http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html This is about the innovation that Google brings to the table to the classroom.
Note from Vicki: I agree with this totally, I use a method in my classroom called 'Google Led Socratic Teaching" Google has created an atmosphere that promotes innovation --
Note: Bicycles are everywhere, most people are casual, microkitchens, decor -- it is a really cool environment. Microkitchens - they are everywhere. Find just about anything you could ever want to eat. They do this on purpose -- feed people well if you want them to work well. ("Partake of the chocolate river" They had more applicants than any other teacher academy every. They have over 200 Google certified teachers around the world.
Mark Wagner - Innovation Connection
Leading the innovation connection. Speed dating for geeky teachers. - 30 minute activity. 2 minutes - to think up an innovation that you've done in education but NO technology. (Gather with teams) - Team names are after 19th century innovators.
http://sites.google.com/site/gtaresources Cool ideas:
- Teacher that adopted a stream/ watershed behind the school -- cleaned it up w/ class and the salmon run came back -- used to educate the whole school.
- Stereophone w/ pvc looped sound of reading to the student's ear to help find commas, etc. -each one cost 15 cents apiece.
Cristin Frodella, Program Manager - Google Teacher Academy
Focus on the user and all else will follow -- Part of their culture.
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1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit. **I love this -- Jeans, t-shirts, shorts -- very relaxed. (I like that.)
10. Great just isn't good enough. **Very academic place -- get "graded" every single quarter - OKR (Objectives and key results) -- gets graded every quarter. Based upon "grades" for how they get paid. (WOW! I like this.)
. Good advice for students and teachers too. FOCUS ON THE STUDENT AND ALL ELSE WILL FOLLOW. Innnovation is something that works also outside of technology. She actually said that althought they are teaching Google tools, they encourage us to innovate w/ whatever tools do the job. (Wow!) I love the objectives of Google Teacher Academy -- to inspire us to be agents of change but also to give feedback to Google - help us to make a community of excellence. "
Creative education leaders who understand their local needs and can spread innovation as a recognized expert." Our responsibilities: I. Professional DevelopmentBy February 2009, lead at least 3 professional development activities on ways that innovative tools can be effectively used in the classroom or school.
Examples include:
- Hands-on Workshop
- Peer Coaching Program
- Large Group Presentations
- Online Learning Events & Modules
- Weekly Podcast Program
- Weekly Blog Posts
Complete Action Plan Tracker - Three Activities You Plan to Lead
- Intended Audience
- Intended Results
- Demonstrates the concept so that other GCTs might implement it
- Utilizes at least one Google tool
- Serves a specific educational purpose
- 30 minutes for "rapid prototyping"
- 30 minutes for sharing
Pair up w/ a peer to work w/ the action plan.
Google, Google Teacher Academy Chris Walsch - Google Search & Personalized Information
90% of peoplethink that Google Search is what it is all about
http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ - Link to every product that Google Has
- Advanced search -- copyrighted authors tend to do pdf's -- so you can go in advanced search and search for pdfs - http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en - We need to teach students to search by file type.
- You can search within a domain - UCLA - education science ucla.edu and search powerpoints from there.
- do an order of operations lesson - type in a long math problem and google will add parentheses in there for you -- can discuss this
- define: and the word -- Note: I use this ALL the time in my "google led" socratic teaching.
- Search bar is no longer a place to find websites -- it finds INFORMATION
- Google 411 - http://www.google.com/goog411/index.html#utm_source=us-et-more&utm_medium=et&utm_campaign=GOOG-411 - Call
(1-800-466-4411) About GOOG-411 Google's new 411 service is free, fast and easy to use. Give it a try now and see how simple it is to find and connect with local businesses for free. It will answer with a text message. - Talks and shares iGoogle Note: We teach all of our teachers to use igoogle, it is a great entry level igoogle page. Also if you do hosting w/ Google -- you can create customized igoogle pages for your school.
Google, Google Teacher Academy, search Google Maps, Google Earth, Sketchup, and Sky - Jerome Burg
Stimulate ideas
http://sites.google.com/site/gctalmanac/ My computer crashed - lost the rest of these notes! ;-)
Mark Wagner - Docs
Like the comment feature in docs - leave feedback but it won't be printed. Each collaborator can get a color Preso -
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ddnctvgt_170cbskvf68 Doc about Docs
Can you share a document w/ a mailing list -- YES -- so we could create a listserv for the class -- CHECK - invitations may be used by anyone. So you can invite them. That is a great thing! (Just remember anyone can add themselves who wants to.) I like this. E-mail collaborators - it becomes a list serv itself. (I love this feature - it is a great one.) Can you change ownership of a doc? He says when you go to delete it you can. Can translate your do -- but you can make a public page -- tranlate a webpage -
http://translate.google.com More Google
custom Search Luci - Lets you just search specific sites Custom Calendars Terry - give you access - timebridge -- will work with
www.jott.com will also put on the calendar Specialized search Devery - blog search, book search, news scholar, special searches -- multiple ways to search blogs (note: you can also subscribe to these rss feeds) -- see where the books are available (NOTE: some teachers are using this to work w/ their card catalog search) -- search news Picasa - Jim - rss feeds -- put into igoogle -- photo sharing -- pictures on igoogle Can embed to the website. Youtube & video - Nicole -
www.getmiro.com - go out and search video tags
www.vixy.net -
www.zamzar.com -- piclens add in -- wonderful. -- moya software Groups -- threaded discussions - post files -- post hyperlinks -- make pages -- common folder for files Sketchup - 3D artistry program -- pull objects from google earth -- WOW! -- (I want to share this with my students) - compare pyramids to the parthenon -- create models of their room or classroom - label pieces of the item and draw it out. Place back into google earth when done -- put own new pyramid into google earth. California's 4th grade standard - missions - compare and contrast different missions. Gtalk -
Google in High School Journalism
Esther Wojcicki - Just joined the board of Creative Commons - created 5 media programs in grades 10-12 -- completely self supporting - kids go out and get ads. (real journnalism) 4 programs recognized for excellence. 4 classes that use docs for their journalism -- more than 400 students that take journalism at Palo Alto high school. 4-6 editors in chief - section editors, page editors, everyone is a reporter, business staff, advertising staff (create ads) 2005 winner of two webby awards --
http://voice.paly.net -- 30 kids that work on that website. They also have a newspaper -- The Campanile -- Columbia Corwn winner and National Scholastic Press Hall of Fame - Top 1% of the countryfor many years. -- National Scholastic Press Paecmaker - Verde Magazine -- Viking Sports Magainze - June 2008 They use docs to create all of these things. Advantage of Docs -- easy to use and collaborate w/ other students - revision easy to locate, easy to organize documents, easy to find a document, saves automatically -- great for teaching journalism. -- Cool Prior to using docs they were in constant crisis w/ disks and problems. I left it at Dad's house and this weekend I was at Mom's house - tough. Great b/c you can comment on the article right away. Submit online and in hard copy as well but they do lose it in hardcopy -- easier to read in hard copy -- so they print it out when it is time to get it together. The other advantage of docs - online peer editing. They work on it at all times of the day -- can see when they were online working on this - she's seeing work and editing at all times of the night and day. How do you get such high quality writing? She says b/c it is easy to access and they can work when they are comfortable. Can download and save it as a word file later on -- Adobe InDesign requires to save it as a word file. However, within the next 6 months - in design will allow the files to come straight from Google Docs. So, all students have an online portfolio - just type name into search bar -- they have Google sites -- she can see what every student has done for the entire year. -- In the docs account.-- if you want credit, you have to share it with her -- the teacher. They have an online porftolio -- revisions history -- and how many revisions they have made -- showing a doc that has 173 people looking at- advantage of publication is this quality (see the foxfire information -- similar format.)
Note to self: What about a magazine or website covering technology w/ my students -- write in google docs, share and cover technology. Hmmmm. Sample assignments for beginning journalism -- cool information. How do you label all these documents so you don't go crazy? Students name documents by their class period, first name and last name. 2Brown, Catherine: Pizza REview -- then you can alphabetize by class name -- (I WANT TO DO THIS) -- again -- standardizing tags -- I am starting to do this, it is such an important practice. ***Standard tags for assignments, etc. are very important -- having some naming standards -- she has hundreds of students and it is a necessity -- I agree totally!!!! They can click on contacts and share -- I think they are in google sites which makes it easier to do things. (Note to self: I am putting on my list to give each student an email this year from grades 6-12 -- that will be so helpful.) They critique each others work -- you can see if they do == the comments don't print. It really makes a difference. It helps students do really great work, that is why she likes docs. Mag comes out 12 x per year -- website is updated every day. 2 sections to the paper. Have a professional printer -- send it and ftp it to the printer -- fricky parts press in union city
journalism, googledocs, Google Teacher Academy
