Blog Blog Blog

I just finished exploring Google Docs & Spreadsheets & Presentations. I have used these things before thanks to David Widener in the middle school. He has kept track of our middle school track & field roster via the Docs, and it has been a very easy and convenient way for all of us coaches to add, delete, and basically keep track of all of our athletes.

Until now, however, I haven’t created my own document. I began one and shared it with another English teacher, and we are going to collaborate on an English exam review document. I am looking forward to that - it’s so much easier than emailing the doc back and forth. I also played around with the Presentations, and seems very convenient to add images and links, etc. And again, there’s the easy-access benefit. So that leads me to…

Ways to Use Google Documents in the Classroom

1. The first way I think is to do what we are currently doing - utilize the tool to collaborate and create documents between teachers. Again, it is much more convenient than emailing a single document back and forth, and there’s obviously not the problem of forgetting a document on my school/home computer.
2. The second way, and a way I am really looking forward to trying, is to use it for my students’ essays. I currently utilize teacher share, which is obviously convenient as long as we are at school. I have them save their documents there and then I can pull them up and make comments, etc. However, if the document needs to be worked on at home, the problems begin. They forget flash drives, email passwords, etc. Google Docs would solve all of these problems. It would give us all access to the document at all times. Perfect!
3. Finally, I really enjoyed creating the form as part of this “thing’s” stretch task. At first, I was like, oh, okay, this is kind of neat. BUT, I didn’t realize that it would compile all of the information into a spreadsheet for me. This is awesome! I give the students’ surveys at the beginning of the year, and then file away the papers. I often have them keep track of their errors on tests, but again, they file those forms away. I could make up a form that asks questions like “How many did you miss in the grammar section?” and so forth. The spreadsheet could then become a valuable tool not only for them, but for me in deciding what I want to emphasize or review in my teaching.

PS. I added the link above after Carolyn and I worked on our document. I have to say that although I love the sharability aspect, it isn’t as user-friendly as Word. We had trouble centering the table, and the numbering component was hard to manage. I am sure in the future, they will work out these kinks. I hope!