I LOVE Google. I cannot express this enough. Everything I do at school on the computer is connected to Google. I would be lost without it; the more I use it, the more I love it. Read below to see how you can implement it into your classroom.
Google Slides I use this to make all of my presentations, and it works similarly to PowerPoint. A huge BONUS website is Slides Carnival where you can find dozens of free design templates that are stylish and sleek. They update it about once a week with a new layout.
Google Classroom – Keep your students and their parents up to date with announcements and assignments. Your students can submit work to Classroom and you can see if it was submitted late, even by one minute! Share materials with your whole class rather than copying tons and tons of worksheets.
Google Forms – This is a way to create and analyze surveys! Rather than hard copies of participation rubrics, now I save paper and have students fill them out on Forms. Google then combines all the data into a spreadsheet, which makes inputting grades into a gradebook super easy. I also use this for an end of the year survey for teacher feedback. Forms has a variety of question formats you can use, and you can get anonymous responses.
Google Drive – I share all my Documents and Slides with other teachers and collaborate on everything. We are all co-authors of the documents and can edit them, even at the same time. Work smarter not harder!
Google Hangout – Perfect for interpersonal writing assessments. Students are basically texting back and forth in the target language, and then you can view the conversation for a graded assignment!
Google Voice – Students can record speaking assessments and submit them on classroom. Make it a communicative activity by having them create an interview, commercial, radio host, etc.
Google Earth – Travel abroad without leaving the classroom! The picture quality is amazing, and it is like you are really there. Check out this view of Machu Picchu (for those of you that have been, you know this view is remarkable!) Plus, its a 360 view!
