This year, as stated in my last post, I got to use Google Classroom. I am going to add some of the things that I liked about it and how it made teaching math much easier.
I was able to create a blended classroom. The things that I had on Classroom were things that students could access their work from anywhere. I have heard from a number of people that they wish they could do this but their students don't have access to internet at home. I have found that the library had computers and internet. Some of my students were accessing Classroom on their phones, on their gaming consoles, at relative's homes, and I added a hot spot on my phone for them to access when school internet was down. Really this wasn't very expensive since I just added it to my already available phone plan. I did not give homework (it was only ten percent of the overall grade in our district anyway) but I found that student began to do more work at home as the semester progressed.
Reason Two: I liked not having to stand in line at the copy machine. I still had to do some photocopying but I was able to eliminate most of it. I created documents that when students opened the assignments, they were automatically made individual copies of the document. This was really nice. I got to put specific instructions on the document and edit it for future classes as needed. This reduced the amount of time that I spent on explaining the assignment. Definitely a win-win. When students asked what they were suppose to do, they had the assignment right there on Google Classroom.
Reason Three: What about grading? I gave them the assignments and after the assignment was due, I could attach an answer key for students to go through the assignment on their own and correct their mistakes. A step by step solution guide and if they could explain to me what their mistake was and how they were going to prevent that mistake in the future to receive credit. After all, I am more interested in their thinking rather than just an answer.
Reason Four: As the semester went on, I realized that I could differentiate for students. Many of my students were below basic in their math skills. Google Classroom allowed me to create different assignments for different students. This made learning more successful for the students that needed more help in an area than another. The students got use to seeing different assignments that their friends and classmates had. They didn't realize that I was doing that because of their specific needs. By attaching multiple files with the assignment, students could go to several resources that I had previously curated, having resources that appeal to different modalities.
The fifth reason and last thing I will comment on today is that I could attach my presentation to the assignment and the students could go through it as many times as they needed to for successful learning. I had created presentations for most of my lessons with my other classes. I had to edit my presentations so that they didn't contain the answers the first time that the students went through them. I wanted them to try to figure out the process.
I was able to create a blended classroom. The things that I had on Classroom were things that students could access their work from anywhere. I have heard from a number of people that they wish they could do this but their students don't have access to internet at home. I have found that the library had computers and internet. Some of my students were accessing Classroom on their phones, on their gaming consoles, at relative's homes, and I added a hot spot on my phone for them to access when school internet was down. Really this wasn't very expensive since I just added it to my already available phone plan. I did not give homework (it was only ten percent of the overall grade in our district anyway) but I found that student began to do more work at home as the semester progressed.
Reason Two: I liked not having to stand in line at the copy machine. I still had to do some photocopying but I was able to eliminate most of it. I created documents that when students opened the assignments, they were automatically made individual copies of the document. This was really nice. I got to put specific instructions on the document and edit it for future classes as needed. This reduced the amount of time that I spent on explaining the assignment. Definitely a win-win. When students asked what they were suppose to do, they had the assignment right there on Google Classroom.
Reason Three: What about grading? I gave them the assignments and after the assignment was due, I could attach an answer key for students to go through the assignment on their own and correct their mistakes. A step by step solution guide and if they could explain to me what their mistake was and how they were going to prevent that mistake in the future to receive credit. After all, I am more interested in their thinking rather than just an answer.
Reason Four: As the semester went on, I realized that I could differentiate for students. Many of my students were below basic in their math skills. Google Classroom allowed me to create different assignments for different students. This made learning more successful for the students that needed more help in an area than another. The students got use to seeing different assignments that their friends and classmates had. They didn't realize that I was doing that because of their specific needs. By attaching multiple files with the assignment, students could go to several resources that I had previously curated, having resources that appeal to different modalities.
The fifth reason and last thing I will comment on today is that I could attach my presentation to the assignment and the students could go through it as many times as they needed to for successful learning. I had created presentations for most of my lessons with my other classes. I had to edit my presentations so that they didn't contain the answers the first time that the students went through them. I wanted them to try to figure out the process.