There is something very exciting about seeing a teacher come into the classroom with a cart loaded with Chrome books.
How does a teacher do this? Easy. The teacher selects the file, names it, and shares it with the students in the class. For this to happen, all the students must have an email address that is signed up for Google. Don’t forget, it is free!
Once the students open the shared file, they must make a copy. This ensures the original file is intact, so you need to send out the copy of the file. I always like to rename the file. For example, grade 9 or grade 11 with the name of the topic in the title. Then I send this out to my students and because we are still in the early stages of using the Google Drive in the classroom, I’ll bring it up on the smart on the Smart Board and together as a class we open the file. Once they open the Google Drive, I can see who has it open and who is working in my copy. Most the time they do it on their own, we are at the point where there are still a few that seem to be a little behind on this. I don’t start the lesson until they’re all out of my drive copy, this includes them taking the file from me, renaming it and making a copy of the file in their own drives.
While I am waiting for them to make a copy, I open up their daily Do Now on their Google Drive. Today we completed the “ABC Brainstorm,” as a thematic essay warm-up for the short story “The Necklace.” We had a really fun time with it. I turned it into a
contest.
Go Interactive Reading and Writing Strategies Interactive Notebook
I’m really excited for a new product line I called Go Interactive, it is a series of original educational materials for teachers and students to use during English Language Arts class. The goal is to be entirely paperless. There’s no print/copy room, ink shortage, cutting, or gluing! I am returning sixty composition books to Staples that were intended to be interactive notebooks for all of my classes.
Google App is free
Downloading the Google App is effortless and easy. You and your students can open and edit files using the app. All changes are made automatically.
Makin’ copies! Not so much anymore!
Needless to say, I still consider myself as being paperless because I’m barely making copies. With Go Interactive, I have eliminated the possibility of a teacher using the materials and editing the background file. This benefits everyone because it maintains the beauty of the page, the fonts and clip art are intact, the intellectual property and copyright is protected, and it’s colorful and engaging.
