Advantages of using Google Classroom systems

Google “prevent aging,” and you’ll get a million hits, each with its own tips and tricks for extending your life and/or your looks. Wrinkle creams and sera, antioxidants, special diets, supplements, exercise, you name it—someone has thought of a way to make it stop the clock. I can save you the money—I have discovered the true fountain of youth. Are you ready? Got a pencil to write this down? Here it is: If you really want to keep your mind sharp and your body in shape, work in a school.

Who knew it was so simple? I do not claim to be a scientist, and I don’t have studies and drug trials to back me up, but I can tell you from personal experience as I start my twenty-fourth year in our district and my twentieth at Colony High, I feel refreshed and ready to go in a new school year. My colleagues are all insanely good looking and youthful. I think a big factor is that we spend all day, every day with hundreds of teenagers. If we survive the first year or two, that environment keeps us young forever. As challenging as it can be, we have to put ourselves in a teenager’s place all the time in order to connect with our students so we can provide them with the education they need. Another critical component to keeping us all young is that every school year brings a fresh start: new colleagues, students, curriculum, and procedure, so we are constantly reinventing ourselves. Every year is like the first year. We gain experience, but what we are doing is always new.

This year, staff members across the district are increasing our use of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Teachers use Edmodo, Google Classroom, or other internet-based systems to improve access and clarity of assignments and grades for students and families. At the same time, we are increasing the quantity of laptop computers available for students as we work toward a 1:1 ratio of devices to students. At Colony, many teachers have begun to use Google Classroom as a platform for students to access daily assignments and provide faster, more detailed and meaningful feedback for students. For example, a teacher can have students use Chromebook laptops to login in to the web-based classroom and take a quiz. As students complete the quiz, the teacher’s classroom shows which students have finished, and the quizzes can be graded electronically as they are completed. Previously, to give the same quiz, the teacher would have to write the questions, copy the quiz, distribute it to students, retrieve the completed quizzes, grade them, and return them to students. Using Google Classroom allows the students to have instant feedback and gives the teacher detailed item analysis regarding which questions were answered correctly or incorrectly by which students. At a glance, the teacher can see areas that might need re-teaching or clarification. The internet-based classroom allows students who missed class to access materials and activities from home without having to catch up after returning.

Using an LMS like Google Classroom cuts down on the volume of paper being handed in to teachers and returned to students, minimizing the chance for things to get lost and saving class time spent returning papers. Students have the opportunity to type assignments rather than hand writing, and teachers can grade electronically, even on essays and quizzes that require written answers. This can be a challenge for some teachers who really like to take pen to paper to provide students with comments on their writing, but it makes the comments easier for students to read.

Another advantage to using an LMS is that teachers can post a variety of types of resources for students to use when they are working on an assignment, improving organization and assisting students in efficiency. For example, when I created a Google class for library orientation this year, I was able to post a link to the library website and one to a YouTube video on plagiarism right on the assignment page, so all the resources students needed were easily located on the class page. The assignment will remain open and available to students for the duration of the first quarter, so students who join a class later in the semester will be able to find all the resources and complete the assignment.

Like all new systems, an LMS comes with challenges. One of the biggest has been consistent wireless access; we’ve had struggles with that so far this year. Any system that depends on technology is subject to potential breakdowns. At CHS, we installed more wireless hubs last year, but we still have consistent difficulties when students try to login to machine s using the wireless network. We have Chromebook carts that hold 30 machines, but many classes are well over 30 students. Teachers understandably become frustrated when they are directed to implement technologies that don’t work consistently, and students become frustrated when they can’t access the tools that they need. These difficulties are not insurmountable, however, and finding ways to make things work keeps us thinking, working, and staying young.