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Google Drive has changed me as an educator – it saves me time, saves me space, and it has allowed me to become the organized teacher that I always envisioned. Whenever I lead a professional development session for my colleagues, I always get “This is amazing! Your lessons are so clear! You’re so organized!” Well, you can be, too, with a little help and understanding of Google Drive.
Benefits of Google Drive:
- Paperless classroom – I am very fortunate in that I work with students in a 1 to 1 device school. If you are in a 1 to 1 device learning environment, or an environment where students are permitted an iPad or laptop, this approach can be highly successful. With Google Drive, there is no lost work and no crushed papers in the bottom of your bag. You can practice minimalism in your classroom because you don’t need to find a place to store all their papers, notebooks and journals while you grade them. If you are a floater teacher, (like me!), you are set up for success, as you will always have all of your lesson plans, hand outs, and teaching materials with you. You are not taking home a ton of stuff to grade because those assignments are now on your computer – for me that means I’m not lugging home 60 marble copy books for their journals, or 60 ten page research papers, or 60 sets of 20 notecards. I’m also not lugging home my lesson plan book, which is also hosted on Google Drive, more on that here. I’m not carrying home anything at all, as a matter of fact, which brings me to my next point.
- You do not have to lug your work computer home – all of your work is hosted on the cloud. I’m not sure about your job, but at mine, our computers are far from sexy. They are these huge clunky things that take up a million of space in my bag. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful, but I don’t want to carry it home. If I do need to access any of my work files for whatever the reason, all I do is log on to my Google Drive account from my home computer and BAM – everything is there.
- Auto Saves Work – What’s nice about Google Drive is that it saves every keystroke, so you (and your students) never have to save again. If the computer crashes, you can log onto a different device (even a cell phone with the app downloaded) and access all of your files with no glitches.
- Elimates the run around from students – “Oh, I turned it in, you didn’t get it?” – “I swear I turned it in!” – “Oh? The attachment didn’t work? That’s so crazy!” – “Oh. My computer crashed last night so I couldn’t do it and I lost my whole research paper, so can I get an extension?” There is always that one kid. Right now as you are reading this, I’m sure you’re picturing that one student that is always trying to get over, always trying your last nerve, and always trying to get out of being held accountable. Everything is time stamped for the “Oh…I turned it in crowd” and saved automatically for the “Oh…my computer crashed crowd” eliminating the run-around. It’s such a great feature.
- Collaboration – Google Drive is the most amazing thing in the world for group projects. THE MOST AMAZING THING. Google Drive allows the option for multiple collaborators on one document. You cangrant more than one person permission to edit a document. More on that below.
How I use it in my classroom:
- Three words: Dynamic Shared Folders – Students create a folder on Google Drive, and give me permission to edit it. This means that I can access their Student Work folder, and collaborate with the students on all their assignments. I can rearrange, organize, make comments, and provide them with feedback on any and all assignments. It’s glorious.
- All Worksheets are digital – What’s nice about this is that you can actually upload pre existing Word Documents or PowerPoint presentations to Google Drive and distribute them that way, too! I use the platform to push worksheets to my students, that they then make a copy of, complete and submit it electronically. I can review their work in one of two ways – 1. I can go into their Dynamic Shared Folder and check it out that way or 2. Students submit their work online using your school’s LMS (Blackbaud, OnCampus, PowerSchool, Moodle, Etc). I usually go in through the LMS.
- Groupwork – Google Drive is 10/10 a game changer for groupwork.You can assign one group presentation, and each kiddo can be on the document at the same time, and simultaneously make live edits. You can also go into the blueprint of the document, and see which student typed up which slide, eliminating the “Who did the work?” question. It’s amazing. Think about this on a team scale too – how many times have you been trying to collaborate with your team and you send a word document electronically, and then someone else makes edits, and sends it back, and then another person makes changes, but they edited the old document and not the new one – it’s confusing and difficult. Google Drive eliminates all of that – you send your team the link to one document, and everyone edits that one document.
- Journals – Gone are the days of those stupid marble copy books. Hello Google Drive Journals! I push the kids their journals every Monday electronically, and they have the week to complete them.
- Discussion Boards – not only can you do small group work with Google Drive, but you can do cross-sectional group work as well! Say I’m teaching two sections of Honors – I will put both sections of Honors on one discussion board document, and the kids are able to work with the kids in the other section electronically. It’s so fun.
There are some drawbacks to Google Drive as well, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. For me, I think the only real negative is being on the computer constantly. You’re looking at a computer screen all the time. Invest in some of those blue light glasses because constantly looking at a screen can give you a headache. Take breaks, drink water, and move around. I also think Google Drive can be cumbersome if you are using a trackpad and not a mouse. My work laptop only comes with a trackpad. Our IT department bought me this mouse – it’s cheap and it works great for what I need to do. I have dropped it a thousand times, and it is still going strong! I find myself getting frustrated when I forget my mouse somewhere – I can whip through things so quickly when I’m using a mouse, and I think it’s worth the $12 investment.
Like I tell my colleagues when I lead a PD session on Google Drive – Do one thing at a time. Pick one thing and try it. I made the switch to a paperless classroom gradually. The first year, I committed to doing Journals. As I got comfortable with that, I added some electronic lessons, like discussion boards. When I felt good about that, I switched over my lesson plan book to Google Drive. Then, I switched my entire Multi-phase Composition over to Google Drive (thesis, notecards, annotated bibliography, outline, rough draft, peer edit, and final paper). THAT was so scary for me!! I was worried I was going to do something wrong, and that my students would be confused. I was scared of failure. But I learned, I figured it out, and it was a success. Now, everything I do in my classroom is on Google Drive. It doesn’t have to be an overnight process. But if you put your mind to it and choose one area to learn, you can also have success in your classroom!
Are you using Google Drive in your classroom? How do you use Google Drive? I’m always looking for new ways and new creative lessons! Share in the comments below 🙂
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