Bubbles the Fish: Labelling skills on Google Slides

I want to tell you about a great lesson that I did today!

Something is fishy...

Last year we hadn't yet moved to GAFE. This was the lesson I did last May:

• Use Microsoft Powerpoint to label an elephant. 
• Teacher chooses elephant picture and demonstrates the labelling tool. 
• Students label the elephant and print

2016: Not terrible, but all the finished pieces of work were exactly the same.

I knew that this lesson needed spicing up for this year. I wanted to teach students how to label an image but wanted to make it feel more enjoyable and less cookie-cutter. Google Slides made this possible.

Labelling on Google Slides!

I learned a fun new trick at the EdTechTeam Summit: On Google Slides, you can add a background image to a slide. The background image cannot be moved or manipulated once added, which is ideal for my age group. This way they can add to an image without accidentally changing or deleting it.

You can use the background button or right click on the slide to change background.

I chose to add a picture of an empty fishtank into the background and acted surprised when we opened it. Where was Bubbles the Fish? My students were surprised by this turn of events and so I suggested we try and find a replacement fish using the built-in Google image search. By allowing them to choose the fish that we labelled, I gave my students agency and control over their own work. It also allowed me to teach them two brand new skills instead of just one! Bonus!

Students had great fun selecting their own fish from the built-in Google search.

Once they had chosen our fish, they then had to start working on our labels. As they all had different background images, they had to change their font and arrow colours to be seen clearly. This lesson was a great learning experience as working with the arrow tool can be fiddly at times. My students took great pride in making their piece of work unique and are looking forward to printing them to show their class teachers.

Colourful fish and colourful labels.

How to Set Up a Slide Template for your Students (Google Classroom and Google Slides)

For the last three weeks I have been experimenting with using Google Classroom in the Junior Primary grades. I started with Grade 3, my 'oldest' bunch of students. They took to the whole experiment like ducks to water.

The first thing I did was log each child into their browser, which I detailed in my previous post -How to log into the Chrome Browser (and Why). This meant that children didn't have to log into any Google services, their browser remembered who they were. I also set the Google Classroom website to be a bookmark on each student's bookmark bar. All of this has turned out to be a huge timesaver, we now just double-click on our Chrome shortcut then click on our Classroom bookmark to get to the work that we are doing.

How to Set Up a Slide Template for your Students:

I started the Grade 3s off with a Google Slides assignment which I had already ready for them. I chose to start them off with a pre-built slide deck. This is because last year we worked on a local network drive and my students were used to the concept of opening up a template file from me and completing their work on it. This method offers some guidance for younger students rather than just letting them create from scratch.

Step 1: Create your template using Google Slides

I kept my template very simple, I set up a simple first slide (title page) and a number of blank slides.

A simple first slide and some blank slides.

This gives an idea of how the slide view on the left hand side is laid out, and hopefully provides inspiration for their presentation.

Step 2: Create a New Assignment on Google Classroom

Leave your Slides template and go to your class on Google Classroom. Look for the Plus icon which lets you add something, and select Assignment.

The Plus sign is for adding new content to your class.

Step 3: Fill in the details of your assignment

Use a clear naming structure in your titles, so that students get used to it and can find their work quickly. I use the description in this case to help students find the right place to click on in order to open their copy of the slide template. Click on the Google Drive icon to attach the Slides template you created.

The triangle is the Google Drive icon.

Step 4: Upload your template and set how students get their copy

Find your template and click on it so that it is selected in blue. If the file doesn't appear in Recent you might have to look in My Drive.

Find your file and select it.

Then click on the Add button.

You will be taken back to the Assignment screen where you will find some options about how the students will get a copy of the file. For this to work as a template and for each student to be able to work on their own slideshow you need to change the default option. Click on the drop-down arrow next to "students can view file" and change it to "make a copy for each student".

Find "Make a copy for each student" and select it.

Finally, click on the blue Assign button. Congratulations! You've set up a Google Slides template for your students to access.

I will show you in the next post the student side of this process, what they see and how they submit their work to you.

How to Log into the Google Chrome Browser (and Why)

After passing the Google Certified Educator level 2 exam at the end of last year, I have been getting more comfortable with the idea of starting to use GAFE (Google Apps for Education) with younger students. The Twitter chat-tag #GAFE4littles has been invaluable in giving advice and ideas in this project, many thanks to everyone there. I highly suggest you check it out if you are also trying to get Google Apps into the hands of youngsters.

The situation:

I manage a computer lab of 26 Windows desktop pcs. Last week, I manually logged each Gr 3 child into their Chrome browser. I was able to do this because each student already has a unique desktop login so their browsers will remain separate. Logging into Chrome is a great step because my default it logs you into any Google website you visit, like Google Classroom or Google Drive. With younger children this is a great timesaver and will prevent you going grey trying to get them to learn yet another login!

How to log a GAFE student into their Chrome browser:

Experimental: Shared Google Slides with Grade 1s

Our Grade 1s were lucky enough to be my new guinea pigs - we created class Number Books using Google Slides! The exciting thing about this activity was that we were able to work in a collaborative environment, our Grade 1s have never done this before. Google Slides was a great first step for them into shared workspaces.

Preparation:

I set the activity up in the following way:

Before the classes happened I created a template Slides for each class, with a front cover and around 20 slides, each numbered clearly. I made all of the slideshows public, so that anyone with the link could access them. I then added the links to our grade Symbaloo so that the students were able to access it. The Symbaloo portal is a bookmark on all of their desktops and they are used to using it to navigate the web.

When the classes arrived, we first of all looked at the Google Slides UI displayed on my projector and talked about parts of it that we recognised from MS Office, such as inserting shapes and the text formatting options. They happily pointed out icons they had remembered from our previous activities. I explained that we would be creating a book together all about numbers.

A selection of pages from our number books.

The next thing that we talked about was the concept of a shared work environment. I gave each slide a number and then assigned a number to each student. Their first instruction was to go to their slide and put their name in the lower text box. We talked about how even though you could see other people working, you needed to be respectful. Assigning a slide to each student worked out really well, we had very little dabbling in other people's spaces and the students were excited but respectful.

My students were incredibly excited to see their classmates' work happening on the left of their screens while they worked in the main part. Most of them got used to the idea of shared space quickly and used this function to share ideas and compliment each other 's work.

Even though the subject material was simple, the number books turned out very well as a test run. The clear allocation of work space was perfect for this age group, just enough collaboration to get them excited but not an overload of new experiences.

The shared slides on the left with their own work in the middle of the screen showed my Gr 1s the value of shared workspaces.

Drawbacks

The primary drawback was incredibly long loading times. Despite my plan for the students to use Symbaloo to access the Slides links, I ended up pre-loading the Google Slides in open browsers on each desktop station. Even with this forethought, it took at least 15 minutes for the slideshows to be ready and loaded. This problem was not caused by the platform but by our school's limited connectivity. Once the browsers were loaded, there were one or two cases of disconnection but they were relatively rare. It was easy to get a student back into the action since it was all hosted online.

Summary

Our students were not able to use the chat or other collaboration functions that are features of the Google platform because we do not yet have individual Google accounts for our students. When this feature is rolled out, the possibilities for future projects become even more popular. I look forward to doing a similar shared slides project but

I am super proud of my Grade 1 students and what they have achieved in their first experience of Google Slides. Below is one of the completed class books.

Google Certified Educator Level 1

As of today, I'm officially a Google Certified Educator Level 1!

Thanks to my PLN

I discovered the Google certification through my fantastic global PLN (Professional Learning Network) colleagues on Twitter. Earlier this term I began a conscious effort, inspired by the podcaster Chris Nessi and his show House of Ed Tech to improve my professional development. I've had a Twitter account for years but only in the last few months I've started to use hashtags and follow edu-chats. Prior to this I considered Twitter a 'soapbox' platform, but some time and attention has proved that there is some great learning spaces there. I love seeing what teachers are doing and thinking all over the world, and Twitter has been the vehicle to help me digitally meet other educators who are passionate about the same things as I am.

What you need to know about Google Certified Educator Level 1

A quick Google (ha) will reveal that the test-takers are asked to sign an NDA so I can't tell you the exact details of what the exam was like. I admit that at first I under-estimated the difficulty of the test but after some time I figured out that Google are very thorough! I hugely appreciated the interactive, hands-on elements that you experience. The study material that Google provides is well-written and a great tool for professional development, I highly recommend going through it as it guides you through everything you need for the exam.

You will need a webcam as the exam relies on your live feed for proctoring. They do ask you to take a picture with it right before you start, claiming that it is for your certificate, but mine wasn't used for my certificate. I had brushed my hair and everything!

You will also need a stable internet connection. Despite having pretty good home internet for South Africa (10Mbps), the connectivity was a tad problematic. Once, after the connection dipped, the exam portal gave me the error that I was inputting answers for the wrong question! I solved this by closing the tab (despite the exam page protesting) and quickly opening it again. When the exam resumed I was in the right place with no harm done. Although this made my anxiety levels rise, it turned out to be a minor blip.

Overall, I enjoyed the process of studying for and taking the Google exam. I've had a look at the study materials for level 2 and it looks far more in-depth than level 1. Once I can get more experience using Google Apps for Education in the school setting then I think I'll be equipped to tackle level 2.

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