Google Teacher Academy Reflection

This opportunity was amazing.  I have been an Apple Distinguished Educator for 1.5 years now and love the networking opportunity.  The networking with GCT has been just as wonderful for networking.

The Academy was a neat adventure to be with 50 incredible educators and then cramming in the great wealth of Google into our brains until near explosion.  I consider myself to know lots about Google, but there were many things I found that I didn't have a clue about.  

As part of my follow up activities, I am hoping to produce a 40 things you can do tomorrow using Google in your classroom.  I would then be able to present this as a workshop to provide a condensed version of our experience.  Seeing what is possible is one way to open the eyes of educators to change.  At the same time, I want to caution educators to be careful how deep and how far they choose to go.  We want to make sure that we are using our time wisely to use what we need.  Here is where Just In Time learning comes in for teachers as well.  

I think for teachers JIT learning is almost as important as for students.  If we try and learn it all now, without direct application, it will just be added to the frustration level.  Prior to April of this year, I had experimented in Google Earth and created a basic virtual field trip.  During April of this year I was asked to share Google Earth in a meaningful way.  To me this became creating a Google Lit Trip. I have since created 2 Google Lit Trips; however, I built my skills as needed to complete the tasks.  (I still have a personal goal to learn the time coding features - but I don't have a project that needs it yet.)

I found the value of the GCT Academy in being:

1. Expanding my network of incredible educators,
2. Expanding the fly past knowledge of the Googlverse
3. Forcing me to think deeper about how to apply and present Google and its wealth of resources as meaningful tools to teachers (that may not be as eager as I can be.)

Kevin