On September 3, 2013, the faculty and staff of the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District welcomed the 2013-14 school year with an opening day focused on Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Inspired by the NYSCATE Annual Conference, the Technology Leadership Team (TLT) took the lead and planned a keynote address, workshop sessions, social medial kiosk, and inspirational swag (mini-pins) to support the faculty with the move to GAFE.

Superintendent Dr. Debra Jackson greeted everyone and quickly turned the mic over to TLT member Mark Tatro (high school chemistry teacher) to introduce Carol Larow, who opened the day with a keynote address that organized the co-functionality of Google Apps. This was followed by a series of workshop sessions that engaged all participants in hands on exploration of Google Docs, Forms, Sites, Presentation, Blogger, Gmail and Calendar, and Chromebooks (See the workshop descriptions below). Mid-day participants were able to stop by the social media kiosks manned by TLT members to learn about and sign-up for Pinterest, Skype in the Classroom, and Twitter. We also had Tech Support for Chromebooks.

Feedback on the day praised the TLT for a well-organized, interesting, useful and informative best opening day ever! As we move through this school year we will use the suggestions to craft follow-up workshops and classroom support to roll GAFE out to the students.

 

 

Workshops Descriptions

Introduction to Gmail and Google Calendar
Tech Leadership Team Member: Joe D’Andrea (Member since 2010)

Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. In many ways Gmail is like any other email service: you can send and receive emails, block spam, create an address book, and do other basic email tasks. But it also has some more unique features that help to make it one of the most popular email services on the web. Some of the unique features that will be explored are: Archiving instead of deleting mail in which participants will learn how to tidy up their inbox without deleting anything, chat which allows users to chat with contacts directly within Gmail and creating labels and folders to help in organizing and accessing emails quickly within your inbox and much more.

Using Google Forms with Students
Tech Leadership Team Members: Paul Glotzer & Jen Constable (Members since 2011)

In this workshop you will learn how to create accessible and electronically fillable forms using the Google Forms option in Google Apps for Education. You will learn how the forms can be used to survey students, collect student data, and for homework. Also, you will learn how to generate reports that visually represent the results by whole class or individual student.

Folder Management & Google Drive for Middle & High School Teachers
Tech Leadership Team Member: Kristen Magyar (Member since 2010) & Elmer Lazo (Member since 2012)

This workshop will provide attendees with all the tools you need to establish a vibrant, efficient and collaborative learning environment. By leveraging Folders to open channels of communication, and using Drive to organize classroom documents teachers will leave ready to coordinate their classes for easy access to learning tools.

Student Collaborations in the Cloud
Tech Leadership Team Members: Jevina Lackhan & Lucas Patsch (Members since 2010)

Creating consensus, considering different perspectives, accumulating information and knowledge from a group, are the typical outcomes of student collaboration. In this workshop you will gain hands-on experience on how to use Google Apps for Education for student collaboration. Learn how students can share docs with each other and with you.

Chromebook Basics
Tech Leadership Team Members: Sheri McNair (Member since 2012) & Patty Valens (Member since 2010)

Chromebooks have proven to be an excellent solution for schools looking to make a safer, cheaper and easier foray into 21st century learning. Chromebooks provide inexpensive access to the full suite of Google Apps while requiring minimal technical knowledge to deploy. Attendees will have hands-on access to Chromebooks and explore ways students and teachers can leverage the technology in their classroom.

Web-based Presentation Tools
Tech Leadership Team Member: Phil Yosso (Member since 2011)

Learn how new web-based tools (like Google Presentations and many other) offer ways for students to create, publish and deliver presentations. These tools are free, can be accessed from home, school, or the classroom, and foster collaboration.

Working with Google Sites & Blogger
Tech Leadership Team Members: Mike Mallon & Mark Tatro (Members since 2010)

Google Sites provides a free and easy way for teachers and students to create and share Web pages. This session gives an overview to help you get started. Participants will learn how to create a new site, build a site with multiple pages, share documents in Google Sites using Google Docs, and understand permissions for sharing your site.