Google Apps

How could Google Apps help you to be more efficient as an educator?
Google Apps will be extremely useful to me as an educator. My school just got an education account to Google Apps this week and is encouraging all of us to use it in our teaching on a regular basis. As a literacy department, we have decided that all of our students are going to use Google to create blogs where they will reflect on what they have read every other week. They will also post to one another on their blogs, and we can check their reading comprehension and discussions easily.
I am using Google’s calendar to help plan out the lessons and activities for this year, and can use various other apps to create documents, presentations, surveys, and quizzes. Overall, Google has a lot of features that are helpful to educators and that I can use in my classroom daily.

How could Google Apps enhance collaboration between you, parents, and students?
Google Apps can enhance collaboration in many ways. One way is that students can communicate with one another, and with teachers, through their Google blogs. Also, I can create surveys for parents and students and receive feedback on lessons and the class. Parents can also see what their students are working on by accessing their Google documents, and they can easily communicate with me through gmail and other google formats.

Did you learn something about Google or yourself that you didn't know before?
I learned that Google has a lot more features than I realized. I knew about gmail, the search engine, and Google Docs, but I did not realize all of the other features google has to offer. It is amazing to me that this is a free resource for the public, that has the potential to really change the world of education. The first time I used any feature of google plus was in this masters program, and I am surprised how user-friendly it is.
I also realized that I am more technology-savvy than I give myself credit for, and that if I am patient I can figure out a lot of new and exciting resources to use. Overall, I am extremely glad I learned about the features Google has to offer, and I plan to continue to use them in my personal and professional life.