Earth

Google Earth allows the computer to become a window to anywhere...viewing aerial and satellite images, photos, road and street maps, business listings and more...wow, now you can even navigate under the ocean's surface and explore sea floor terrain, you can view historical images going back decades, imagery of Mars and take guided tours of Mars, tracing paths of rovers and landers along the way. Wow, Google Earth is a great tool for teachers, especially in geography and science.

I next looked at the Pre-School lesson plan. This lesson plan gives ideas for integrating Google Maps, Earth and SketchUp into the Pre-K classroom. One idea is to create placemarks with pictures, videos, and audio clips of famous poems that could be listened to by students. Then allowing students to draw a picture about the poem listened to, also, the lesson plan offers the idea of zooming in on where a student lives and having them identify various objects and their colors on the satellite image, such as houses, roads, trees, and cars. And lately, the lesson plan suggests creating an alphabet tour using the first letter of famous places around the city (ex. Atalanta) and then stdents may know where these places are in relation to where they live, then the teacher suggest mixing up the placecards and having students put them in alphabetical order.

The next lesson plan I looked at is the Elementary lesson plan for lower grades 1=5. This lesson plan gives basic ideas for integrating Google maps, Earth, and SketchUp also. It suggest turning on the borders layering GE and having students recognize various states, provinces and countries. It also suggests to create a map of people who explored America. Using the line tool to trace their path across America and creating placemarks along the line to explain important events.

Lastly, I looked at the Google Geo Teacher Institute 4 of 5 site. This site explains how Google SketchUp is no longer owned by Google, but by Trimble. SketchUp is a free download and it enables the production of 3D objects which can be located and viewed by Google Earth.This site shows the Ecotricity wind-turbine in Swaffham, Norfolk which provides power for hundreds of homes in the town. The presenter, Beryl Reid "placed" the models in the landscape where they are actually located and then added realistic photo textures from Google Street View. This site show several different images and how the are being  "placed" on SketchUp in order to create the idea of Google "trips"...quick tour points. This geographical enquiry is interesting and beneficial when teaching geography or social studies in the classroom.

Maps

I did not know much about Google Maps until tonight...I like how you are able to get directions and see an actual "map" on Google Maps. I usually use MapQuest when searching for a specific location or directions, so, seeing another option is nice. I like how there are "written" directions in words AND and actual map. I have noticed when traveling personally, I often can follow a "picture" map much easier than the printed directions. Also, I think students need to be able to read a map. With so many GPS navigation systems available today, it would be easy for a student to not learn the correct way to "navigate" around a paper map, to know the direction of northwest, southeast or the symbol for interstate or highway.

The Google Treks is a nice option for teachers. I like how it is divided into specific age groups and specific, organized subject matter. I also think it is helpful that Google Treks offer rubrics to guide the scoring and evaluation. I think this would be a great site for Social Studies especially if you are studying places in the US or even abroad.

I also looked at the How Do WE Rock Around the Clock? lesson plan. I have never thought about how do rocks and minerals affect our lives from the minute we awake until we close our eyes at the end of the day, so, I like how this lesson plan allows students to discover how important rocks and minerals are in everyday lives. For example, what is used to make concrete? What rock materials were needed to build my school? I like how this lesson plan is interactive and able to pull students from various parts of the US to interact and answer questions pertaining to rocks and minerals. I also like how the map is integrated into the lesson by marking or "keying" particular sites where the answer to the question may be found. Perhaps the student in Scottsdale, Arizona enjoys learning about the textile shop in Wilmington, NC...this is a very good interactive tool to learn about rock and mineral usages in different regions of the US.

Sites

https://sites.google.com/site/mrsshaws2ndgradeclass/home

I chose the topic "Mrs. Shaw's 2nd Grade Class" because I have taught 2nd Grade (in a Christian school, pre-children of my own, pre-mommy world:)) and because I am currently seeking elementary education certification (I only now have and ACSI teacher Certification, not state). When I taught before at the christian school (6 years ago), I did not have a wiki or a blog for my classroom . I think with the technological culture we have now, I will want to set up a class wiki or blog when I begin teaching again. This assignment is a good introduction to the blog, wiki site options for teachers.

Advanced Searching, Alerts, Bookmarks

If you are not finding what you're searching for after a basic search, Advanced Search is a wonderful tool. Advanced Search allows you to look for certain complex searches. I especially like the language option. I also like the reading level option, for example, a second-language learner may want web pages written at a basic reading level (basic, intermediate or advanced).

The Advanced Image Search is also a nice option. To be able to find an image with specific words or phrases may help when integrating technology in a certain subject. Perhaps you are studying plants and have a picture of a tulip and want more pictures of tulips, you could image search and find full color images. Or perhaps you are trying to find a specific bush that grows in New Mexico, you could put in a particular region and find images published in this area

Google Custom Search Engine is also a nice way to ass a search box to your homepage to help people find what they need on your website. This search box allows visitors to search your website quickly and efficiently to get fast and relevant search results. This could be great if your class or school has a website...Google Custom Search will allow others to find what they are looking for quickly and concisely.

Google Bookmarks is a way to save shortcuts to your favorite webpages and get to them in seconds. Google Bookmarks are stored in your Google Account, which means you can access them from any computer with an internet connection. As a teacher, Bookmarks is a great way to organize your favorite maps, videos, games, etc. You can even label your content into categories which allows you to collaborate your contents into specific subjects for easy viewing.

Drawing

Drawing by Google Docs allows you to make various shapes and by clicking and dragging you may duplicate the shapes. By double clicking inside a shape you are able to type inside of the shape. Drawing by Google Docs also allows you to Chat within the document. Drawing allows you to include shapes, colors, design and words. I really like the You Tube New in Google Docs screencast. There is a wide open space for drawing, a dedicated space which allows you to draw "with" other people and build stuff together. I also looked at the Making Goofy in Google Docs...a very cute YouTube clip. As a teacher, I think Drawing would be fun to illustrate a short story or illustrate a specific journal entry. A student could use Drawing to help support any subject, for example, a student could draw a sun and a plant to illustrate photosynthesis or a picture to depict a particular vocabulary word, there are many uses for Drawing by Google Docs. The Lesson Plan: Book Buddies allows students to produce digital sketches to create digital books to print or view online. I like the idea of using technology to support literacy and allowing students to "create" their own illustrations to support their book...very nice art integration!

Finders Keepers

I looked at the self scoring quiz. I created a quiz and my partner, Rachel created a quiz. We shared our quizzes with one another and took each others quizzes. I think creating the quiz was easy, and emailing it to someone was also fairly easy. However, the self scoring part of the form was not very easy to follow. Overall, I think the self scoring quizzes will be a great tool for me as a teacher, especially when I am able to work out the kinks and spend time perfecting the process. I somewhat understand how to set up the formula part of the self scoring quiz, I just do not fully understand how to interpret the equation, for example, I am not sure what the $ represents. I did listen to Dr. Krug explain how to set up an answer key and he used different parameters and it mad much more sense to me than the example the example gives.To my understanding, you can only put an answer key in line by line AFTER the answer has came in and the dollar sign allows for the answers to always compare to answer key.

I looked at the Graphing with Google Docs & Forms elementary lesson plan. This lesson plan required students to create a Google Form to collect information to their class, then the teacher will be able to view a summary of the data in Google Spreadsheet. This lesson has a quiz in Google Spreadsheet as well.

Spreadsheets

I have never worked with the Spreadsheets of Google Docs. After reviewing the Atomic Learning for Spreadsheets, I learned how to title a new document, open a new tab and upload a spreadsheet. Google Docs allows you to upload Excel Spreadsheets to Google Docs by converting to Google Docs and then uploading. I also looked a keyboard shortcuts. By clicking Help and going to Keyboard shortcuts, I am able to view all the shortcuts, if using a Mac, I substitute the command key for the control key. I like the shortcut options. I also looked at the Chat feature. in the upper right hand corner is an area to type a message and send to other viewer. This is helpful when collaborating with other people in the same text. I also looked at email notifications and this is an email alert that goes out to shared viewers..by going to Tools and setting specific regulation rules we can set specific notification requirements. I like the daily digest email and the right away email notification that is available.

I looked at the Consumer Product Testing Experiment for elementary. The students were expected to understand why consumer product information is important and the type of tests and methods for recording data from those test. The students used Google Forms, which is a survey development interface with built-in reporting. As a side note, to my surprise, this means the day of SeaMonkey are numbered, apparently people are not interested in paying monthly fees to store survey response data. I absolutely think I could use a lesson plan like this one someday. I think a survey on time watching TV or time on video games would be a great survey to conduct. I would pick the age group of my students because I would be interested to know how much time they are spending watching TV and playing video games outside of class.

The second lesson plan I looked at was Introduction to Scientific Method - Marble Stacking using Google Spreadsheets. In this lesson students are introduced to the scientific method through a hand-on activity using Google Spreadsheet to record data and report findings. By titling the columns headers with hypothesis, method, observations, and conclusions the teacher is able to assess understanding through the spreadsheet.

I think spreadsheets are wonderful tools for math and science. In fact, in my last class, I was able to create bar graphs in two math lessons using excel. Spreadsheets are wonderful tools in teaching and assessing.

Presentations

I am familiar with Power Point for presentations not Google Docs - Google Presentation. I looked at various topics in the Google Presentation tutorial.

I looked at the color background tutorial and if offers a drop down menu with many colors and gives you the option to choose a theme for all slides or individual slides. Using Power Pint, I usually use the "cutesy" backgrounds offered (butterflies, tiles, flowers). I do think Google Presentations offers more colors than Power Point.

I looked at inserting a text box where you mouse click and drive to make the specific text box. Using Power Point, I would choose the given text box and not create my own.

I looked at the Using the web clipboard. Google Presentation allows you to copy and paste using the web clipboard. The web clipboard allows you to copy various slides to the clipboard and paste later to specific slides if you highlight text box AND text and paste to web clipboard. Then I can go to blank document and choose web clipboard and choose to paste text or shapes with matching style. This is a great way to build your own "portfolio" of shapes, text, and pictures to share with others or move throughout your presentation.

I also like how the comments area allows you to tag others in a comment for feedback... by typing + (plus sign) and user name or email address then Google Docs allows you to add someone from your contact list. An email will be sent to the person selected and the person will receive the comment about specific graphic. I like this feature.

I looked at the Biomes lesson plan. This lesson plan expects students to create a Google Presentation on a "biome" using four slides. This particular presentation used a prarie theme using a photograph which was embedded in the presentation. Students may also add a youtube video, movie clip, shapes or drawings. Notes were to be color coded.

GoogleDocs

I LOVED the youtube video on "Going Google"... I had no idea that I could access Google Docs from my Google Drive with my PC at home! I do not have a Mac at home so I am excited to know the my gmail account gives me options. My partner and I typed back and forth on a blank page using the Google Docs and it was super fun! I love how I can type at the same time my partner is typing and she can see what I am typing and I can see what she is typing. I also love how what we are typing is labeled with our name AND color coordinated....super cool!

I looked at the Lesson Plan: Book Buddies

I liked how the teacher used first grade sketching as a writing prompt while adding a digital arts program to produce digital sketches AND using Google Presentation created digital books!!!

My daughter just finished kindergarten and her teacher assembled pictures that each student in her class had created and made a hardback book using the photos and as a parent it was a great keepsake. So, as a parent and an educator I connected to this lesson plan in that the children will draw and use digital technology and a book to represent their artwork is very special.

In this particular lesson plan, the teacher uses the sketches for the setting of a story. The students write stories about their sketches. Then the teacher introduces Tux Paint and has each student practice the drawing with different brushes, styles, sizes, and colors. This teacher used google docs to assemble the book and print the book. I think Google Docs is a wonderful resource to use technology in the classroom and create innovative materials for the students.

The next lesson plan I looked at is Reader's Workshop Online Activities. This lesson plan enables students to create online documents and engage in groups to express their literary comments. These students used Madlibs, Wordsearch and discussion questions to interact with one another. I like this lesson plan because it utilizes Google Docs in a literary way and opens up the possibility of distant relationships with other readers/students.

Blogger

I read Heyjude learning in an online world blog. Judy o'Connell is an educator focusing on emerging technology and its applications for K-12 education. In My Portfolio section, she lists her Upcoming Presentations. She has written three books....Learning in a Changing World series which presents the core areas for teacher librarians and school leaders.