Welcome Back!

We are back to school!  Teacher are updating their Classroom Websites this week.  A few teachers wanted to have their twitter-feed appear on their Google site.  As a reminder, check out my class site and note under the Google Menu http://googleforeducation.blogspot.com/2015/08/head-back-to-school-with-new-features-in-Google-Classroom.html there are  tips on embedding a twitterfeed to your site.  I was happy to see the presentation on Digital Learning on opening day and the discussion around SMAR.  Our HS staff have been working on the SAMR model and posted reflections last year.

Additionally, there will be new features with Google Classroom coming soon!

Keep students engaged with question-driven discussions 

Since Classroom launched last year, teachers have been using their class stream to host student debates, Q&A and discussions. Starting today, you’ll be able to do this in a more collaborative way. You can post questions to your class and allow students to have discussions by responding to each other’s answers (or not, depending on the setting you choose). For example, you could post a video and ask students to answer a question about it, or post an article and ask them to write a paragraph in response.

Reuse posts 

You know those lessons that worked so well last year that you want to use them again? Now you can reuse assignments, announcements or questions from any one of your classes — or any class you co-teach, whether it’s from last year or last week. Once you choose what you’d like to copy, you’ll also be able to make changes before you post or assign it.

Calendar Integration 

In the next month, Classroom will automatically create a calendar for each of your classes in Google Calendar. All assignments with a due date will be automatically added to your class calendar and kept up to date. You’ll be able to view your calendar from within Classroom or on Google Calendar, where you can manually add class events like field trips or guest speakers.

In case you missed it 

We know YouTube is an important source of educational content for many schools. Because it also contains content that an organization or school might not consider acceptable, last month we launched advanced YouTube settings for all Google Apps domains as an Additional Service. These settings give Apps admins the ability to restrict the YouTube videos viewable for signed-in users, as well as signed-out users on networks managed by the admin. Learn more here.

Read the Google for Education blog and posed comments for more details!

Great advice about growing professional each day. Set aside 10 minutes and i would highly recommend learning to use Twitter as a professional development resource.  There are many chats available to specific content.  Or start small and follow a few people that may inspire you!

Here's to a great year!