Written by Hi everyone. So I have been completely absent from this community for the last while due to some unforeseen personal and professional circumstances, however I am excited to fill you in on the new direction I will be taking with my action plan.
Before I dive into my new plan, I just want to take a moment to mention how amazing our Cohort facilitators have been at making me feel supported and accepted throughout this process, especially regarding my absence. I have the utmost respect for this community and I hope to engage in a deeper way moving forward.
Our school is currently looking into the possibility of switching our email system to Google, and I will be looking at some of the pros and cons of this idea before we make a decision. Currently we are using the First Class system for all of our communications between staff members and parents, and First Class has many important features that we rely on, including our conference groups as well as our document archive.
A very important aspect of our school culture is how we communicate about supporting specific students and about different trends we are noticing inside and outside of the classroom. The conference feature of First Class is extremely useful for this task. For example, if a teacher out on duty is noticing that a particular student seems to be alone at recess day after day, this may be a topic that would be posted on our conference system for discussion. All teachers who associate with this student will see the posting, and have a chance to add any information they may have about the particular situation. The conference system also allows us to keep an archive of these discussions for future reference as the student advances through the grades. I have been experimenting with Google Groups as an alternative to the conference system, and still have a few questions about it. I have figured out how to set up the group so that everyone is emailed when a new post is made, and I have figured out how to archive the conversations and tag them, however I am wondering if there is away to file the archived posts in a way similar to Gmail with folders for each classroom or student.
I will keep you posted once I experiment more. I am also hoping to visit some schools who have currently switch to Google Apps for Education in the next few months and see how they manage this system. We are also currently deciding how to effectively make this switch with a staff that would need extensive PD to feel comfortable with the Gmail system as well as google drive. A great suggestion was to have a small pilot program with a few staff involved next year before a major switch in 2016. Many many questions to come!
Laura
Laura,
Our school made the switch from FC to Google two years ago. I can answer many questions regarding specific FC tools and how we replaced them or replicated them in Google. Happy to help in anyway.
Justin
Laura,
great post with some very important and thoughtful questions. No doubt, many in the Cohort will be of help during our final F2F. I’ve done some looking into google notifications, and here are some immediate ideas:
1) check out this post here: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/drive/jMndLZyGRnE
2) If you have it as a shared google doc amongst the teachers you can just monitor the “activity” stream. Check it out here: http://googledrive.blogspot.ca/2014/01/a-new-activity-stream-in-drive-shows.html
– This means that if you have a shared google doc, teachers would only need to glance at the side-bar called “activity stream” to see if the document itself has been modified. It may actually be as effecient as your current system.
Looking forward to seeing you soon,
garth.
Hey Laura,
It’s awesome to read about how you are conceptualizing the transition away from First Class to Google. You most definitely should come to BSS and pick some brains in our IT department. We didn’t use First Class (I know Havergal did at one point…Kass might have some contacts for you), but Outlook, and our move from Blackboard has been welcomed and full of fruitful new learnings.
In short, please come and visit!
See you on Friday!
Laura – really reflective post! I remember discussions early in Cohort cycle about your beliefs about technology’s role in class / at school and I think your openness to Google and your tech leadership is a great strategic and courageous move.
We use Google Apps as part of our suite of tools – not necessarily the be-all/end-all – and I would love to help with some conversations about implementation. The two schools of thought (start small and then go big, vs. “You can’t leap a 20 foot cavern in 2×10-foot jumps”) both have their advantages and challenges.
Let’s talk more in person. Until then, congratulations!
At our school we have just brought in GAFE with a small cohort of teachers and they have shared with the rest of the staff on what they have experienced. I certainly don’t know all the ins and outs of either First Class or Google but it sounds like you are on the right track with keeping your school’s needs in the forefront.