Collaborative Idea Lists

The Problem

I had a class I hated teaching.  It started when "rape" was one of the words to be taught that day (apparently it is in a bigger list of 2000 "most frequent vocabulary words).  In my teaching career, I'd never felt more frustrated about the material I was given and told to teach. Let's just say we did something different that day. Ever since, I've dreaded teaching that class.

The Idea

To shake the bad feelings off, I decided to put my heart into making teaching these 2000 words better. So I went to work and asked coworkers to contribute. Great time for a Google Doc.

What to Do

Share a document with other co-workers of different teaching ideas.  There should be a general goal and some guidelines.  For this, I found a common problem and tried to address solutions together.

After you frame what you want the document to cover, make it.  I just used Google Drive for this.  Click the create a new document button. Name it.  Click the share button, and then click "change" to so that it can be edited by who ever you want.

Example

The frame of this example:

• Create a 10 minute lesson
• Little to no preperatoin
• To be used with 10 words

Here is an example of a list that I started.



Go here to add your own ideas, be sure to write your name (if you wish) so you can get credit!

Write a comment if you can think of any other ways to use Google Documents.

Three Indispensible Teacher Tools

What do you think that you can't live without in your classroom? I've become so relent on using technology to not only make classes more interesting, but also to increase my productivity. So here is a list of things that make you more interesting, but make life easier.

Google Drive

I use this everyday, for everything. If you are not using Google Drive, you are doing a disservice to yourself. Reasons for using Google Drive:

Organize

Organize all the things that you would use in your class in one spot. Make a folder for each class, just like you would on your own computer. The difference? Now you can access it everywhere!

Edit

It can edit any Google documents on the fly. I can edit something on my iPad or smart phone before I send it away to be printed on a cloud printer. Great!

Make Documents

Make word processing, spread sheet, and presentation documents. It isn't super fancy but it works great for simple things, things you would use everyday in class. You can also make forms which can become questionnaires  quizzes, or grammar exercises.

Upload

Upload everything to your drive so you can look at it later. This includes not only documents, but also videos, pdfs, or pictures.

Share

Share it! I took all our materials that the teachers had shared on our computer and collected it on one drive. Now, anyone who wants to access this material can do so at home. Not only that, but it is super easy for them to add their work anytime, anywhere.

Delicious

Do your bookmarks explode out of your bookmarks bar? Mine do. So, give some love to this bookmark site.

Collect

Collect your websites all in one place. Now you don't have to email yourself links, only have them on one computer, etc. It's all in one place where you can access anywhere.

Tags

What would this website be good for? Hmm, maybe vocabulary, or an interesting reading. So I tag it as vocabulary, reading. Write a little blurb about what is on it. And do this for every new website that you find useful. Works great because when I am then looking for something, I just look for the proper tag.

Search

You can then search what other people have tagged as well. If you are looking for anything at all, you then have a website with a short description of what that site is all about. It's a great tool for finding resources.

Share

Share your bookmarks. Everything that has the same tag GETS ITS OWN WEBSITE! I don't capitalize often, but that is awesome. I like it for letting students research pre-selected websites. It works well for finding speech or writing topics. It's also good for those students who say, "Hey, I would like some TOEFL information, can you help me?" Sure.

Evernote

Where do you keep all your lesson plans and lectures? In your head? What about notes about a class? Consider using Evernote as a way to organize your paperwork.

Organize

Make folders and "tag" your materials as topics. For instance, everything you have to say about "topic sentences" could easily be kept in one spot.

Immortal

Make your lectures immortal. You will never lose any information again. Get an idea? Write it down. Think you said a good lecture? Why not record it? Ever come up with something on the fly that worked really well in that moment? Take a picture of the white board and upload it to your notes straight from your smart phone!

Share

You can send these documents to anyone. Send your lecture to your class to help them review. Share with other teachers some interesting ways that you explain things. It is truly endless.