Collaborative Lesson Planning

Many blended learning models use teams of teachers working with groups of students covering a plethora of academic content. Setting up group planning documents and sharing them across the instructional team ensures that everyone stays focused on both the teaching/learning objectives as well as the timeline and schedule. It also makes documenting what worked and didn’t work a true "piece of cake."

Staff/Team Meeting Notes

Ever wonder which set of staff meeting notes you need in order to find a tidbit of important information? Taking and keeping notes in one Docs file, makes it easy to include comments, track changes/revisions, and ensure that everyone has access without extensive publication wait times.

Shared Lesson Repository

Going beyond just sharing the lesson plans, now it’s a breeze to share the actual lesson materials and adjust them on the fly without having to make sure everyone got the new file, which was usually sent via yet another email. Today, I’m collaborating with four other educators on a PD series and none of us has had to ask to have the file resent!

Improve Student Writing

Google Drive and Docs work beautifully for student collaboration as well. One of the best ways focuses on writing skills across the content areas. Students and teachers:

• Work collaboratively on Docs
• Provide ongoing and simultaneous feedback
• Use revision history to hold each other accountable
• Publish student work

Reading Journals

Reading journals - another great college and career readiness skill facilitated through Google Docs. I often ask students to take notes not just on what they read, but on what it was like to read a specific type of material. This helps me better understand them as readers and individuals. Accomplishing this through Google Docs means neither the student nor the teacher carry around journals or can accidentally leave them at home. By the way, the dog can’t eat Google Docs either.

Translate information for ELL students and families

An absolutely wonderful feature of Google Docs automatically translates text into over 35 languages. This reduces the wait time on translating local, just in time, text-based communication. We also use this to translate on the spot when working with a student. Then, have them compare the two docs to help make personal meaning from the written word.