Google Docs

There is a lot of emphasis placed on teachers working as teams: team teaching, small learning community teams, Professional Learning Communities, department teams, etc.. I buy into the concept 100%, but feel like I speak for many when I say, “it does require extra time and effort.” Without a common prep period or extra time after school, it makes it difficult to collaborate. Our friends at Google get it. While they can’t fix everything (yet) they do have a few tools that can make our lives easier. One such tool is Google Docs. In its simplest form, Google Docs allows groups to share all sorts or documents (including spreadsheets and presentations) and track changes. It eliminates the need to send attachments back and forth, passing around thumb drives and the guessing game of which version is the current version.

Common Craft does an excellent job of explaining Google Docs in less than three minutes. Check it out! Share it with your teams! It’s easy and secure.

I’ve already heard of one team using it to track student discipline issues and parent contacts. When a teacher needs to document a parent or student interaction, they log into the team and create a document with the students name (if it doesn’t already exist) and add a short description of the interaction. This helps everyone on the team stay informed of the student’s progress and behavior in other classes and serves as great documentation when meeting with parents.

Professional Development Tip for October 23, 2008