Google+Docs

 **Purpose**  Understand how to use Google Docs in the classroom to create, share, collaborate and publish works. Google Docs is a free online program that allows users to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online and share them with others for collaboration. This allows educators and students to share their work with others, collaborate on assignments, and save documents online for access at school or at home.  =  **What is Google Docs?**  =     >    **Ideas for using Google Docs with your staff or for yourself:**       <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> **Ways you could use Google Docs with your students**   (Remember, students 13+ can use their own Google account but for younger students, you might consider creating a class Google account to share documents): <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processing, presentations and spreadsheets program.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Unlike desktop software, Google Docs lets people create web-based documents, presentations and spreadsheets that anyone in the group can update from his/her own computer, even at the same time.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Instead of emailing around files and having to deal with the confusion and extra work involved in managing different file versions and manually aggregating input from others, anyone in the group can edit the document online from anywhere -- all you need is a Web browser.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">And, since your docs are all stored safely in Google's servers, you don't have to worry about losing data from a hard drive crash or nasty virus.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Staff meeting agendas and follow up notes
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Grade level or subject area team planning
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Share a template for classroom observations
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Weekly Announcements
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Shared listing of upcoming school events
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Revise long documents where each teacher edits one particular section
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Back up important documents
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> Create a SHARED FOLDER and encourage staff members to place documents there instead of printing copies and placing them in everyone's staff box.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Easy for the teacher to make comments - just go to Insert / Comment.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Write a collaborative social story. One student writes the beginning and then another add the second paragraph. The third adds to it and so on and on.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Have students discuss or write about life choices such as career, etc and what they might like to do when they get older.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Google Docs is great for collaborative brainstorming - every idea is included.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Instead of saving Word files onto a jump drive or emailing back and forth, the student can work on a document on Google docs and access it from school and home. They will always have access to it and as a teacher you won't hear "I forgot it at home" or "I have a different program at home". Plus, if you ask your students to share their documents with your email - you can peak at their progress anytime.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">You might have each student do research on a specific career and then send the results to peers in the classroom
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">If all students have access to the same document, you could send them the email address of an online assessment that they can just click on.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Or place the announcement doc in a class shared folder.
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Share paper assessments that students can take through the computer and then save as a PDF.
 * === Never print out reading assignments, poetry, or essays for the whole class to read again. Create a shared folder and place the documents (doc or pdf) in a shared folder for viewing only .===

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> You can change owner of documents. On main Docs page, check a doc and then go to More Actions / change owner

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> We've heard many ingenious ways that teachers have used Google Docs in the classroom. Here are just a few: <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> **1. Promote group collaboration** and creativity by having your students record their group projects together in a single doc. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> **2. Keep track of grades, attendance, or any other data** you can think of using an easily accessible, always available spreadsheet. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> **3. Facilitate writing as a process** by encouraging students to write in a document shared with you. You can check up on their work at any time, provide insight and help using the comments feature, and understand better each students strengths. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> **4. Encourage collaborative presentation skills** by asking your students to work together on a shared presentation, then present it to the class. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> **5. Collaborate on a document with fellow teachers** to help you all track the status and success of students you share. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"> **6. Maintain, update and share lesson plans** over time in a single document. <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">**7. Track and organize cumulative project data** in a single spreadsheet, accessible to any collaborator at any time. (Such as an 8th Grade Portfolio) <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">