The World of Google Sites! Why Every Teacher Should have a Google Site!

The World of Google Sites! Why Every Teacher Should have a Google Site!

Date:18th Aug 2021/Wednesday/9:09 PM

This blog post is inspired from my recent work on Google sites in school with teachers. Currently teachers are working on developing their individual sites as well as using Google Sites to share their learning experiences with other fellow teachers in school. Due to the COVID pandemic teaching and learning in classrooms has completely transformed and I believe for the better. It has provided teachers with a great opportunity to review their teaching and learning practices in class. It's an opportunity to provide learning uninterrupted and continuous. This blog post explores some of the practices currently introduced in school , a review of the pros and cons and a glimpse of the wonders that can be achieved with Google Sites.

Let's begin by exploring the benefits Google Sites has to offer for teachers in schools and why they should opt to create their own individual sites.  Firstly it's free and anyone above age 13 can create their own individual sites with Google Sites. It is easy to create and does not require any technical programming or advanced tech skills. It can be created within minutes. The only requirement is a google account. It can be easily shared with a large audience. Their can be collaborators added on sites, and multiple people can work simultaneously on the site. The most important feature is that you can integrate a number of other Google apps/tools in sites. These include Google Calendar, YouTube, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drive and Charts. All work done is saved and can be used for future trainings or classrooms. Every google site can have a different layout, format, theme to give it a more personalized and individual look. 

How am I using Google Sites? I have been using Google Sites for a while now. I have developed a Google Site for online professional development through which teachers can register for online courses. Also I have developed professional development courses for teachers using Google Sites. Teachers in school have been part of various training courses online. These include training with Google Sites, Google Forms and a Be Mindful Training, all developed in Google Sites. In all these trainings teachers have been added as collaborators. Throughout the training teachers were asked to create their individual pages using the Pages tool in Google Sites and try out the various features of the Google Sites. Teachers have inserted videos, content from their Google Drives, web links  for students, Images from the internet, Google Forms and so on.

In the Being Mindful Training , teachers used to respond to tasks in Google Sites. There was separate section created for teachers titled Tasks, where all groups could respond simultaneously together. They could read each others responses as well. There was a task in Module 2 of Being Mindful training where the task was to come up with a similar acronym like RAIN - Recognize, Allow It To Be, Investigate with Kindness and Non Identification to get rid of negative thoughts. Different groups of teachers came up with very interesting acronyms these included DROP SMILE & REMEMBER.

DROP - Detect what is teasing you , Resolve by distracting yourself, Overcome depression, Practice mindfulness and meditation

SMILE - Share It, Meditate, Identify Triggers, Love Yourself, Embrace

REMEMBER - Rise above the situation, Exercise, Mindfulness, Empower yourself, Move on, Be Happy, Empathize, Relax!

During the training on Google Sites, teachers got an opportunity to explore various Google Sites created by other teachers around the globe. While exploring those sites, the task was to skim through the content, layout & features used to develop those sites. Every site was build for a purpose. These include sharing resources with students, sharing work with parents, sharing announcements etc. Almost all sites had a teacher introduction page where all teachers had introduced themselves, share their likes, experience and qualifications. The advantage, this way parents and students get to know the teacher well enough. Most teachers had shared their educational philosophy, some digital lessons, had a student gallery displaying students work or projects. While others had shared resources related to different subjects like Reading, Math, Science, Geography & technology in the form of interesting weblinks. There were videos related to social emotional connections, class projects and a Google Class Calendar.

In school, teachers have started developing their own websites. Some teachers have created a classroom information page which has links to weekly plans, link to time table, a link to Google form created to gather info about the likes and dislikes of the students, that would help teachers plan more personalized and individualized lesson plans. Another Science Teacher created an intro page about herself, sharing her likes, dislikes, her strengths and similar form created in Google Forms to get to know the students well. There is a reading room with links to reading books related to the subject.There is a link to virtual tours too. In subjects like Science students would learn more by taking active part in the learning process.

Similarly a new initiative was introduced to teachers to encourage them to start writing their blogs and share their learning experiences with their fellow colleagues. It was felt that most teachers do not share their learning experiences with each other. A Google Site was created where I decided to share all new edtech resources that would help them create more interactive, engaging and meaningful resources in the class. I started sharing content in the form of own video created using screencastomatic, a free tool to create videos, weblinks, videos about the resources. At the moment I have shared content about Kahoot, Podcasting & Interactive teaching/learning strategies. Teachers were given a choice to explore any of the tools and write their blogs about it. 

Some teachers began with an introduction about themselves, followed by sharing their understanding about the tool, a description of the features of the tool , with a detailed explanation of how they intend to use the tool in the classroom. Some teachers also shared about the difficulties and challenges they face while implementing certain resources or teaching strategies in class. These included internet issues, access to resources, electricity issues and so on. Some wrote about Kahoot while others chose to write about the different interactive teaching and learning strategies they could use in class, these include think pair share, brainstorming, Q/A session , buzz session, talk and turn, and quizzes in class. One of the section heads chose to share her learning experience of attending a live webinar about managing virtual classes by Neda Mulji organized by Oxford University Press. Her blog talks about benefits on online teaching like encourage creativity, problem solving, students take charge of their learning, students could engage with multiple resources online. He blog suggests use of visual prompts for inquiry, less talk time, sharing editable google doc, tasks designed in Padlet, creating online quizzes among others.

Similarly while working with Matric teachers, that mostly have concerns about how to use education technology to enhance learning in their classrooms because their syllabus mostly requires students to learn the content by heart, we came up with a number of ideas to use Google Sites to not only share notes, resources but to add students as collaborators in sites. Every subject teacher could create their own site and assign students the tasks to create quizzes of different chapters in Google Forms and insert them in sites. Every student could be assigned a chapter and asked to write a summary either in sites or in Google docs and share with fellow peers. Teachers could also share past exam papers and resources in sites. Students could also be asked to create their videos or podcasts about a topic and share it on the website.This could address parents, students concerns about notes for exams and definitely result in better preparation for exams.

Though I still feel there is a lot more we as educators could do with Google Sites, I firmly feel this tool is literally a blessing. It's up to teachers to further explore the tool and use it to create more interactive, engaging , meaningful learning experiences for their students. It's strength is the power of collaboration, and the ability to integrate almost all Google apps/tools. This could be used for collaborating on projects with students from around the globe.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog post after a long time. Will be back soon with a new post exploring another tool.

Regards and prayers

Sheeba Ajmal

References

1. Google. (n.d.). Get Started with Google Sites. Get Started with Google Sites. https://edu.google.com/teacher-center/products/sites/?modal_active=none

2. Greater Victoria School District. (n.d.). Google Sites. Google Sites. https://techforlearning.sd61.bc.ca/learning-with-gsuite/google-apps/google-sites/

3. Kharbach, M. (n.d.). Education Technology and Mobile Learning. Education Technology and Mobile Learning. https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/teachers-guide-on-use-of-google-sites.html

4.Miller, M. (2020, May 22). 20 Google Sites Trips and Tricks. 20 Google Sites Trips and Tricks. https://ditchthattextbook.com/20-google-sites-tips-and-tricks/

5. Showcasing New Google Sites. (n.d.). Showcasing New Google Sites. https://sites.google.com/tcsnc.org/new-gsites-ncties17/teacher-sample-sites