"Linking our school community through Google Apps for Education"

 "Linking our school community through Google Apps for Education"

The school year is five weeks in, and everything is rolling along smoothly on Rosenblatt High School’s educational technology front.  This year we’re continuing the one-to-one Chromebook program that began in 2015; all the students in the high school have received their Chromebooks, and are using them to access and submit their assignments through Google Classroom, communicate with teachers, keep track of their work, read textbooks, and work with their peers through the Google Apps for Education.

Google Classroom, your child’s hub for each of their classes, has been steadily improving its features since last year.  In addition to allowing teachers to share resources with the students, it now enables them to schedule announcement postings so that students can see instructions at specific class times.  Teachers can now post questions to their students through an “Ask A Question” posting, which lets the students respond to each other as part of a group conversation.  The program is constantly rolling out features that will further the students’ abilities to interact with their teachers and peers, and to help keep them on track.

But Classroom isn’t all that’s offered through Google.  Students can keep themselves on track through several different organizing extensions offered through Google Chrome, such as Pocket, which allows them to save important web pages in an easily accessible folder.  They can also create Google Presentations as a way to help themselves prepare for a test, or easily create mini-quizzes for themselves and their friends through Google Forms.

All in all, the adoption of the Chromebook program has helped Rosenblatt High School to bring ourselves together as an academic community, and has moved us toward better organization and a unified communication standard.  It’s exciting to see think of how far it will take us.

Cory Laub

English Teacher, Technology Educator