Google Classroom App - Overview

I wanted to show a quick view of the Google Classroom on the iPhone from the student perspective. I've been doing a bit of experimenting to see exactly what students can and can't do. In the end, there is very little in the can't category when you realize that photos can take the place of nearly anything.

So go ahead, take a quick tour as though you are a student and see what the app can do. Also, as a teacher, you will be able to add Announcements into the stream directly from your mobile device. I'm sure you'll be able to add assignments soon but as of this video, not yet.

Newsela and Adobe Reader

Since we are trying to focus much more on reading skills and I am watching those approved web apps carefully, the moon and stars have just come together. Last year we  learned about Rewordify, a website to function as a leveled reading/activity site. Now FCPS has approved another site called Newsela. I'm linking here to one of Newsela's articles on Walrus populations in the arctic. If you play around with this article, you will see that you can adjust the lexile on the right hand side. See the blue bar on the right. Now that you have a an appropriate reading level for you students, you can make this a digital reading activity. 


And now for Adobe Reader. By saving this article as a pdf, students can open the article in Acrobat Reader. And the tools there are amazing. Students can highlight, comment and type on any pdf. The image below shows a small snippet of the walrus article with highlighting and student typing their own notes.  Newsela does require an account, but if you choose the "Sign in with Google+" you will be able to create an account with your Google Apps credentials. There are many other features such as quizes and the ability to create classes and assign reading. But maybe the best part of the website is that it is always current, linking concepts from STEAM into your curriculum.